Post-Mortem
Reaper’s form slowly resolved outside the entrance to Celestia’s private chambers. He stepped up to the entrance and knocked on the door frame.
Celestia looked up from a scroll: “Please, come in!”
Reaper walked in and took a seat on a low bench next to Luna. They were seated before a large, oval conference table shared by Shatter--her left side heavily taped and bandaged--Noble Steel, and Twilight, who sat at Celestia’s right side near the head of the table.
Reaper nodded to the assembled ponies: “Sorry for being a bit late--I’m still catching-up on several weeks of, well, out-of-the-ordinary activity doesn’t do it justice!”
Celestia nodded: “Not to worry--we were just finishing a late lunch, and Captain Shatter was about to tell us about her encounter with Air Command. I understand Colonel Shear opened a position on General Staff for you. Congratulations!”
Shatter rolled her eyes: “Yeah, I told her where she could stick those red tabs of hers!”
Luna’s eyebrows jumped: “That could be badly misinterpreted!”
Shatter shrugged: “I doubt it--though honestly, she acted like she’d never heard the word ‘twat’ before!”
Celestia spit out a mouthful of tea: “What?!”
“I know, right? She really needs to hang around the barracks more!”
The table was overcome by an appalled silence as all eyes fell on Shatter. She grinned: “I’m kidding! I told the Colonel that I was deeply honored, but that I must respectfully decline the offer.”
Celestia heaved a sigh of relief: “Well, thank the heavens for that! But why?”
“I’m not ready to get stuck behind a desk in a roomful of stuffy old unicorns! I know the doctors are going to implant some sort of mechanical monstrosity behind my scapula, and though I’ll never fly combat again, I will fly!”
Her eyes glistened, and she ran the back of a hoof across her face: “I’ll work out of the barracks with the flyers. They can’t take my kids from me!”
Celestia smiled: “I can respect that, Captain.”
Shatter sniffled and turned to Noble: “What about you, Red Tabs? I heard at Smudge’s funeral that they were going to offer you a spot, too.”
Noble Steel nodded: “They did, and I too declined. I’m not ready to get stuck in a roomful of stuffy old unicorns, either! I watched you and Zecora lead, and I know I need more time in the field to learn by doing, before I can give my advice and counsel.”
Shatter grinned: “Good for you, Lieutenant--but you’re still ‘Red Tabs!’ Ask any flyer: once you’ve been given a callsign, you’re stuck with it!”
“That’s fine, Captain--I’m proud to bear your nickname for me!”
Shatter looked around the table at the smiles of the others in attendance and blushed: “Alright, Red Tabs--that’s enough of that! I’m pretty sure the Princess didn’t invite us here to suffer through a meeting of our mutual admiration society!”
Celestia smiled: “After all we’ve been through the last few weeks it was just nice to see an outpouring of unbridled good cheer, Captain!”
She poured a fresh cup of tea: “However, you’re right--we have serious business to discuss, and plans to at least start. I suspect it’s going to take more than this meeting to get everything in-order.”
Reaper nodded: “I’ve gone over Twilight’s notes and memories of her encounter with the Void, and I’m more certain than ever that Zecora is not only alive, but was aware that Twilight was trying to contain the Void. We believe that Zecora was actively trying to seal the breach from the inside.”
Twilight stared into her tea mug vacantly and stirred the lees with her magic: “It was like the stories of earth pony sailors, going down in a sinking ship--the Chief stays behind and closes the last pressure door from the inside while her crew secures it from the outside.”
Shatter furrowed her brow: “No disrespect intended, Princess, but Zecora was in charge of the operation, and I’m sure she knew the cost of--”
Twilight slammed her mug down on the tabletop: “NO! I went down into that cavern and saved you--”
She pointed emphatically at Shatter, then Steel, spittle flecking the corners of her mouth, nostrils flared: “--and you! I heard Discord’s voice in my head...and...and FUCK DISCORD! And fuck you, too! We have to save Zecora!”
Shatter put her hooves up, leaned back from the table and looked with shock at Celestia.
Celestia reached over and put a hoof on her protégé’s shoulder: “Twilight, please! It’s fine--we won’t--”
Tears welled in Twilight’s red-rimmed eyes: “I--I couldn’t get there in time to save her! We--we…”
Celestia stood and moved behind Twilight’s chair, wrapping her wings protectively around the trembling alicorn.
Luna put up a hoof and turned toward Shatter: “Celestia, Reaper and I have already discussed this. You are undoubtedly correct, Captain--if Zecora were here now, she would likely consider herself an acceptable loss.”
She stood: “However, we do not. There must be some way for us to retrieve our friend and ensure that the Void is only responsible for the untimely ends of your comrade and Solar Gleam.”
Shatter shrugged: “Princess, you’re in charge, and if you say you need my help, then it’s given, of course! The idea of leaving anypony behind burns my ass, but I’m not real sanguine about our prospects, given our last encounter with that fucking thing.”
Reaper nodded: “Granted, but this time you have Luna and me, and the Void is secured and in isolation, not down in some damned cave.”
“Okay, so to use your word--’granted.’ What do we do now?”
Reaper turned toward the head of the table: “I’m largely unaffected by the Void’s field; I may be able to probe it and gain more information to give to Twilight. She knows more about it than any pony alive, and should be able to--”
Twilight stared at her hooves: “Any pony alive...”
Celestia raised an eyebrow: “Twilight? You have a thought?”
Twilight looked up and turned her eyes to Reaper: “What about not-alive ponies?”
Reaper furrowed his brow, then his eyes went wide: “You can’t be serious, Twilight! He’s imprisoned at the bottom of Tartarus, cheek-to-jowl with the Pit!”
Luna sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth: “Grey Thorn?”
Noble Steel look back-and-forth between Reaper and Luna: “The unicorn wizard who created that thing?”
Reaper nodded: “Yes. What did you have in mind, Twilight?”
Celestia interrupted: “You don’t honestly believe he’d help us, do you? He hates us!”
Reaper chewed his lip: “Strictly speaking, he only hates me, though I suspect Luna’s no longer on his holiday card list, either.”
Twilight glanced at Celestia: “He might talk to me.”
“To what end?”
“He’s like Starswirl. He’s like me. He can’t help himself--he’ll talk. I like to talk because I like to explain. He seemed like the kind who liked to brag, to show how clever he was.”
Luna nodded: “That was certainly my impression of him as well.”
Celestia furrowed her brow: “Is it even possible?”
Reaper took a deep breath: “Well, I can get down there, and I’m fairly sure Twilight can now, as well.”
Luna sighed: “I, too can join you as I no longer carry the essence and attendant baggage of Nightmare Moon, and am thus no longer prone to the pangs of guilt and anger and self-pity that a trip to Tartarus could inflame.”
Celestia summoned a quill and jotted down a note, then looked up from the parchment: “Well, it sounds like that’s as good a place as any to start. When do you plan on making the trip?”
Reaper ran his hoof across the back of his neck: “I can go pretty much anytime--in fact, I’ll probably head down to the lower levels to do a little reconnaissance as soon as we wrap-up here. I haven’t been down to the lowest levels in a very long time. Honestly, there have been very few ponies through the centuries bad enough to warrant banishment to the deepest reaches of Tartarus.”
Luna nodded: “Twilight and I will need some more time to help her work through her recent traumas. I do not think taking her down into Tartarus’ bowels would be conducive to her recovery right now.”
Twilight trembled a little as she refilled her tea mug: “I know I’m always gung-ho to prove how tough and strong I am, but I just can’t see myself going to Tartarus right now. The dead--they’re everywhere...they’re…”
Reaper furrowed his brow and nodded toward Twilight: “Luna, Celestia--can we get her to a quiet place and let her rest? This is stirring her up again, and I’m afraid she’ll relapse into her death vision panics.”
Celestia nodded: “Twilight--I would feel better if you stayed in the guest room off my personal chambers this evening. Naturally you’ll want to spend some time with Luna, but it might be good to get away from your room there, for a bit--a change of scenery might help.”
Twilight stood wearily: “I’m sorry, everypony--I’m just having a hard time readjusting to everything being back the way it was. Well, sort of...Zecora…”
Luna put a wing around Twilight and led her away: “I believe I may have something that will help. Let us get you settled in bed and we will take a little trip.”
The other ponies watched in silence as the two alicorns left the room. Shatter turned to Celestia: “Damn, Princess! I know she was having it rough the last few weeks, but she seems to have corkscrewed in! How’s she going to hold up for a new mission?”
Celestia sighed: “The circumstances of Luna and Reaper’s return and Twilight’s part in it were, well, complicated.”
Shatter raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak; Reaper cut her off: “I killed her.”
Shatter snapped her jaw shut.
Reaper stood and locked eyes with Shatter: “You recall the Void? You know what it did to Solar Gleam?”
The pegasus nodded weakly, unable to look away.
“That’s what I did to Twilight in order to strip her of Death’s power. I brought her within an inch of her life--her heart stopped. Her breathing stopped. Luna and I stood over her almost-corpse and watched as she literally dragged herself back over the brink.”
Shatter swallowed audibly: “Fuck me...”
Reaper closed his eyes and turned his face toward the ceiling: “So, I think we can all cut the kid some slack. She has experienced horrors the likes of which no living pony has ever known.”
He sat down and swept his gaze across the three ponies across the table: “She’s tough. She’ll be ready--she’ll be fine.”
He furrowed his brow and looked at Twilight’s empty mug, lying on its side: “They both will be.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow, then cleared her throat: “Well, I believe we’ve discussed everything we need to for today. I’ll be in touch with you Lieutenant, and you Captain, in the next few days as we plan next steps.”
She stood, and the others at the table did likewise: “Thank you all!”
Noble Steel and Shatter bowed and departed; Reaper trailed behind them, and stopped at the entrance: “I’m going to wait for Luna in her chambers; I’d like to chat with her a minute when she’s done with Twilight.”
Celestia nodded: “I’d like to speak with her, too. I’m very concerned about Twilight, and would like to get an update. I agree that she’s tough, but she’s been very, well, brittle the last few weeks.”
“Not a bad way of putting it. Alright, I guess we can both get her update at the same time, then.”
Celestia turned to Reaper as they both disappeared from the meeting room: “Now what did you mean by ‘they both will be…?’”
Luna guided Twilight into a cozy guest room, decorated in cream and yellow. The blinds were drawn, and the only light in the room was a pair of candles on a side table next to a large, four-poster bed.
Twilight flopped down on the bed as Luna poured her a small cup of almost colorless wine: “Have a little wine, Twilight, and I will put you into a new dream, in a place you have never seen.”
Twilight sipped at the wine: “I don’t think there’s anywhere on this world I haven’t been or seen. Everything seems haunted, now. I know Reaper said the visions will fade into faint dreams in time, but I don’t know if I can stand it for that long!”
Luna knelt by the bed and extinguished one of the candles as her horn began to glow a deep blue: “Let us see what I can do…”
Twilight’s eyes fluttered open and she gazed around at the ancient, caryatid-columned portico of Dux’a’s baths, bathed in the warm glow of late evening. Luna stood beside her, wrapped against the cold in her blue cloak.
Twilight turned and peered at the bronze doors and erotic friezes: “Where are we?”
“This was once a temple to the Lost Goddess Liz’un-urd’a-birna. Long ago it was re-purposed into baths for the town of Rixk’a, and is now run by a man by the name of Dux’a.”
Twilight looked at her tan-skinned forearms and Luna’s complexion and hair: “Is this Kur--like the dream the other day?”
“Yes, though a location you have never been. You will encounter a pair of attendants here, named Nahko and Eska, and they will help you relax.”
She walked to the door and pulled it open, entering the dim, perfumed interior, walking along the winding corridors, leading Twilight to the chamber containing the sunken, tiled baths.
The two slender, tattooed parzailen stood in the waist-deep water, awaiting their charge: “Please to come in, Twilight! The Lady has told us of your dire dreams--how terrible!”
Luna nodded: “Yes. Please see to it that she rests and floats and dreams of nothing worse than the sea and the stars and the wind in the trees.”
Eska stepped out of the water and held her hand out to take Twilight’s robe: “Join us please! We can help!”
Luna smiled as Twilight shyly stripped off the thin, grey robe. She blushed: “I’m sorry if I seem nervous, Luna, it’s just that being naked in this form really feels, well naked!”
Luna grinned as Nahko took Twilight’s hand and guided her to one of the submerged shelves along the wall of the pool: “Not to worry, Twilight, none can enter this private dream save for me. Please try to release your fears and pain--let them flow from your eyes and mouth as tears and breath, from between your legs, from your very pores. This is a cleansing place.”
Twilight leaned back, eyes closed, as Nahko and Eska began to rub pumice and soaproot over her shoulders and arms: “I’ll try, Luna--I really will try. I just want--want…”
Luna watched Twilight doze off in the steaming, scented water for a moment, before fading away.
Reaper and Celestia sat across from each other on a pair of matching cushions at the base of Luna’s dais. The Princess turned to Reaper with a shocked expression: “So she used the word ‘violated?’ Does that imply what I think it does?”
Reaper nodded: “Given she was trapped in a tent with Yunada, Nai’a and likely one guard, I don’t think there’s any other way to--”
He paused and put up a hoof; Luna appeared a moment later: “Back so soon, Luna?”
Celestia levitated a silver cup of wine to her sister: “Is Twilight well?”
Luna sat on a nearby couch and took the cup from Celestia: “I left her in a private dreamspace, under the care of Nahko and Eska.”
Reaper’s eyebrows jumped: “Oh, my!”
Luna took a sip of wine and rolled her eyes: “Not like that! She is now in a deep, almost trance-like state that will allow her to shed much of her debilitating fear and guilt. I will check in on her from time to time over the next day-and-a-half. It will likely take her that long to unwind.”
Celestia furrowed her brow: “Nahko and Eska?”
Reaper chuckled: “I’ll let Luna explain that one to you in private sometime!”
Luna turned to Celestia: “Which I shall, one of these days soon--”
She glanced pointedly at Reaper: “--including what occurred in the tent! But not right now.”
Reaper nodded: “Agreed. We need to determine our next steps.”
Celestia chewed her lip: “Will Twilight truly be ready to help in a few days?”
Luna took another drink: “I believe so.”
Reaper shifted on his cushion: “She’ll have to be. She really is the only pony alive with any real knowledge of the Void, and the clock is ticking for Zecora.”
“What about her idea involving Grey Thorn? Is that really doable?”
Reaper sighed: “That’s what I aim to find out as soon as I leave her. In all my millenia, I’ve never been to the lowest level of Tartarus. I’ve sent a few very nasty characters away over the centuries, but he’s the first one to ever hit the bottom.”
“Will you be able to talk to him?”
“Maybe. He’ll be a shade, and some of them don’t communicate at all, but some are quite chatty. It depends a lot on the kind of pony they were when they were alive.”
Celestia nodded and stood: “Well, learn what you can. I’m going to meet with the Archivist to see if she’s had any luck turning up relics or records from the Highbriar or Greensward clans that may be in private hoards or collections.”
Reaper and Luna rose from their cushions as well, and bowed as Celestia vanished in a brilliant flash. Luna turned toward her dais as Reaper began to fade out.
Luna suddenly snapped her head over her shoulder: “Reaper–do you have a moment?”
He stopped phasing and resolidified: “Sure. What’s up?”
Luna paced a bit, then stopped: “Do you...do you regret…?”
Reaper raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Luna sighed and started again: “All the nights we spent together during those weeks on Kur. Do you…”
Reaper blinked slowly and opened his mouth to speak.
Luna cut him off and turned away: “When I was with Gerrar at the very end, I had to open myself to him fully in order to finally lower his last barrier.”
“I remember. You told him to kiss you.”
“Yes. Just prior to that I opened my eyes and looked at his face. But at the moment of our utmost ecstasy, even as I felt his warmth surge inside me, I knew I could not do it.”
“Then how–”
She turned to face Reaper, her shimmering eyes cast down: “It was you. I saw your face. When he opened his eyes, I looked into your eyes. I could not give myself entirely to Gerrar, so I saw you in his stead. Only then could I abandon my own final defenses and genuinely, passionately, honestly ask for a kiss.”
“Which he gave.”
“Seeing me entirely open to him, not as a galdu, but as a lover, naked to him in every sense.”
Reaper nodded: “And so he fell, never having witnessed the true, wrenching, disorienting impact of love before.”
“Yes.”
Luna lifted her head and stood tall: “Do you regret that we never...that you never…”
Reaper licked his lips and furrowed his brow: “Luna, I am…” he paused and looked at her pointedly, “no longer permitted to feel regret.”
Luna turned away as a sad smile flickered across her face.
Reaper chewed his lip for a moment: “Luna.”
“Yes?”
“Kiss me.”
Luna turned back toward Reaper with a quizzical expression: “What?”
“Kiss me.”
Luna narrowed her eyes, but moved toward Reaper, tipping her head slightly to one side, parting her lips. She closed her eyes and leaned in.
“Open your eyes.”
Luna paused and furrowed her brow, but slowly opened her eyes as her mouth met Reaper’s. She gazed into his brown irises and black pupils, then slipped into the unfathomable darkness beyond, which reached through time and space into nothingness. She stopped breathing and her heartbeat dropped as the room dimmed and became deathly cold.
She blinked heavily and looked around. She was standing in the midst of an endless, featureless gray plain that stretched away to infinity in all directions.
Luna heard a quiet voice that filled the emptiness from every point in space, both from within herself and without: “I must not feel regret. I am both spared and denied the complications of love and hate, hunger and fear, pain and joy, want and lust.”
“It is my fate to record the final thoughts and memories of every pony who has ever lived and ever shall live, and to take those memories with me to the end of time. This world will be long dead and gone and I will have forgotten even my own name and any shred of my own past as the final seconds tick away and the last star winks out, yet still I will bear those memories.”
“But even then, at the uttermost end of all things, I will recall a few weeks when you helped redeem the miserable, evil, mortal life I had once led. I will remember that we created and shared a spark of light, radiant against the stygian, all-consuming field of Deep Time. That memory I will keep for myself as Entropy closes in at last.”
Luna stood stock-still for several moments as her heartbeat rose and her breath returned. The dark veil lifted from her eyes and she caught a brief glimpse of Reaper passing briskly from her chamber. His tattered cloak snapped behind him like a ragged banner and his sword slapped against his flank in counterpoint to his heavy hoof-falls.
Luna closed her eyes: “Thank you.”
She drifted back to her dais, summoning her chalice of wine from the side table as she went, and sat on the bottom step. She remained there, sipping in silence, watching the shadows deepen and lengthen across the polished marble floor as dusk descended into night.
Zecora stared breathlessly as the shimmering, distorted rupture in front of her contracted and irised-down to a bright pinhole, finally disappearing altogether. She dropped the now-empty bag of pink powder and flinched as she felt Twilight’s blood dripping from her face and chest. She ran her tongue over her lips and tasted the salty warmth there.
The blood-splattered zebra took in a huge, shuddering breath and closed her eyes, listening for any sound besides the pounding of her own heart.
Slowly, she became aware of a small sound behind her, and a lessening of the darkness. The hair along her spine rose, and she turned unsteadily, finding a small, grey unicorn behind her, its horn glowing a bright gold-white.
The colt tipped his head sideways: “Well, you’re new! Come on--it’s not safe to stand here.”
He turned and walked off into the dark with Zecora following close behind.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- ShinigamiDad · 105k words · 13 5 · 569 views
- ShinigamiDad · 68k words · 56 9 · 1.4k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.584 seconds
Total duration
1,030 users online
1,981,398 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Huh that's a twist at the end. Wonder where the colt came from
It would make sense for the colt to be one of the Void's victims
7714698 You'll just have to wait for book 3!
(I'm doing pre-writing work now)
7942366 Me at my most George R.R. Martin-like!
7942416
You just set a high standard for yourself there.
But, yeah, that was a bit of a surprise. I've long thought Luna was the more marshal of the sisters, and the way your portrayed her there, even if it was Nightmare Moon reborn as Dark Angel, just shows I'm not the only one.
Book 2 was definitely a great read, better than 1 only because you found your groove. 1 had some, hiccups I would say, in flow. As if you had an idea, but forgot to include some details. I've done the same, you should see some of my texts to family, words and entire sentences missing because they were in my head yet never were written. Don't take it as negative criticism, other authors have done the same to me.
Hmm, now onto book three. I've an idea who the colt it, and if I'm correct, I can't wait to find out how it happened.
But, I think I'm going to take a wee break and look back over my own story. As short as mine is I think I want to finish it before submitting it again.
Author's Note: http://tinyurl.com/lan6njp
Why is this fic so little-known? The world-building and attention to detail are fascinating!
8579082
I'm actually going to use this world and "Her" as the foundation for a non-pony novel once I finish off the third story in the trilogy (Because I Could not Stop for Death).
Thanks!
Excellent.😄
8704921 tyvm!
What did you like most (or least) about it?
8705462
As morbid as it sounds, it is a good bedtime story for me. I'm no writer, I found the stories well paced, just the right amount of detail, mystery and bloodbath. I'd write a fancier comment but this is on my phone and the butterfingers aren't helping 😚. Good stories, thumbs up, you need more views/readers because i barely happened upon your story. And that just aint fair for this level of quality and quantity/sequels.
Now available in final, polished, proofread, ready-to-print form at: https://tinyurl.com/y4m57kup