The door opened. Twilight looked up from her book (an Equestrian version of War and Peace) and smiled at the sight of Luna. “Princess!” she greeted, waving a hoof. “Please, come in.”
Luna smiled as well, stepping into Twilight’s hospital room. She sat in a chair next to the Unicorn’s bed. “Hello, Twilight. How are you doing today?” she asked. As she did so, two Thestrals in armor took up position by the door.
Twilight patted her chest, grinning. “Good as new! According to Doctor Tender my body is pretty much completely healed. I leave tomorrow. He advises a few more days of relaxation, but honestly, managing a library isn’t really a hard job.”
Luna nodded. “That is good to hear.” Her smile slipped. “I admit, seeing you in the condition you were in… It distressed me.” She shook her head. “It had caused some rather unpleasant memories to resurface.”
“Princess?” Twilight asked.
Luna waved a hoof. “Luna, Twilight. My friends may call me Luna, at least when not during a formal occasion.”
Twilight seemed to hesitate, but then decided to change the subject. “Luna…” She cringed instinctively at addressing a royal informally. “I was wondering something after Princess Celestia and Fluttershy told me about what happened after I passed out.” She motioned towards the Thestrals. “How come you seem to favor the Thestrals for you Lunar Guard?”
It was a genuinely curious question, Luna was relieved to note, and not one born of tribalism. Not that she expected Twilight to have tribalist tendencies, but still. She leaned back with a sigh. “That actually ties into the unpleasant memories I spoke of,” she admitted.
“Oh.” Twilight winced. “Nevermind then. I’m sorry.”
Luna waved it off. “No, no, it is not unbearable. In fact…” She looked thoughtful. “... In fact, speaking of it may help.”
Twilight couldn’t hide the excited expression at the idea of learning something new, making Luna chuckle. After a time, she nodded. “You know the Thestral race worships me, correct?” Twilight nodded. “I do not like it, but I will not force them to not believe in something. I can only try and change their minds, unsuccessful though I may be,” she grumbled.
“What do you know of Thestral culture?” she asked.
Twilight frowned in thought. “Um… I know they mostly live underground due to their sensitive eyes and ears, and have a close relationship with the Minotaurs due to providing them mineral ores for their Forges. But their culture? I only know that they have a religion about you.”
Luna nodded. “Yes, the Church of the Between.” She took a moment to consider how best to continue. “The simplest way to describe how the Thestrals see me is to say they believe I am Death.”
Twilight screwed her face up. “Death?” she asked, seeking clarification.
Luna chuckled at her expression. “Even that is difficult to describe in its entirety. Simplified… they see me as the one being in all of existence that holds absolute authority over Souls.”
“Authority over Souls? Is that even possible?” Twilight asked.
Luna paused, before looking at the Thestrals and waving a hoof. They saluted and left the room. Twilight instinctively shifted into a serious demeanor, realizing she was likely about to learn sensitive information. “You know that Existence is composed of an infinite number of worlds, yes?” Twilight nodded. “Well, Existence needs help to remain balanced, to keep track of everything and prevent bad things from happening. So it crafted Aspects, beings who would handle certain areas for it. At first there were many, but as time wound on they were either subsumed into the current four, or destroyed due to imbalances they caused.”
“Current four?” Twilight zeroes in on that piece of information.
Luna nodded. “Love, Time, Magic, and Death. They are the four Aspects of Existence, and are the four most important beings you will ever learn of. They are the absolute authority in their respective areas, but even they are sometimes not enough. And so the Avatars were born, beings who have displayed a particular affinity for one of the Aspects. They were granted a portion of the authority of their patron to ease their burden.” Luna motioned to herself. “I myself am an Avatar of Death.”
Twilight took a moment to take this all in. “I have two questions,” she said.
“Go ahead,” Luna encouraged.
“What’s Death like? If you’ve met them, I mean,” Twilight added as an afterthought.
Luna smirked. “I have met him, and… actually, one moment.” She concentrated for a moment, and then conjured an illusion.
The illusion displayed a lanky human with messy black hair, piercing green eyes, and wore a doctor’s uniform. He had a cheerful smile. Twilight immediately noticed the odd lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead.
She stared. “... That’s it?” she asked after a moment. “I mean… realistically I knew he wouldn’t be what I expected… but he looks like a normal human!”
Luna smirked, letting the illusion fade. “You of all ponies should know better than to judge a book by its cover,” she pointed out. “Harry, that is his name by the way, is a very fun loving person, and in fact very easy to be friends with. I met him shortly after I became an Alicorn. He had apparently felt the connection between himself and I due to my being one of his Avatars and came to see what had caused it. He left three days later with an open invitation from sister and I to visit whenever he wished.” She seemed lost in memories for a moment, before remembering where she was.
“What was your other question?” Luna asked.
“What does this have to do with my original question?” Twilight asked. “Not that it isn’t interesting!” she added hastily. “But… I guess I just don’t see the relevance,” she admitted.
Luna nodded. “Perfectly understandable. I revealed this to you because I believe you are trustworthy, and because it provides context,” she said, getting a nod of understanding from Twilight. “Now, as to why the Thestrals worship me… it is because of something that happened before Nightmare Moon, and back when I was still relatively new to being an Avatar of Death. A Necromancer had set his sights on the Thestrals and, feeling the call to protect Souls, I immediately set out with ten of my Guard’s finest and most trusted.”
Luna’s gaze became somewhat unfocused as she recalled the memory. “We arrived to find the last of the Thestrals in their capital fighting an army of Undead wearing the faces of their fallen comrades. We joined the fight… but it was too much. The necromantic magic sapped my power in ways I’ve never experienced. Before long I had lost all ten of my own comrades, and were now fighting their risen remains.”
Twilight watched in worry as tears started to fall from Luna’s eyes. “I forced myself to strike them down. I remember feeling like I had somehow betrayed them with each one I killed… only for them to get back up and force me to kill them again and again…”
“Prin… Luna,” Twilight said, laying a hoof on her shoulder. She didn’t react.
“Eventually I called for a retreat, and the last Thestrals and I took shelter in a place that the Necromancer had yet to find. But we knew it was only a matter of time. I made the decision to face him head on, and told the Thestrals they were welcome to join me. I told them we would likely lose… that we would likely die and become puppets for him… but I’d rather die fighting than whimpering in a corner like a coward!” she roared.
“Luna!” Twilight shook her shoulder.
Luna gasped, and her eyes focused on Twilight. She breathed heavily for a moment, before wiping away her tears. “I apologize, Twilight. It seems I am not as over the event as I believed myself to be.”
“No, it sounds like you faced something horrific,” Twilight said. She shivered. “Being forced to kill my friends over and over again… I don’t think I can do that. You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to,” she assured her friend.
Luna smiled at Twilight. “Truly, you are a good friend… but I am fine now. The story gets better from here.” She settled again. “We assaulted his hideout, and the coward threw waves of Undead upon us to try and stop us. But we were fueled by righteous fury and a burning desire for justice. We tore through them all like so much paper. It was not long before we stood before the necromancer himself… and I engaged him myself while the others held off the Undead.”
Luna shook her head. “He was a coward… but he was a powerful and ferocious coward. I very nearly lost that battle, but in the end my blade found his heart, and I ended his life. Then… then something amazing happened.”
Twilight was taken aback by the teary smile Luna directed at her. “The moment he died, every single soul he had shackled to his whims appeared before me...and bowed, thanking me for freeing them. Then they moved on to the Afterlife. The Necromancer’s soul, on the other hand, I personally sealed within Tartarus to endure eternal torment. The Thestrals have since worshiped me and hold me above all else. This is why so many of them are in my Guard, because, quite frankly, the very idea that one would betray me is ludicrous.”
Twilight was unsure how to respond. She had, after all, just heard a rather heart-wrenching tale, and had even seen Luna fall apart slightly.
Luna gave a sigh, one that sounded relieved. “I do feel better after telling you that,” she admitted with a smile. “It still hurts… I lost some of the best friends I ever had that day. But… it is not so painful to remember now."
Twilight smiled. "I'm glad," she said.
Why do I feel that Hero Souls somewhat perplex Luna. She has a deep connection to death and here is a being that is having another life. It seems like reincarnation is a rare and powerful gift, one not lightly given out.
I feel like your warning in the authors note is a little unnecessary. I think a large majority of people will be able to identify him almost immediately, especially since the last thing Twilight notices is incredibly specific and well known. And if it's not this character, then you've done a very good job leading us in another direction.
And for those people who think the character is the same as I do but want to complain that the author got a detail wrong: Yes, the eyes were blue in the movie, but in the original books they were, in fact, green
Wow, A Harry who is Death? Who could that possibly be? I wonder and ponder upon this difficult riddle, but alack and alas, I can't even begin to fathom the answer. Truly this is a mystery for the ages! Forsooth!
You know, when a year has passed, I consider the concept of spoilers for something to be moot and unnecessary. If many years has passed since something, there are no longer spoilers. Even if you know nothing, it's no longer a spoiler. It's like talking about important plot points in the season one episodes and calling it spoilers, despite them being from years ago.
As such, I believe that, even if I list the most important plot points of every Harry Potter book, which pretty much everyone who wasn't born yesterday knows about, and it wouldn't be a spoiler. Everyone knows about it by know.
I just realized that I sound like an asshole with my wording.
8126404 Ah, but the series I'm talking about isn't the Harry Potter books.
8126476 Dresden?
8126478 Nope.
Well that's a surprise...
8126482 Is it a fanfiction? I assume it is, given the words "I am however assuming the Authors' blanket permission to continue his series as we see fit allows for what I'm doing," because I've seen unfinished fanfictions in which the author gives permission to finish it because he couldn't. The author who I've seen do that is called RLYoshi. However, he did not use a Harry.
8127491 The author is still continuing the series itself, but has given a blanket permission to pick up from the end of any of the stories within the series. I myself am picking up after his fourth installment (his current most recently completed book in the series) and going from there.
And that's all the information I'm giving. I won't answer anymore questions regarding who Harry is and the series he comes from. If you'd like to make a guess, go ahead, and when I finally reveal who it is I'll point out who got it right.
8127491 In fact, here are his exact words from his profile page, minus his name of course.
Is the original version of the story available anywhere? I love this version, but I'd like to re-read the bit with the dragons.
8132775 I have it in storage on my computer, and intend to eventually reintroduce it in the second story as a bit of a support for the overarching plot.
8133210 Alright, thanks for the reply!
8149697 Twilight?
8149702
Yup. Because it mentioned strength, jumping far, and punching a green man (Hulk strength, Hulk jump, punch Loki)
8150540
Yeah, I get that, but it's a bit thrown in there. Seems unnecessary. Like it was just shoved in there for the sake of putting it there.
8151196 It's because she was holding herself back. Twilight doesn't exactly want to splatter Gilda across the ground, just throw her around a bit.
And the Amethyst Drake thing was thrown in there for the sake of throwing it in there. If a story was made up of nothing but what was strictly required, it becomes a very dull story.
Finally, Twilight's reaction regarding the prank was justified in that Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie actions were very much a criminal offense, simply because their actions could have led to death and/or serious injury. Pranking is only fun when it doesn't risk lives. Twilight had to make damn sure they understood that, else they try it again and someone does die.
8152827 They're in a world of magic and abundant precious resources... I don't think an immutable shield will be hard to acquire. Expensive, certainly, but not hard. I already have an idea how I'm going to handle this. Thanks for asking though. Never know when you'll spot something that went straight over my head.
8151538
i meant that Twilight was getting pushed around.
Actually, no, stories don't just have things thrown in. Theres development, build up. A future reason it exists.
Her reaction may be justified, but im not just talking about the one situation. Shes been making threats constantly.
8152844
Cap's shield has sentimental value. It's also Vibranium.
8152858
Okay, I don't think either of us is going to agree, so I'm walking away from that topic.
Please list the times you think Twilight was unjustifiably threatening to someone. I'll explain it if I can, or admit you're right if I can't.
8152962
A bit hard to do that right now, seeing as I'm on an iPad and there's 24 chapters to go through.
8152962
Ok, this isn't easy, but here we go, all the times Twilight has threatened, bullied, etc.
First of all, I'd like to point out that neither Superman nor Twilight act like this, so the fact that they're acting like this now is weird. Now into it:
Chapter 8: Twilight unnecessarily threatens her friends.
Threats are not something Superman nor Twilight would do. Even if trying to teach.
Chapter 17: Yet another threat, though this one more serious.
Again, threats. Same as above. This time it's more serious, though. While above was Twilight threatening what COULD happen, this time the threat is specified. The horn is close to and likely connected to the brain. Twilight just threatened to kill, maim, and/or give Trixie permanent brain damage. Yes, she could have killed both herself and Rainbow, but that's just overboard.
Chapter 18: Twilight could have killed Trixie with that spell.
On chapter 8, Twilight threatens Pinkie and Rainbow for scaring Spike with Lightning which COULD HAVE caused him to set them or the town on fire. Here, Twilight outright hits Trixie with Lightning, which has an extremely high chance of death.
Berates someone for intentionally missing and scaring someone.
Proceeds to directly hit someone with Lightning that 9 times out of 10 kills.
Seeing the problem?
Those are all of the ones I could find, but I swear there are more cases.
The threat Twilight made against Rainbow and Pinkie was one of retribution via pranks, hence why she made that note about getting in a prank war with Celestia. If you consider that such a horrible threat, then you'll be disappointed with the rest of the story.
That's reliant on the author's whims, and mine is that horns aren't connected to the brain, nor do they have nerves in them. They are for channeling and focusing magic, and that's it. Snapping the horn will not cause brain damage or death.
The horn would eventually regrow, so the only permanent damage would be to her pride.
What Trixie did, teleport blind so closely to Rainbow, is a criminal offense in Equestria, as it falls under reckless endangerment or, if she had killed Rainbow, homicide. The punishment of such is having your magic sealed or, if that won't work, your horn snapped. Trixie would have still got that, it would have just been Twilight that administered the justice. Celestia would have admonished her for not talking to her first, but in the end would have agreed with the punishment.
The problem is you don't seem to understand the definition of threatening, or are using it out of context to complain about parts of the story you don't like. Threatening means to force someone to choose an option that you want them to choose, usually through the promise of bodily harm. This was not threatening. You are supposed to try and hurt your opponent in a fight.
However, I'll respond to this anyway. Derpy, in canon, got roasted by lightning while jumping on a cloud, and came out with only a few burns. Considering she was not connected to anything that could properly ground the current, by your logic that means it should have killed her. Since it didn't we can guess lightning in Equestria is not nearly as dangerous as it is in the real world. And Twilight berated them for scaring a young dragon that is still learning to control his magic and fire breath. The danger was the fire breath, not the lightning. The lightning was the enabler, and could have easily been replaced by a simple party popper to get roughly the same effect.
And finally... Superman has leveled a lot of threats over his life. The comics alone should show that. Nevermind the fact that this is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE story. I never specified which Superman I reincarnated, nor whether or not he's a Superman I myself have designed.
Soooo... Harry Potter is Death in this uni/multiverse?
...What?
I haven't a clue as to the series you reference, I'm assuming it's a fanfic and not the canon HP series since JK Rowling has by no means said "Continue it as you see fit." Could I get a link to it for some background info/context?
Can you PM me the series mentioned? I have no idea what it is, and might want to read/see it.
I can guess who the person IS, however. That was unexpected...
(author rhymes with cowling...)
9104873
Here you go!
there = location
they're = they are
their = possessive form of pronoun "they"