A Matter of Life and Death

by The Daughter of the Moon

Chapter Ten

The voice laughed sadly.

"Don't you see, Blue Fire?" The voice said quietly. "All I want is to lift the curse that I so foolishly put on Rainum so that no other Reapers will suffer the same fate that I and the other four Reapers did. I put the curse on Rainum, and only I can lift it. But I can't lift the curse without a soul. That's why I need you the pendant and for you to kill the other Reaper. I need another Reaper's soul."

"Why do you need the pendant?" Blue Fire asked skeptically.

"Well, whenever that lucky somepony killed a Reaper, they were ordered to bring the body to the king for proper burial. What the king didn't know was that your father, Black Embers, would take the body and extract the last living remnants of the Reaper, and was able to scrape up a microscopic fraction of the soul. He put the slivers of the souls in the pendant, allowing him to live longer every time he added another soul to the pendant. However, when Black Embers gave the pendant to you, tired of living, he instantly died."

The filly smiled at Blue Fire.

"The essence of the Reapers lives in, hm, what was her name again, oh, that's right, Tia's pendant. Each of the Reaper exhibited a certain… quality, that made them stand out from the rest. Whenever the wearer of the pendant exhibited one of those qualities, the essence of the Reapers would stir, and would bless you with something. Clide, the second Reaper to appear in Rainum, who was murdered in the capital Woodbridge, exhibited diligence. Nora, the third Reaper, who was murdered on a stroll around Mirror Falls, exhibited integrity. Ferox, the fourth Reaper, who was murdered during a nap under a tree in Belua Forest, exhibited courage. Elm, the Reaper who appeared before Tia, who was murdered in your current dwelling, Snowfall, exhibited patience. And myself, who was killed in the castle throne room, exhibited gentleness, before I lost my soul. You'll notice that when Tia was patient with Shooting Star, when she patiently waited for him to vent out his anger, Elm healed her injuries."

Blue Fire thought back to Shooting Star's concert. She was right, there was a butterfly that came out of the pendant and healed Tia of her injuries.

"Unfortunately, a fraction of my own soul is in that pendant. I need at least a sliver of my original soul in order to lift the curse."

"But I don't want to kill Tia!" Blue Fire retorted.

The filly looked frustrated with Blue Fire.

"You would sacrifice millions of ponies' lives just to save that Reaper's soul?"

"I… I don't…"

"You know, if you cut off Tia's wings and take her soul, she won't die."

"…What? But you said--"

"I retract what I said earlier. You can't actually kill a Reaper, you can take its soul, but it will continue living as long as it has an essence of its soul. The other four, unfortunate, Reapers had their souls drained from their bodies completely, thus why they are not living like me. Sure, with almost all of your soul gone, you can't feel emotions as well as you could before, but you still retain all your memories. Since your father is no longer alive to drain the rest of her soul, Tia will still "live", technically."

Blue Fire shuddered at the thought of Tia becoming a near-emotionless husk.

"But I thought that the last of your soul was in the pendant…" Blue Fire questioned.

"Well, I am a, hm, special case. I'm a mistake. I'm not supposed to be alive. But here I am, standing before you now, unable to feel anything."

Blue Fire was silent.

"Well, if you change your mind, I'll know." The filly said smoothly. "Say hi to subject RF-002. Goodbye, subject BF-001."

The filly started to fade into the shadows.

"Wait! What's you're name?" Blue Fire called out.

The filly stopped. She flew up to Blue Fire, her mint hair brushing his face.

"I am Cerene. The strongest member of the Phoenix Five."

The filly disappeared. Blue Fire woke with a start, sweating profusely.

"Brother! You're awake!" Red Flame exclaimed, who was sitting beside Blue Fire's bed. He looked extremely worried.

"W-wha…?"

Blue Fire looked around. It was still dark outside. The bandaging on his left leg had gone loose, and his entire room had turned grayscale. His heart sunk like a rock.

"No no no no no no…" Blue Fire stammered, burying his head in his hooves.

Red Flame hugged Blue Fire.

"What happened? You haven't gone like this in forever…" Red Flame whispered in his brother's ear.

"I-I had a n-nightm-ma-re…"

"Nightmare? More like night-terror! The entire house has turned mon--"

"Don't say it." Blue Fire said sharply.

"I-I don't know how to fix it…" Red Flame mumbled.

Blue Fire froze. How was he going to fix it? No one could know about…

"C-can you help me wr-rap my leg?"

"O-of course!"

After Red Flame re-bandaged Blue Fire's left leg, they heard a knock on the door. Red Flame and Blue Fire looked at each other.

"W-who is it…?" Red Flame called out.

Suddenly, him and Blue Fire saw color seeping from the crack under the door. A small area in front of the door had regained its color.

"C-come in." said Blue Fire.

The door opened a little. Tia stuck her head through the small crack in the door.

"K-kid…"

Tia ran up to Blue Fire and jumped on him.

"H-hey, what are you doing-g up?"

Blue Fire looked past Tia to see that color was returning to the places where she had stepped on.

"H-how did you…"

Suddenly, Shining Spear burst into the room.

"I sensed a strange powerful magic-thingy in here!" She yelled. "WHERE IS IT?!"

Red Flame and Tia laughed. However, Blue Fire was unnerved.

"Sounds just like that Cerene kid…"

"No, seriously, what's wrong?" asked Shining worriedly.

"Oh, Blue Fire was--"

Blue Fire elbowed Red Flame.

"I-I mean, I d-don't know…" Red Flame coughed.

"H-hey, can you leave me al-lone for a minute…? Blue Fire asked.

"Oh, sure! Come on, Red Flame, we'd better put Tia back to bed." Shining replied.

"Oh, um, okay." said Red Flame as he carried Tia and followed Shining out of Blue Fire's room.

After the door had closed, Blue Fire sunk into his pillow. He looked at the skylight, but the stars weren't visible anymore. Blue Fire sighed.

"What am I gonna do…?"

Comments

[Skye Mist]

Ohh god...

[The Daughter of the Moon]

7044997 Read my conversation with true sans near the bottom

[The Daughter of the Moon]

7046714 Yeah, right?

[grey mane]

The answer to Blue Fire's question on how she did what she did.
“Death didn't happen like I expected it to. There was no Grim Reaper, no chorus of angels, no army of demons. And my life didn't flash before my eyes. Death was the color of softness, a delicate green under a thin film of baby powder. There was nothing but soft random thoughts and picture, drifting through me like a child's breath blowing through a dandelion after making a wish. And as I died, I was held by my love. I wanted to soak up her love and smuggle it with me to wherever my soul was headed.
-character Ron (Broken)”
― J. Matthew Nespoli