A Matter of Life and Death

by The Daughter of the Moon

Chapter Five

Everypony was laughing. It was Tia's turn at Charades, and she was posing dramatically.

"Shooting Star! No, it's Shining!" Red Flame gasped. "I know! It's ME!"

Tia nodded happily as she sat back down on the couch. Suddenly, the egg timer went off. Tia stood up and ran off to the kitchen.

"I'll go and see what's up." Blue Fire said as he excused himself.

Tia had brought out a steaming pumpkin pecan pie, the smell wafting throughout the house. Tia set it on the counter.

"Made one to eat today?"

Tia nodded excitedly. She opened a drawer and took out a knife.

Suddenly, Blue Fire felt a tremendous pain searing across his torso, as if someone had sliced his chest right open. Blue Fire stumbled back upon a wall with a cry, breathing heavily.

"Y-you okay, Blue Fire?" Red Flame called from the living room.

Blue Fire didn't answer. He was just staring at Tia, breathing heavily. The knife was floating in front of her, and was pointed at him, glinting in the sunlight. A curious look was on Tia's face. However, when he looked at her again, Tia was crying, and the knife had been replaced with a giant scythe. Tia looked as if she had been heavily beat up, and there were splotches of blood on the her and the scythe. She was wearing a pendant that looked awfully like the pendant he was going to give her for Hearth's Warming tomorrow...

"T-t-tia…" Blue Fire managed to get out, clutching his chest.

Blue Fire looked again, and Tia looked normal again. No tears, no wounds, no blood. He slowly approached Tia, who did not put down the knife. Carefully, he put his hooves out in front of the knife.

"G-give the kn-nif-fe to m-me, T-tia…" Blue Fire stammered. Tia placed the knife dropped into his hooves, and the pain ceased.

"Blue Fire, what's going on?" Red Flame asked worriedly as he ran into the kitchen, followed by Shining Spear.

Blue Fire was still breathing heavily, beads of sweat on his face. Tia's hooves were glued to the floor, a terrified look on her face, like was about to crumple to the floor any second.

"Just... my leg acting up again." Blue Fire lied.

"Are you going to cut the pie now? It's starting to get cold." Shining observed.

"C-can you cut the pie?" said Blue Fire. "I'm going to rest my leg."

"Sure?" Shining said suspiciously as Blue Fire left the kitchen, looking back to make sure Tia wasn't following him.

"What just happened?" Blue Fire thought as he sat down on the couch. As he replayed what had just happened in his mind, things made less and less sense.

Red Flame and Shining Spear came into the room, plates of pie floating beside them, but Tia was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Tia?"

"What? I thought she was with you." Shining said.

A feeling of dread looming over him, Blue Fire teleported to all the rooms in the house, but there was no sign of Tia. His heart beating faster, Blue Fire grabbed his coat and ran out into the snow-covered town.

---

Tia sat beside a pond of sky blue water, which appeared to be glowing. Tiny blue light orbs were floating up into the air. They seemed to be coming from the water.

Tia was in one of the many caves of Mirror Falls, the set of waterfalls deep inside Snowfall Woods. After the incident in the kitchen, she had run out of the house and deep into the forest, where she stumbled across one of the caves. There was no source of light in the caves except for the mysterious, blue glowing water and the orbs coming from it.

Tia was looked at her clear reflection in the water, appearing to be deep in thought. It was so clear that she might as well have been looking at a mirror.

Suddenly, the sound of a thousands beatings wings filled the cave.

"Ooh, look what we have here~" cooed a voice.

Tia stood up, alarmed.

"It's time for lunch, my dear subjects~! Tee hee hee!" The voice giggled.

From the shadows, thousands of changelings suddenly appeared, lead by one changeling that stood out from the rest. She had purple hair, purple, translucent wings, and purple eyes, and a purple crown atop of her head. She looked around the same age as Tia. The changeling cleared her throat.

"Ahem. I must hawve had somefing up my fwoat."

The changeling puffed her chest proudly.

"I am Pwincess Antanna Insectia Punaise Thora the fif!" The changeling announced. "But woo can call me Thora.

Tia gave a polite smile. Thora flew down to Tia and looked at her with curiously… upside-down.

"I've nevew seen a cweatuwe wike woo befowe!"

Thora frowned.

"Waiwt a minute."

Thora turned right side-up.

"Nevew mind! Go back to mommy!" She declared, and the changelings left. Thora cleared her throat again.

"I know what you are." She said seriously. "You're a Reaper. A royal one, in fact. I can tell. The floating crown, the wings and the horn, you're 100% a Royal Reaper."

Thora went right up to Tia's face.

"But why are you here? ...Wait, don't answer that. Tee hee!"

Thora sighed.

"Too bad. I was really feeling hungry. But don't pity us. We have plenty of food. We can feed on our own love. Unlike Reapers, we have the power to love a plethora of creatures. Not just our kind, but other races too… But Reapers…"

A grave look crept upon Thora's face.

"They can't love. They can love themselves, love their kind. But they are incapable of loving others." Thora whispered somberly.

Thora inched closer towards Tia, her nose a centimeter apart from Tia's.

"Such love is… unsatisfying. It leaves you empty." She rasped.

Thora backed away and cleared her throat.

"Wew, I'w be gowing ven! Bye bye! Tee hee!" Thora giggled as she retreated back into the shadows, leaving Tia looking very shaken.

Tia sat down and buried her face in her hooves, on the verge of tears. The changeling was right… About all of it… It was all true...

"Tia!" She hear Blue Fire call out, his voice echoing throughout the cavernous space.

Tia turned around. She could see Blue Fire peeking behind a stalagmite. Tia stood up and ran towards Blue Fire.

"Tia!" Blue Fire said. "What w--"

To his surprise, Tia went up to him and hugged him tightly. A tear slipped out of her eye.

"Whoa, settle down, kiddo."

After much prodding, Tia finally let go of Blue Fire. She was looking down at her hooves.

"I see you've found my favorite thinking spot." Blue Fire said, smiling. Tia looked up. "I love to go here and get away from everything. But don't go near the water. Last time I looked in it…"

Blue Fire shook his head.

"Let's go home. There's a plate of pumpkin-pecan pie with your name on it."

Tia gave a tiny smile and followed Blue Fire out of the cave.

"And forget about the whole knife thing. I think we both want to keep it forgotten."

Blue Fire was right. Tia had totally forgotten why she had run off to the cave. Forgetting all her worries, Tia took Blue Fire's hand and returned to the world, the sun shining through the trees.

Author's Note:

NO. THE FEELS. WHY DID I WRITE THIS. WHY.

Comments

[Skye Mist]

My old enemy...foreshadowing.

...Why?! All the foreshadowing that I can never understand!

[The Daughter of the Moon]

6997194 What did you think of it?

[Skye Mist]

6997204 Great! A nice sense of foreshadowing and mystery as well as introducing more and more things.

[The Daughter of the Moon]

6997220 Thanks.

[Skye Mist]

6997222 No prob. It's my pleasure.

[grey mane]

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
― John Lennon