Seeing the Pattern 2: Death Take You

by Aegis Shield

Rarity

Seeing the Pattern 2: Death Take You
Part 6: Rarity

The implosion of air in the Midnight Court was like a clap of thunder, startling everypony in the room including Princess Luna. She stood, rising from her throne and growling menacingly at the newcomer who’d teleported in. As the black smoke settled, she saw it was Death. “Death!” she shouted. Indignant at being startled. “What is the meaning of thy intrusion this night?! Has the pink one eluded thou again?”

His head bobbed up and down, “Complications.” His deep voice rang over the massive room as soon as he’d undone the clasp of his cloak and assumed his mortal form. The stallion stood in shadow, massive hooves raising and then stamping down hard on the polished tile. It made everypony in the room, save Luna, flinch. From under his hood, the stallion grimaced angrily at the floor.

“Thy anger is palpable, stallion.” The princess gestured. “Come, sit by us.” She gestured. Her guards turned with large eyes. No one ever sat with the princess, especially up on the throne! The hooded stallion of darkness hesitated, looking back and forth. Thinking better of it, Luna cocked her head, “Ah yes, we imagine sitting on a throne would be a bit outside protocol.” She stepped down from the dais, raising her voice. “Our Midnight Court is adjourned this night! Return tomorrow, those with unfinished business!” It was perhaps an hour early that time, but nopony was going to contest her decision. She gestured, and Death followed her out of the throne room.

They wound up the banister, to the highest room in the tallest tower. Luna’s astronomy room and private chambers. Death hesitated on the threshold, looking about. There were star charts, maps, and scrawling of all sorts all around the room. There was an art to arranging the night, far more than hauling a ball of fire into the sky every day. Each star had to be placed thus upon the fabric of the sky, and even the slightest deviation could throw off explorers and other such ponies. The Princess turned, looking over her shoulder at him. She saw him looking intently at the trio of throwing knives sticking out of her head-board. “Hrm.” Was all he said, peering back and forth. Though he didn’t speak often, Luna did like his voice. It was like a low, bronze bell.

“Enter, specter of Death. We greet thee as a friend this night.” Princess Luna said. The stallion entered, sweeping about to favor the shadows. He didn’t even like to stand in enough light to show the color of his fur. Despite the black cloak upon him, he was very secretive. Her eyes narrowed in bemusement. Though she and her sister had ordained the three Aspects of Fate (Mother Nature, Father Time, and Death) with their powers, they were not insignificant. She shared an affiliation with Death more than her sister Celestia. Death peered about at the private chambers of his princess, silent. Turning, she smiled at him rather predatorily. She gestured that he join her on the balcony as clouds passed over the moon. “Come, darkness is thy friend this night as well.” She promised, gesturing to the clouds.

Death ventured forward with a relieved sound. He didn’t like to stay in mortal form around Luna. He didn’t trust her not to try anything. She was volatile. Dark. Angry. Sexual. He flinched a little at the last one, but sat on his haunches next to her. He peered out at Canterlot, and beyond where Ponyville lay. He gave a guttural harrumphing sound, scratching at his chest a little.

“The pink one frustrates you, we know this.” Luna said, looking down at Ponyville. Leaning over, she put a massive hoof around him. Her raw strength pulled the huge stallion to her side. He turned his head quickly, looking up at her in alarm. He was perhaps one of a hoof full of stallions with hooves as big as she, but Luna was still a goddess and far more powerful. “Do not lose faith in thy vocation, stallion.” She turned to look at him in a certain way. He shuddered a little, though not in fear.

“No.” was all he said, looking up at her only slightly. Luna made a show of admiring him a moment, her lip curling into a cruel and sultry look. His mouth narrowed into a thin line as her magic wrapped around his black cloak. He held onto it stubbornly, but she grunted with effort and heaved it away. He reared up, flailing his hooves to get it back, but she lifted it beyond its reach. She gave a tinkling, cruel little laugh. “Gimmie.” He said angrily, pawing at the ground like he might charge her.

“Oh-hoh? Thou hast grown the stones to strike thy princess and goddess?” Luna put a great hoof on her chest, being playfully dramatic. She saw the hesitation in his stance, and gave him a black smile. “We welcome it. Take it back.” She dangled Death’s regalia at him. He snatched at it, but she pulled it high beyond his reach again. “If thou can.” Luna sneered cruelly.

Death clenched his teeth, his brow lowering in grand agitation. “HUP!” His temper snapped and he turned wildly, bucking her right on the muzzle! The princess of the night yelped, her head snapping backward and her pupils turning into dots. Her control slipped a moment, and he leaped to grab his cloak back as it fell. But no, magic seized it and held it high once again.

“Oh-hohoho… harder!” Luna cackled in a sultry way, smirking down at him. He stared at her, more than a little shocked. “Thou must hit harder than that, we’re afraid.” She cocked her head and the air concussed with magic! The stallion flew backward in a high arc, landing on a coffee table and blasting it into pieces with his weight. He sat up painfully, feeling the bruise already. Bits of wood stuck to his fur and he picked them out with his teeth, gingerly. Spitting splinters to one side, he rose. She grinned at him, and a flick of magic locked the door of her chambers. Was she being… playful?

He charged at her, a thundering stallion! Her smile grew and he leapt upon her, tackling her over the alicorn-sized bed. His great barrel chest coiled with beautiful, masculine muscles and he pinned her with his sheer weight and huge hooves. Her starry night of a mane bannered out beautifully, but the cruelty of her smile tarnished it. “Gimmie.” He said again. She enjoyed the bass of his voice, however briefly he spoke.

“No.” she said, snickering at him. He rose up and stomped on her chest with all his might, enough force to shatter even the most stubborn stone. The crack of impacting hooves was sickening, but she only giggled like he’d tickled her. “Harder!” He reared up and crashed into her again, angrier and angrier! “Oh! Harder! Yes! Hit us harder!” she squirmed beneath him, laughing and pawing at him with her hooves.

Death attacked her with all of his might until he was out of breath, a sweat dripping from his face and across his back and flanks. All his rage and frustration poured out of him. He hated it, he hated that Pinkamina so much it made him want to scream! But he could not, he could only pummel into the laughing punching bag beneath him and give her everything he had. Whinnying ferally he bucked twice and finally collapsed, panting. There was a long silence of him laying upon his princess, gasping. The cool night air on his fur made him shiver.

Princess Luna dragged her sultry tongue across Death’s cheek. She smiled when he had the decency to turn a dark crimson. This was not very princess-like at all, but he ached from his furious assault. “Thou cannot hurt a goddess, dear Death.” She told him with a coo. He shuddered at the feeling of her breath in his ear. “But thou cannot deny thou does not feel a little better after trying.” She saw his ears turn down, and she knew it was true. “Thy body is strong and thy hatred stronger.” She said, leaning over him with a dark, curling smile. He growled at her, still panting. Turning with a lewd expression, she pressed her hips up to him. “Question not thy virility, only thy resolve to stop Pinkamina. Thou shalt think of a way.” She told him, flicking her eyes downward. “But until then, we shalt share our night with you…” a cruel smile formed across her muzzle and her horn ignited with dark magic. He shuddered as her ancient magicks egged on certain urges within him.

Death and the goddess of death danced a dark dance together that night. He could not help himself. By the morning he was covered in violent, angry bruises but he did get his cloak back.

=-=-=-=

Rarity was digging about in her attic. The Boutique Magnifique actually had three stories to it: the shop, her private living space, and the attic. Since winter was on the way that could only mean one thing. Seasonal fashion shift! Autumn had been a lovely time for her shop, all sorts of ponies wanting dresses that accentuated the changing colors of the leaves and such. But winter, ohhh! Winter was always a challenge because one wanted to look lovely and alive, but not too colorful. There wasn’t a lot of color during the wintertime and to rush about in something too bright looked garish and simply silly.

“Hmm, where did I put it?” She leaned a little over one stack of boxes. “I’m usually so organized, I must’ve just stuffed everything away last year!” she sulked a little, cursing herself. “Well, I certainly got wrapped up in Winter Wrap-Up, maybe I just shoved everything in a box or two and called it done…” she finally looked up, and spotted a trio of boxes squatting on a ceiling beam. “Oh for heaven’s sake!” she shrieked, tilting her head all the way back to stare at them. “Why in the world would I put those up there?!” she scoffed at herself, rolling her eyes. “Honestly Rarity you are so absent-minded, hahaha!” she shook her head, leaning a bit. Her horn ignited with magic and one of the boxes lifted. The bottom of it sagged. “Ohh, I’ll need to ask the Boxes and Scissors for some new boxes. These are getting moth-eaten.” She either liked to talk to herself, or she liked the sound of her own voice, it was hard to tell. She magically lifted the second one down, careful with the contents. Looking up, she grasped gingerly at the third box with her magic. She could feel how frail it was. Being very careful, she lifted it from the ceiling beam—!

Suddenly the bottom of the box fell out and a shower of sewing needles screamed through the air, a thousand pricks of silvery death! Rarity screamed, frozen like a deer on the highway, unable to move an inch in her terror. “I’ll save you Rarity!” A little green and purple dragon cannon-balled through the air, a thick comforter trailing him like a cape! He tackled her FACE and she squealed as she pinwheeled backward, onto her back. He hugged her head and curled his tail mightily around her neck while the thick blanket covered her body completely. Needles pin-cushioned the little dragon mercilessly, but thankfully his scales protected him. The blanket did much the same for the white mare’s body, for none of the sewing needles had enough weight to pierce it all the way through. When the silvery rain of sharpness was over, Spike uncurled from his defensive position, a little red-faced. “S-sorry, I meant to hit your chest…” he said with a blush.

“Sp-spike! You saved me! How could you have even—!” Rarity looked over his shoulder and saw a panting Pinkamina and an alarmed-looking Twilight Sparkle.

“Wow, you really do haft’a cut it close, huh?” Twilight said, eyebrows up. Pinkamina nodded dismissively, coming up the last couple of stairs to examine the scene. Spike gingerly climbed off of Rarity, undoing the blanket from around his neck. “Looks like we made it just in time.” Twilight said, laughing a little nervously as she lifted the needle-riddled blanket with her magic. “Why do you have so many needles, Rarity? This is a whole box full, they’d rust before you used them all…” the purple mare trailed off, looking at their pale friend.

“It was a buy in bulk sale HOW DID YOU KNOW TO COME HERE LIKE THAT?!” Rarity exploded, making Spike wince as he was trying to take the needles out of his back. But, twisting around and moving the muscles in his back was making it painful.

“You were about to die. The Pinkie Sense warned me.” Pinkamina tossed her curtain-like mane a little, huffing. “I brought Spike so I wouldn’t be the one diving under a hailstorm of needles and get killed myself. Twilight came along for the ride.” It was very short and business-like, but that was the story. It wasn’t everyday that a pink mare came bursting into the library promising Spike the chance to save Rarity’s life for the low, low cost of being pitched across her attic like a baseball.

“Ohh, Spikey-Wikey, you’re all covered with needles!” Rarity sympathized, lowering her head to inspect him closely. “Come downstairs, we’ll get them out of your scales before they dig in and start hurting your poor widdle dragon body!” she nuzzled him for just a moment, and he followed her downstairs with hearts over his eyes.

Pinkamina remained behind, as did Twilight Sparkle. “Nice try, but I’m not one to throw myself in front of a hail of needles.” The pink mare seemed to be talking to an empty room. Twilight Sparkle looked around, her horn lighting up so she could see better. No other pony was there that she could see. “I see you, though. I’ll always see you.”

“Is he here? Death, I mean?” Twilight said cautiously.

“Yeah, he’s right there.” Pinkamina said, gesturing vaguely to a corner.

“What— does he look like?” Twilight was screwing up her eyes like she might divine the Aspect of Death into existence if only she looked hard enough. “Rainbow Dash said she saw him when he came for her.”

“He’s a skeletal stallion in a black cloak with red fire in his eyes.” Pinkamina said, still staring at the empty corner. “Rainbow Dash saw him because he turned solid to stop me. He’s got some sort of solid, mortal form, but I only saw it for a moment. I don’t know who he is.” She wasn’t taking her eyes off the figure that Twilight could not see.

“Sounds scary.” Said the purple unicorn, a little frightened at the idea of Death incarnate.

“Yeah.” Pinkamina turned back to her. “Don’t worry. He won’t try anything while I’m here.” She gave a rather chilling smile to the lavender mare, pushing her mane behind her ear. “After all, stopping death is my special talent.”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes flicked to Pinkamina’s flank. The white skull and black scythe was probably the scariest cutie mark she’d ever seen. “But, if everything you’ve told us is true, he’s getting craftier.” The scholar said a little cautiously. The pink mare cocked her head questioningly. “I mean, if you’d just dove in there like normal, you would’ve died instead of Rarity.”

“Oh yes, he’s definitely getting craftier.” Pinkamina smirked. “I’d be willing to bet any deaths I prevent from now on will probably chance my own death quite a bit more.”

“I’m worried about you, Pinkie.”

“Pinkamina.” She snapped, cocking her eyebrow at Twilight with an insulted look on her face.

“Sorry, I meant Pinkamina.” Twilight said quickly, blushing. “It’s just… aren’t you worried? If you’re going up against Death incarnate, I mean… what if one of you actually wins in the end?”

“What do you mean?” Pinkamina asked tersely.

“I mean…” Twilight hesitated for a moment, trying to explain the endgame of the entire struggle. “Either he kills you, or you stop him entirely, right? Are either of those a good scenario?” Pinkamina didn’t have answer for that. She’d honestly never thought about it before. “I would hate to see you die, but… what would happen if there was no death in Equestria?” In the corner where he stood, Death cocked his head into a curious expression.

“That’s silly.” Pinkamina said. “There will always be deaths. I’m just stopping the obvious ones that can be prevented because super stallion over there won’t leave Ponyville alone.” She glared savagely at Death, who clattered his teeth defiantly at her and stared with soulless eyes. It only just then occurred to Pinkamina that the Pinkie Sense only ever warned of deaths in and around Ponyville. Why not elsewhere? Perhaps her powers had a radius, or a limit of distance from wherever she was? She didn’t know.

“Yeah, but—” Twilight seemed to be fishing for the right words, frowning in a troubled way. “Pinkamina, isn’t Death everywhere? I mean, a few of us have seen him in some sort of physical form but… at least in the proverbial sense, can’t he be in more places than one? And if he has some sort of bodily shape, wouldn’t he HAVE to be in more places than one?” The pink mare startled, turning around with a horrified expression. She turned quickly to look at Death, but he was gone. She went a little pale. Twilight was right.

Death was not showing the true extent of his powers yet.

End of Part 6

Comments

[ThePhantomAssassin]

weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/that-escalated-quickly.jpg

[BassCannon616]

Luna successfully sexed up Death and bonked him...

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN, GURL.

[mikewalker11]

to the highest room in the tallest tower.
Is that what i think it is?

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Another death that targeted an Element of Harmony bearer, so now only Surprise, Fluttershy, and Applejack remained untargeted.

[werewolf435]

Oh my... Forget "molestia". She was probably just a memory of times when Luna was still around.

[Ponaygurl]

1314156 Lunaughty more like.

[Bronwyn]

Dat story.

[Tribal Typhlosion]

Hehehe I see what you did there with Luna and Death and was my favourite part of the story

[DerpedRainbow]

You made Death seem like a foal (What Pricesses Need maybe?) And raped him. Wonderful.

[RainbowBringer33]

wait, death (the one on this story) said that he only handled karma deaths and not natural deaths so... maybe he could be stopped and there would still be death in equestria

[DEL]

1315760
Deaths only helps with karma deaths.... Pinkamina prevents them, but had both she and death been absent, the empty-karma pony would die... Just not as fast... But there would still be natural deaths

[Paladin Redflare]

RAAAAAAAAAAAPE.

[Ledingdongdiddle]

RAPE QUIT
1308412
So like I'm dead nao

[MyLittlePwny]

I'm loving your rendition of Celestia and Luna. They're more like the Greek Gods in the sense that they are all powerful, all knowing, immortal, and have desires like Luna's little Death dance here.

[Dead_Page]

I may be following the wrong bread crumbs here, but my foresight on this site has so far been 25/75 right/wrong. So this guess is worth voicing. Death is Big Macintosh, isn't he?

My train of thought:
So far all the Aspects were from Ponyville. There are precious few stallions in Ponyville, add in that Death has giant hooves and is a large, strong, stallion, with a deep voice, and doesn't use that voice often All are base character traits of Big Macintosh. Also, when Big Macintosh was nearly killed, Death was not present. For that final assumption, I take into consideration that the Aspects can die, because Death has been hurt, and there have been mentions of the Aspects being appointed by the Celestial Diarchs and therefore being younger, leading me to believe they are of the "Lest sword or disease take me" flavor of immortality.

Objections, confirmation, denial, or additions are welcome to this theory.

[Salted Pingas]

"The stallion stood in shadow, massive hooves..."

Wait a second...
Massive hooves + deep voice
...no, it can't be...
+ Pinkamena not seeing death when she saved Big Mac from getting electrocuted.

IS DEATH !?!?!?!?!?!?!

No, that sounds stupid...I think...

[burning-ruin-666]

seriously, luna is the only one that truly can screw with death... and that is more than in one way

[burning-ruin-666]

1360718
death was playing poker with father time and mother nature
than again death being every where, its possible
and death not talking much, resembles
but why would death say to Luna that he was killing him self to iron the wrinkles out of fate huh?

[Dr. Blackgaard]

1360718 It's what I be thinking. Death hates to speak, because he's Big Mac and it causes him so much pain. Maybe that accident that slit him up like that actually killed him, but the Princesses saved his life by making him Death, like Pirates 3.

[G S tol Kriaal]

“No.” was all he said

Either that should be a comma, or there should be an "It" before the "was" (I've been seeing this sort of thing a lot; you may want to brush up on the rules for dialogue)

[Rakdar]

seems legit

[CommanderBigMac]

1325727 Wasn't death playing poker when Big Mac almost got electrocuted? And death did speak a bit with Luna, which doesn't quite fit with talking causing him pain.

[Xerzes]

AND THEN THEY FUCKED.

[Chaotic Note]

I hate this chapter so much. Only the first half though with all the Luna and the Death and the BedTime and the Sultry and Hotness and Bucking. Yeah,
mlpchan.net/pony/src/1350970491105.gif

[MustacheMerlin]

I don't think it's Bic Mac, but it's definitely a large earth pony stallion, and not from Ponyville because he didn't know who Pinkamena was. I think it's Breaburn.

[Emperor]

Wow Luna, wow.

Also

He was perhaps one of a hoof full of stallions with hooves as big as she, but Luna was still a goddess and far more powerful.

Since Big Mac's already been singled out for death twice, unless his were supposed to be red herrings, the only other big stallion I can think of between seasons 1 and 2 is Bulk Biceps/Snowflake. Of course, his mannerisms ("YEAH!") differ quite a lot from Death.

[Robot Sparky]

1308412 it did escalate quickly, very quickly