A Pony Called Death

by thehalfelf

Observing Tradition

Observing Tradition

In the midst of the night, two ponies sped swiftly through the sleeping castle. Expertly avoiding guards and servants alike, the duo arrived at their destination; the door of a mother and daughter from Ponyville. As shadows, the two entered the room, giving it a quick once-over. There, a door to another room, in the middle, a big bed common in Canterlot, and beyond, a small, closed window. Shadowed furniture glittered in the faint light of the moon.

The intruders converged on the side of the bed housing a pink mane. On a silent count of three, they sprang their trap. The first pulled back the covers quickly, allowing the second to hogtie the pony who was underneath them. As soon as the first ropes touched her fur, the soon-to-be-captive mare bolted upright and tried to shout out, but the first intruder used the opportunity to gag her, followed quickly by a blindfold. Lastly, one lifted the captive while the other slipped her into a bag, tossing it over his shoulder. The duo and their prisoner were out the door in less than five minutes. The other pony in the room never so much as stirred.

Another stealthy trip through the castle--undetected, despite the best efforts of the pony stuffed in a bag--and the two arrived at their destination. The guards pretended not to notice them as they pushed through the moon-emblazoned doors into a starlit chamber.

“Did you retrieve her?” asked the blue pony inside after shuffling her wings.

“Yup,” said the pony without the bag, shucking her mask to reveal a yellow pegasus with a disheveled orange mane. She nodded, and her companion tossed the bag on the ground, with much protest from the pony within.

The blue pony raised an eyebrow. “You actually put her in a bag?”

“Well, isn’t that you wanted?”

With a sigh, and a flash of her horn, the blue pony had the bag off the prisoner, and had her back on her hooves. The yellow pegasus quickly pulled her mask on--sideways--and shouted, “Hey! A little warning next time!”

“Take your leave,” the blue alicorn said before turning to the released pony. The ponies clad in black bowed and exited. “Rose Petal, my apologies. I did not think those two would actually bind you and drag you here.”

After a few moments of Rose grunting through her gag, Princess Luna removed it. “What the hay! Why’d you send goons to attack me!” the white pony shouted.

“Please, calm down. I sent them to fetch you to transfer the office of Death. I didn’t expect them to foalnap you,” replied Luna in a soothing voice. “It is tradition for the new Death to be taken in the night, for that is when the ritual of transfer is most powerful. You were never in any danger.”

“But what about Mom!” Rose shouted, volume steadily increasing. “She could have been hurt! Or what if she wakes up and I’m not there! She’ll go crazy!”

“Rose Petal, lower your voice,” Luna growled. “And before you go off again, your mother was never in any danger, nor was she even there.”

Rose stared in disbelief at the Mare of the Moon. “No. No, no, no, I know she was. She left to go for a walk, and I... fell asleep before...”

Luna simply smiled.

“So, if she was never there there,” Rose continued, “Where is she?”

“I‘m right here, hun,” said a voice, just out of sight. Roseluck walked forward into the wane light cast by the facsimiles of stars high up in the room’s dome roof. “I never came back to the room. I had some... things to discuss with the Princess.”

At the sight of her mother, Rose’s ears drooped. “Mom, I--”

Roseluck wrapped the younger mare in a hug, quickly silencing her. “It’s fine. I’ve been a little... overbearing. I’ll support you, though I don’t like what you want to do.”

“Are you sure?”

After a pause, Roseluck squeezed Rose tighter. “Yeah. You do what’s best, but remember I’ll always be there if you need me.”

The door opened, and Rose watched as Dashing Cloud walked in. “Aww,” he said, “Interrupting a touching moment, am I?”

“Nope,” Roseluck said, ending the hug and taking a step back, spinning to face the new visitor.

“Well, are we ready?” Cloud asked, looking at everypony in the room in turn.

“If they are,” Luna replied, looking down at the mother and daughter.

Rose looked over at her mother, and the soft smile on her face, and turned to look at the Princess of the Night. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

*****

For the third, and final, time that night, a procession made its way unchallenged and unseen through the hallways of Canterlot Castle. Princess Luna led the group, followed closely by Roseluck and Rose Petal, side by side, with Death himself taking up the rear as the Princess of the Night led the group down into the catacombs beneath the castle, underneath the very center of the mountain itself.

“Wait here,” Luna said to Roseluck and Rose Petal once they walked down one last passageway, to stand in front of a massive stone door. “Cloud and I have some things we must prepare first. Do not enter until we come for you.” Without waiting for an answer, the princess entered the chamber, followed closely by Dashing Cloud.

Rose looked over at her mother. “Don’t worry, hun,” Roseluck said. “Everything will be fine.”

“Mom, I... I’m sorry. About everything I said last night. I... I....” The white pony stared down at the ground, trying her hardest to keep her rebellious tears from falling onto the polished stone floor.

She felt a friendly hoof set itself on her withers. “I told you, it’s fine. Come on. Somepony has a job they need to do.”

Rose looked up with a watery smile. “Thank you.”

“Enter, Roseluck,” boomed a voice from the other side of the door. After shooting a wink at her daughter, the cream pony walked through the blank stone doors. As soon as her tail passed the threshold, the doors slammed shut, denying Rose a look into the chamber beyond.

The white mare plopped down onto her haunches, wincing a bit as the cold of the floor sneaked its way through her fur. Her tail twitched sporadically, slapping against the stone below. Seconds slowly crawled by like hours. The only movement in the long tunnel was the occasional flicker of the torch’s fire, and the slight tremors running through Rose.

Maybe Mom was right, Rose thought as she waited for the booming voice to call her into the room beyond, and into her future. I don’t know if... No. I can’t think like that. Somepony has to do it, and if the princesses think it should be me, then I’ll have a go.

Just then, the voice sounded from beyond the stone door. “Enter, Rose Petal.”

For what it’s worth. Rose walked through the stone doors as they opened, hoping the shaking in her legs wasn’t too noticeable. Just like her mother before her, the moment her tail passed safely through the doorway, it slammed shut, cutting off all light from the hallway.

Rose was quickly thrust into darkness. The only light in the massive cave came from a hole in the ceiling, where silver moonlight lazily wandered down onto a pony in a black cloak. From the chill of the room, Rose guessed it was quite large, though all but the surroundings of the middle were shrouded in darkness.

“Come forward,” intoned the cloaked pony in the shaft of moonlight.

Taking a deep breath, Rose slowly walked forward on wooden legs. Each impact of hoof on stone sent wild echoes bouncing around the domed chamber. A small eternity later, Rose stood just outside the shaft of moonlight, at the foot on the stone dais on which the cloaked pony stood.

From behind her, another voice sounded. “Step onto the platform, Rose.” Startled by the voice of Luna, Rose jumped before climbing up onto the raised dais, right in front of the cloaked pony.

As if on a signal, the hood was thrown back, revealing a grinning black unicorn, horn jutting proudly from his head. Rose balked and scrambled back towards the edge of the dias until her back hooves sat right on the edge. Slowly, a huge scythe of black iron slid smoothly out from under the cloak, and the figure spoke. “This is your legacy, Rose Petal. Take the scythe.”

Cowed by fear and a little bit of awe, Rose forsook her usual joke of a lack of a horn. She gripped the shaft of the scythe in her mouth, cringing at the metallic taste and the buzz of magic as the cloaked pony withdrew the spell. As the last remnants of power faded from the scythe, the black head before Rose wavered, and finally collapsed, revealing gold fur topped with a light blue mane. The cloak melted off his back, reforming on the back of Rose.

The dark cloth flowed over the white pony, bring with it warmth from the chill of the night in the dark cave. As the hood draped over her head, Rose felt strange, different, as though her body was no longer entirely hers. “It is done,” Cloud said. “I will begin teaching you tomorrow morning, as my predecessor did, and likely as you will do. Until then, I recommend leaving the cloak and scythe out of your posession.

“Not that you shouldn’t use it, you need to in order to do your job effectively, but it can be... disorienting until you understand the underlying magicks of the office. Don’t worry about losing it, the cloak wears you almost as much as you wear it. Simply will it away and back, it will always come when you call, the scythe as well. I shall see you tomorrow, Death.”

Author's Note:

Not much in this chapter, sorry. Originally, this one and chapter 7 were going to be one chapter, but it got too big to really fit with the rest of the chapters, so I split it. Doesn't matter either way, because 7 is going up in, like, five minutes. Ciao!

-thehalfelf

Comments

[Noobblue]

Beep Boop :D