Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QNm2FTblwPBfbnpuRp6Ur9g589LXlCs_X4XtG8ZbfUw/edit

Many ponies were still under shock from the battle between Despair and Obsidian. They stared at the cloaked stallion, who was sunken in thoughts. It all happened too fast for any of them to really grasp Obsidian’s form properly. But they saw what he was capable of, which terrified them. Three-quarters of an hour passed while the guests were waiting and recovering in the ballroom, hoping the cloaked stallion would not start anything bad again. Then, the royal sisters returned from the courtroom. Both appeared serious. Princess Luna stepped forth and made an announcement.

“Beloved subjects. We regret to inform you that the masquerade ball had been target of a terrorist onslaught. But to our great relief, we can safely say nopony was harmed. This we have to thank a very special guest among you for. His name is Obsidian Shards. Step forth, child of darkness.”

The crowd turned to the black stallion and grew big-eyed. The reaper walked through the guests, while they all backed away from him. The ponies had no idea what to think of him. As he walked right in front of the royal sisters and bowed down, Princess Celestia made a request.

“Obsidian, my loyal warrior. Please show all of pony-kind what you truly are.”

Even an elder reaper like Obsidian was shocked to hear his mistress giving such an order. This was the entire opposite of what they had been trying to do for more than a thousand years. Still, like all reapers, Obsidian was absolutely loyal to his mistress. He would never disregard an order. Never.

“Yes, my mistress,” he replied. His right front hoof reached up to his cloak hood, grabbing it and hesitatingly pulling it back. Then he opened the cloak and spread his wings.

A gasp ran through the guests as he turned around to them. A black pony with skull cutie mark, a black curved horn, black perforated bat wings and two diverse colored eyes? The sight filled them with anxiety, but Princess Celestia rose a hoof into the air to calm them down and continued the speech.

“Subjects of Equestria. What you are seeing before your very eyes is a reaper. They are the highest ranked of my warriors and directly responsible for the peace and harmony in our land. Although they are dark creatures and rather powerful, I ensure you they only want to protect pony-kind. We all owe a great deal to them and after tonight’s events, I have decided to stop hiding them from the face of Equestria. Reapers are rare beings. Until today, they never truly were seen as part of pony society. But I wish to change this fact now. Hear my words, subjects of Equestria. From this day forth, reapers are officially accepted as the fifth race of ponies. I hope you all will accept them with the same tolerance as any other race.”

A deafening silence fell on the castle as Celestia finished speaking. The sheer controversy of Celestia’s praising words and the sight of this obviously dangerous black stallion made it very difficult for them to make up their minds. After almost twenty seconds of silence, they finally decided to trust Celestia’s judgement and wisdom. The crowd suddenly broke into loud cheering. Obsidian was the only one who still stood there in great disbelieve... Acceptance? Can this be possibly true? After one thousand years of Celestia’s strict leadership, spreading rumors and the hate ponies used to face him with when he actually had to interact with them, reapers were now suddenly accepted?

“Unfortunately, since the castle has become the scene of a terrorist attack, Princess Luna and I have to declare the Grand Galloping Gala Midnight Masquerade to be concluded. We have to investigate on what precisely happened and how it could come to this. We ask you for your understanding. Have a good night, my beloved subjects!” Celestia finished.

The guests were a little disappointed, but they expected something like this. As the ballroom cleared out, Obsidian was still there, the keepers of harmony now gathering around him. He still could not believe what just happened. The entire scenery seemed so unreal to him. A tap on his shoulder by Princess Luna made him realize this was not a dream. In front of her hovered Obsidian’s mask and the outfit Rarity made for the black stallion.

“Thou hast forgotten this in the courtroom,” she spoke.

Obsidian bowed down, picked up his items by magic and placed them on his back.

“I am most grateful that you reminded me of this, Princess Luna,” he replied.

Luna just stood there, slowly taking off her own mask. Now that only the six mares and he were left, she could let her guard down and show her true, very sad expression.

“We... don’t know what to say... We feel deep guilt for thy destiny, Obsidian Shards,” she stated. The reaper shook his head.

“It is not you who cursed me. Do not blame yourself for something you are not guilty of, Princess Luna. It was Nightmare Moon. This difference has to be made clear. Either way, I was chosen by fate at very young age. I do not know a different destiny,” Obsidian explained.

Luna stood still for a moment, then nodded in understanding. Princess Celestia as well took off her mask and focused Twilight, who still was very taken.

“Twilight Sparkle... I know this is difficult for you right now. What you have seen is something nopony should ever have to see,” Celestia stated.

“It serves me right... I actually deserve much worse...” she replied. The feeling of guilt weighted heavy on her.

“Hold it right there, Twi’! I don’t know what happened, but I know better than to believe y’all would have done anything bad on purpose,” Applejack interposed.

“Which brings us to the investigation,” Obsidian started, turning over to the purple mare. “I regret to ask this of you, Twilight. But we need a witness report.”

Twilight looked up to the reaper.

“I... I can’t talk about it...” she responded. Rainbow Dash landed next to her and gave Obsidian an angry glance.

“Can’t you give her a break, O? You see how hard this is for her right now,” she stated.

“Me paenitet, but this is urgent. Tonight’s events were extremely suspicious,” Obsidian replied expressionlessly.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked carefully.

“All of the guests for the masquerade had been under observation days beforehand. We, the reapers, wanted to make sure no dangerous individuals come near our mistress and her sister. Think about it: how big are the chances that, despite our supervision, an oppressed insane pony made it here and just happened to stumble into the one pony that would make her surrender to her inner demon?” the black stallion explained.

“Obsidian!” Rarity shouted, scandalized.

“Forgive my choice of words, but there is no other way to describe the situation. Did you happen to see the demon? Even I mistook it for a duplication of Twilight for a moment. It is a unique one, which only makes its escape even more dangerous,” the reaper continued.

“More dangerous?” Pinkie asked, shaking a bit. The reaper nodded.

“Unique demons are very difficult to analyze. No one can possibly tell what they are capable of. This one is obviously connected to Twilight in some way. The events of tonight had all been arranged and set up. There is no other explanation for how this could have happened. So, we require all the information we can get,” Obsidian explained.

Twilight remained silent for a bit more. She understood her report would be important to solve this mystery. The purple mare sorted her thoughts, tried to resume what had happened and began to summarize.

---

As Twilight finished explaining, she could no longer hold her tears back. All her friends held her tightly and cried along with her quietly.

“Despair...” the reaper spoke to himself.

“What do you say, Obsidian?” Celestia asked.

“It appears as if Despair is a symbolic demon, my mistress. It represents how Moondancer saw Twilight. The missing heart in particular symbolises this fact,” the black stallion answered.

“Damnit, O! That’s very cruel of you to say!” Rainbow Dash protested angrily. The reaper bowed down to the six friends.

“I apologize if my words may sound tactless right now. But without emotions, it can be difficult to present facts without hurting anypony’s feelings. Be that as it may, I can not make a clear image of this demon myself. It was surprisingly powerful for a newborn demon. Medium rank at least and the fact you, Twilight, saw flashbacks when it stared in your eyes is alarming,” Obsidian spoke and came over to the purple mare. “Whatever the connection between the demon and you may be, we have to be careful. Please inform me instantly when you happen to see it, or even if you think you saw it.”

Twilight nodded slowly. Then Obsidian turned around again and bowed down before the princesses.

“This is all I am able to report at the moment,” he concluded.

“Very well,” Celestia stated. “Then please escort the ladies back home. I’m expecting frequent update reports from you.”

“Yes, my mistress,” Obsidian answered. Then, the demi-goddess of the sun walked over to her star student and placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“Twilight... I’m so sorry you have to go through this. Whenever you feel like writing to me, I’m always available for you and I will reply as fast as I can. Goodbye, friends.”

The keepers of harmony said goodbye as well and slowly left the castle. As Obsidian was about to leave with them, Celestia asked him back one more time.

“The other reapers need to be informed about their change of position in society. I will arrange Tripudium Messōrum and I want you to deliver the message. Also, I want you to take the keepers of harmony to the meeting,” she whispered, so the six friends could not hear it.

Obsidian bowed down, signalling he understood the order. Just when the royal sisters were sure the six mares and the reaper were gone, Luna came close to Celestia.

“Sister, dost thou believe Twilight’s powers will awaken in time?” she whispered.

“We can only hope, Luna. We can only hope...” Celestia replied quietly.

---

When Twilight finally arrived in her library, Spike was already awake. Even though the sun has not gone up yet, he was very busy with his duties. The opening door startled him and for some reason, even the sight of the familiar mare did not calm him down. In fact, it seemed to make him even more nervous.

“You’re up already? That’s very unusual for- wait! Oh gee! What happened to you, Spike?” the purple mare wondered in a very worried tone.

She realized Spike had several bruises, bleeded out of his nose and had a black eye. Even a few scales seemed to be missing, as if they had been torn out violently.

“I-I, eh. I fell down the stairs! Yes... yes that’s what happened!” Spike replied, very nervous.

“Really? Gosh! You must have had some bad luck to get hurt like that,” Twilight stated and let some tissues, ointment and band-aids float over to her.

Spike was shaking all over and had a terrified expression on his face. But he did not dare to run away. Twilight taught him quite a lesson on proper behavior around her this night.

“Calm down, Spike. It’s not like you’re getting an injection,” Twilight commented.

Spike closed his eyes and stood as still as he could. The purple mare found his behavior pretty strange.

“You’re shaking like crazy! Is something bothering you, Spike?” she wondered.

“N-no! Nothing! I, eh. I’m just still a bit under shock,” the baby dragon responded.

“Hm, okay that sounds reasonable. Maybe you should lay down a bit,” the purple mare suggested.

Spike just couldn’t make any sense out of Twilight anymore. First she punched and threw him around half night long and told him several rules how to respond to her, and now all of the sudden she cared for him and his well-being again? But he knew better than to say anything. He didn’t want to lose more scales.

“Y-yes, Twilight! At once, Twilight!” the baby dragon responded and ran upstairs to his bed.

---

In the meantime, Zecora woke up in her home in Everfree forest. She had to get up early in order to find a special plant she needed for a remedy. She was about to leave when someone suddenly knocked at the door.

“A visitor, this bright and early?
I wonder who could be so twirly!” she spoke to herself and opened the door.

“Salvē, lady Zecora,” Obsidian greeted, expressionless as always.

“Ah! It is my good, old reaper friend!
What brings you here to this forest’s end?” she asked happily.

“I require your assistance. I need seven bottles of a very specific potion. Here is the recipe,” the black stallion responded and handed her a piece of paper.

Zecora read through it carefully and became frightened as she found out what substances she would have to deal with in order to make these potions.

“What you ask of me is very dangerous to make!
My life, and every other creature’s around here might be at stake!” she worried.

“I am aware of that. This is why I ask you to make these potions. Your skill in remedies is unmatchable. I am stationed in Ponyville now, so I can not risk a brewing failure,” Obsidian replied.

“I see. Sadly, that is true.
But why do you need such a potent brew?” the zebra herbalist asked.

“Mistress Celestia is planning Tripudium Messōrum. This time, for the first time ever, we will have visitors. Six famous mares which you, as I had been informed, know quite well. The keepers of harmony,” the reaper stated.

“Twilight Sparkle and her friends?
Their lives must not find early ends!” Zecora exclaimed.

“Rēctē dīcis. This is why I need these potions. No other pony, zebra or reaper all over the land has mastered brewing like you did, lady Zecora. I am convinced that I can entrust you with this task,” Obsidian ensured.

Zecora was still unsure. Not only were the ingredients for these potions very dangerous, but the entire brewing process would be very unstable. One little mistake and she would create a large, toxic cloud that instantly killed everything in a large range. But Zecora knew, Obsidian would not ask her to do this if he wasn’t absolutely sure she would be better than him.

“Obsidian, I see your intentions are right.
For the results, come back to me tonight,” the zebra herbalist concluded.

“Grātiās tibi valdē agō,” the reaper thanked, bowing down and leaving again.

Zecora was worried. She went over to a table and studied the recipe Obsidian gave her closely, while taking down notes about what she had to keep in mind during the process. The herbs she planned to gather today would have to wait. This task required her full concentration now.

---

The next day, Obsidian carefully stored the seven potions Zecora made for him in a small bag in his room. She succeeded on first attempt, just like the black stallion thought. After he was done with the potions, he walked over to the two skulls on his small shrine and stared at them, sunken in thoughts. In just a few days, a brand new chapter in Equestria’s history will be written and he would be the one delivering the message to all the other reapers, while the keepers of harmony were present.

“You really should get going, Obsidian. You don’t want to be late, don’t you?” Odd Cirs reminded.

“Indeed,” the black stallion responded and went upstairs. Fluttershy was already out. Only Angel was still in the house, looking at the reaper grimly. Though he just ignored the bunny, stepped out and flew to Ponyville to meet the others.

---

The keepers of harmony met up at the marketplace. They all seemed rather happy again, but Twilight was no longer as light-hearted as she used to be. Despite of all her friends’ attempts to convince her the terrible end of Moondancer was not her fault, the purple mare couldn’t get rid of this powerful feeling of guilt that weighted on her. Obsidian landed next to the mares and bowed down to greet them.

“Salvē, O!” Rainbow Dash responded, saluting with a light chuckle. “So what did you want to tell us?”

“Before we get to that, I first have to speak out my gratitude to you, Twilight,” the reaper replied calmly.

“Gratitude? For what, Obsidian?” the purple mare wondered.

“For what you have achieved in Canterlot’s courtroom,” he explained.

“Oh that. It really is nothing. I could not possibly let you get executed,” Twilight stated, but the reaper shook his head.

“That is not the main reason for my gratefulness. I do not care about my life. It is the destiny of a reaper to fight until he is of no use for Equestria anymore. If I am ordered to die, I will. What I truly thank you for is what you achieved for reaper-kind that night. You helped improving our status in a way none of us ever imagined,” he replied. The six mares became silent for a moment. Then Rainbow Dash spoke up on behalf of the group.

“O, could you please stop talking like that? You’re not a soulless killing machine, even if you think that of yourself. You are our friend! And it really hurts to hear you say such things,” she commented. Obsidian bowed down again.

“Apologies. My point is that I would like to reward you all for this gift,” he continued.

“That really is not necessary, my dear. Knowing that we could help is reward enough for us,” Rarity stated, smiling at Obsidian.

“Even if the reward would be an exclusive invitation to the greatest event reapers have to offer?” he asked.

“Oh! An event, an event! Like what? A party? I love parties!” Pinkie Pie shouted in excitement.

“Not precisely a party, but still a rather big event. It is called Tripudium Messōrum. The dance of the reapers. It only takes place once every few years. Now that reapers are official members of Equestria’s society, you would be the first guests ever,” the black stallion explained.

“Land sakes! That’d be quite an honor!” Applejack commented. Obsidian nodded.

“Your names would go down into the history books. Your reactions to the dance would be decisive for the expectations of all following generations,” he continued explaining.

“Well, I don’t usually like having too much attention, but I’d love to go!” Fluttershy said. The meditations with Obsidian seemed to start increasing her self-esteem, much to the delight of the rest of the group.

“If that’s the case, you can count on me, O! I’d never skip an opportunity to become a legend!” Rainbow agreed. One by one, the other members of the group agreed to join in as well and they started getting excited.

“Bene. The dance will be taking place on top of Death Rock Mountain in three days,” Obsidian explained.