Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lmieAJbRp61mO8NTDMd7_6luCkj3glYDRl0lowQIxww/edit?usp=sharing

“It is about time now. We are almost ready for my plan. I only need a few more memories, then I know everything about her and our bond will become unbreakable. Then, I can finally show her the truth and awaken her from this dream. Oh, how I will enjoy this. All this waiting, hiding and avoiding has been such a tease.

You all know what to do. Don’t forget, you mustn't be sensed or seen. And you mustn’t harm her. We need her alive.

You dare to doubt my plans, underling? Don’t forget whom you are talking to! I am the second corrupted star! It was me who planned and executed the attack on the changelings! And it was me who defeated and devoured Queen Chrysalis! You will follow my order, in the name of our queen! Did I make myself clear?

Good.

Our queen depends on me and the other corrupted stars. Her plan is perfect. We calculated everything to the smallest detail. As long as all of us follow this plan, nothing can go wrong.

Now, you all will wait here. I need to gather the last pieces of this puzzle.”

---

Granny Smith’s funeral had many participants. Almost every pony who even knew her just roughly was there to say farewell. A big speech was held in her honor, listing up all the accomplishments she achieved in her life. Yet, the greatest tribute was paid to her for supporting the foundation of Ponyville.

A majority of the crowd consisted of apple family members. They all were very sad, but none of them were more taken than Applejack and Applebloom. Even Obsidian was there, but he tried to avoid getting seen. After what he had done, he wasn’t so sure how to confront the siblings again.

The next few days, Obsidian had very little contact with the apple family. Even when the keepers of harmony planned to meet, Applejack didn’t show up. She had retreated to mourn and tried to distract herself by taking extra shifts on the farm. But eventually, she started meeting her friends again and even the black stallion.

After having many long talks with Big Macintosh and Applebloom, she finally understood that Obsidian was, and always had been, merely a messenger of death. Granny Smith would have died anyway. Obsidian only spared her of the cruel fate to reawaken as an undead. Finally getting this knowledge in her mind, she even thanked Obsidian for his actions.

Although this gave him a little relief, it also only solved the smallest problem he had. The demons were still lurking about, preparing the things they had planned. Princess Celestia asked Obsidian to not tell the keepers of harmony about the demon onslaught on the changelings. She didn’t want Twilight and her friends to be forced to witness any more of the horrors going on in the background than it was absolutely necessary. Although they were special due to the fact that they control the elements of harmony, they still were just normal ponies, living their daily lives. This knowledge in particular would have only caused them to feel threatened.

The demons started acting with a lot more caution than usual, avoiding any unneeded actions. It seemed like they wanted to avoid any wastages, making it a lot more difficult for the reapers to lure them out and consume them.

Obsidian concluded that he had to double his efforts, even when it meant to use more of his resources than usual. Besides his loyalty to his mistress, Obsidian now had another motivation to guard Ponyville to his best abilities. He wanted to protect Fluttershy, no matter what. No demon should even get close to her line of sight. Although she now reached a point in her training where she could defend herself against demons, he still wanted to avoid putting her into any unnecessary dangers. This, though, proved to become quite a draining effort. The few demons that were still around were a lot stronger than before.

These aspects put together forced Obsidian to feed on more of his secret food stocks to maintain his strength. To his great fortune, Fluttershy still avoided entering his basement room, since she promised to only go in there if it was unavoidable. In fact, the night she discovered he was immortal was the first and only time she went downstairs. So, Obsidian could eat undisturbed and over time even slowly lowered his guards when it came to this. He became sure that the moment he went in there, he would stay uninterrupted for as long as he wished to be.

---

By now, it was near the end of spring. Obsidian ran low on supplies, yet he didn’t have the time to restock. It was still completely unclear what the demons were planning and all the reapers tried hard to find out more. Although Obsidian didn’t even tell Fluttershy what happened, she still sensed something was wrong. Sometimes, Obsidian was gone for almost 24 hours. He appeared restless and overly motivated to guard the village. She could hardly even get him to sleep. For a while, Obsidian could keep this up, but now he began to grow weaker. He had no choice anymore. After completing today’s routine, the reaper would have to go out to gather food again.

---

“Have to keep studying. Have to keep studying. No one must find out. Must keep studying. No one will find out.”

“Spike is gone. What did you do? Why did you do this to him?”

“NO! NO! Shut up! Must keep studying. Can’t be distracted. Must keep studying. Can’t be distracted. No one will find out.”

Since Spike was gone, Twilight acted as if she had no idea what had happened. She claimed that the baby dragon just disappeared overnight and asked Obsidian to search for him. Although months passed, she still hoped he was still around somewhere. The idea that he may have set up a camp somewhere well hidden nearby calmed her down a bit. She overall became very nervous and kept on talking to herself secretly.

“At 7:00 pm, I will prepare dinner. Will be done about 7:10 pm. Then I will eat. Will be done about 7:15 pm. After that, I will do research on advanced enchanting. Will be done about 7:50 pm. Then...”

“Spike. Spike is gone.”

“NO! Shut up! No distractions! No distractions! When I’m done studying, I will wake up Owloysius, have a talk with him and get him some food. Will be done about...”

Having lost Spike, Twilight pegged to her calendars, books, scrolls and to-do-lists. She tried everything to fill up her days to the last second, desperately trying to avoid giving herself the time to think over what she had done to Spike and that she may never see him again. Still, a part of her thought about him non-stop and kept on blaming her for her actions.

“This book goes here. This book goes there. I need to reread this one...”

“Salvē, Twilight,” a deep male voice spoke.

“Oh, this one is completely wrong here. But I can’t put it there either...”

“Forgive me if I am interrupting, but I am here to present the latest search report to you,” the voice continued.

“Maybe I’ll just have to rearrange this entire shelf. Yes, that’s a good idea. Rearrange the entire-”

“Miss Sparkle?” the voice spoke.

Now, finally, Twilight snapped out of her thoughts and turned around.

“Oh. Hi, Obsidian. I’m sorry. I was just so lost in my thoughts...” she responded.

The mental condition of the purple mare became worse and worse. Sometimes, she even completely forgot everything around her. The stress could be clearly seen in her face. It worried all her friends, but Obsidian the most of all. He knew those were first signs of insanity. Though nothing was decided, yet. As long as the black stallion was around, the chances for her to fall under Maledictum Insania were low.

“Did you find him? Or do you have any clues where he might be?” Twilight wondered.

“Apologies, but no,” Obsidian responded, slowly shaking his head. “I have inspected every possible hideout around Ponyville and trawled through the biggest part of Everfree Forest. If he was still around, I would have found him by now.”

“Ugh! Then expand the search! Look further away!” the purple mare spoke in frustration.

“I can not do that, Twilight. I must stay within the Ponyville and Everfree Forest zones. In all honesty, your condition worries me more than his,” the black stallion replied.

“I’m fine! Don’t worry about me! I just need to know where he went. I must find a way to undo this,” Twilight stated, catching the reapers curiosity.

“Undo what, if I may ask?” he questioned.

“No one must find out! No one must find out! No one must find out!”

“H-him running away of course!” the purple mare replied hastily.

Obsidian became suspicious. He couldn’t tell for sure if this was just the stress speaking out of her or if there was something going on she wanted to hide.

“Is there anything else, Obsidian?” she asked in an annoyed tone as she realized the reaper was still there, mustering her.

“No. This is all I can report at the moment. I shall contact the other reapers and tell them to look for Spike,” he offered.

“Good. You do that. Now excuse me, but I have a lot of studying to catch up on,” the purple mare stated.

Obsidian bowed down before her and started walking back to the front door. She had definitely changed in the past few months. Twilight became impatient and short-tempered, sometimes even resulting in her acting rude towards him. He allowed this to happen, though. If he wanted to help her gather her mental strength again, he had to serve her and try his best to take this burden from her shoulders, giving her only little advices every now and then.

“Give yourself some rest, Twilight. I will do whatever I can to help,” he stated before leaving, causing Twilight to throw an angered glance at him from the side.

“They all just need to learn to shut up and leave me alone! I got everything under control! I have no problems! What the heck is he implying? He better focus on...”

“Spike.”

“NO! Gotta keep on studying! Gotta keep on studying! Gotta-”

“Hi, Twilight! Oooh, is it reshelving day again? Can I help?” another voice spoke behind the purple mare. Pinkie Pie and Rarity had entered the library.

“More distractions...”

“Good heavens, darling. You really don’t do things by halves when it comes to your books, don’t you?” Rarity stated.

“Hi, girls. How can I help you?” Twilight wondered.

“We just popped in to say hi and talk! You know I love talking! And the weather today is super duper awesome! You should come out and play with us! Or maybe we could have a party! Oh, that reminds me of my last party where Rainbow Dash-” Pinkie Pie started, but found herself interrupted after a while.

“Look, girls. I don’t have time to go out. My schedule is full and I have a lot of studying ahead of me,” Twilight commented.

“Oh come on, Twilight. It doesn’t need a reaper to know what’s going on here. Ever since Spike disappeared, you have been studying like a machine!” the fashion diva analyzed.

“Just a coincidence. I’m fine. I just have a lot to do,” the purple mare explained.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about little Spikey. He always comes around! I’m sure he is fine and will get home soon!” Pinkie Pie spoke to cheer her up.

“Yeah... I sure hope he is alright...” Twilight commented.

“What are they implying? Gotta keep studying! Gotta keep studying! Get them out!”

“I... I mean... I’m not worried! I’m fine! Why does everypony think I have a problem? Just leave me be, okay?” she suddenly stated, getting angry.

“Twilight! We didn’t-” Rarity started, but got interrupted.

“Well it was very nice of you two to stop by and say hello, but I really need to get back to my studies! See you tomorrow!” the purple mare threw in hastily and focused her books again.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity looked at each other in confusion and disappointment, then turned around to leave.

“Gosh, she’s taking this pretty hard. You think she’ll be alright?” Pinkie whispered on the way out.

“I really hope so, Pinkie. We all can only try our best in being there for her. But right now, it seems she prefers to be alone,” Rarity replied.

The door closed again and Twilight sighed.

“Well, back to my books,” she stated and started sorting her lexica in alphabetic order.

“How could you treat Spike like that? What has that poor baby dragon ever done to you?”

“Shut up! No more! Please, I can’t take this!”

“You always only revered to your pony-friends as friends, but never saw him as a friend.”

“Please! Stop! This is too much!”

“You never showed him any appreciation. He was always just your personal servant.”

“Please, please stop it! I can’t take it anymore! I feel so horrible!”

“You should, Twilight. You really should feel horrible. He has been there for you, no matter what. And how did you repay him? By beating the snot out of him!”

“Please... make it stop... just make it stop, please!”

Twilight suddenly stopped sorting her books. She just sat down staring at the floor, while silent tears rolled down her face.

“Hello, Twilight” yet another voice spoke.

“Oh in the name of Celestia! What does a mare have to... do... to...” the purple mare started, but then became overwhelmed in fear as she realized this voice sounded exactly like hers.

“Don’t turn around! Don’t turn around! Don’t turn around!”

“Turn around.”

“No! Don’t! No matter what, don’t turn around!”

“Yes, look at her. Look her in the eyes.”

Twilight slowly started turning sideways.

“No! Stop! Stop it!”

“Keep going. Look her in the eyes. Do it.”

“Yes, Twilight. Do as the voice in your head tells you. Turn around to me,” the other mare spoke calmly.

“No! No!”

“Do it.”

“No! Please no!”

“Do it!”

Twilight was now halfway turned, but kept her eyes shut.

“Stop it! I beg you! Stop it!”

“DO IT!”

Twilight and the visitor were now facing each other, but the purple mare still kept fighting the irresistible urge to open her eyes.

“Look at her!”

“I... mustn’t...”

“Look at her!”

“Can’t... fight it...”

“LOOK AT HER!”

Twilight finally gave in. As she opened her eyes, she stared right into the glowing red eyes of Despair. Once more the memories rushed by, faster than ever before. Within moments, years were passing by in backwards order.

“Good girl,” Despair stated mockingly.

The purple mare’s mind completely shut down during the progress this time. In contrast to before, she couldn’t even try to fight back anymore. Twilight was completely helpless and to the demoness’ mercy.

Minutes passed by. This was the longest time they ever had direct eye contact. Despair was now down to Twilight’s childhood. She saw it all. How Twilight spent a lot of time with her big brother. How she spent her time studying in the school library. How she met Princess Cadence.

Only the earliest years of her life were missing when the door opened again.

“Hey Twilight. What’s... WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash shouted at the sight presented to her.

While still staring into Twilight’s eyes, Despair’s expression changed to a troubled one. She couldn’t stop now. She only needed a few more memories.

Rainbow charged towards the demoness, but she just kept standing in place, her eyes not moving from Twilight’s. She waited for the athletic mare to come close, then simply summoned a magic barrier in front of her face. Not being able to react fast enough, Rainbow Dash crushed into it, head first. The hit was hard enough to knock her unconscious for a few moments. Enough time for Despair to finish gathering all of Twilights memories.

Then came the moment the demoness had been waiting for. She reached Twilight’s earliest memories and discovered her childhood trauma. As she saw how the very young Twilight was laughed at in magic kindergarten, and how this memory made her still tremble in adult state, Despair knew she finally found the last piece in her puzzle.

The demoness grinned in victory once more. She finally had everything she needed to execute her plan. Despair broke the eye contact, allowing Twilight to collapse in fear and exhaustion. She didn’t even bother to put a memory eraser spell on both of them anymore. Despair just teleported away, leaving them both behind with spinning heads.

As they came back to their senses and realized what just happened, Twilight started to panic. Rainbow Dash, though, calmed her down as far as she could and they both ran out of the library, searching for the others. They had to inform Obsidian as fast as possible.

---

Not even ten minutes later, the keepers of harmony united at Fluttershy’s cottage. The yellow mare was in the middle of her training routine when they all suddenly showed up.

“Oh! Hi, girls! What’s the rush?” Fluttershy wondered.

“Fluttershy! Is Obsidian home? We need to talk to him right now!” Rainbow Dash stated.

“Yes, he’s downstairs in his room. But... he doesn’t want anypony to go down there,” the yellow mare stated.

“I’m sure he’ll make an exception when he hears Despair has been at Twilight’s!” Applejack spoke.

“D-d-despair?! Here in Ponyville? Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Fluttershy exclaimed in light panic and started running inside, followed by the others.

Rainbow Dash speeded ahead, flying past the yellow mare and aiming straight for the basement door.

“Rainbow! Wait! Don’t touch it!” she shouted.

“Wha- WOW!” Rainbow commented as she narrowly managed to stop in front of the door and could closely avoid getting a leg bitten off by it.

“What in the name of Celestia is that?!” Rarity commented at the sight of the growling door, snatching around.

“That’s why I wanted you to stop. Obsidian cursed the door. Only he and myself can open it,” Fluttershy explained.

“Well what are we waiting for? Open it up, Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie insisted.

“Um... okay... I’ve never done this before, but I think I can do this,” the yellow mare replied.

The last time, she didn’t even want to get close to that door. But so much had changed since then. Now, her friends depended on her, so she couldn’t disappoint them. This was urgent.

Fluttershy slowly approached the furious cursed door. It still snatched around wildly, but the yellow mare saw it wasn’t aiming for her, but for her friends. The door still accepted her.

She carefully placed her right front hoof on it. Instantly, the door turned back to normal, allowing her to open it. A weird moist noise was coming from downstairs, combined with occasional dripping sounds. Still, they all rushed inside.

---

The basement room was very dark, as always. The mares could hardly even see where they were going. In combination with their rushing, they almost fell downstairs. But before they even got to the bottom, they all suddenly halted, utter shock written in their faces.

In front of them was Obsidian Shards, sitting on the floor. His mouth and front hooves were covered in blood, as well as his fangs. But it wasn’t his own blood. They caught him off guard, feasting on the corpse of a pony laying in front of him. He, as well, was paralyzed in shock to see them all here.

The next thing that could be heard were the terror and panic filled screams of all the keepers of harmony, followed by them fleeing back upstairs and smashing the door shut behind them.

Obsidian remained motionless and shocked for a moment more. He had become careless. Now, the worst possible thing that could happen occured.

The reaper slowly lowered his glance to his meal again. This event really took him any appetite, but he forced himself to continue eating. It was over now. They saw him cannibalizing on a pony. This was the end of their friendship. They wouldn’t be able to trust him anymore.

“My mistress... I failed you... Please forgive me, Fluttershy...” Obsidian spoke to himself after he was done eating.

Using his reaper cloak, he wiped the blood off his mouth and front hooves. Then he used a fire spell to incinerate the remaining parts of the body, followed by him starting to pack his things. He still could hardly believe what just happened. From one moment to the next, everything shattered. He must have been a terrifying sight to look at. They had such horrified expressions. And their screams... He heard many screams in his life already, but never before did he hear such terror filled ones. They didn’t expect this... to see a close friend eating the forbidden food.

While putting his documents together, Obsidian wondered how things were supposed to go on now. Not only would this encounter have shattered their trust in him, but in all reapers, and it was his fault. The mission failed because he grew careless. How was he supposed to explain this to his mistress?

To Obsidian’s great surprise, another very unexpected event occurred. Somepony knocked at the basement door while he was just half done packing. At first, the black stallion was unsure what to do. Should he really go upstairs? What were they going to do?

Obsidian figured it couldn’t get any worse. Who knows. It could already be his mistress on the other side, waiting for him to come out and receive his well deserved punishment. He was ready to face the consequences.

---

“A-a-are you sure this is such a good idea, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

“I know Obsidian like no other pony. He has been so good to me... and now this? This doesn’t make any sense. There is more behind this. I am absolutely sure of it,” the yellow mare responded.

“I can’t believe how much you changed, Fluttershy. A year ago, this would have traumatized you,” Twilight commented.

“I love him, Twilight. I won’t give him up that easily and besides... A year ago, this would have traumatized you as well,” Fluttershy responded.

“You have a point there... we all have seen and learned so much by now...” the purple mare stated.

“Oh, heavens! He’s going upstairs!” Rarity announced as she heard hoof steps coming from behind the door.

The door handle lowered slowly and the basement door opened by only a narrow gap. They could see Obsidian, carefully glancing outside with his good eye. All the mares were very nervous. They had no idea what to expect of him now.

“Why are you still here?” the black stallion wondered.

“Obsidian... why?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because I must... I have no choice...” he replied.

“No choice? What you mean by that, O? This is sick!” Rainbow Dash commented.

“Not to mention it is highly illegal,” Twilight added.

“Not for reapers... we have a special allowance for this. Do not believe I enjoy this. It was very difficult for me to get used to the consistency and flavor of meat,” Obsidian stated.

“My love...please come out. We want to understand,” Fluttershy requested, but the black stallion hesitated.

“Are you not afraid of me now? Does my mere presence not fill you with dread?” he wondered. Fluttershy shook her head.

Obsidian could hardly believe this really happened right now. Everypony else would have ran away and never have spoken another word with him. Why didn’t they? Could it really be that they granted him a honest chance to explain this? Could he really have a chance to save the mission?

The basement door opened completely now and the reaper slowly stepped in front of them. Although the others were scared of him now, they saw his insecurity and how sorry he was that they saw this. No, that wasn’t the behaviour of a monster. A monster would have attacked them by now. A monster would have attacked them long ago already. Obsidian took a deep breath in.

“Reapers consume demons. And reapers adapt the strength of the demons consumed. That even causes their bodies to corrupt, as you know. The more demons we consume, the more demonic we become ourselves. After just a few consumptions, our bodies no longer are satisfied with the vegetarian lifestyle of a pony. We are forced to feed like demons do... on flesh and blood. It does not necessarily need to be pony flesh. Any kind of meat helps us maintain our strength and silence the demons inside us. But pony flesh is the most effective at this, since demons are specialized on ponies,” he explained.

“What happens if you don’t eat flesh?” Twilight wondered.

“The older a reaper and the more demons he had consumed, the more flesh is required to maintain his strength. Should I, as an elder reaper, avoid feasting on another creature for just a week or two, I would become too weak to fight anymore,” the black stallion explained.

“So... all the time... you were doing this secretly?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes... I used every opportunity given to me to secretly feed myself. I transported several bodies down there when you were busy or asleep. Most of the time, it were ponies who found themselves lost in Everfree Forest and then killed by a monster living there,” Obsidian replied.

He turned his head away from them and looked down to the ground.

“I... am sorry. I understand that you are no longer able to trust me now... Which is why I have to go,” he continued.

The reaper got a little startled as he was suddenly embraced by Fluttershy.

“No, Obsidian. You don’t have to go. I trust you, no matter what. I already told you I knew what I was getting myself into by loving you. That didn’t change,” she explained.

“Is that what you honestly think, mea amāta?” Obsidian wondered with big eyes. She nodded in response.

“You just said you need to do this, even if you don’t enjoy it. So this is natural to you. You already know my opinion about that point, don’t you?” the yellow mare questioned back.

Obsidian was speechless. He could only slowly nod, causing Fluttershy to smile warmly at him.

“I love you,” she stated.

Now, Obsidian regained a smile on his face.

“I love you too,” he responded.

The black stallion wandered his eyes between the other keepers of harmony. They all as well seemed to understand and be willing to accept this new fact. Finally, Rainbow Dash spoke up in the name of all of them.

“Damnit, O. This is pretty hefty. But, you know. I think Fluttershy is right. You’re like our loyal, dark guardian. This just adds another aspect to you. Heck, Celestia herself wanted you to protect us! And if we can’t trust her, who can we? I guess there’s still a lot to learn about reapers. Just don’t start eating that kind of stuff when we’re around now, you hear me?” she spoke, her tone a bit humorous near the end. The other keepers of harmony nodded in agreement.

“As long as you keep this secret, I shall do so,” Obsidian requested.

“Of course, silly! We wouldn’t just run around and tell everypony the most personal secrets of our best friends! I Pinkie Promise you! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie Pie stated.

The reaper felt a huge relief from the fact that they would still be willing to accept him as a friend. But something occurred to him suddenly.

“Now that we have this settled, what was the reason you rushed into my room?” he wondered.

The cheered up atmosphere of the scene turned to ice again all at once. Over this very heavy discovery, they had completely forgotten why they originally came here.

“Obsidian! Despair was at my library!” Twilight announced.

The reaper suddenly gained a very serious expression and jumped up.

“What did she do to you?” he asked.

“The same as last time. She tricked me into looking in her eyes and let me see flashbacks of my life again. Then she just disappeared,” the purple mare replied.

“I busted in when she was still there. I tried to tackle her, but she just made a magical wall appear and let me crush right into it,” Rainbow Dash added.

“These are unsettling news. Please forgive me, but I need to contact Derpy. We must find out how she came here and if she is still around somewhere,” Obsidian explained.

After that, he lifted into the air and flew straight to Ponyville. Although Despair’s appearance in Ponyville could only mean big trouble, the black stallion still felt relieved. The mission was safe.