Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qOYaOdQbzp8yVW5b5BWWPBYHmdvqAfZMnwj7K4JYw04/edit

After the black stallion collapsed, he was brought to the Ponyville hospital. Fluttershy spent the rest of the night on a chair, waiting for a diagnosis. Obsidian had been through a lot. She knew this better than anypony else. But such a thing never happened before. She couldn’t help him. All she was capable of doing now was bringing him to the hospital and asking one of the visitors to inform Twilight Sparkle about what happened.

The other keepers of harmony and Derpy Hooves arrived at the hospital early in the morning. Still, the doctors couldn’t give any details on his status. It took another two hours of nonstop worrying about Obsidian’s well being before nurse Redheart finally came up to the group with very disappointing news.

“I’m sorry to say, but we have no idea what’s wrong with him,” she stated.

“That’s all you got to say? You have been treating him all night long and this is all you can say?” Fluttershy questioned, displeased and deeply worried.

“I’m sorry, but this is the first time ever we have a reaper as patient. He may look like a pony, but while we tried to find out how we could help him, it became clear his body works entirely differently to that of a pony. We tried every kind of medication we could think off. Nothing works on him. All we can say now is that he has extremely high fever, seem to be in a lot of pain and keeps throwing up blood,” Redheart explained.

“Blood? Where’s the blood coming from?” Derpy wondered.

“We tried to locate the defect that causes him to keep coughing up, but we just can’t find it. We would give him blood packs, but his blood type as well is something new to us. His entire body is a huge medical mystery. The mere fact that he is still alive and even awake is a miracle,” the nurse said.

“He’s awake?” Applejack asked back.

“Yes, but I really don’t recommend visiting him right now. He is very unstable and we are still doing research on him to provide better help. I wished we could at least give him painkillers, but not even that works,” Redheart continued.

“I guess that’s why he uses dark magic so much, even though he doesn’t like it...” Fluttershy commented.

“If that’s the only thing that works on him, then there is nothing we can do. This institution is specialized in treating non-magical injuries and diseases. If it’s something else, we don’t know how to deal with it,” Redheart concluded.

“Nurse... did he say anything since he came here? Does he have any idea what’s going on with him?” Twilight questioned.

“He said he didn’t want this help. That it would be a waste of medical resources. But he wasn’t too sure what was happening to him,” Redheart responded.

“Well, despite your suggestion, I think it truly would be best if we could have a talk to him. We got a bit of experience with reapers by now,” Twilight explained.

“And we have another reaper over here, too!” Derpy stated, raising her left front hoof.

“Yes. I think together, we might be able to find out more,” Twilight finished.

“Okay then. He is in room 23,” the nurse agreed and showed them the way.

---

“Yes, that would make sense,” Obsidian agreed.

“Your last battle was just too much, Obsidian. You are too weak to deal with this. You will need to ask the ladies for help,” Odd Cirs suggested.

“I can not do that. I can not put them in such a risk,” the black stallion disagreed.

“Come now, Obsidian. You dragged them through Tartarus and out again! Compared to that, this is just a tiny thing,” the voice continued.

“If your suspicion is accurate, you seem to underestimate the situation. In Tartarus, we just pushed forth and avoided fighting against stronger demons as much as possible. Even though this is just a single one, it is so strong that even I, as an elder, failed to defeat it,” Obsidian explained.

“Then what do you plan to do? Run somewhere far away, then wait for it to break out and kill you?” Odd Cirs wondered.

“If that is the only option left, then I have no choice. You should know by now that it is a reaper’s destiny to fight until he dies,” Obsidian responded.

“You are talking nonsense! Think about your mission! You are so close to complete it! You don’t want to disobey your mistress, just because you have personal feelings for at least one of the keepers, do you?” Odd Cirs reasoned.

“No. You are right. I must not endanger the mission’s success... You actually care for me, do you not, Odd Cirs?” the black stallion wondered.

“Well, I do care for you so much that I’m still waiting for you to figure out who I am. I tell you, Obsidian, I’m starting to get impatient. I’ll give you some more time to get your mission done, but not much longer... Oh, quiet now! The ladies are coming!” the voice replied.

A couple of moments later, the door opened and all of the six keepers of harmony entered. Their greetings were short and interrupted because they were shocked to see how bad the reapers condition truly was. His face was covered in blood from constantly throwing up and the bucket next to him was more than halfway filled with his own life juice. He also had another fresh bandage around his broken eye, which seemed to have started bleeding now as well, since the red liquid already started soaking through the white cloth. Countless machines were placed around the stallion, but most weren’t attached to him anymore, since the doctors had already given up trying them on him. Apparently, they even decided to do a surgery on him, since he had a freshly stitched wound on the lower half of his chest. Obsidian overall made a very weak impression to his friends. He trembled in pain and could hardly hold himself together.

“Salvē,” he greeted them back weakly.

“Oh, my poor darling...” Fluttershy stated in condolence while flying over to his right side, holding the right front hoof as soon as she landed.

“Good gosh. Are you okay, Elder Obsidian? I’ve never seen you that weak before,” Derpy commented.

“No... I am not okay... I need to get out of this hospital as fast as possible,” the black stallion replied.

“Ah don’t think that’s a good idea, sugarcube,” Applejack started. “Ah know yer a strong and proud warrior, but ya have to admit that you’re in too bad condition to leave now.”

“You do not understand... I must leave in an instant. I am a ticking time bomb,” Obsidian explained.

Instantly, the eyes of everypony went wide open and all except Fluttershy went a few steps back.

“W-what do you mean you are a ticking time bomb?” Twilight wondered.

“It is... this...” he answered, slowly lifting his left front leg and pointing at his bandaged, dead eye.

“Your ey- … The Salamander!” Derpy shouted. ”Okay I’ll check you out as fast as I can!”

The gray mare then turned around and ran back outside. The fact that even she panicked over Obsidian’s suspicion made the mares even more insecure.

“The... What?! How? You... you said it won’t be able to break out again as long as you live!” Rarity panicked.

“It appears as if I was mistaken... this Salamander is stronger than I expected... I can not keep it sealed anymore... It is... struggling to... break... free...” Obsidian replied, getting weaker and slower with each word.

Fluttershy saw the signs and quickly lifted up the bucket, just in time before the black stallion started throwing up another wave of blood.

“Grātiās...” he thanked afterwards.

“My love... what should we do?” the yellow mare wondered, deep worry written on her face.

“I regret to ask such a thing of all of you again, but I need your help... I can unseal it under controlled circumstances, but then I require you to fight it,” Obsidian replied.

“You want us to fight that thing?! After we’ve seen what a big, strong meanie it is?” Pinkie questioned.

“Yes... I can not fight it myself in my current state and even if I could, I would not be able to defeat it all alone,” the black stallion responded.

“But why us? Why can’t you ask other reapers? It’s not like we wouldn’t want to help you, but we are not that battle experienced!” Rarity wondered.

“Equestria is in crisis state... every last one of us is in a tactically important position right now. None can leave their location, or the defences of this land may break in. That is also why we did not receive more assistance while we were trying to rescue you, Twilight,” Obsidian answered, focusing the purple mare with his last statement.

“I see,” Twilight responded. “And there is no other way?”

“The only alternative would be that I move as far away from any civilisation as possible, then let it break out and kill me. The sacrifice of a single elder weights less than the security of the entire land,” Obsidian explained.

“NO!” Fluttershy shouted out. “No! I won’t let you die like that! I will do whatever it takes!”

“That’s right! C’mon girls! He saved all of us so many times. Now it’s our chance to save him for once!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

With that short speech, Rainbow put it in a nutshell. The others could now only agree to the idea to rescue their guard.

10 minutes later, Obsidian was out of the hospital. Of course, Derpy couldn’t tell the doctors and nurses why he needed to be moved out at once, so she had put quite a lot of force into her order and even had to use her reaper authority granted by Princess Celestia. Now, all his friends helped Obsidian walk, since he could barely move anymore. It wasn’t clear where they could go for this huge battle, but they needed a very secluded place where they wouldn’t risk the life of any other creature. Derpy couldn’t join them, though. At least one reaper had to stay in Ponyville and ensure the small village remained save. Though she suggested to use the eastern outskirts of Equestria. They were barely populated and next to no creatures lived there. This seemed to be the best bet available, so they agreed, asking the gray mare to set up a teleportation rune for them.

---

Upon arrival, the ponies found themselves in a gloomy, deserted plane. A storm was coming up and the air was quite chilly. Both would support them in their battle against the flaming reptile.

“Oh my gosh... this looks sooo much like the old rock farm of my family...” Pinkie Pie commented while scanning the landscape.

None of the ponies replied while they kept on moving for a mile more to make absolutely sure their teleport rune back would not get damaged during battle. Obsidian’s body was boiling with heat, but now they understood that this wasn’t caused by fever. The Salamander tried to cook the black stallion alive from the inside. They all could only imagine in how much pain he must be right now. Yet, he tried hard to not show any of it.

“Obsidian. Can you tell us some details about Salamanders?” Twilight requested. The black stallion nodded in consent.

“As you know, Salamanders are amongst the highest ranked of demons. They mostly consist of rage and hatred. Thus, they may not be the most intelligent demons, but make this more than up with immense strength, which even keeps increasing the more the Salamander is provoked,” he explained.

“So, the longer we take for fightin’ that thing, the stronger it gets,” Applejack analyzed.

“Rectē. This is why I failed to defeat it last time... I took too... long and provoked it... too much before... I... could...” he started, but had to interrupt because another wave of blood filled his lungs and stomach, which he needed to release. “... excūsāte mē... before I could start an attempt to consume it.”

“What do you suggest we should do?” Fluttershy wondered.

“You need to drain the demon of its strength as quickly as possible. If the battle goes on for more than just a few minutes, our chances to win reduce rapidly. Avoid provoking, irritating or frustrating it as much as possible. Salamanders are ferocious beasts. Due to that fact, they enjoy chasing their prey. It may sound strange, but if you need a moment to recover or plan, let the demon hunt you. Since its entire magic is based on fire, ice and water spells are the most effective against it. Yet, I do believe Twilight’s arcane magic will drain it the most,” Obsidian continued.

“I’ll do my best. Rarity, do you sense any gemstones nearby?” Twilight wondered.

“Hmm... Yes! Perfect! There are emeralds, rubies, sapphires and aquamarines! I guess the last two will especially come in handy!” she responded.

“Alright. Applejack and Pinkie Pie. You two provide distraction from the ground. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. You take care of it from the sky. Rarity and I will do the actual fighting,” Twilight plotted. The others nodded in agreement.

Finally, the group stopped walking. It would start to rain soon, so the conditions couldn’t be any better. The keepers of harmony placed Obsidian down to the ground and started walking to distance. Only Fluttershy hesitated.

“My love... please stay strong,” she begged.

“I should be the one saying this to you, mea amāta... Anyway, I do believe right now I am not able to use this anyway...” Obsidian responded and summoned his scythe. “So you shall wield it for this battle.”

“Your scythe! Oh no, no, no. I can’t do that!” Fluttershy stated.

“Yes, you can. I trained you in its use, as you remember. Merely wielding it will not make you a reaper. But this way, a part of me will join you in battle and give you strength,” the reaper insisted.

“B-but...” the yellow mare hesitated.

“Remember what I... told you about becoming able to protect your friends? You reached this... point now. Use your strength and darkness... and my scythe to... guard those... dear to... you,” Obsidian spoke before throwing up more blood, nearly causing him to collapse.

“Obsidian...” Fluttershy spoke in worry.

“We must begin...” he replied weakly.

Fluttershy embraced her partner and kissed him on the cheek. Then she accepted his scythe and practised with it shortly. She could swing it nearly as fast and with almost as much skill as the reaper.

“Gee, Fluttershy! You look terrifying with that thing!” Pinkie Pie commented.

The yellow mare didn’t respond, but instead stopped practising and blushed bashfully. She then went to distance as well.

“Should you risk to fail the battle, I will use myself as a sacrifice for the demon to give you time to flee. This is not arguable. The moment you realize the demon has grown too strong for you, or the moment I order you to run away, you will return to the teleport rune. Intellegitisne?” Obsidian ordered.

Unwillingly, the others agreed. This now, though, only sealed it for them that there was no way they could allow themselves to lose this battle. The ponies all went in position and Rarity used an advanced levitation spell to pull gemstones out of the ground and gather them. They all were ready to begin now. All they were waiting for was for the storm to begin.

---

Minutes passed until the first rain drops started falling from the dark gray sky. Obsidian waited a moment longer until it started pouring down.

“Are you ready, keepers?” he questioned.

The mares responded with confirmation. He then cast a spell very similar to the one Trixie used to unleash the Salamander from the crystal, but on himself instead. The flames began to rise from his red eye and suddenly, the seal broke. The same huge tower of flames they saw the last time reappeared and while the Salamander was taking shape again, Rainbow Dash quickly picked up the unconscious black stallion and carried him to safety behind a large rock.

The Salamander gave off his ground shaking roar, displeased about the weather. It then fully returned into its reptile-like appearance and instantly spotted Pinkie Pie. Out of reflex, she turned around and began to run away. That, though, only made her an even more appealing target to the Salamander.

After just a few seconds, the demon was already riskily close to the pink mare. Fluttershy was forced to take action and swung the scythe through the left hind leg of the beast. Immediately, the Salamander stopped and screamed.

With the beast standing still for a moment, Rarity used her first sapphire, turning it into a large ball of water that launched at the flaming demon and washed over it. The beast screamed again as steam filled the air.

The Salamander now understood it was being ambushed, increasing its fury. The beast summoned several fireballs and threw them at all the ponies he was aware of so far. Only for Rarity, it went through the extra effort to exhale a huge flame in her direction.

Twilight instantly teleported her over and tried to control the fireballs chasing after her friends. As the Salamander spotted her, he immediately recognized her. The beast could feel that she gained a lot in power, so it decided to focus on attacking her and taking her out first.

The Salamander started running towards Twilight. Now Rainbow Dash speeded past the beasts vision, distracting it. She kept on flying around the burning reptile with high speed, creating a small tornado that sucked in the rain and pour down straight on the demon. The Salamander roared, its rage starting to increase. The beast intensified the heat of its surface, causing the bundled rain pouring down on it to instantly turn into steam before even touching it. The heat was too much for Rainbow Dash as well. She had to retreat.

“Darnit! Twilight! What’s taking you so long?” she shouted as she saw the purple mare still sitting in place, trying to concentrate.

“Wait... wait... I... I got problems here! Get me time!” she shouted out.

“Time’s the one thing we don’t have, sugarcube!” Applejack replied and started kicking stones at the demon.

It turned around to her, growling loudly and summoning flame walls around the orange mare. The Salamander tried to corner her, then started running in her direction. Fluttershy flew over to Applejack, throwing herself in between her and the demon. She narrowly rescued her by sticking the scythe in the demon’s mouth.

The scythe of a reaper is indestructible. Despite the Salamander’s best efforts, it couldn’t break it. As it realized this, the demon instead started shaking its head wildly, trying to tear the scythe out of Fluttershy’s grip.

Pinkie Pie realized a distraction was needed. Using a large branch and a few rocks, she quickly put together a makeshift catapult and launched several rocks at the demon. One of them managed to land straight in the beasts left eye, causing it to let go of the scythe and Fluttershy and instead cover the eye for a moment.

Although it put Fluttershy out of her trouble, the demon’s rage increased a lot. It roared loudly at Pinkie Pie and summoned a dozen of different fire spells at her at once. Rarity used multiple sapphires and turned them into large water bubbles to absorb the magic attacks.

The situation started to get difficult. If they wouldn’t find a way to effectively fight back the demon soon, the Salamander would become too strong.

As the demon realized its attack was stopped, its eyes jumped over to Rarity again. The beast was about to start another attack on her when it realized the flow of magic in the air started to change. It instantly turned over to Twilight and exhaled another massive flame at the purple mare. Rarity could stop the flame by throwing an aquamarine in the way and turning it into a wall of ice, but the demon remained focused.

The other keepers of harmony now tried everything they could to buy some more time. They threw rocks at the demon and tried to distract it. Still, the demon continued to only attack Twilight and came closer and closer. Rarity was able to block off all the attack aimed at her friend, but that didn’t help preventing the demon from approaching her.

The Salamander was now just in front of Twilight. It opened its massive mouth again and was about to swallow her when Twilight suddenly opened her eyes and sent a powerful wave of purple magic at the demon, pushing it far back.

Now that Twilight had her arcane magic under control again, all of her friends united behind her. The demon stood motionlessly and stared at the group, growling with a similar kind of respect for them like it had while fighting against Obsidian.

The beast tried a new trick, smashing a hole in the ground and breathing a huge amount of fire underground. The rock and dirt floor below them quickly heated up and in combination with the Salamander launching countless fireballs all around, multiple spots began to smoulder in heat.

Twilight used her arcane magic to stabilize the ground below them and Rarity supported her, turning multiple sapphires, aquamarines and emeralds into spells to cool down the ground and cover it with plants.

The demon, though, continued sending one large breath of fire underground after another. Not even the heavy rain could fight back the heat this beast caused and slowly the ground turned into lava. As soon as the first larger rocks started to sink into the boiling ground, Fluttershy turned around with a very worried expression to look for Obsidian. Luckily, he was awake by now and strong enough to stand on his own, so he could climb up on a slowly sinking rock to save himself for the moment. But he still couldn’t fly yet.

Rainbow Dash realized the reaper was in trouble and flew over to him as fast as she could. Then, she picked him up and brought her over to the rest of the group.

Obsidian was now in the demon’s line of sight. As it realized he was present, its anger intensified. The beast sent a strong breath of fire narrowly underground, causing the glowing and steaming ground to tear open, creating a large wave of lava that rapidly flew over to the group.

While Rarity continued trying to cool down the raft of stone below them, Twilight now focused on stopping the lava wave. With her special magic and the tricks Obsidian taught her, she was able to stop the wave, lift it into the air and reverse it in temperature. Then she sent the now extremely cold, light blue glowing matter back to the Salamander. It tried to block the attack with countless fire spells, but still couldn’t stop the freezing mass to wash over it.

The demon screamed loudly, suffering from being unable to handle the strangely enchanted, supercooled ground. It seemed to be so distracted that it couldn’t continue heating up the floor and slowly the lava turned back into solid stone.

As Rainbow Dash saw how much the beast was struggling, she suddenly had an idea.

“Girls! Obsidian! Cast as many ice spells on me as possible! I’ll show that thing what a 20% cooler sonic rainboom is like!” she announced, then lifted high up in the sky above the Salamander.

The demon was still too distracted dealing with the inverted lava to notice that the athletic mare slowly began to accelerate from above. All the members of the group able to use magic now tried their best to cover Dash in ice while still trying to give her enough freedom to keep speeding up. Rarity turned all her sapphires into water and froze them over using the remaining aquamarines she had. Then she handed them over to Obsidian, who added a few more spells. Finally, Twilight used her own magic to send the bundled ice spell to Rainbow Dash. The magic reacted strangely with her body, turning her entirely into a living, moving and breathing piece of heavily enchanted ice.

As strange as this sensation may have been, Rainbow just continued speeding up, forming a mach cone in front of her. As the Salamander finally looked up, it was already too late.

“Valētō, you beast!” she shouted moments before breaking the sound barrier and crushing into the demon.

A massive explosion of ice filled the area, instantly sending a freezing shockwave through the landscape that was strong enough to turn the falling raindrops into hail midair. Despite of the enormous size of the Salamander, the thrust was so enormous it even crushed this immense demon flat to the ground. The ice quickly crawled all over the burning reptile, covering it in a thick, clear prison.

It seemed like even the flames of the demon had frozen, since nothing on it moved anymore. Still, the Salamander was not defeated. A very muffled growling was still to be heard coming from inside the ginormous ice sculpture.

“Break it down! Break the Salamander! Do not let it escape, or it will rampage!” Obsidian announced.

Instantly, the group started running and flying over to the demon. Fluttershy rammed the scythe through the ice into the demon’s forehead. Rarity lifted and launched everything she could find at the beast by magic. Applejack and Pinkie Pie continuously kicked the huge frozen legs. Rainbow Dash tackled the demon multiple times in the air. Twilight used her magic to help the ice grow deeper inside the Salamander.

Finally, cracks started wandering through the ice and even the demon. The beast struggled a while more, but finally ran out of energy. The flames suddenly vanished and the huge ice sculpture crumbled in itself.

The girls instantly started cheering and shouting, knowing they won the battle. The storm kept on going, helping the ice to melt down and reveal the tiny bit that was left of this mighty demon. A pony-sized, lightly smouldering reptile skull made of stone.

The demon was clearly defeated. But as it was known by now, killing a demon is impossible. It had to be consumed to be destroyed once and for all.

Obsidian limbed over to the skull. Two small red eyes were glowing out of the darkness inside, signalling that the demon was still there.

“Ssssssshhhhheeeee’lllll rrrreeeetttuuuuurrrnnnnn,” the Salmander spoke with a nearly ghostly voice.

“Not as long as I live,” Obsidian responded coldly.

Then he turned into a black cloud and surrounded the skull, consuming it. As he turned back to normal, the reaper had his eyes closed and seemed to be balanced again.

“Are you okay, my love?” Fluttershy wondered.

Obsidian opened his eyes again and smiled at her lightly.

“Very,” he simply replied.

The reaper then started lifting into the air lightly, a burning aura growing around him. He obtained the strength and abilities of the Salamander. After just a few seconds, he landed again and extinguished the flames.

“This may come in handy,” he commented. “Very good job, keepers. Grātiās vōs agō.”

“No problem, O! Sheesh, that was one heck of a battle! I bet I’ll have weird dreams of being ice cream the next few days,” Rainbow replied humorously.

The other keepers of harmony started laughing out loud from that comment and even Obsidian couldn’t hold back a light smile. Though the laughing quickly died off as the group realized his right eye was still red.

“Oh no... I thought if we defeated that Salamander, your eye would be okay again...” Fluttershy commented.

“That is not possible,” Obsidian responded, shaking his head lightly. “The banisher circle destroys both, the demon and the vessel to create something new. My eye was destroyed by this rune spell and even with the demon removed and defeated, it will not recover. I will remain half blinded for the rest of my life.”

“Maybe... maybe I can do something about that,” Twilight offered, trying to summon arcane magic again. But she had to realize she was too mentally drained from the battle to cast even one more powerful spell like that.

“Even the strongest kind of magic has its limits. This is something nopony can undo. It is alright, though. I learned to live with it by now. Let us return home now, keepers,” the black stallion suggested.

“Oh come on now, darling. After all these things we have been through together, you really can start calling us your friends,” Rarity insisted.

“Very well. Let us go home, friends,” Obsidian corrected.

The keepers of harmony then returned to the teleport rune, leaving behind a battle scene that hardly looked any worse than the landscape looked before.