Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OFN_yhQB63ztT4zoK4_c153zf5IyhwNGjHGDOks4XQg/edit

“A... spawn?” Fluttershy replied, still a bit sleepy from the restless night. Obsidian nodded.

“A dragon-like demon of medium rank. I have to defeat and consume it before it reaches Ponyville through the Everfree underground passage.”

Fluttershy became worried again. She still remembered the mayhem the Salamander caused, Trixie’s death and the damage to Obsidian’s right eye.

“W....when will you be back?” she asked.

“Do not expect to hear from me in the next couple of days, Miss Fluttershy,” he answered.

The yellow mare became silent and sunk her head. Obsidian walked over to the basement door and opened it.

“I will depart in an hour. Valē,” he spoke and went downstairs to prepare for his journey.

Fluttershy had mixed feelings about this situation. She knew Obsidian could not truly die. But fighting a demon all alone so far away from home? What if he got hurt again, like last night? He barely made it to her house alone. How would he be able to get out of that underground passage? Fluttershy started walking back and forth her living room. Angel sighed while slowly shaking his head. He greatly disliked how much Fluttershy worried about that evil, black creature she befriended. Usually, his owner cared a lot about what he thought. He always had her fully under control. But with Obsidian around, things were different. Angel looked forward to the time the reaper would be traveling. He hoped he could get Fluttershy back to normal in the meanwhile. But the yellow Pegasus had other plans.

“I will go out for a bit, Angel. Here is some lettuce if you get hungry. I will be back in an hour, I promise,” she spoke suddenly and placed a lettuce leaf in front of him.

Angel was caught so surprised, he could not act before Fluttershy ran out of the cottage. Just what was wrong with her lately? What is that black monster with the red eye doing with her?

---

“Ready to go, Obsidian?” Odd Cirs whispered as the reaper finished meditating in his room. He nodded. The black stallion walked over to his shrine and bowed down to the two skulls before he headed up the stairs.

“Aren’t you going to take anything with you?” the voice asked, surprised Obsidian did not pack a bag.

“Unnecessary weight would only slow me down. I am not traveling too far. I can gather what I need during the journey,” the stallion answered.

He opened the door. The first thing that came in his sight was the yellow Pegasus mare standing in front of the door. Obsidian expected she would try to talk to him some more before he left. But he did not expect to see all the other keepers of harmony standing around her, wearing rucksacks and wandering accessories. Obsidian was a bit surprised and eyed them suspiciously.

“What is this supposed to mean?” he asked them. The six friends smiled at him.

“Fluttershy told us you would be gone for a while. She said it might get dangerous for you. So we decided to join you!” Twilight Sparkle replied. Obsidian sighed and shook his head.

“That is not going to happen.”

“Well, we ain’t gonna let one of our friends go fight a demon alone,” Applejack stated.

“It is nothing I would be unable to handle. I had been on far more dangerous missions,” the black stallion responded. Then Rainbow Dash stepped forth.

“So what? That only means we can handle this as well! We won’t let you down!”

Apparently, the athletic Pegasus informed everypony about her change of opinion towards Obsidian after the intense race they had. The black stallion became serious.

“Listen, ponies. It is my duty to keep you safe. For that, I need you to stay here while Mistress Celestia needs me at a different location.”

“Hah! You obviously haven’t seen us in action yet! We can take care of ourselves!” Rainbow Dash commented again.

Obsidian started to think it may have not been such a good idea to befriend with her. She is very self-confident and has a strong personality. But he considered, if words alone would not make them stay in safety, maybe facts will.

“You may be the keepers of harmony. But we will need to pass through a yellow zone. Nopony is permitted to enter such a high danger zone.”

The group became confused. A yellow zone? They never heard of something like this before. Obsidian made it sound like they would break a law by following him. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie started to giggle.

“Don’t be silly, Obsidian! You are a reaper! You have the authority to get us through almost everything!”

These words were like a backstab for the black stallion. The pink earth pony knew a lot about the laws of Equestria and how the land is organized. Now, she used that knowledge to force Obsidian to agree. He could understand her motivation to follow him. But if he had any chance to still turn this situation around, he would do whatever he could to make the keepers of harmony stay in Ponyville. After a short hesitation, the reaper spoke up again.

“I will be honest. Taking you with me would only slow me down. As well as it would make this task more difficult, since I am forced to ensure the security of all of you.”

Pinkie Pie giggled again.

“It’s just like Dashie said. We defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord! That big, old, meanie spawn will be no match for us!”

The other keepers of harmony cheered in agreement. Pinkamena got him now.

“And you know I, for one, will surely not slow you down!” Rainbow Dash added. Obsidian sunk his head a little and sighed again.

“You honestly want me to drag you into the depths of darkness?” the reaper wondered. All of the six friends nodded in response.

“We’ll stick to you like candy apples!” Applejack commented. He knew he lost the debate now.

“Fiat... I will take you with me. But we will have to run if we want to make it on time. Also, when I give you orders, you follow them instantaneously without questioning. Understood?” he declared.

The ponies agreed. Obsidian already knew that taking them to the assault would thwart his plans. He would be forced to constantly keep an eye on the ponies at the cost of being able to gather resources and food he needed. More than any other pony, he would have to watch Pinkamena very closely. The six friends got ready to leave. Fluttershy put Angel in charge of the cottage while they were away. Then, they started running towards Everfree Forest with Obsidian leading the way.

---

An hour later, the group found itself deep inside Everfree Forest. They galloped further than ever before, lead by Obsidian Shards. He knew precisely where to go.

“Can we please take a break?” Rarity requested.

“We do not have time for a break,” the reaper answered.

Rarity started to pant in exhaustion.

“Please?” she begged.

Obsidian knew that time was worth gold now. They had to catch the spawn before it could get out of the passage. Otherwise it would destroy the forest, forcing all the monsters living in it to swarm out. Rainbow Dash surely was fast, but the rest of the group was not. Without them, Obsidian would be much further by now. As they kept running, the reaper noticed the others started to get exhausted, too. He had to give them a break or one might fall behind. So he slowed down, followed by the group doing the same. They were breathing heavily. A group of young mares, not used to this kind of permanent endeavor. Just what were they thinking to come with him? If they did not even have the stamina to run for an hour straight, how did they think they would stand a chance against even a low-ranked demon? Howsoever, they were with him now. Obsidian had to make sure they stood strong until they arrived.

“This place seems to be relatively save. You can rest here for a moment,” he commented.

The ponies sighed in relief and sat on the ground. Rainbow Dash and Applejack seemed to not be as drained as the others. The blue Pegasus even used the break to stretch her limbs.

“You guys really need to work on your condition. This was just a warm up!” she bragged.

“Oh hold your horses, RD. Not everypony’s an athlete,” Applejack retorted.

Obsidian listened closely. So Applejack and Rainbow Dash were both athletes? The reaper started seeing a structure in how these six were connected with each other. Suddenly, Rarity spoke to Obsidian again.

“So, you know Everfree Forest quite well, don’t you?” she asked curiously. Obsidian nodded.

“I was stationed in this forest for more than fifty years. Enough time to learn a lot of details about it... and its history.”

“History?” Fluttershy asked carefully. Twilight as well started getting curious.

“Oh, I just have to hear that story!” the magical mare stated in excitement.

The reaper nodded again and began to summarize what he learned.

“Everfree Forest was created more than eight hundred years ago as the second strongest demon in the world, next to the demon queen, fell here. His name was Malice. He had powers no normal pony could match. As he fell, his enormous demonic energy defiled this region. All the plants and animals became soaked to the brim with the demon’s corruptive energy, changing them into brutal monsters...”

The reaper paused and stared into the deep woods.

“This land is ruined and can not be recovered.”

This was not the kind of story the others were expecting. It felt like Obsidian could only tell horrifying tales. But that finally explained why the ponies always had a strange feeling when walking around in Everfree Forest and why it was so dark and creepy. Rarity bounced off the ground and on a tree stump, disgusted from the idea of walking on defiled land. The reaper knew this short summary would cause some questions, but he would not answer them. The story of Malice was not one the reapers were very proud of. So, Obsidian changed the topic to bring other ideas in the ponies’ minds.

“Despite of all this, Everefree Forest is only considered a green zone. Due to it being close to Ponyville, we reapers have to keep it clear of demons.”

“What is all that talkin’ ‘bout zones?” Applejack asked.

They caught the bait.

“Since the time of Nightmare Moon’s rise, demons are hiding themselves in the darkest places of Equestria. Out of this fact, a plan had been created to section this principality in zones according to the level of demon infestation. There are blue, green, yellow, orange and red zones. Ponyville is a good example for a blue zone. They are usually populated by ponies and of open access to them. These zones get the biggest amount of attention by us reapers. We are ordered to constantly keep them free of any demons, monsters, undeads or ponies fallen to Maledictum Insania. Green zones require less supervision and might occasionally be crossed by something dangerous. These zones are still accessible for ponies. Though they mostly avoid them, knowing they can be dangerous. Yellow, orange and red zones are locked down to normal ponies. The Everfree underground passage is a yellow zone, because it is getting used frequently by demons. Orange and red are the most dangerous. They have high concentrations of demons. Thus, they may only be entered by elder reapers. Orange zones are the land surrounding a red zone in a radius of two miles. Mistress Celestia wants us to guard all entrances to one and kill everything coming too close to the border. Finally, red zones are demon strongholds. Entering one of them is suicide, even for reapers.”

The ponies stood silent for a moment. Then Applejack spoke up again.

“Heavens to Betsy. I don’t even know Equestria anymore. Guess we were all pretty foalish to be thinkin’ this is just a peaceful land.”

Obsidian gave no response. He just sat there, staring into the forest with his expressionless face.

“Damn those demons! Ruining Equestria like that. Why don’t you give them all the boot?” Rainbow Dash suggested, enraged.

“It is not that easy, Rainbow. These strongholds are extremely hard to conquer. If all reapers would unite to attack one of them, we might be able to destroy it and consume all the demons inside. But the moment we leave our positions, the demons of other strongholds come rushing out in masses and destroy everything in sight. These creatures use every little bit of space we give them. At the first best occasion, they attack without warning,” the black stallion replied.

“I-I just don’t understand. Why do they do all this?” Fluttershy asked.

This naive Pegasus could not imagine how any creature would enjoy to kill and destroy.

“Their desire to cause suffering and destruction is natural to them. That is what they exist for. The demon queen supports this wherever she can,” Obsidian replied.

Twilight jumped up in shock as she heard Obsidian talk about Nightmare Moon.

“What? This can’t be! We defeated her!” she shouted out in consternation.

“You may have. You also may have purified Luna. But that was only the biggest part of Nightmare Moon you faced. Do not forget about the forbidden legend I revealed to you. Do not forget about Maledictum Insania. She is still here, scattered in millions of fragments and resting in the souls of all ponies. She is in you. She is in me. She is in all of us. As long as there is Nightmare Moon, there will be demons. The only way to truly erase her would be to extinct pony-kind and that can not be done for obvious reasons,” Obsidian explained calmly with an almost sad tone.

Again, the ponies became silent. After a while, Fluttershy spoke up again.

“So there is nothing we can do? That’s just it?”

“We can do something. Lifting Maledictum Insania is impossible. If it would be, Mistress Celestia would have freed the land of this curse long ago. It will remain for all eternity, same as Nightmare Moon. But we can still fight every demon we encounter. Maybe one day, we will have consumed enough of them to make them no longer a serious threat to Equestria.”

“Well, that’s at least some kind of plan,” Applejack commented.

The reaper succeeded in re-igniting hope in the ponies. But they did not know all details. They did not know what Obsidian knew. But he was convinced it would be better that way. The last thing he could use now was a group of depressed ponies without any will to keep fighting.

“The best we can do right now,” Obsidian added and got up again. “It is still a long way to the passage and the time is running. Let us go on.”

The keepers of harmony got back on their hooves again and they all continued running deeper into the forest.

---

The forest seemed endless. The group kept on running for hours now with several short stopovers. Despite of the time pressure in their back, Obsidian tried to make it as easy for the ponies as possible. Still, the long hours of continuous running drained them physically and mentally. They started to become unalert. Twilight kept following Obsidian closely, though she ran like in trances. She was no longer thinking and just concentrated on trying to keep up. But suddenly, she experienced a dreadful sensation. Something was nearby. Something very dangerous. Obsidian seemed to feel it as well and stopped instantly.

“Cōnsistite!” he ordered and reached his right front leg out sideways to block the way for the rest of the group. The sudden stop made the ponies come back to their senses. Twilight quietly walked next to the reaper and whispered to him.

“I feel it as well. What is this?”

“Problems,” Obsidian replied.

Out of the shades of the forest, a large creature approached them slowly. Before anypony could identify it, the creature gave off weird noises. Twilight recognized them and reacted immediately. She stiffened her body and tried hard to not move a muscle.

“Girls. Don’t move,” she spoke through her teeth.

The ponies became scared, but followed her advice. The creature came closer and closer. Then finally, it stepped out of the dark. The monster had three heads. A lion one, a goat one and a dragon one. Its body was one of a lion as well. The tail though was made of a very large snake with a head on the very end. It was a chimera.

The ferocious beast stopped a few steps in front of them and stared grimly. It growled through it’s three heads, each making a different kind of noise, while the snake head hissed in the background. The six ponies whimpered lightly. Twilight slowly backed away.

“Everypony, walk backwards. Slowly. And don’t take your eyes off it,” she suggested lowly.

All except Obsidian followed her advice. The reaper kept standing there, his face expressionless as always. He looked at the chimera calmly. His refusal to retreat provoked the beast and it kept walking closer to the black stallion.

“Obsidian! Are you crazy? Back away!” Twilight spoke, suppressing a scream.

“We do not have time for this,” the reaper whispered while still looking at the chimera.

“There is no other way! It’s a chimera! A very dangerous monster, created through black magic. It is extremely easy to provoke and will not stop rampaging before every creature in it’s sight is dead!” Twilight explained.

“I know that...” Obsidian responded, the beast was very close now and sniffed at him. “but we still do not have the time for something like this.”

The ponies could not believe the reaper just stood there like that with such a beast right in front of him. Fluttershy and Rarity slowly started to panic. Twilight as well found no words fitting to the black stallions’ behavior.

“W-what do you think we should do?” she finally questioned.

Obsidian lowered himself to a battle stance slowly, furthermore provoking the chimera.

“Think efficient!” he replied in a loud tone on purpose.

The chimera became startled and the three heads roared at Obsidian. At that moment, the reaper quickly turned around and kicked the middle, lion head in the throat very hard with both legs. A popping sound was to be heard, signalling Obsidian successfully destroyed it’s windpipe and damaged the spine. The thrust had enough power to lift the entire upper half of the monster into the air, exposing the chimera’s unprotected stomach. Still stunned from the sudden attack, the beast could not react fast enough to prevent the reapers next action. While Obsidian turned around again, he summoned his scythe in his front legs and rammed the entire blade from below, through the chimera’s stomach and up into its chest, piercing its heart. The life force absorbing ability of the scythe quickly took its effect on the chimera. It died standing upright, being held by the scythe in the reaper’s hooves. The keepers of harmony were speechless. He killed the chimera in less than two seconds. None of them could think of a fitting way to react to this sudden, cruel act. Obsidian removed the scythe out of the chimera’s carcass and made it disappear again. The large body crushed to the ground and rapidly formed a pool of blood around it. Rainbow Dash was the first to be able to make a comment.

“Wow! Now that’s what I call guts!” she said greatly impressed.

None of her friends could agree with that statement. Especially Fluttershy became very angry.

“WHAT? You think that's good? You think it's good he killed it like that? Obsidian! You... you... oh my goodness... that poor little-”

“Monster!” he interrupted sharply, preventing the yellow mare from breaking out in tears. “This beast was created only to cause chaos and death! It has no right to exist in this land! It is because of creatures like this that many innocent animals and ponies die slow, painful deaths! Equulās stultās...”

Obsidian turned around to the carcass again and examined it. The friends were stunned. Not even Fluttershy knew what to say anymore. She usually would become unstoppably enraged when she saw a creature getting hurt or even killed. But Obsidian’s words hit her like a train. She could not agree with him. Yet, he somehow was right, though.

“Was that really necessary?” Twilight asked carefully.

“Yes. This saves us time, rids Everfree Forest of a dangerous beast and also provides me ingredients. As I said. Think efficient,” the reaper answered while walking behind the body to reach the snake head. He then opened the snake’s mouth and violently tore out the fangs. The sight made the ponies get sick.

“No! Stop it! I can’t watch this!” Fluttershy pleaded.

“Then look away,” the black stallion responded while storing the fangs under his cloak.

He walked back to the other three heads and was about to pull some scales out of the dragon head when Fluttershy spoke up again in desperation.

“No. Please. I mean it! S-stop! This is too much!”

Obsidian halted. He turned his head to the group and saw the sick faces of the six friends. It seemed like after more than three hundred years of constantly having to do such things, he forgot just how hard it is for a pony to watch a creature being dismembered. To him, that carcass was only an empty shell now. A collection of organs, bones and body fluids. But to the ponies, it was a just freshly deceased being. He had gone too far. But then again, this was a good way to prepare them for the confrontation with the spawn. The black stallion decided to abandon the rest of the carcass.

“Mihi īgnōscite. But do not expect any mercy from the demons we will face. Especially not from the spawn. Let us go on now. We need to set up a camp for tonight,” he spoke calmly and continued walking.

A moment later, the ponies followed him, trying to avoid eye contact with the carcass. Pinkie Pie was the only one who turned around and stared at the dead chimera for a moment.

“Pinkamena,” Obsidian spoke quietly in an ordering tone, so only she could hear it.

The reaper walked back to her as he noticed she was not following the others. The pink earth pony instantly turned around again, grinned widely and bounced towards her friends. Obsidian tracked her with a suspicion filled expression for a moment. Then, he as well returned to the group.