PRESENT DAY

“I doth not remember mine sister imprisoning you.” Luna told me, interrupting what I hoped was a convincing tale. I hoped that by telling them of who I was before I took up this job, they would remember how I knew them and not seem so shocked. Which they still do.

“Oh no, she imprisoned me alright. I think it was a few weeks before I took up this Grim Reaper job, if I remember rightly. Now will you let me finish?” I asked before they both gave a nod to continue.

FIFTEEN YEARS BEFORE DISPLACEMENT

“What’s your name?” a doctor in a white lab coat asked me, tapping a pen against a clipboard as I swung my legs. I sat on a rather long red couch, my feet not even touching the floor.

“Skye Rip. What’s yours?” I answered. My mum sent me to this place because she thinks I’ve been behaving rather strangely for a ten year old. I didn’t think looking at pictures of dead people was anything strange, just a habit I had gotten into ever since I witnessed my dad die from a car crash when I was five. It should have scarred me for life but my brain was wired to handle it differently.

“Dr. Stein. Nice to meet you. Do you know why your mother sent you here?” Dr. Stein asked, writing down a few notes as I cocked my head to the side.

“Because my dad died and I’ve been looking at pictures of dead people?” I asked with an innocent smile.

“So you do know. I’m meant to help you get rid of this … ‘habit’ of yours.” Dr. Stein said after a bit of writing, looking at me with a frown.

“How you going to do that?” I asked curiously.

“The usual methods of ‘talk and wait to see what happens’ method hasn’t worked since this is about the twentieth session in a month, I’m going to prescribe some pills,” he answered, holding up a clear bottle of smallish looking pills with a label I couldn’t read on it. “These are Duotine. They have a special ingredient in them that are meant to help you get rid of these habits,” he explained, handing the bottle over to me. I held it and looked at it curiously, giving the ingredients a quick read.

“Ek … ektopln … “ I faltered on one of the words and looked at the doctor to see if he could help.

“Ah, Ektoplomatin. It’s a special ingredient found in the jungles over in South America. It’s meant to help -”

TWO DAYS AFTER DISPLACEMENT

My reminiscing was interrupted from an abrupt clanking sound. My vision brightened when I looked at the fence in front of me, furious at whoever did it. I saw a pony dressed in gilded gold armor, holding a stick in his magic, which he used to rake across the mesh.

“Why are you doing that?” I asked, crossing my arms at him.

“Princess Celestia wanted me to wake thou in time for her arrival,” the guard answered, blinking slowly at me. Why couldn’t she just wake me up herself? She seemed capable of doing it last I checked.

“Tell her I’m awake then.” I said with a wave, holding my arms around my legs as I brought them up to my chest. While waiting for her, I tried to bring the memory back so I could try and remember how it ended but it was no use. “Duotine sounds familiar …” I said to myself before I heard two pairs of hoofsteps come down towards my cell.

“So you’ve come to a decision, have you?” I asked them as I attempted to raise an eye ridge. “It’s been a couple of days. I thought you’d forgotten about me.”

“It took longer than expected, but we hast come to a decision.” Celestia said once she reached my cell, not bothering with greetings. I don’t think she likes me very much. At least she hasn’t blasted me with heat yet. I suppose that’s an improvement.

“What decision would that be?” I sighed, rubbing a hand against the side of my skull. I stood up as best I could, still having to duck underneath the small ceiling. The cell was clearly made to house ponies.

“Thou hast a choice. Either help us with these monsters or I will burn thou to a crisp.” Celestia answered, staring solidly at me. It didn’t look like I had much of a choice, and I really didn’t want to be turned into bone soup.

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” I sighed sarcastically, making my hands go into a fist and cracking the bones that way (I still haven’t gotten used to that feeling yet.). I didn’t realise how cramped I was until I walked out the jail cell when Celestia opened the door with her magic. Now that we were standing side by side, I found that the white princess reached up to to the top of my head, horn included. “Do you see how I’m not a threat yet?”

“Yes, we doth understand.” Luna said quickly, effectively shutting up her older sister. “We also understand that thou wast helping us and that thou meant us no harm.”

I nodded at that, sighed, and rested my arms behind my head, making the sleeves of my cloak fall down to reveal more bone attached to my hand. I noticed their curious looks and couldn’t help but smile mentally. This is one of those instances where I wished my face was still attached.

“Good. So what’s the plan? I want to help in any way I can if it will stop Princess Celestia from melting my bones.” I said and nodded my head in the direction of the corridor. “Any chance we could get moving?”

Celestia glared at me but didn’t say anything, preferring to let her sister talk as she lead us down the corridor.

“Our plan is to find the beasts and either capture them or if that fails, slay them.” Luna explained to me. I put a hand on my chin in thought and absently clacked the two pieces of bone together.

“That’s not much of a plan.” I said finally, turning the corner and absently floating over a hole in the floor. Apparently this was a multi-leveled dungeon. I stopped though when I realised what was happening.

“Doth thou hast a better one?” Celestia asked, pausing in her walking to look back at me pointedly.

I was too busy staring at the hole beneath me to answer. When I looked back up to them, they had different looks on their faces. Luna’s showed concern and Celestia’s showed impatience.

“What’s your problem with me?” I asked, managing to move myself over to edge of the hole. I touched down through sheer concentration; really surprised I was able to do that. The feeling didn’t stay with me for long though. “Why do you have such a grudge against me?” I asked Celestia again.

“Did thou not hear me before I imprisoned you? Thou art meant to be in Tartarus, guarding it as well as helping the transition of souls move from one life, to the next.” Celestia explained, turning around and leading us towards the dungeon’s entrance again.

“Tartarus this, Tartarus that. That’s all you ever say to me! I arrived here only two days ago. I got no interest in going to Tartarus! At least not until these monsters are dealt with.” I huffed, dragging a hand down the front of my skull and pulling my hood over my head. “I’ll ask again. Why do you hate me so much? Is it because I’m not a pony like you?” I asked her, oh so wishing I could give her a death glare.

“That is one of the reasons.” Celestia snapped, her tone of voice suggesting no further talk was to be had. I silently fumed to myself and kept quiet throughout the rest of the journey. When we made it back to the throne room, I stretched my back and felt my spinal column click back into place. I rolled my shoulders a couple of times and then looked at the big windows. A few of them were still broken from the fight.

“I see you haven’t fixed up the windows yet. Who’s to say those beasts won’t be back? For all we know, they were just sizing us up and testing us.” I said nonchalantly while inspecting the window the Jersey Devil flew out of, with my scythe attached to it. I stopped my observations though when I heard a soft thud. It sounded like a book falling to the floor. I spun around and looked to the source, finding both Clover and Starswirl staring at me.

“What? It’s completely possible!” I protested, assuming they heard what I said a few seconds ago. I remembered a few of the notes I had taken down about the Jersey Devil and from it, knew the Jersey Devil wouldn’t have been able to do this. I knew virtually nothing about the Harpy other than that it came from Greek mythology.

“We have not recorded anything of that nature though.” Starswirl told me, watching curiously while I straightened up. “These monsters fly about and cause chaos for the castle staff and surrounding forest.”

“Really?” I deadpanned. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not thanks to his beard covering half his face but his bushy eyebrows seemed to show a lot of emotion, as well as his eyes. “Do you actually have a plan on catching them or were you expecting me to come up with something?” I asked them, moving to the group that were now sitting around the two thrones.

“We hast a plan, but it involves using thou as bait.” Clover said primly, looking at me hopefully. I stared back and tried to think of what that meant. Bait usually means a way of catching the monster. This was their plan? Using me to catch the monsters? I doubt it would work. I even told them as much but they insisted it was the only plan they could come up with. After two days of thinking, I expected there to be at least one more plan. Assuming they gave themselves time to think about the plan anyway.

“Bait. Fine. Why me though? Why not a different pony?” I asked, trying to dissuade the idea of using me. It didn’t look like Clover was having any of it though.

“Simple. The Princesses agree with me that it would be the best course of action. Plus, Princess Celestia suggested that ‘throwing them a bone’ would be a good idea.” Clover answered, looking between me and Celestia. She held a tome in her magic field, as well as a feathered quill. That was a bit odd but didn’t really compare to what was currently going on. We’re planning to capture mythical creatures here! Besides, that pun was just painful.

I stared at Celestia, who appeared to interpret my stare correctly. She simply smiled and opened her mouth to speak, “We want thou to go out into the Everfree and locate the monsters in any way thou thinks will get the job done quickly.”

“You want me to risk myself out there … why?” I asked, forgetting about how I reassembled myself when the Jersey Devil rugby-tackled me into the wall.

“Thou is the most durable one.” Luna spoke up, giving a slight glare to her sister before continuing on. “This is so the least harm comes to our subjects.” I noticed her eyes flash a tiny bit at the word ‘subjects’ but it went by so quickly, I didn’t really think anything of it.

“I’ll ask again, Princess. I’m nothing but a bag of bones. Literally! How can I go up against them!? Besides, my scythe is long gone by now so I doubt I can actually defend myself out there.” I reiterated. I sat down with the group and placed a hand on my chin. “I’m not even sure how to help you. The only thing you’ve told me is that I’m going to be bait. How will that exactly work?”

“We thought that thou wouldst wander around the Everfree for a bit. Then maybe one of the monsters will come out and get thou? They only seemed really aggravated when you suddenly appeared.” Clover told me with a gentle smile.

“Are you- Wait. I’m going to stop asking questions and just do it.” I grumbled, finally realising that I had no choice in this. I got up and walked over to one of the broken windows and climbed out. Hopefully they thought through on how to actually follow me around so if one of the monsters did catch me, they would be ready. “I did not sign up for this sort of afterlife!” I shouted over my shoulder to them as I stomped through the forest.