Helheim, Lady of Death of this dimension, was perusing her dominion, checking the souls that were set to be tortured when a demon came to her side. She cast her eye down at the beast, and while she could just get what she wanted through touching its mind, Helheim decided to use a voice in this occasion.

“What seems to be the problem?” she asked, using the voice of a former mass murderer instead of her own voice.

“Mistress Hollow Grave is complaining about Master Fall Harvest again,” the demon said in a grating tone that also carried the unease of having to pass this message along, its claws scraping the ground awkwardly.

Helheim let out a sigh in her own voice, shaking her head at her ancient Reaper. At least it was not Nidhogg as those fights were never pretty but then again, Harvest always managed to get under her proverbial skin along with the rest of her Reapers.

“Is he in his dominion?” she asked the demon which it nodded.

“Yes, Mistress Helheim,” it said, bowing to her with Helheim transfering herself to the dominion of the Grim Reaper of Alicorns.

Like most Reapers, there was a throne room of power where the Reaper rested and reviewed their directed charges, going over which of their species was destined to die. For most, it involved a massive centre of operation to keep track of who was to die and almost die, near death experiences and cheat death. It took near endless concentration and utmost focus to keep everything under control and yet still things slipped past them from time to time.

Fall Harvest was the exception; he spent most of his time sprawled out on his single gem studded throne with his hood showing his bare skull as he hummed that insufferable tune that had caused more than one fight with her other Reapers. Fall’s dominion was also the exact opposite of the other Reapers’; instead of wall to wall monitors and careful tracking, there were countless expressions of creativity that Fall had done to amuse himself, which had annoyed the more traditional Reapers, despite Fall being one of the oldest and certainly older than those who had continued to complain instead of ignoring his idiosyncrasies.

Lifting a limb with some resistance that Helheim saw was due to the entire floor being replaced with taffy, the Lady of Death knew that she had let things go too far unsaid.

“Fall Harvest,” she said, causing him to jump up in surprise, his bones hitting the ground before he reformed himself in front of her, with his scythe materializing by his side.

“Helheim, how are you?” he asked, managing a carefree expression despite lacking all the needed components to do so, namely the flesh of a living being.

“Annoyed and concerned,” she spoke freely, banishing the confectionary away and started to examine the dominion more closely. “It is quiet,” she stated as she lifted a guitar, inspecting it as it appeared to be an unique model that was supposedly destroyed upon creation.

“Well, with all the alicorns that have passed away moved along and none of the current batch being anywhere near due to come to this place, there’s not much need to have the pits open right now,” he said, standing just a few paces behind her. “What, exactly, are you concerned about?”

“You,” she pronounced, placing the instrument down and began a circuit of the dominion. “You have been causing more complaints recently; from both Reapers and demons alike.”

He snorted, rolling his nonexistent eyes; the demons and other Reapers had been complaining about him for eons; why did it matter now?

“There is a line that you seem fond of dancing around; no, not dancing.” She paused to find the proper analogy. “You seem to enjoy taunting the line whenever you get chance, pushing the buttons of everyone here to their limits.”

“I like to push the button,” Fall Harvest mimicked pushing a button as he floated past her for a brief moment, only to retreat after she cast a gaze at him. “And it’s good for them, anyways. These little undead shits need to learn to laugh and enjoy themselves or this job will cause you to go nuts.”

“You are correct,” Helheim acknowledged him. “But it is not your place to do so. And you made an error in your assessment; they need to know how to keep themselves acting as my Reapers or they will be replaced.” Fall gave her a look, a hoof raising to ask an obvious question. “No, that does not include you due to your actions in the past. But leaving you by yourself cannot stand.”

“So what, you’re going to be visiting me more often?” Fall Harvest asked her, uncertain to what she had in mind.

“No,” she told him, causing him to pause. “I am sending you out of Tartarus for some time away on a forced vacation.”

“What‽” he shouted, giving her an incredulous look. “I can’t do that!”

“Are you doing anything important at the moment?” she asked him, causing the Grim Reaper to pause.

“Well, ye-”

“Related to business,” she quickly stated, causing him to to scowl.

“No, but-”

“Staying here too long is not good and it is my wish to see you outside to recover.”

“So I will go out to the other dominions or something-”

“You will go to the mortal realm.”

“But Helheim, I can’t-”

“You mistake my words for suggestions and advice,” she said sharply, causing her Reaper to fold inwards. “You will go to the mortal realm and spend significant time there.”

Stewing for a moment, he tilted his head up at her. “Fine, if I am to go on this… vacation, what skin should I wear?” He summoned up a collection of former alicorn bodies. “Hmm, I could go as a mare, to shake things up-”

“You will use this one,” Helheim said as she summoned up a stallion’s body, its coat a light orange, the colour of autumn, with the mane and wing tips each a faded silver.

“That’s my body, my original body,” Fall Harvest said as he moved to inspect it, tilting his head as he inspected himself. “My cutie mark,” he said as he traced a hoof over the image of a scythe above a sheaf of wheat. He then flicked his eye sockets at her. “I cannot use it; what if Celestia learns of me?”

“You are creative; think of a lie to avoid her,” Helheim told him as he slipped into his flesh, blinking his corpse’s eyes before the blue came back into them. “Besides, you are already dead. She cannot kill you.”

“Oh I am sure she will find some way to kill me,” he grumbled. “She’s been planning to get even with me all these years. I have heard the things she wanted to do me; made some of the demons here blush.”

“Best be careful then, Fall,” Helheim summoned matter to form a smirk before creating a limb to shoo him out of his dominion and into the realm of mortals. “Now go and do not come back until I call for you,” she called out to the faceplanted alicorn who was moving to sit up and glare at her. “And be on your best behaviour!” she shouted as she closed the door between the two realms.

“Somehow, I think you’d feel better if I was on your best behaviour,” Fall grumbled as he did his best to adjust to his old form; the sudden return of his flesh and muscle was making it hard for him to balance himself.

I heard that.

The Reaper, had he been able to do so without falling over, would have facehoofed at that. But he was otherwise distracted as he looked around the area, which appeared to be a large orchard, an Apple farm by the looks of it, and noticed he was not alone.

“SIS!” a small yellow filly with a red mane and tail yelled, before running off in the opposite direction.

Fall Harvest sighed as he knew exactly where he was now. “What have I gotten myself into this time?”