Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1App4KyL88f--YURh8ip1fe78BqC8v_CQe6jHcZX7lBE/edit?usp=sharing

In a land cursed with insanity, everything has consequences. Making the right choice is a task of near impossibility when demons are constantly trying to destroy everything. Being merciful to one creature can directly cause another being to experience cruelty, even if not intended. When this is uncovered, one might try to find a way to balance out the circumstances. Yet, this again is only what the demons expect. By guilt-tripping you, you can be the cause of massive disaster without even realizing it. Such conditions are the ones out of which the most dreadful things are created, which will leave permanent marks on the world once they spawned.

---

A week had passed since Celestia agreed in letting the first of her reapers die. After the mare had given her final breath and her soul left her body, the cloak undid itself and flew away. Celestia had no influence in this. It was something Nightmare Moon seemed to have set up, so she could not manipulate it. All she could do was wait and see what would come.

As usual, the princess of sun and moon was deeply sunken into her paperwork. Even with help, she had been working on the seemingly endless piles of paper all day and the sun needed to be lowered. Yet, she was still far from done. Celestia knew that, once again, she would have to partially work throughout the night.

Just as the bright demi-goddess allowed the sun to disappear on the horizon, Silverstream entered the throne room. But this time was unusual, since he neither requested an audience, nor did he use the secret passage on the roof only the reapers knew of. He just came trotting in through the main entrance.

“Silverstream! While I do acknowledge that you mastered stealth by now, I still wish for you to avoid risking contact with my subjects if not necessary!” Celestia protested.

“Apologies, my mistress. But I do have my reasons. I could not use the usual way because I needed to guide someone to you who can not fly,” the reaper stallion replied.

It was now that Celestia realized that there was additional hoof clattering and a small figure hidden behind the reaper. This shocked the bright demi-goddess a bit.

“How dare you to show yourself to foals and even force one to come with you?! I hope you have a good explanation for this!” the princess of sun and moon shouted in anger.

“I do. He sought me out and followed me on his own free will. He is not a usual foal either,” Silverstream answered calmly.

Finally, they reached Celestia’s throne and the silvery gray stallion bowed down before her. The colt whom Silverstream had guided here slowly stepped out of his cover behind the reaper.

Now, Celestia understood what he meant, causing her eyes to widen and her mouth to fall open. The colt was unicorn and no older than two years. But still, he was wearing a reaper cloak.

“How... how can this be? A... cursed foal?” she wondered speechlessly.

“Yes, my mistress,” the little colt replied, also bowing down to her now. “My name is Gleam. It is an honor to serve you.”

It struck Celestia heavily on an emotional level to see such a young subjects being cursed with the reaper curse and willingly acting like her servant. She had to cover her mouth with her left front leg to hide her expression and tried hard to suppress the tears. Silverstream understood that his mistress wanted answers, but could not speak right now.

“Apprentice Gleam. Our mistress would like to hear your story,” he recommended to the colt, who nodded shortly in response.

“I am from Canterlot. A few days ago, I was woken up in the middle of the night by banging on my window. I opened it and this cloak here began to wrap itself around me. I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I know that it changed me. I got new instincts now, telling me to seek you out. I left my home and started traveling to Everfree City on my own, only leaving a note to my family. I still don’t understand what I have become, but Silverstream told me that we are not the only ones,” Gleam explained.

Celestia was still like paralyzed and covering her face. She understood that she caused this. By allowing the heavily injured reaper mare to die, the curse passed on to a foal. Gleam had been robbed of his future and was now forced to live as one of her killers for the rest of his life.

The bright demi-goddess forced herself to keep it together. After a minute of gathering self-control, she was able to speak again.

“I... deeply regret to tell you, but you are now no longer a pony or one of my subjects. From this night forth... you are one of my reapers. Your... task will be to protect Equestria from dangerous monsters and demons, as well as freeing the souls of ponies unable to die... I will create you a special book only you are allowed to open and read. It will contain names of ponies, as well as the time of their deaths and the conditions leading to them. You must free their souls once their end has come...” Celestia explained.

The foal just nodded in understanding. He took this completely indifferent. The curse must have already taken most of his emotions, which made this only all the more tragic to the princess of day and night. After a while, Gleam looked up to her.

“What shall I do now, my mistress?” he wondered.

“You... may take a rest... I will decide upon your next actions tomorrow...” Celestia replied.

“As you command,” Gleam spoke before turning around and walking back outside.

Silverstream as well turned around and followed the young reaper in order to guide him back outside unseen. But after just a few steps, Celestia spoke up again.

“Silverstream... I would like to speak to you for a moment...” she requested.

“Yes, my mistress. Gleam, wait outside in the shadows. I will pick you up later,” the reaper stallion replied.

Again, the little colt just nodded and proceeded. Silverstream returned in front of the throne and bowed down again.

“How may I serve you, my mistress?” he wondered.

“This...” Celestia started, unable to find the proper words for a moment. “What would you think if I uncursed him?”

“If you did so, you would destroy the reaper cloak. It appears as if Nightmare Moon thought our curse through very well. In case we would turn against her, our new mistress would have to cope with being responsible for stealing young foals’ lives each time one of us dies for good. If you wished to spare children from going through the existence as a reaper, you would only have the option to destroy all reaper cloaks. But that again would destroy the only legion capable of fighting demons,” the reaper stallion replied.

“I see... yet... I can not let this happen ever again. While I can’t spare him of this fate anymore, I will spare future children from following his footsteps. I regret to say, Silverstream, but we will have to overthrow the conditions of your freeing we set up. Reapers may consume as much flesh as needed, but it seems like you will stay by my side for all eternity. I hope you understand,” the bright demi-goddess spoke.

Reapers have no feelings, so this decision did not shock him. They also do not have dreams or hopes, so he did not mind his only chance to find rest being taken away again. Silverstream was especially emotionless and logical. Even though he had already consumed many demons and been through many battles, he only thought that this turn of events made sense.

“Absolutely, my mistress. A very reasonable decision. I will be honored to serve you until the end of time itself. You give me a purpose and for that, my gratefulness is eternal. I also believe that the other reapers will think just the same way,” Silverstream agreed.

“So be it... thank you. You may leave now,” Celestia spoke.

“As you command,” the reaper stallion replied and started walking outside.

Instantly, Celestia picked up a few blank scrolls, a quill and an inkpot. She knew that it would be impossible to prevent the death of every reaper. Every now and then, one would get devoured by demons, which again would cause foals to be cursed with the reaper curse. But she needed to inform them about her decision.

This was unacceptable for the princess of the sun and moon. She just had to find an alternate way to fight demons. Somehow, there had to be a way to support the reapers, so they would not have to risk their lives.

Celestia still had the elements of harmony, but her sister Luna was imprisoned on the moon, along with Nightmare Moon. As long as she remained outside of this world, Celestia would not be able to use the elements again. But maybe... there might be a way to trick the elements in thinking that she is back. If Celestia somehow managed to create a presence of Luna in Equestria, this might be enough. So, the bright demi-goddess decided to start researching Luna’s dark magic whenever she found some time. It was entirely up in the air if this would work, though. Even then, it would take multiple hundred years or preparation.

So continued the night which, once again, changed a lot. But it did not remain a secret between Celestia and the reapers only. All the time, Slendermane had been hiding behind the throne, listening to every last word and watching as Celestia took notes about her plans.

---

Decades passed by, until nearly two hundred years stood between the era of Nightmare Moon and now. Maledictum Insania had become normality to Equestria, just like the demons, as they were now called by everyone still knowing of them. A lot had changed in the land, and so did the reapers. By now, a majority of them had consumed so many demons that they had grown demon wings and a demon horn, enabling them to use both the ability of flight and magic. Since it appeared that, once a reaper reached this stage they do not alter any more in appearance but instead grow more and more powerful, this type of reaper was called an elder. Silverstream had become one of them.

He made it his responsibility to train Gleam and the cursed colt quickly grew up and became a skilled reaper. In all the many years, Silverstream never stopped taking his tasks serious and still kept on hunting demons, insane ponies and the undead with high efficiency. But something did change on him, other than his appearance.

It was another quiet winter night, the snow gently covering Everfree City in a white blanket while he kept patrolling around the city, absent-minded. For a long time now, he wasn’t at the peak of his sense perception anymore. The many demons he had consumed were clouding his mind. He did not even remember how many he had consumed... something between one thousand and two thousand for sure.

Although his patrolling time was long over, he kept on rotating around the city, round after round. He barely needed to think of what he was doing anymore anyway. Everything had become such a routine, he could do his tasks pretty much automatically. He also didn’t noticed how much his mental condition changed, since it happened so gradually.

Silverstream did not feel tired or weak. He didn’t feel anything at all to be precise. He also didn’t have any thoughts running through his mind at all. He was just sleepwalking through his duties, not realizing that time was passing.

His trance was ultimately broken when he sensed the presence of a demon. The elder reaper looked around, but although his senses were working properly, he felt like watching through a tunnel. He did not really have a feeling for his body and mind anymore. Everything appeared to be so dull, as if he was just watching a movie of his own life without actually being involved. This feeling didn’t even change as he spotted the demon he sensed.

It was the infamous Slendermane. While in the many years before, Silverstream was not powerful enough to sense this very stealthy demon, he now could feel his presence. It was not unusual to see him around the capital either. He had been attacking Everfree City once in a while for decades. But due to Silverstream, he barely ever succeeded in abducting one of the citizens. This time was different, though. He was not alone.

Many glowing red eyes appeared behind the tall white figure in black suit, starting to surround Silverstream. He understood that he was being ambushed, but this was nothing for him to worry about. He had been attacked by groups of demons before, even bigger than this one. He was capable of defeating and consuming all of them.

This time as well, he attacked the demons one after another, completely automatic. Even in battle, he felt dull and was like sleepwalking. So, he did not realize that the demons barely fought back at all and just allowed him to consume them.

Slendermane just stood in the background, watching the elder reaper with no eyes while he helped more and more demons to appear behind him, just to have them get close to Silverstream and wait to be consumed.

Ten were gone. Twenty were gone. Thirty. Forty. Then finally, the silvery gray stallion started showing the effect Slendermane and the other demons were waiting for.

After each additional consumption, Silverstream became slower and slower. First, he ran towards each demon, exploding into a cloud of darkness, surrounding it and quickly compressing again. Then, he was just trotting and adjusted all other actions to the same speed. Casual walking followed. Finally, Silverstream could only walk very slowly, wobbling around as if he was suffering from a heavy case of sleep deprivation.

Silverstream stood in front of the next demon and gazed at it for twenty seconds while breathing slowly but deeply. The demon did not move and just grinned at him, patiently waiting to be consumed. Finally, Silverstream started dissolving into a black cloud, slowly clustering around the demon and trapping it. Black fangs grew in the mist, but instead of ramming into the demon, they just weakly held it while the cloud came back together.

The elder reaper’s appearance returned to normal. He stood motionlessly in place, nothing happening in his mind anymore. Then suddenly, he just collapsed. The demons began to chuckle. This is what they had been waiting for to happen. All they needed to do now was to retreat and watch. This was sure to become a great show.

---

Half an hour passed until Silverstream finally came back to his senses. But as he slowly sat up, it wasn’t him controlling his actions anymore. The more than one thousand demon voices in his head had out powered his own. As a result of this, Silverstream could not distinct between his thoughts and their thoughts anymore. Also, he suddenly regained something he did not have ever since he became cursed by the reaper curse.

Slowly, a grin started growing on the silvery gray stallion’s face as the intense emotions, longings and cravings of the demons rushed through his being. He couldn’t think anymore, but he could feel. Right now, he was acting completely on instinct and all he could wrap his mind around was that he was very, very hungry.

Step by step, the elder reaper patiently went back inside Everfree City. The soft white coat of snow muffled his hoof steps on the cobblestone ground, allowing him to walk around completely unnoticeable. As he arrived in the center of the city, he took a big inhale through his nose. The delicious smell of ponies was all around him, causing his saliva to start flowing through his jagged teeth. He just couldn’t hold himself back any longer. He was so hungry. He needed to feed.

The elder reaper summoned his scythe and went over to the next best house, slicing his weapon through the hinges on the door and causing it to fall out in the snow. The noise did not wake up any of the ponies, but the screams that followed just moments later did.

---

Celestia regained consciousness only very slowly after she had been awake for nearly two days straight, doing nothing but paperwork. The reaper mare had to go so far as to shake her mistress in order to wake her up again.

The bright demi-goddess could hardly hear or see the mare. Celestia’s sight was very blurry and her ears were nearly deaf. But the more she came to her senses, the more she was able to understand.

“-rgency!”

Celestia instantly became wide awake as she realized that she was being alarmed. Now, she could hear the chaos going on. The bright demi-goddess jumped out of her bed and ran down the corridors to the balcony. As soon as she arrived, she gasped in shock.

Everfree City was burning. Ponies were screaming and wildly running around in panic. Blood and body parts were covering a large portion of the ground and many buildings were destroyed. Occasionally, the sound of metallic clashing could be heard, followed by a reaper cloak rising into the air. In the distance, Celestia could see more reapers flying towards the city, one after the other.

The princess of the sun and moon now teleported herself down to the city. The ponies immediately started clustering around her, crying and begging for help. She could not even ask them what was going on. They were too traumatized to even reply. Then finally, the now adult reaper Gleam appeared in front of Celestia.

“My mistress! We are under attack!” he shouted.

“Where are the demons? I can not see them!” the bright demi-goddess asked.

“No! There are no demons! It is Silverstream! He is slaughtering the citizens!” Gleam replied.

The expression of stun and shock intensified on Celestia’s face. Silverstream?! The most cooperative of all the reapers and closest one to her?! How? Why is this happening?

Celestia immediately ordered her subjects to retreat to the castle and began searching for the traitor with Gleam. It was difficult to get around, since the ground as well as the sky were filled with panicking subjects, running and flying around wildly. Still, it did not take long to find Silverstream, since he was attracting a lot of attention.

When they found him, he was standing on top of a heavily damaged house, holding an earth pony filly impaled on his scythe. The little body was hanging on the blade right above the reaper’s head, allowing the blood to come down on his cloak, mane and coat. Silverstream was grinning hugely while he added her blood to his already crimson red soaked body.

Suddenly, he turned his head over to Celestia. The traitor teleported away and reappeared right behind her. The bright demi-goddess instantly turned around and raised an arcane shield, blocking off the scythe aiming for her neck.

“Why are you doing this?!” Celestia asked quickly in disbelief and rage.

“Because it is fun!” Silverstream replied in a hysterical tone, giggling a bit.

Gleam summoned his own scythe and swung it at Silverstream. But the elder reaper was far too fast and skilled. He dodged his attack with ease and teleported away again. The bright demi-goddess growled in fury. She could not believe what she just heard.

“Gleam! Protect the citizens! Make sure they flee to the castle without getting seen yourself!” she ordered quickly.

“As you command!” he replied.

Celestia’s eyes turned white and an arcane aura started building up around her. Then, she slowly started to ascent into the air. Moments later, the entire burning city became additionally illuminated by countless chains of pure light shooting out of the bright demi-goddess’ horn, aiming for Silverstream. While he was able to teleport away and dodge the chains several times, Celestia ultimately was able to catch and disable him.

As long as the reapers were on their own, they were unable to stop Silverstream’s massacre. Never would they have thought they needed to prove their skills against another reaper. An elder on top of that. But Celestia was lot more powerful than they were. With her help, it seemed clear that they would quickly achieve victory. Still, the worst was yet to come.

---

It seemed as if the battle was over when the reapers clustered around Silverstream, who was lying down on the ground tightly wrapped in chains of light. He struggled. He screamed. He laughed. But he was not able to free himself. Celestia landed right in front of the reaper, lifting him up by magic and gazing at him in total hatred.

“I can not believe you, of all, turned against me and my subjects! After all you have done for me! You had been working so hard! You had been trying so much to give reapers a purpose! Now that you have done this, I ask you: What was it all for?!” she shouted.

Silverstream just kept grinning while the blood of his victims kept dripping from his body and flowing out in small stream between his fangs. His head tilted sideways as he gave his answer.

“What are you going to do with me now, my ‘mistress’? Are you going to punish me? If so, I would like to know how this punishment is supposed to look like. Will you break your code and torture me? Or will you go so far as to execute me, after you had sworn to prevent any more foals from becoming reapers?” the traitorous reaper wondered.

The princess of sun and moon wanted to give an immediate reply, but found herself unable to do so. He got her with this argument. Although he managed to kill several other reapers as seen from the freed cloaks flying away, Celestia herself did not want to cause even more children to become something like him.

Silverstream’s grin grew even larger and he started giggling again. The bright demi-goddess had seen this face so many times before, but never on a reaper. All the sudden, it struck her.

“Could... could it be? Can reapers fall under the influence of Maledictum Insania?” she wondered.

None of the present reapers could answer this question. Celestia was not the only one who assumed that reapers would be immune to the curse of madness, since they were already cursed and no longer ponies. They, too, thought of this as impossible.

But now, they had the evidence right before them. Silverstream had lost his mind. There was only one thing she could do now.

“You leave me no other choice. As much as the thought of forcing yet another foal into becoming a reaper disgusts me, I have to execute you...” Celestia spoke in regret.

Her right front leg rose into the air, signalling all reapers to get ready to strike. As Silverstream came to understand that he would not get out of this situation alive, he began to laugh out loudly. But the laughter did not last long as he suddenly started to choke for no explainable reason.

Celestia’s hoof came down, followed by the scythes. The insane reaper’s body became impaled by black blades from all directions. After waiting a few seconds to ensure that he was dead, they retreated out of his body.

Every creature still present was expecting the body to fall over now. But it didn’t. Silverstream kept sitting in place with the expression of a dead pony on his face.

Suddenly, a red smoke started escaping from the body, filling the bright demi-goddess and her reapers with confusion, which only grew even more as the light chains suddenly disappeared, even though Celestia did not dispel them. Shock followed as they saw Silverstream’s head turning sideways, looking at a nearby reaper mare.

She became alarmed and wanted to strike again. But while she readied her weapon, Silverstream reached out his right front leg in her direction. It tore open, revealing a much, much bigger black skeletal arm beneath it, violently grabbing the reaper mare and crushing her down. The other reapers were caught so by surprise, they failed to react.

Silverstream’s body started rotting extremely fast before their eyes while he put his weight on the skeletal arm, pushing himself upright while the mare’s bones snapped and a puddle of blood started forming around the claw. Suddenly, it turned into the same black cloud the reapers create when trying to consume a demon. The smoke wrapped around the crushed reaper mare and as the arm formed back together, the mare was gone. Nothing but her blood and cloak remained.

While the cloak lifted into the air, looking for a new host for the reaper curse, Silverstream’s hind legs tore open, revealing humongous black boned legs with hooves and their ends. Now, the skin on his chest started tearing open, exposing a large black ribcage.

Finally, the reapers snapped out of their stun and began to charge Silverstream from all directions. As those on the ground came close, he went back down and quickly turned around. In this turn, his tail fell off and large black boned tail with a very pointy spike at the tip revealed itself, slicing through several members of Celestia’s legion.

The flying reapers closed in from above, but Silverstream just stretched out his bat wings, causing the skin on them to tear away and reveal huge black skeletal wings with javeline-like tips. Before they could even react, several more reapers became impaled and consumed by black smoke moments later.

More and more of this creature bursting out of Silverstream became revealed. As its second arm tore free, it suddenly summoned a massive red scythe with a waved blade. Even though it was a lot bigger, the scythe seemed to work exactly like a reaper scythe. All the reaper that were struck by it died immediately. But the beast did not let the souls escape. It captured them with a free claw and guided them inside Silverstream’s rotting and tearing mouth.

Celestia needed significantly more time to react again than the reapers, since she had to deal with her emotions, the resurfacing memories and the trauma relating to them. She was paralyzed, staring with open mouth and tiny pupils as this thing tore her reapers to shreds. She was so traumatized that she didn’t even react to their blood splattering over her.

The red smoke flowing all around this monster... it was pure red darkness. The last time Celestia had seen it was around two hundred years ago, during the era of Nightmare Moon. Right now, the bright demi-goddess could just stand idly and watch in trauma while all the horrible pictures returned.

By now, it was clear to everyone that the creature breaking out of Silverstream was a demon. An unspeakably powerful, skilled and fast one, growing even more dangerous with each reaper soul it devoured. Even though it was still just breaking free, the demon could easily defend itself against the entire legion of reapers.

This demon was huge. Even a good portion larger than Celestia and made entirely out of blood soaked black bones. The fact that it stood upright made the demon appear to be even larger. As the last bits of coat fell off from the skull, the bright demi-goddess and the reapers could see a set of black goat horns, their sharp tips ending next to the massive jaw filled with countless long and sharp teeth. The empty eye sockets were glowing in a sinister red that was last only seen from the eyes of Nightmare Moon herself.

While most of Silverstream’s body rotted away and fell apart, the reaper cloak remained around the demon. It even reshaped itself, forming sleeves for the demon’s arms and holes in the back for the skeletal wings.

Dozens of reaper corpses were surrounding the demon. Blood was raining down on those still alive. But suddenly, all remaining reapers jumped to distance and the battle came to a halt. They realized that, without strategy, they would all rather die and get devoured by this mighty demon than having a realistic chance to win. It was simply too strong and the more reapers souls it devoured, the worse the situation became.

The huge black skeleton as well went out of battle stance, watching as the reapers stood idly, grinding their teeth in tension. Then, it slowly turned around, staring down to the bright demi-goddess. Her expression seemed to amuse the demon. It laughed lowly at her with a voice as if it was made from hundreds of demons at once.

The reapers immediately went back into battle stance, ready to guard their mistress with their lives. But against their expectation, it did not start attacking her. Instead, the demon calmly turned around and started walking towards Castle Everfree.

Finally, Celestia snapped out of her shock. Her expression shifted to a mix of anger and worry, as she feared he was aiming for the rest of the citizens. She teleported back inside the castle and immediately raised a force field around it.

The reapers tried their best to stop the demon. But everytime one came close enough to strike, it swiftly swung the huge red scythe and devoured the reaper’s soul moments later. They could not even distract it. No matter what spell they cast on the demon, it just ignored them, completely unaffected by even the strongest spells.

---

As soon as Celestia made sure the citizens were safe and as deep inside the castle complex as possible, she started running towards the castle archives. She still precisely remembered where she hid the scroll containing all necessary knowledge to lift the reaper curse. The bright demi-goddess could only assume the demon was plotting to erase the city’s entire population, but she couldn’t take risks. The demon was extraordinarily mighty. If it found that scroll, this could mean the end of her reaper legion.

As soon as she found the scroll again, she did the only reasonable thing she could possibly do to ensure this knowledge would only be accessible to her. She burnt it. Celestia still had the spells in mind and she could note them down again when needed. Suddenly, Gleam rushed into the castle archives.

“My mistress! They can not stop it! The demon is coming!” he alerted.

After Celestia finished destroying the scroll and made sure it can not be reconstructed by magic, she rushed back outside and towards the castle balcony to see how the battle against the demon was proceeding.

When she arrived, she had to realize that the demon had already reached the force field and immediately began to strike it repeatedly. She could feel how her powers became drained with each attack.

Celestia knew she would not be able to hold the protection up for long. Even the reapers didn’t know what to do anymore. They had been reduced dramatically in number. All the elders were dead by now and everytime they tried to interfere, one of them only ended up being devoured by this completely overpowering enemy as well.

The bright demi-goddess ran down the corridors of the castle, trying to get to the entrance hall as fast as possible when the sphere gave in. The entire castle began to shake as the demon violently tore down the walls, forcing Celestia to dodge rocks and pillars falling down on her. But when she finally arrived, it was already too late.

Ultimately, the princess of sun and moon came to realize what the demon’s true goal was. She saw as it exhaled a massive cloud of red darkness on the pedestal presenting the elements of harmony in all their glory. Since Everfree City was the capital of Equestria and it had by far the highest level of protection, she never worried about their safety. But now, she had to realize how thoughtless that was.

The red darkness changed the elements. It seemed like Nightmare Moon’s power drained theirs, turning them from bright and colorful gems into round light gray stones.

Celestia was too late. She stared at the demon in disbelief, while the remaining reapers came over and clustered around her for her own protection. The demon stood idly, laughing lowly again in this terrifying mix of deep eerie voices as it observed its work in satisfaction. Finally, it turned around to Celestia.

“My queen was right about you, Celestia. You are disgracefully weak and thoughtless. To imagine you made it that easy for me and just observed as I slaughter ‘your warriors’. Or does it bring you joy to see them getting punished?” he wondered.

Now, determination returned to the bright demi-goddess and her expression shifted to anger. She couldn’t let her fear of the red darkness take her over.

“So you can talk,” Celestia commented.

“All of Nightmare Moon’s children can talk. Just the most of us do not feel like wasting any words on worthless creatures like you,” the demon answered, slowly approaching the bright demi-goddess.

One of the reaper stallions broke out of the formation and charged the demon to protect his mistress. The demon, though, just grabbed him with its left arm and held it into the air while ramming the sharp, pointy claws through his body.

“It seems you traitors just refuse to learn. But I take you adopted this habit from your new mistress,” the demon commented while watching the stallion gag and his blood running down the demon’s skeletal arm. Celestia showed her teeth in anger.

“Let go of him! You already caused enough havoc!” she ordered.

Now, the demon’s arm turned into a black cloud and consumed the crushed reaper. Once more, a reaper had found its end through this demon and nothing but blood and the cloak remained, which immediately started flying away. After that, the demon’s head turned back over to the bright demi-goddess.

“I am Malice, the right hand of Nightmare Moon. You are not commanding me, pathetic idol of light,” it spoke.

“Nightmare Moon’s right hand? And you spoke to her... are you saying she somehow planned this and sent you here?” Celestia wondered.

“You should have seen this coming, Celestia. Did you honestly believe by sealing our queen into the moon, you would make us stop fighting? Her wrath will never end and neither will we. This war you started has just begun,” Malice explained.

The princess of sun and moon felt deeply insulted by his statement. Her eyes turned white again and an arcane aura began to build up around her body.

“I was not the one who started this war! You monsters did! All this destruction is your doing!” she shouted.

This response seemed to displease Malice. He really expected more of her.

“You already forgot it, Celestia? Not even two hundred years have passed since this war began and you have already forgotten your role in all this?” he wondered.

“Quit this act, demon! Speak clearly! What have you done to the elements of harmony? What is behind all this?” Celestia demanded. But this only caused the demon to laugh lowly.

“I already wasted enough words on you. My queen expects of me to accomplish what she could not. Face your punishment, demi-goddess of light and traitors of Queen Nightmare Moon,” Malice threatened and went back into battle stance.

This was a really bad situation. A battle inside the castle was sure to end in a huge act of destruction. But there was no way around it anymore. This demon, Malice, was already here and it was very unlikely he would fall for tricks to lure him away. He wanted Celestia’s life and nothing would be able to distract him from that goal.

The bright demi-goddess and her reapers got ready to fight. This situation seemed familiar to Celestia. It was like her battle against Nightmare Moon. Just like back then, this time as well it was either all or nothing.

Malice started charging towards Celestia and swung his scythe, but the bright demi-goddess could block it off with an arcane shield. Instantly, the reapers started attacking the demon from all directions again. But while Malice turned for his second strike, he cast a strong fire spell, setting the entire entrance hall on fire.

Celestia was able to dodge the second strike, but the heat forced her to retreat deeper inside the castle. She knew that this was exactly what Malice wanted. He wanted to cause as much destruction as possible, so the deeper they would move their battle inside the castle, the better.

Yet, there was little the bright demi-goddess could do to avoid this. She assaulted Malice with one powerful light spell after the other while the reapers assisted her with their own strikes and spells. Yet, it seemed like Malice’s cloak granted him immunity to most attacks. Not even arcane magic appeared to affect him too much.

This demon was unlike any other demon Celestia had ever seen. They all were extremely hard to defeat, but they had their weaknesses. Light spells and harmony would usually weaken them. But it seemed like the dreadful combination of high demonic powers and the reaper curse made Malice a demon without weak spots. Neither Celestia nor the reapers had any idea how to even scratch this foe.

The battle continued down the main hall of the castle. Every now and then, Malice spontaneously decided to dodge an attack by crushing through a wall, only to break through another wall close to the bright demi-goddess moments later.

The longer the battle continued, the clearer it became that Malice deserved his title as Nightmare Moon’s right hand. Not only was he just as vicious and destructive as she was, but he was also very similar to her in terms of power and skill by now. Simultaneously, he could block and counter the reapers’ attacks, proceed towards Celestia, dodge her attacks and even used telekinesis spells to tear chunks of rock out of the castle, launching them at the princess of day and night.

By now, Celestia was unable to even get out of her defensive position anymore. She was able to guard herself so far, but Malice kept devouring one reaper after the other. If this would go on just for a bit longer, he would kill all the remaining reapers.

The bright demi-goddess tried a different approach. If she could not outpower this demon, perhaps she would be able to outwit it. Malice expected of her to keep retreating while he continuously proceeded, leaving a massive trail of destruction and blood behind him. So, Celestia decided to do the exact opposite. She suddenly started running towards the demon, readying another blast of arcane magic.

Malice took this indifferent and simply raised his scythe to strike as soon as she got in range. But just as he was about to swing, Celestia teleported behind the demon and unleashed her arcane spell. Malice tried to turn around and block it off, but he was not fast enough. The arcane explosion caused him to trip backwards.

The reapers saw their chance. Right now, the demon had his guard lowered. They needed to put this moment to use, assaulting Malice’s legs and casting explosive fireballs towards his chest in order to make him fall.

Malice could dodge several strikes and managed to regain his balance, but he was still off-guard. Right now, he held the scythe in a defensive way, using it as an arm guard with the blade facing behind him. The demon was about to strike again when Gleam suddenly decided to ram Malice with full force.

The demon got pushed backwards into a wall. Although the stone itself gave in, something unexpected happened. The sudden thrust and the breaking wall caused the blade of the scythe to turn. By sheer accident, it sunk into Malice’s ribcage.

At first, it seemed like this incident didn’t matter. Malice just pulled the blade back out of his ribcage and got back into battle stance. But then, a black smoke began to rise from the demon and into his cloak, which then loosened itself from his skeletal body moments later. The scythe disappeared out of Malice’s claws and finally, the reaper cloak abandoned Malice, flying off as if it was thinking he had just died.

Malice seemed to be frustrated by this, as he growled in fury. But he was not even thinking of stopping this battle now. Instead of a scythe, Malice now presented his pointy wing bones, peaked skeletal tail, sharp claws and fangs.

The battle continued with even more of the castle falling to destruction. But something was significantly different now. Malice seemed to be severely weakened. He was no longer as fast and strong as before. When Celestia noticed this, she started using light spells against the demon again. This time, they caused him to get weakened furtherly.

The reaper curse seemed to have been Malice’s key element to his invincibility. Now that he had been stripped of it, he was nothing but a very strong regular demon anymore.

The fight went on for a few minutes more until the last surviving reapers finally managed to catch Malice. One by one, they turned into black clouds, trying to consume parts of the demon. He was unable to move anymore, in front of him Celestia, staring at him in determination. Behind him a deep drop down to Everfree City.

Malice ultimately had to admit that he lost the battle, but he didn’t seem to care much about it. He just stood idly now, laughing lowly at princess of sun and moon.

“Do not think that this is the last time we will ever meet, Celestia. As long as there are reapers, I can always return. Killing you was optional. I already fulfilled my purpose for the moment. But before I go, let me give you one final gift in the name of Queen Nightmare Moon,” Malice spoke.

Surprisingly, he allowed himself to fall backwards, dropping out of the castle and down towards the burning city. Still in midair, the reapers engulfed this mighty demon and finally managed to break it apart. But as they did this, his entire demonic power became unleashed at once. The right hand of Nightmare Moon turned into a massive explosion of red darkness, scattering the reapers everywhere. The shock wave instantly extinguished all fires in the city and caused the last remains of Castle Everfree to collapse.

The last thing Celestia saw was a big boulder coming down on her. On impact, she became knocked out. Everything turned black once more.