"A stallion by the name of Santa Muerta. He's Mexicoltan skeleton. The client's name is Grave Shift. the target stole a family artifact, the Death Scythe, and has been using it to raise the dead, desecrating sacred tombs and now allowing the dead to rest. You know what to do, Twiley." Celestia smiled, sitting down behind a mahogany desk, where an untouched chess set lay. "If you'll excuse me, an old friend is coming over to join the game."

Twilight nodded, heading out the door, the folder in her hoof, trotting out of the palace, taking flight into the cool night sky.

Celestia sighed, as a cloaked pony appeared in a burst of black smoke and ash. "Hello Celestia, it's nice to see you again." A remnant of a smile appeared where the mouth would be. The pony removed his hood, revealing an ashy white coat, lifeless grey eyes, and a mane as white as snow.

Celestia smiled, "Thank you Mors, that's kind of you. How's your brother?" She gestured a hoof at the chessboard, she had white, he had black. "Shall we begin again?" Mors grinned, as he placed a hoof on the pawn, a Threstel.

"Yes, we shall, Grave's fine, and the pawn moves..."

---An hour and a half later---

Twilight shook the rain out of her mane, as she stepped inside what she was told was Santa's home, a moss covered old crypt, the place reeked of decay and sorrow.

Cobwebs and dust littered the ancient walls. Twilight smirked, unsheathing her katana, Vigilance, and fixing her mane, she muttered, "The job...Killer is Dead." As she began looking around.

"Did Shift send you executioner? Oh, what fun!" A voice reverberated throughout the tomb, "Lets see if you can get past my friends, get em boys!" He commanded, as five skeletons burst from the ground, wielding metal pipes as makeshift clubs.

"We're sorry, he's making us do this! End us!" One yelled, as they stiffly trotted over to Twilight, creaking and groaning. Twilight sighed, slicing through the u dead, as the crumbled into dust, blue wisps rising into the air, "Thank you..." An echoey voice resonated from the wisps.

"Alright Santa Muerta, your time is up! Give me the Scythe, and you get to keep your stallionhood, alright?" Twilight asked the shadows, smirking as she saw them waver, a sign of fear from he controlling them.

"You want the Scythe, eh Sparkle? Tell me this, why do you kill? Do you get your kicks from it? Is it some way to boost your ego, make you feel powerful? Why? Do you feel some odd sense that justice has been done?" Santa Muerta replied, his voice quavering.

"I kill....I kill." Twilight stuttered, Why do I kill? she thought to herself, sighing. "I kill, so that the citizens of Equestria are safe from harm, from the likes of you." She growled, as Santa laughed.

"That suits me, then. Now, you wanted the Death Scythe?" Santa Muerta asked, as the shadows nearest Twilight formed into the shape of a pony, before disappearing entirely, revealing a skeletal pony, orange marking around his body, forming a skull like pattern on his face, and crisscrossing orange and yellow arcs around his body, he was leaning on a large scythe. Black shaft, gleaming silver blade, a skull topper, and a gold cap at the bottom, he twirled it, whistling, "If you want the Scythe, you'll have to take it from me!"

Twilight grinned, "Glady!" She yelled, charging at Santa Muerta, who charged at her. Sparks flew as blade met blade in a dance of death around the ancient crypt. Twilight ducked each strike, only getting knocked back once by the flat of the blade, only getting knicked by the Scythe. Muerta was too cocky, flailing around, he received several cuts. The two were evenly matched, that is, until Twilight spotted a weak point.

As Santa raised the Scythe into the air, ready to cleave Twilight into two, she struck, the blade of her hilt penetrating his rib cage, carving upward until he was split in half from the stomach, or where one would be if he still posses organs, up. He dropped the Death Scythe, which Twilight placed on her back, hooking it.

Santa groaned, coughing dust, "Lucky shot Sparkle, but you can kill what's already dead." He chuckled, "I wasn't working alone you know. There is somepony higher up controlling the strings, the puppet master, and I, like many others, his puppet. You may kill me, for love, for the thrill, whatever, but he has other agents, thirteen more to be exact, though they won't reveal the,selves so easily." He smirked, the two sides of his mouth working together.

Twilight frowned, pressing the blade to his throat, well, the part of his spine that connected the throat to the head anyhoof. "Who is he? What did he want with this?" She motioned to the Scythe on her back.

Santa Muerta moaned, "I'll never tell you horseapples executioner! Well, actually, I will, but just one thing. He calls himself...The Wolf. He has powerful connections in Equestria, and vast amounts of wealth. I'll be back." He cackled, as his body collapsed into a heap of dust.

Twilight shook her katana free of Santa's remains, sheathing it, putting her prosthetic to her chin, "The Wolf? And he had powerful connections. I'll have to look into this." She muttered to herself, as her phone began ringing, it was Celestia.

"Ah, Twilight, trust your mission went well?" Celestia asked, to which Twilight said yes, "Excellent, come back for your reward, and any intel you got." The phone clicked off, as Twilight placed it in her pants pocket.

"Killer is Dead." Twilight said to the pile of bonemeal before her, as she trotted away.

---An Unknown Location---

"And so another pawn falls." A gilded hoof pushed a miniature of Santa Muerta off the board, flicking it onto the obsidian floor, "Now matter Sparkle, I still have much more in store for you." The pony fixed his blonde mane, the crown askew, "It's your turn now."

He stared with hate at the figure of Sparkle, as a dark chuckle arose in his throat, which echoes around the empty throne room.

"We shall see, you will rue the day you and your strumpet friends insulted me."

Author's Note

Special thanks to NC Silva as the contract creator! Kudos to him.