Reaper Mare

Applejack couldn't escape the remorse she felt over hurting Twilight like she had, despite her certainty that it had been for the best of reasons. What was worse; she didn't have any proof that being in Death's Realm would have negative effects on her friend.

She began to question the wisdom of staying on as Death's assistant. Was it even necessary? How would things have changed if she had moved forth and stayed ignorant of everything? In the beginning, she had stayed to make sure Rainbow wouldn't have died from her injuries at the bottom of that ravine, but she wouldn't have been able to have any effect on her friend's fate either way. Sparkler still would have come and found them.

How had tormenting her brother stopped the sale of Sweet Apple Acres?

How would overhearing Rainbow's lament have changed anything? Death's book still dictated that the mare would live a long life and, according to the pale pony, that hadn't changed for even a moment. Was it possible that Luna would have found out eventually and warned Twilight all the same?

Had everything she had done been born of selfish desire?

She heaved a heavy sigh.

YOU ARE TROUBLED.

She turned to see it watching her with what she could only describe as curiosity.

“Why do you care,” she snapped.

I KNOW A GREAT DEAL ABOUT HOW BEINGS DIE, APPLEJACK, BUT I KNOW NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT HOW THEY LIVE. I AM ALWAYS LOOKING TO EXPAND MY KNOWLEDGE. TELL ME WHAT TROUBLES YOU.

“Ah don't rightly know,” she replied. “Ah'm wonderin' if what Ah did was the right thing.”

YOU QUESTION THE MORALITY OF YOUR DECISIONS?

“Ah suppose.”

ABOUT THE INCIDENT WITH RAINBOW DASH'S ATTEMPT TO TAKE HER OWN LIFE?

“About everythin'. Ah'm beginnin' to wonder if Ah did the right thing in stickin' around.”

I AM AFRAID I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. MORALITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN A FOREIGN CONCEPT TO ME. THERE IS ONLY DEATH AND LIFE. WHAT HAPPENS DURING LIFE HAS NEVER HAD ANY EFFECT ON MY WORK. I SIMPLY SEPERATE THE SOUL FROM THE BODY AND THE SOUL DECIDES WHERE IT SHOULD GO FROM THERE.

“That's just the thing. For me, morality has always been simple; 'right' and 'wrong', 'good' and 'bad'. Ya did right by other ponies and you were a good pony. If ya did wrong, you were a bad pony. Ya always wanted to do right and be trustworthy, because trustworthy ponies had a good life. Ponies respect a trustworthy pony. But, the problem now is that Ah'm seein' in shades of grey.”

ALL IS GREY HERE.

“Ah don't mean literally. Ah'm speakin' metaphorical-like. There are some things that, on the surface, seem like good things to do. Things that a good pony does. But, deep down, they're actually somethin' that bad ponies do. Ya understand?”

NO.

“For instance, Ah've hurt mah friends before, but Ah did it to protect them. Does that make me a good pony or a bad pony?”

I CANNOT SAY. FOR ME, THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG, ONLY NECESSARY.

“But what's necessary is a matter of opinion, too. Say ya kill a bad pony 'cause it was necessary, but who's to say that the bad pony only needed help and that's why he was actin' out?”

PRECISELY. WHO IS TO SAY THAT THIS BAD PONY WAS NOT TRULY BAD?

“Now, that ain't fair. Ah've seen some bad beings, but they only needed help.”

YOU SPEAK OF THE SALVATION OF NIGHTMARE MOON AND THE REFORMATION OF DISCORD.

“Yeah.”

BUT YOU SPEAK AS IF THERE IS BOTH GOOD AND EVIL WITHIN US ALL. WHERE, THEN, DO I FIT INTO THAT CONCEPT? DO YOU SEE ME AS EVIL AND IN NEED OF SALVATION BECAUSE I END LIVES OR AM I GOOD BECAUSE I END SUFFERING?

Applejack thought about it for a moment. Death had never shown any malicious intent like she had seen with other evil beings, but he still took lives, which she had been raised to believe as wrong. “Ah gotta admit, that one's got me stumped.”

I AM NEITHER. I SIMPLY AM BECAUSE I FILL A PURPOSE. YOU, TOO, FILL THE SAME PURPOSE. WAR HAS THE PURPOSE OF KEEPING BALANCE. FAMINE HAS THE PURPOSE OF POPULATION CONTROL. PESTILENCE HAS THE PURPOSE OF MAKING A STRONGER SPECIES. NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE DONE IN MALICE, THEY SIMPLY ARE.

“Ah would debate the maliciousness of war.”

ANOTHER OPINION, AND ONE OF MANY, BUT YOU SEE MY POINT. NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE GOOD OR EVIL, THEY SIMPLY ARE AND THEY ARE NECESSARY. PERHAPS WHAT YOU DID WASN'T GOOD OR BAD, ONLY NECESSARY.

She didn't like the thought of that. “If there ain't any good or evil, then what's the point?”

DOES THERE NEED TO BE A POINT?

“Yeah. Else, what'll ponies strive for?”

CAN THEY NOT STRIVE TO BE GOOD PONIES?

“But, there ain't no good or evil,” she was becoming frustrated.

WHY IS IT NECESSARY FOR THE VIRTUES TO BE TRUE FOR THEM TO BE EMBODIED? CAN A BEING NOT EXUDE GOOD VIRTUES EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NOT ACTUAL GOOD IN THE UNIVERSE?

“No!”

WHY NOT? YOU DID.

Applejack's entire argument died in her throat as she realized that Death had a point. While there was no “good” in the universe, she had been considered a good pony.

MORALITY IS A CONSTRUCT OF ALL SENTIENT BEINGS BASED ON A SHARED AND UNWRITTEN CODE OF CONDUCT. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THIS SAME MORALITY APPLIES TO THE UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE. THE UNIVERSE, AND ALL WITHIN IT, SIMPLY EXISTS.

It dawned on her that Death saw everything, from every perspective. It made no difference whether a pony was considered good or bad, kind or cruel, trustworthy or not. They all ended up the same way.

“From the Earth; we came, and, to the Earth, we shall return,” she said, quoting the Earth pony prayer.

PRECISELY.

That was why it had said “All is grey here”. Because, to Death, all was grey. There was no difference.

She needed to apologize. “Ah'll be back later.”

She opened a rift and stepped through to Twilight's apartment above the library. The unicorn was tinkering with some sort of contraption, making tiny adjustments to what looked like a pair of glasses. Spike sat nearby, looking bored.

“What are we doing again?”

“I've already told you,” she replied.

“Yeah, but most of that was in technical mumbo-jumbo. Put it in lay-dragon's terms.”

Twilight sighed and set down her tools. “Ponies can only see in the visible spectrum. I hope to use the Heat-Seek spell to charge these glasses and be able to see in the thermal spectrum. What I'm doing now is trying to hook this spell battery to the glasses so that it can power the spell without me having to constantly devote energy to maintaining it.”

“But why do we need to use the thermal spectrum?”

She pointed to a book. “According to Inner Sight's Spirits, Spectres, and Spooks: in order to manifest, a spirit or other etherial being must pull energy from its surroundings, in many cases from the ambient heat, creating a cold spot that can betray the location of such a being with a fair degree of accuracy.”

“But, I thought you didn't believe in the supernatural,” Spike objected.

“If you have a better explaination for what's going on here, I'd like to hear it.” Twilight ran a hard-line between a battery pack on a belt around her barrel to the glasses. She closed her eyes and concentrated as her horn began to glow. The lenses of the glasses darkened and shifted colors. The battery pack glowed with the magenta energy as magic fed back down the line from the glasses.

Her head rotated as she scanned the room, pausing at Applejack. “I think I've got something.”

“Already?”

“Looks that way,” she responded, stepping closer to Applejack. “If your name is Applejack, strike the floor twice.”

Clop.

Clop.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank Celestia. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't Applejack. Listen, there's no need to apologize. I understand. To be honest, I should have known better than to go wandering around a realm I knew nothing about. I was concerned about you and curious about being in a new place and I guess I got ahead of myself.”

Applejack nodded. “Ah'm glad ya understand. I had a hay of a time figurin' out how to explain what was goin' on to ya.”

“Applejack, I might be able to see you, kind of, but I still can't hear you. We're going to have to figure something out aside from clopping and letter tiles, but we have a more pressing issue. Since you're gone, it's no longer possible for you to serve as the Element of Honesty. Unfortunately, that leaves us a mare down should Equestria ever be threatened again and it's imperative that we have all six Elements available. Celestia told me that the Elements recognize themselves.” She took a deep breath. “Applejack, I need you to find a new bearer for Honesty.”

“And how exactly are we gonna do that?”

“I think she spoke, if the thermal fluctuations are any indication. Applejack, I can't hear you.”

“Didn't you say something about sound frequencies,” Spike asked.

“Yeah,” Twilight prompted, wondering where the baby dragon was going with this.

“Well, maybe she's speaking in a frequency outside of what we can hear.”

Twilight's jaw fell. How was it that she hadn't thought of this first? “Spike, you're a genius!”

“Well, yeah. I live in a library. I'm bound to pick up something sooner or later.”

“It makes perfect sense that she's speaking outside of the hearing frequency, but which frequency?” She paced a moment while she thought. “Spike, where is my oscilloscope?”

“Uhm, I think you lent it to Vinyl Scratch.” He replied.

Applejack swung her scythe and opened a rift. While Twilight fetched her tools, she would have a talk with Princess Celestia.