Death In Ponyville

DEATH IN PONYVILLE

CHAPTER 1:

DEATH IN HIS WORK

Celestia's sun had just disappeared below the horizon, and Luna's moon had taken its place in Equestria's sky. Below the glow of the moon lay another glow - the glow of the many towers and buildings of Manehatten.

Sitting hidden away on the corner of a busy intersection was a bar by the name of Bridles. It was a small establishment, but it was extremely popular with the locals, and others who frequently walked the streets of Manehatten.

One such individual stepped through the open doorway, whistling softly to himself as he trotted past ponies drinking and talking at tables, and over to the bar. He was a medium-built, brown Earth pony with a dark brown mane and tail. On his flank was a cutie mark of an hourglass.

He came up to the bar, and quickly got the attention of the bartender. "One beer, my good pony," the brown Earth pony asked.

"You got it, buddy," the bartender replied, quickly ducking under the bar, returning with a bottle clenched in his jaw. Setting it down on the bar, he grabbed a metal device in his mouth and expertly plucked the cap of the bottle right off.

The brown Earth pony grinned. "Impressive," he said.

"Thanks," the bartender replied. He watched the other pony for a moment as he picked the glass up in his hoof and took a drink. "So, what brings you round to Bridles? I think I've seen you around a few times before,"

"You have indeed," the brown Earth pony replied. He took another drink, then set his bottle down for a moment. "And to answer your question...work,"

"Work?" the bartender asked.

"Well, I should say that the work I have is at an apartment a few blocks away from here," the brown Earth pony amended. "But I have plenty of time to pay my favorite bar a visit,"

The bartender smiled, pleased at the compliment. "Thanks a lot for that, bud. You know what, that beer is on the house,"

"Why, thank you," the other stallion said, taking another drink.

A loud shout caused him to glance over at a table near the bar. His eyebrow raised in surprise when he saw a yellow coated unicorn sitting at the table with some other ponies. The yellow unicorn was knocking back beer after beer, as his friends cheered him on.

"What's going on with them?" the brown stallion asked.

The bartender glanced where he was looking, and laughed. "Oh, old Lucky Lottery? He's a regular here. He just got a huge promotion at work, so he's celebrating,"

"Ah," the brown stallion said, looking back at the unicorn, who was now engaging one of his friends in a nacho eating contest.

I shouldn't...Ah, why not. No harm will be done.

With that thought in mind, the brown stallion trotted over to the table where the yellow unicorn, Lucky Lottery, was sitting. He cleared his throat, causing the group of ponies to turn and look at him.

Lucky Lottery wiped some nacho cheese off his face, and shot a beaming grin at the brown pony. "Hi!" he greeted cheerfully.

"Hello," the brown stallion greeted. "The bartender tells me you just got a promotion at your work," He raised up his bottle and tipped it towards him. "Congratulations,"

"Thanks, man! Hey guys, cheers for me!" Lucky Lottery cried. All the other stallions at the table whooped, lifting up their beer glasses and clinking them against Lucky's own, which was being held up by his magic. Chuckling, the brown pony lifted his own beer bottle up and took part in the cheers.

"What's your name, brother?" Lucky asked once they had quieted down.

"Time Turner," the brown stallion answered.

"Well, Time Turner, how about you join us for some drinks? Bet you can't beat me at a hot sauce drinking contest!" Lucky Lottery challenged, picking a hot sauce bottle up off the table.

Time Turner shook his head. "I appreciate the offer, Lucky Lottery, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no to that,"

"Aww, you sure man?" Lucky asked, sounding genuinely disappointed. Time Turner nodded, and Lucky shrugged. "Oh well, can't make ya if you don't wanna. Hey, bartender, another round of beers, stat!"

Time Turner turned and trotted back to the bar, where the bartender set several bottles of beer on the table, which were promptly grabbed by Lucky Lottery's magic and taken over to the table and the cheering stallions. The bartender shook his head at the sight, and looked over to Time Turner.

"That Lucky is such a nut," he said. "But he brings in good business, so I'm happy for him,"

"Yeah," Time Turner agreed with a nod. He looked over at Lucky Lottery, who was now animatedly performing some sort of story, even standing up on his chair, much to the amusement of his friends. "Yeah," he repeated, taking another drink from his beer bottle.

You know, sometimes I wish I could actually get drunk.

Lucky Lottery pushed open the door to his apartment, his face stuck in a happy grin. He always loved hanging out at the bar with his buddies. Humming to himself, he kicked the door shut behind him.

Dropping his saddlebags on the ground by his kitchen table, Lucky paused to let out a big yawn.

Suppose it's time to hit the hay, he thought to himself.

The unicorn stallion began to trot towards his bedroom, when he suddenly shivered as a blast of cold nighttime air brushed against his coat.

"What the..." he muttered, looking around. He saw that the sole window in his apartment was wide open. Remembering that he had opened it to air the room out after he had made a particularly gross trip to the bathroom before leaving for work that morning, Lucky giggled.

"Oh yeah," he spoke out loud, unable to stop giggling in his intoxicated state. "Better go shut that!"

Lucky Lottery continued humming as he trotted over to the window, and lifted up his hooves to grip the windowpane...only to find it not moving.

"Huh?" Lucky continued tugging on the window, and quickly became irritated as it refused to move. Tugging it harder and harder, Lucky grunted in anger when the window did not close. "What the buck, window, stop being such a dick!"

It didn't occur to Lucky in his hazy drunken condition, that he should have remembered that his window had been given a special spell that only allowed Lucky's magic to open and close it, to prevent robberies. It also didn't occur to Lucky that sticking half his body out of the window to try and tug the window shut from outside his apartment was also not a very good idea.

But that's exactly what he was doing. Gritting his teeth, Lucky began to pull harder, staring right up at the window.

"Dammit, why are you stuck?!" Lucky shouted, unintentionally disturbing a cat sitting on a windowsill above. It jumped into the air and let out a loud, surprised screech. The screech, in turn, caused Lucky to jolt in surprise, causing his hooves to let go of the window.

This, in turn, caused Lucky Lottery's entire body to fall out of the window, head first.

Lucky only had time to turn his eyes downwards, as the street rushed up at him at a very quick speed. He opened his mouth to scream, but didn't get a chance before his vision turned completely black.

Almost instantly, the blackness disappeared, and Lucky Lottery gasped as the black pavement of the street filled his vision. Shakily, the stallion stood up on all four hooves, his mind racing.

"W-What?" he breathed, raising up his hoof and staring at it in shock. He looked down at the rest of himself, and was quite stunned to see that he was not a flattened pony pancake. In fact, he didn't appear to have even a tiny scratch on him.

Looking up, Lucky Lottery could barely make out the window of his apartment, almost seven whole stories above his head.

"Sweet Celestia," he whispered.

He rubbed his head, and was shocked yet again when he felt no blood. He continued to stare up, his mind boggled. He felt much more sober than he had the whole night. Falling out of a window and landing head first on the street might do that for him. Except...

"How in Tartarus am I still alive?" he asked himself out loud.

"Well, you see Lucky, the current situation here is that you're not,"

Lucky Lottery whipped his head around to find a second stallion standing right by his side. He recognized him immediately as the stranger he had run into at the bar less than an hour ago.

"Time Turner?" he exclaimed.

Time Turner smiled. "Oh, you remember me?" he asked. "Good, good! I was a bit concerned you would be too drunk to do that,"

"What are you doing here?" Lucky Lottery asked.

"Well, I'm here on account of the fact that you are very recently deceased," Time Turner replied. "As the Grim Reaper, it is my job to  attend such things,"

"...R-Recently d-d-deceased?" Lucky stuttered as he felt his heart began to pump in his chest. W-What is this crazy pony talking about, my heart is pumping, I'm not recently deceased, I'm alive, I'm totally alive, WOW my heart is pumping really fast.

"Just because you're dead doesn't mean your heart stops working for your soul's form," Time Turner said, catching the other stallion off guard. "I never really understood why a soul's spiritual manifestation has organs. I've been doing this for so long and I haven't found a single reasonable answer for that! Can you believe it?"

"W-What are you talking about?!" Lucky cried, backing away from the brown-coated pony. "What the buck are you talking about, dude?!"

Time Turner cleared his throat and pointed his hoof to the right. "I do warn you, Lucky, it's not a pretty sight,"

Lucky turned his head to look in the direction Time Turner was pointing - and immediately screamed, falling to his rump in shock.

"Not pretty at all," Time Turner repeated.

The other stallion looked away from the grisly scene, staring at Time Turner with horrified eyes. "I-Is...I-Is that...Is that m-me?" Lucky asked quietly.

Time Turner nodded. "I'm afraid it is, Lucky Lottery,"

Lucky squashed down a second scream that was coming out of his throat. He somehow managed to bring himself to look back at the body before him. "W-What happened to my h-head?"

"Well, I'd wager that most ponies heads aren't really built to come out of slamming into solid pavement from a great height unscathed," Time Turner replied. He titled his head curiously and regarded the sight of Lucky Lottery's body. "I will admit, it is impressive that your bodies horn is intact, considering the entire left side of your bodies head has been turned into a gaping hole. Hey, did you know that brains are gray and not pink?,"

Lucky Lottery stood up on his hooves again, staring at the remains of....himself.

"I-I'm dead," he whispered. He could feel himself begin to shake, even worse then before. "I...I'm really dead..."

"Oh good, he's one of the ones who get the gist of it straight away," Time Turner said, speaking mostly to himself. "Having to explain everything started getting boring around 455 B.N.M. Good thing Star Swirl the Third invented musical numbers, or I swear..."

"N-No!" Lucky Lottery began to scream, his eyes watering. "N-No, I can't be dead! I-I...I can't be dead!"

Tears begin to freely flow down the stallion's face as the gravity of what was happening struck him fully. He was dead. As in, no more living Lucky Lottery. He began to frantically whip his head back and forth, switching between looking at the sight of his down dead body and Time Turner, still screaming. "T-There was stuff I still wanted to do! I-I just got my promotion at work! I-I was going to propose to Windy Spin once I had enough money to buy her a ring! Oh Faust, Windy Spin, what is she going to do now? And my M-Mom, and my f-friends...I-I don't want to die yet, not this young! I'm only 25! I can't live only twenty-five years, that's not fair!"

Lucky Lottery's hooves collapsed beneath him, and his face fell into his front hooves. "T-This can't be happening! Please, please don't let this happen! I-I-I don't want to be dead!" he sobbed.

He felt two hooves grab him by the shoulders, then hoist him up into a sitting position. Lucky looked through his teary eyes to see Time Turner staring right back at him. His face was neutral, but his eyes showed nothing but sympathy. Wordlessly, Time Turner wrapped Lucky Lottery in a hug. Lucky did not question it. Instead, he buried his face into the other ponies shoulder, and weeped for his own lost life.

It felt like they sat like that for half an hour, before Lucky, tears mostly dried, let go of Time Turner. He looked at his dead body one last time, before he shut his eyes and turned away.

"For what it is worth," Time Turner spoke up. "I'm sorry that you are saddened by this,"

Lucky couldn't help but chuckle. "You're sorry that I'm sad that I'm dead, but not sorry I'm dead?" he asked, his voice quivering slightly each time he said the word "dead".

Time Turner gave him a grin. "Well, if ponies didn't die, I'd be out of a job, wouldn't I?"

Lucky turned his gaze back to the other pony, his apprehension returning. "So, you really are, like...the Grim Reaper?" he asked.

Time Turner nodded. "Yes, that is correct," he said. "Need a soul reaped? Time Turner is your pony,"

Lucky chuckled against his will once more, wiping at his eyes. "So...so what happens to me now?" he asked, a bit fearfully.

Time Turner could hear the fear in Lucky's voice, and that tugged at his heart. He smiled warmly, hoping it would soothe those fears. "Well, now Lucky, I'm going to be taking you to your final resting place,"

Lucky couldn't help but gulp. "A-And where would that be?"

"Where else Lucky?" Time Turner replied. "Heaven,"

Lucky's breath stopped as soon as he heard those words. "H-Heaven?" he repeated. "R-Really?"

"Yes, really," Time Turner said, smiling brightly. Lucky saw a light form out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to look down the end of the street. What looked liked a completely different world, the entrance to a softly glowing ethereal tunnel, had appeared just a few feet away.

"W-Wow," Lucky Lottery could not help but gasp.

"Never gets old," Time Turner piped up, appearing at Lucky's side. He gestured towards the tunnel with his hoof. "Shall we?"

Lucky could only nod, his fears vanishing into nothing as the warmth of the light beckoned him in, and he began to walk forward, away from the Manehatten streets he had grown up on and towards...a new place. He did pause as a thought occurred to him, and he turned to look at the Grim Reaper next to him. "Is...Is that why you were at the bar? Because I was going to die tonight?" he asked.

Time Turner shook his head. "No, you just happened to be there. Just because I'm the Grim Reaper doesn't mean I don't enjoy a nice cold beer every now and then,"

Time Turner watched from his spot as Lucky Lottery vanished out of sight at the end of the ethereal tunnel. He stayed in place for a few seconds, then smiled as he heard Lucky's voice in the distance, crying out in joy.

"Dad! It's really you! Oh Dad, I'm so happy to see you!"

Time Turner continued to smile even as he turned and instantly departed from the Crossing Over, reappearing back on the streets of Manehatten. He always did get a warm feeling in his immortal heart whenever he had the chance to hear loved ones reuniting on the other side. It was one of the perks of the job.

That, and getting to scare the living Faust out of the souls bound for torment in Tartarus. But right now, he was focusing on the happy.

Very few ponies would consider it a happy thing for anypony to die at all. But Time Turner knows differently. He's been doing his job since the very beginning of Equestria. He's ushered every pony that ever walked or flew on this planet to the other side, whether it was the good one or the bad one. He's guided the souls of the old, the young, the successful and the sorrowful. He knows that Death is not what everypony fears it to be.

Because he is Death. The hourglass on his flank represents the passing and end of life. All ponies lives eventually come to an end. And when they do, Time Turner will be there.

That's his job.

And he does it very well, thank you.