My Little Psyche: Journey of the Soul

So many strange things have happened to me lately. I really don't know how to feel about any of it. And whenever I try to remember if things like this have happened before—I mean, I've been around for quite a long time. Surely I've run across these sort of things before—everything just seems...wrong. Things are missing. They don't make sense. Have I really not taken the time to reflect before? Or can I no longer remember things because the memories are no longer there?

“Well, that's because they don't exist anymore,” the Boss had told me. “If they fail in their duty as Reaper, they pose a threat to not only us, but to Life and Death as we know it. So we erase all record of them from existence. Except for, of course, my own personal recollection of them.

“You don't wanna be erased now...do ya, Psyche?”

I thought back to when the lost souls of the Forest nearly killed me. At first I was okay with dying. But then...

“Psyche, are you even listening to me?” Zecora asked, bringing my attention back to her. “Saving your life wasn't mere fortuity.”

I stared at her blankly. “...What?”

I was standing in her hollowed out tree home. I noticed a nervous-looking Fluttershy beside her and wondered how much Zecora had told her about what she saw.

“I knew you were coming for the tome,” the zebra mare explained. “The one without which you can never go home. It's forbidden secrets fill my mind—of life and death, you and your kind.”

She appeared to pull the book out of thin air. It was a heavy-looking, leather-bound tome with a pony's skull on the front. It seemed to have a presence all on its own—like it knew where it was and who it was with. Zecora extended it out to me, and I reached out my magic to take it from her.

“It is yours to do with what you will. Our fate is in your hooves—for good or for ill.”

“Wait...what? Your fate is in my hooves? What's that supposed to mean?”

Zecora lowered her head. “It appears I have said more than I should. I must clear my memories of this for good. Fluttershy, you must drink as well. To keep Psyche safe, what you've seen and heard, you can never, ever tell.”

“B-But...I wound never...” Fluttershy stuttered. “I don't even know what I saw!” She turned her big blue eyes to me. “Are you okay, Psyche?

“I'm fine. I think. That's never...happened to me before. I can see again. And I can feel again,” I said, tapping my hooves on the ground. “That's good. I guess.”

“You just...lifted into the air and started getting thrown around! I was so scared! I thought you were going to die!”

“You want me to...live?”

Fluttershy looked confused. “O-Of course I do!”

“No one's ever been that concerned about me before. Then again, no one's had to.”

“What are you talking about? Aren't your friends concerned about you?”

“I... I don't have any friends, Fluttershy.”

The yellow pegasus gasped and covered her muzzle with her hooves. “No friends!? Oh, how sad!”

I looked down at the ground, unsure of how to respond.

“C-Can I be your friend?”

I looked back up at her. She was smiling now, her face half-hidden behind her mane.

“I—”

“That enough—from both of you,” Zecora said quietly. There seemed to be a sadness in her eyes as she looked at me. “Fluttershy, the brew.”

Fluttershy gingerly took the cup in her hooves. “What will this do?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Like I've said, it will make you forget—prevent you from doing something you'll regret.”

Fluttershy turned her gaze to me, as if silently pleading for my help.

“Do it,” I told her softly. “It's for the best. Just...thank you. For caring about me.”

She looked like she was about to drink from the cup, but then, before I could realize what was going on, she charged at me, wrapping her hooves around me tight. “Promise you'll come to my hut sometime, okay!? I can introduce you to the animals! And my other friends! They'll love you! I know they will!”

“I...” I gently pushed her away and made my way to the door. Without looking back at her or Zecora, I said, “Thanks again. But I really must go. Take care of yourselves. Both of you.”

As soon as I made my way outside, I took off in a full gallop. I just had to get as far away from there as possible. I was glad that Fluttershy and Zecora cared. I really was. But being around them...just being around anyone—it felt like I was putting them in danger. No one lives long when Death is around. Perhaps that was why I never bothered befriending ponies before. Things get too complicated that way. You second-guess your job. You show favoritism. You expose them to ghosts that could kill them. Your boss questions your integrity...

I stopped galloping, took a deep breath, closed my eyes...

Perhaps its best that I just forget all of this too. Higgins. Cathode. Turkish Casper. Fluttershy. Zecora.

I allowed myself to think about each of them for just a few seconds more, before I pushed all of them down into the dark depths of my mind, replacing the warmth I felt with cold indifference.

I turned my attention to the direction of the Castle of Two Sisters. Prism Limit had wanted me to meet him there before returning to the Boss.

Why?

For a moment, I considered forgetting about that too. After all, the only I stayed in the Forest, the longer I was in danger. But I felt the book...staring at me. I floated it out in front of me with my magic and the feeling intensified.

I felt my neck being craned into the direction of the Castle. Then I felt one of my hooves move out in front of me, taking a step towards it. Then another. Then another.

* * * * *

Before I knew it, I was there. It had been a long time since I last walked its halls. It was back before Luna's exile to the moon. Such a shame that was... I remember Princess Celestia ordering the Reapers to stay far away from her sister before their confrontation. She knew the Nightmares were draining her life force as they took her over completely and that her name may be whispered to one us. But she, of course, had no authority over my kind. And you know what? We ALL heard her name.

“Luna Luna Luna...”

We had all gathered around in the shadows, watching as the sisters fought. But in the end, Princess Luna's life was spared when Princess Celestia sent her to the moon. Not only could the Reapers not reach the moon on their own, but its power kept her life force stable.

When Nightmare Moon returned, Princess Luna was dying again and we all heard her name in our ears.

“Luna Luna Luna...”

Again, we watched her closely. But again, she cheated death as the Elements of Harmony freed her of the Nightmares. Needless to say, the Boss wasn't too happy about that.

“Psyche?” I realized the Reaper of Cloudsdale was standing right in front of me. “What are you doing? Are you okay?”

The book slipped out of my magical grip and fell to the floor. I could suddenly feel my legs again. Well that was odd...

“Oh! You brought the book! Excellent!” Prism scooped the book up in his hooves and hovered a few feet in the air with his wings. “Come on! This way!”

“W-Where are we going?” I asked, still unsure as to why exactly Prism had asked me to come here.

“I'll explain once we find the others.”

“Others...?”

* * * * *

There are 30 Reapers total, including me and the Boss. Some only preside over certain settlements, while others preside over whole regions of Equestria. When a pony dies beyond Equestrian lines or within the Everfree Forest, we cannot send their souls to the afterlife—not unless their soul find its way to where our powers can be of use.

Before me were five of those 30 Reapers, all leaving their assigned territories behind to meet up here, in this rundown castle, in a forest in which they were essentially powerless. But why?

“We're going to overthrow the Boss,” Prism answered plainly.

Hearing the words “overthrow” and “Boss” in the same sentence was so ludicrous to me that it took me a second or two to fully comprehend the concept of it.

“W-What!?!?”

“Our range of power in Equestria is receding,” Threnody, the Reaper of Baltimare explained. “Whatever force nullifies our magic within the Everfree Forest and beyond Equestrian borders is extending its reach, little by little every day!”

“The Boss refuses to acknowledge this to anyone,” Segue of Vanhoover chimed in. “But we found it out without her help, when we found ourselves weakened within the borders of our territories.”

“She thinks with this book she can fix it somehow,” Prism explained, indicating the Tome of Necromancy in her hooves. “Not only that. She wants to extend our reach across the entire world.”

“Well... Is that necessarily a bad thing?” I asked, thinking of the lost souls that nearly killed me in the woods.

“If she makes it so we can reap souls anywhere, then that means we'd all have to cover more ground, collect souls more frequently, and that's not even including the lost souls that are already flying around everywhere for the ages in which we couldn't reap them at all.

“She thinks she can make a decision like this on her own, without taking our own feelings into consideration. We're just pawns to her, doing her dirty work while she sits up in her Domain. Doesn't that seem unfair to you?”

“Well... I guess... But... Isn't reaping souls what we're supposed to do? I mean, you know what happens when they're left to wander...”

“Not all souls that wander are 'lost.' In fact, many of the ones we've observed would rather just be left alone. They're fine with staying here in Equestria.”

“But what about the ones that want to leave? Or the ones that are too dangerous to let stay?”

“Psyche... We've been doing this job for longer than we can remember. And as far as we're concerned, we never asked for this kind of responsibility. Don't we deserve a rest, too? Don't we deserve to live a normal life like everyone else?

“These souls that want to move on have forever to come to terms with staying. They can even learn to enjoy it. As for the dangerous ones, there are dangerous living ponies, too. Yet we don't have to do anything about them. Hell, we're not even supposed to interfere with the living, according to the Boss. So why should it matter?”

I wasn't sure what to think just then. All of these Reapers could be erased for something like this. Hell, I could be erased just for being here. I really wasn't sure what to do...

“Psyche, don't you wanna know what it's like to live like a normal pony? To make friends with them?”

Despite previously trying to forget them, I couldn't help but think about Higgins, Cathode, Zecora, and Fluttershy once more. If I helped in overthrowing the Boss, I could live alongside them. I could live...

But then I thought of the three ghosts in the forest. They were so mangled, so desperate to be free of a torment I couldn't possibly comprehend. Should I really be responsible for handling such matters?

Prism approached me slowly, his emerald gaze bearing down on me as I stood before him in silence. “So, Psyche? What will you choose?”