Fate's Hand

Panoptos chuckles in his annoyingly high-pitched tone and speaks into Death's mind, 'You need not worry about that one dying, her friends will help her, they always manage to get there just in the nick of time to save the day. I thought that you should know...she was wearing some sort of crown that had power within it. We may have to catch up to them after you're done here, I will catch up to you in a little while. You should make quick work of these pesky vines and flowers, there is some corruption in them that I can harvest for our plan. I intend on gathering as much corruption from within this forest as I can before those annoying do-gooders get the upper hand.'

Death growls under his breath in irritation at the watcher's intentions and looks back over his shoulder in the direction he left Twilight and doesn't see the small clearing anymore and quietly says, "Let's get this show started, shall we...Alteya."

The watcher slides along the ground as a disconnected shadow and moves to the canopy of a tree and hovers on top of a large branch and observes the horseman as he brings out his scythe and changes it into its smaller, twin-sized, one-handled scythes. He then closes his eyes and focuses on the corruption in the area around him, chuckling with glee as there is more here than he first thought, and prepares to begin collecting from the vines and flowers as they are cut apart.

*Fifteen minutes later with Twilight deep in the Everfree*

Twilight wearily opens her eyes to see her friends doing what they can to deal with the vines, trying shakily to rise to her hooves. Succeeding in making it into a sitting position, she tries to lift up her head. With great effort, she barely manages to hold her head level as she forces her eyes open to see one of the flowers about to attack her friend Pinkie Pie. She channels her magic into a powerful beam to destroy the rogue flower, demolishing it and leaving the vine to fall lifelessly to the ground. She releases her magic and lets her head drop with a loud sigh, closing her eyes, and continues trying to rise to her hooves.

Spike does what he can to help her as her whole body trembles lightly with the effort to remain standing and asks, "Take it easy Twilight, you got hit hard by those mean flowers."

She turns her head slowly and looks at her assistant Spike with a smile and says, "I know, which is why I am glad that you went to go get my friends."

He looks at her and smiles back saying, "Of course, I wouldn't leave you to fend for yourself, I am your number one assistant after all!"

Applejack walks forward a little bit as the other girls gather around Twilight and smiles saying, "Ah'm sure glad that ya came into the forest fer us."

Twilight looks at Applejack and smiles back, then replies, "Not nearly as glad as I am that you all found me."

Rarity smiles softly and looks at Twilight while lifting up her right forehoof saying, "Well, the truth of it is, Twilight darling, is that we're simply lost without you to help us."

Rainbow then lands next to Applejack and folds her wings up saying, "Yeah, that's totally true. Equestria may need its Princess..."

Fluttershy walks up and places her left forehoof on Twilight's front right shoulder saying gently and finishing for Rainbow, "But we need our friend the most."

Twilight feels much better at hearing that she has such good friends as they all come towards her for a hug, she then hugs them back as they wrap their forehooves and wings around her saying, "You all are really my most treasured friends."

Death makes his way through the forest toward Twilight's location and mutters, "Alteya." As he shifts forms, he continues walking until he gets close enough to see the clearing with a large pile of detained plants. He gets close enough to see a group of ponies hugging Twilight and thinks to himself, 'There will be no better chance than now to introduce myself to these new arrivals.' He then begins to step out into the open, looking forward to gathering more information so he can return to his business.

As the ponies separate from the hug, Spike hears a twig snap from somewhere in front of him and makes his way around the group to see Seven approaching them. He crosses his arms across his chest and scowls angrily at him, then says with a little annoyance in his voice, "How nice of you to join us again Seven, it was not very nice of you to just ditch Twilight like that."

They all turn to look to the pony that Spike just addressed as Twilight sees Seven approaching them from the forest, asking them out of slight concern, "Are you okay? Why did you leave us to fend for ourselves like that?"

Rainbow is the first to react and steps in front of Twilight and glares at the approaching pony saying, "Yeah, some friend you are to just up and abandon Twilight to this forest. Who the heck are you, tell us who you are meany!"

Pinkie spots the pony in question, having a light celadon coat with white spots all over its body. A white mask in the vague form of a skull hides their face from view, having orangish-red eyes seeming to almost have a glow to them in the shadows behind the mask with a mane and tail pitch black along with their wings. An idea of a joke pops into her head as she adopts a deep tone and acts as if in a trance and speaks slowly, saying, "And I heard a voice say, Come and see. Lo and behold, I saw a pale pony...and Death was his name, and Tartarus followed him. Great power was granted unto them, to kill with sword, with hunger, and with any means necessary."

(Seven) Death looks at the pink one that just spoke and thinks to himself, 'That pink pony must be the one I was told about, Pinkie Pie was her name I believe.' He then responds by chuckling and adding a little mirth into his facial expression saying, "Yes, I am the one you speak of, so fear me, or it's Tartarus for you!" He then laughs out loud and says, Very funny joke, pink one. No, my name is Seven Selbs and I am not from around here." He then looks at Twilight and nods his head saying, "I am fine, this forest holds no dangers that worry me. I sensed several more of those strange plants that needed to be dealt with, if I hadn't left to go fight them off, you would likely be plant food now so you're welcome."

Twilight winces at the slight barb and says, "I'm glad that you dealt with them and came back in one piece, these are my friends. Allow me to introduce them, the light blue pegasus mare with magenta eyes, a rainbow mane and tail is Rainbow Dash. The light pink earth pony mare with light blue eyes, a bright pink mane and tail is Pinkie Pie. The light grey unicorn mare with blue eyes, a moderate purple mane and tail is Rarity. The off-orange earth pony mare with green eyes, a blonde mane and tail, wearing a stetson hat is Applejack. The light yellow pegasus with blue eyes, a light pink mane and tail is Fluttershy. Last but not least, the light purple male baby dragon with green eyes and spikes on his head is my number one assistant Spike."

Rarity is the first one to speak saying, "I must say that you weren't very nice to our dear Twilight, that doesn't make for a good first impression darling. You shall have to try harder if you wish to make up for it. Where are you from, I don't recognize you from Ponyville?"

He looks at the group of mares and the baby dragon, then says, "I am from a place very far from here, but it is a wasteland that I wish not to name. But I will tell you that I am a guardian as well as a warrior, I was sent here by my superiors to search for answers to issues that have appeared there."

Fluttershy steps forward and quietly asks, "Oh my, what is going on? Is there any way that we can help?"

(Seven) Death closes his eyes for a brief moment and lets sadness enter his voice briefly and sighs heavily, saying, "Unfortunately there is not, a disease is making its way throughout our lands. It first appears as black, spidery lines appearing on the body. I am looking for any evidence it has arrived here, but during my time spent wandering this land, I have seen no signs of it being here."

Rainbow scoffs and says, "Black lines on our bodies don't sound that bad, I'm not afraid of a few lines on my body."

Twilight looks at Rainbow and says, "I'm sure that there is more to this disease than just the lines Rainbow." She then turns to Seven and asks, "What happens next after the lines appear, how bad does this disease get?"

He looks away with sadness in his eyes and sighs again saying, "The next stage of the disease is that it starts taking control of the body and makes it act completely irrational, after that, it makes the body cough up black ooze until it finally makes the body's mind go completely insane and eventually choke to death on the ooze accumulating in their bodies produced by the disease. There is no worse disease than the one we face in my land, you best pray it never comes here because I have not yet found a cure for it." He hears them gasp at hearing more about the fictitious disease and looks around at them all, noticing the jewelry around their necks and the crown on top of Twilight's head, and asks, "What are those nice trinkets you have? I can sense the power that they wield."

Rarity smiles and nods her head proudly saying, "They are very nice indeed, they are the Elements of Harmony and I bear the Element of Generosity. Pinkie Pie bears the Element of Laughter, Rainbow bears the Element of Loyalty, Applejack bears the Element of Honesty, Fluttershy bears the Element of Kindness, and last but not least, Princess Twilight Sparkle bearing the one that links them all together, the Element of Magic." She then remembers about the tree and briefly gasps saying, "Oh Twilight darling, I almost forgot to tell you that we found the cave. Are you ready to go find the Tree of Harmony so we can figure out how to help it?"

She looks at her friend Rarity and says, "That's great to hear Rarity, great job girls! Yes, let's go see what we can do for the tree. Are you going to come with us to the tree, Seven, or are you going to go your separate way and continue looking for information?"

(Seven) Death can't believe his luck at meeting the bearers of the Elements of Harmony and looks at Twilight, nodding his head and saying, "You have piqued my interest Princess Twilight, so I shall accompany you there."

Twilight smiles and says, "Great, I'm glad to hear that because this forest gives me the creeps. Lead us there girls."

Fluttershy looks into Seven's orangish-red eyes and somehow feels sorry for them, causing her to be slightly confused as to why she is feeling that way. Deciding to wait for him to open up to her a bit more when he is comfortable, she remains silent and follows her friends toward the cave they found.

*Fifteen minutes later at the cavern*

(Seven) Death follows the girls down the path carefully, not wanting to tip them off that he is not used to his four-legged body. Making it down the stairs successfully, he follows the girls into the chasm and enters the cave after them. Having to go down a winding path, he eventually arrives in a large cavern with a great tree seemingly made of stone. He looks at the tree a little closer and sees that there are black, thorny vines wrapped around the tree. As they reach the bottom of the cavern at the base of the tree, he follows Twilight curiously to inspect the tree a little closer. He watches as green liquid oozes out of the vines themselves and reaches a hand out to get a better look at it saying, "Is this supposed to be a living tree?"

She hovers above the ground a little and looks the tree over and nods her head saying, "Yes it is, but something seems wrong with it. I saw a vision of this tree and it certainly didn't look like this in it, these vines were also not there."

He cocks his head curiously and says, "How curious...so similar yet very different from what I saw in my land. I thought it looked rather sickly for a tree, can you do anything to help it?"

Twilight looks at the tree and flies a little closer to it saying, "I don't know, I have never seen anything like this in my life." A vine then reaches out and wraps around her right foreleg, startling her and causing her to fly backward and pull against the vine. Unable to pull free, she uses her magic to cut the vine holding her foreleg. As the vine falls to the floor, she hovers a distance away from it as she remembers what she heard her mentor say in her dream about the tree. Finally seeing sockets in a few places on the outer branches of the tree and understanding what needs to be done, she heads down to her friends and lands saying, "I know what we must do to save the tree, we need to return the Elements of Harmony to it."

(Seven) Death looks at Twilight's friends as they voice their objections about her idea, and uses his mind to speak to Panoptos and asks, 'How goes your wretched corruption collection?'

Panoptos finishes up gathering the last bit of corruption around the forest he can find and replies back through the link, 'It goes, why do you ask?'

He looks at the vines as they drip ooze and replies, 'Because there is something rather peculiar I think you should check out here, be sure to hurry because Twilight is determined to return the Elements of Harmony to the tree here. Gather what you can from here and then make yourself scarce, we don't know what harm these may cause to you.'

Equis watches the exchange between the ponies as Death looks between the tree and the girls bearing the Elements of Harmony, deciding that she should give him protection against its magic and channels some of her magic into connecting to his mind and says, 'Fret not old one, I will grant you some protection from the magic of the tree so you can maintain your secrecy.'

(Seven) Death is slightly relieved to hear that and feels the connection fade away and speaks to Panoptos, 'That is one thing less to worry about, so come here and get to work collecting what you can and make yourself scarce again until I leave the company of these ponies.'

The Watcher quickly makes his way to the cavern where Death is, remaining as a shadow on the ground and sees what Death is talking about and travels up the vines, collecting samples of the sap and what corruption lies within the vines when he senses two nearly pure existences and says, 'Ick, so the two ruling princesses are trapped here in those vine ball prisons, I definitely don't want to be here any longer than I need to be.' He then returns to gathering the sap as the ponies continue to talk and comments on the samples saying, 'I am surprised at how concentrated this corruption is, it is nearly pure. Well, this is plenty enough for our plan. I shall watch you from afar until you are alone once more.'

He watches Twilight speak to her friends about how their friendship with survive no matter what may come and rolls his eyes and waits for her to get on with it.

Twilight then looks at all of her friends and says, "There is no time to lose girls. Is everypony ready to do this?" Hearing her friends nod their heads and smile at her saying yes, she flies up into the air and grabs each element one by one and holds them around her before finally grabbing her own. They spin around her rapidly for a few moments as a few vines rush out to grab her and the elements, taking her by surprise and nearly getting the Element of Magic. She quickly moves the element out of its grasp and starts to return the other elements to their places first, starting with Fluttershy's, then Pinkie's, Rainbow's, Rarity's, and Applejack's. A slot opens up in the center of the tree for the last element as the vines start to completely wrap around her entire body, having just enough time to hover the last element into its proper place before losing sight completely as she is enveloped by the vines.

(Seven) Death watches from the side of the cavern with a smile as the tree locks the elements into place as they glow brighter, gradually getting bright enough to where he needs to move a forehoof in front of his eyes. He watches as the vines begin to disappear from around the tree, continuing to glow brighter for a little longer before emitting a burst of light making the foliage reappear on the tree. He then looks at the two vine balls as they begin to disintegrate and reveal two tall ponies within them, one white and one dark blue. He then wonders about what to do about this tree and thinks, 'Hmmm...interesting don't you think Panoptos, how do you propose we deal with this tree's power?'

Panoptos looks over what he saw and responds, 'Curious, very curious... It will take me a little time to think about how best to tackle that obstacle, Enjoy your meeting with Celestia and Luna. I don't need to tell you which one is which...right?'

He mentally chuckles and looks at the cutie marks on their flanks and responds, 'Gee, let me guess... Looking at the pictures on their asses, the white one is Celestia and the dark blue one is Luna.'

The watcher giggles and replies, 'You are correct, you get to live as a reward. Just so you know, those two are over a thousand years old. Celestia has a keen sense about those she meets, so don't completely lie to her if she thinks you are older than you appear. Luna has the same sense, though not quite as strong as her sister's. Her power lies within her innate ability to literally watch over dreams at night, so be wary of her as well. Speaking of which, how are you going to deal with her dream walking ability?'

(Seven) Death then cocks his head and asks the watcher, 'You mean to say that she can actually see what one dreams at night?'

Panoptos grins and answers, 'Yes she most certainly can, and she can enter their dreams too. I learned that after having a little fun with a few of her subject's dreams at night, but I have learned how to work around her little ability. It took a few years to get it right, but I got it.'

He thinks about what he said and thinks, 'That means that if I dream of my past, she will find out who I am. I cannot allow that to happen or I might be captured and questioned, can you do anything to keep her from learning who I really am?'

The watcher thinks for a moment and says, 'Well...hmm... I guess that I could enter your mind and alter your dreams a little at night so she won't see your humanoid form or what you have actually done in the past, though they will occasionally be pretty gruesome for her to encounter though. Is that acceptable to you, Death?'

(Seven) Death considers it for a long moment before catching one of the smaller ponies glance in his direction and then hesitantly answers, 'Looks like there is no choice if I want to survive in this world and maintain my cover, so go ahead and do it...but only at night or there will be hell to pay.' He then watches Twilight walk past the two princesses and towards the tree as a flower bud sprouts up from one of the tree's roots, catching his eye as well as it opens at her touch to reveal some sort of gem with slots at the top.

Celestia notices a pale pony standing off to the side of the room, deciding to greet them later and says, "Six locks."

Luna looks at the object and finishes for her sister, "Six keys."

She shakes her head as Twilight looks at her curiously and shakes her head saying, "I know not where they are, but I do know that it is a mystery. A mystery that you will not be solving alone." She then looks at her sister and says, "Sister, I believe there is somepony else here that we have never met before. Do you wish to join me so we can greet them together?"

The lunar princess looks around curiously for the pony she means and sees them as well and nods her head saying, "I do indeed wish to join you sister, for I too have not yet encountered this pony before." and follows her sister as she makes her way to greet the strange guest.

He makes his way from the far wall, keeping his distance from them. He decides to let them introduce themselves first and smirks behind his mask saying, "It is very kind of you both to meet me halfway. Saves me a little exercise, so who might you two be?"

Celestia looks over the pony and guesses they are male with how muscular his body is, and the sound of their voice. She slightly narrows her eyes and introduces herself saying, "Greetings my little pony, we are the two ruling princesses of Equestria, I am Princess Celestia, and this is my beloved sister, Princess Luna. Neither of us has seen you before, could you introduce yourself to us?"

(Seven) Death nods his head and says, "I can indeed introduce myself, I am Seven Selbs, Your Majesties."

Luna looks over Seven's body, noting how he is as tall as she and her sister and has a pair of wings that are a little larger than theirs, and says, "It is a pleasure to meet you Seven, what brings you into the company of the Element Bearers?"

He looks at Princess Luna and answers her, "Well I was wandering around a desert when I stumbled upon a gang of Diamond Dogs, after fighting them off I jumped up out of the hole and happened to startle young Princess Twilight over there."

Celestia then cocks her head curiously and says, "Did you make it out of there okay? Could you tell us where you came from?"

(Seven) Death chuckles and says, "No need to worry about little old me, I made it out without a scratch. But them, however, they were beaten black and blue by yours truly for troubling Equestria. I claimed their dog tags hoping for a bit of a reward because I arrived here without any currency. I came from a land that is very far from here, it is a wasteland where nothing grows."

Luna looks at him with concern and asks with a worried tone in her voice, "Is there a problem there that caused you to leave your home?"

He looks away in pretend sadness and sighs saying, "There is a problem, there is a disease running rampant over there that has no cure still. It is a disease that slowly kills those it infects, beginning with black lines appearing on some part of the body that spread. As they spread further along the body, the disease begins to take control of them and causes the body to act irrationally in the form of frequent twitching. The last stage is the worst and most fatal, the disease infecting the body will create a black ooze that accumulates in the lungs and stomach. As the body starts to choke on the ooze, it will go insane and act violently towards any others that come near it until the body dies.

Luna then gasps at how bad the disease sounds and says, "How horrible, is there anything that we can do to help them fight off this foul disease?"

(Seven) Death turns his head back to the princesses and shakes his head with a sigh saying, "Unfortunately not because it would take too long to get there, even if we left right now."

Celestia straightens her posture and stomps a hoof saying, "Nonsense, it is never too late to at least try. With my sister's magic and mine combined, we could teleport anywhere in this world."

He starts to feel annoyed at how helpful and caring these ponies are and says, "There lies the real problem I face, I am not from this world. I have wandered this land for a few months now, trying to search for a way to get back, with no luck."

Refusing to give up hope of helping them get home so they can help the ones suffering, she says, "When we return to Canterlot, we will search through every library for any possible way to help you return after holding a ceremony first."

(Seven) Death's annoyed facial expression turns into a scowl as he suddenly turns his hardening gaze upon the two ponies as it becomes a glare and takes just two steps closer and lets out a deep, angry growl and says in a deep tone, "Quit your pestering!"

The two instinctively back away a little at the anger in his eyes and voice while it rumbles throughout the cavern as Celestia hangs her head slightly and says, "I apologize for caring so much about others, I was only trying to help you out." She then looks down to the floor, ashamed at how pushy she was being.

He softens his gaze and huffs in annoyance at how cute these ponies can be, releasing an irritated sigh saying, "The truth is that you can't help what is already dead."

Luna looks up at his face with her jaw hanging open slightly, closing it quickly, and asks, "W-Why would you not just tell us the truth then instead of outright lying to us?"

(Seven) Death looks at Luna and focuses on her eyes and says, "I don't like talking about what happened in my past, mainly because it is filled with shame, guilt, regret, and lots of pain that I would rather not be reminded of so often. Besides, you lot have enough to worry about than feeling the pain of knowing what happened to my world. So in short, I came here because my world is dead, its inhabitants are dead, and it is all...my fault. Don't you have a ceremony to attend? If so, you really should get going." He then starts to head out of the cavern but stops to look over his left shoulder to ask, "Could you tell me where I may be able to turn in these dog tags?"

Tears start to stream from Celestia's face as she then lifts her head up and looks at him saying, "You can turn those in to the town hall in Ponyville, do you know how to get there?"

He then shakes his head and says, "I do not, but my companion does..." He then turns around and starts to look for him and calls out, "DUST, where are you?"

Fluttershy hears the flapping of wings and the loud caw of a crow in the distance and looks towards the front of the cavern where they came in, seeing said animal fly towards Seven and land on a nearby ledge being large and black.

(Seven) Death then looks at his companion and says, "Ahh, there you are, guide me to the Town Hall in Ponyville."

She watches curiously as Dust ever so slightly nods his head and caws before taking off towards the front of the cavern and thinks, 'Does Dust really have such a high level of intelligence, I will have to try to speak to them when the opportunity arises.'