The Immortal's Game

Chapter 9: Past

        “Alright, so tell me about who the Reapers were. We have the whole of the  train ride ahead of us and Walker is busy catching Hat Trick up on all the shenanigans that we’ve been through up until this point.” Scarlet said as she sat with Mari on the train. Walker and Trick had retreated into their own little bubble of catch up session on the other side of the car.

        Mari considered Scarlet’s request that she had given him. She, almost more than any other pony, had the right to know about the history of the Reapers. “Alright, fine. I’ll tell you how most of this came to be. Where would you like me to start from?”

        Scarlet though on the answer she was about to give Mari. Both Walker and Mari had been around long enough to fill libraries with what they had seen, and she would have passed away if she said “everything.” She decided that what would be important now is Walker’s past and Dark. “How about what the Reapers were like when Walker joined? That seems like a good story. And what about this ‘Dark’? I know he’s important but I want to know why.”

        “Normally, I would shoot down a question like that, but seeing as how you’re quite wrapped up in this whole series of events you might as well know what happened about a thousand years ago.” He paused for a moment. “Now, would you like to hear the story or see it?”

        Scarlet thought for a moment. “I guess i’ll see it. Why read a book when you can watch the movie?”

        “Because they usually leave out the important and good bits when you watch the movie.” Mari replied. Scarlet wondered if Mari had actually ever even seen a movie, or if he just saw them through others memories and thoughts. “Place your hoof on top of my skull. You’ll feel a bit nauseous for a moment but the feeling should pass relatively quickly.

        Scarlet did as he instructed and placed her hoof on top of what remained of Mari. She began to feel as if she was being pulled somewhere and then her head exploded with pain, she doubled over from the excruciating agony. When she awoke she was on a cold stone floor in a dimly lit room. She pushed herself to her hooves and looked over, only to see a massive purple flame and screamed from shock.

        “Oh don’t be like that. It’s hard to narrate a good story when you can’t point out the intricacies of what’s happening.” Scarlet took a double take of the flame and saw that it was shaped like a pony, and the flames enveloped Mari’s skull. He almost looked as if he were wearing nothing but a cloak made of fire. “Now, we should begin this story with a bit of background, namely the day that Walker joined our ranks as a Reaper.”

        Mari waved his hoof in front of him. Bodies began to form from nothingness and three ponies inhabited the once barren room. On the throne sat a white alicorn with a flowing pink mane, that Scarlet assumed was a much younger Celestia. Along side here were two unicorns, one was a gray unicorn with a dark blue mane and a skull cutie mark that Scarlet immediately picked out as Dark. The other had a purple mane and a brown coat. He seemed a bit frail and had a puppeteer’s cross for a cutie mark.

        “That scrawny one over there is me, before I became a disembodied head. I used to look half decent and I could probably pick up a girl nowadays. Every one of them always went after the kind of colt that Dark was.” A young looking unicorn walked through the door that Scarlet assumed was Walker.

        “Ah, good to see that you made it here, Mr. Knight.” Said the younger Celestia. “I was afraid that you wouldn’t come.”

        Scarlet felt confused; surely that had to be Walker that had just entered, so why did Celestia call him Knight? “Hey, isn’t that Walker that just came in? What’s with that name?”

        “Oh, pardon me, I forgot to mention it earlier. Walker’s original name was Scrying Knight, he only changed it to Dream Walker recently after a series of events. He’ll be called by that name throughout our little presentation.” Mari gave a light chuckle. “And to think, that was the Walker that the story of the knight in shining armor cliche came from. One little incident with a bucket and a friend of his needing help and he becomes an icon of chivalry for ages to come.”

        “It’s an honor to meet you, Princess Celestia. When you send that many messengers after me it’s hard to refuse. Why was I brought here, anyhow?”

        “You’ve been selected to be part of a special portion of the royal guard, called the Equestrian Reapers Assembly, to serve under me. You are one of the most talented mages in Equestria, and your ability to catch the odd glimpse or two of the future would greatly benefit us. Although I am not forcing you to join, your acceptance would be greatly appreciated.” Celestia gave a warm, happy smile that Scarlet knew was honest, not a lie used to cover up true intentions.

Walker spoke next. “Alright, it sounds like a little more than just guard duty though. What are the risks that come along with this job? And what exactly would I have to do?”

“The main point of your job, for now at least, is to hunt down the demons that were released by my sister. They still roam freely across these lands and could cause unknown devastation if they have free reign. I am busy recovering from what has happened, so I am in no shape to fight against them. If you die, it would likely be that you are ripped limb from limb by these terrible monstrosities.”

Walker seemed to ponder his answer, Scarlet and Mari both already knew what his answer would be, but there was still a bit of anticipation for his answer. The Walker in front of Scarlet looked like he may have been in his late teenage years, or possibly his early twenties.

“No,” Walker said, which astonished Scarlet. “I will join you, but there’s not a snowball’s chance in Tartarus that I’m going to get killed by some demon.”

The room remained silent, all the ponies, even Scarlet, were shocked. Then the pony Scarlet assumed was Dark began to applaud. “Well, at the very least you have some courage. Let’s see how long that lasts though. Now, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Dark Scythe, and I’m the captain of our little group. This bare bones fellow over here Is Marionette Strings, but he prefers to go by Mari despite what he says.

“Now, I know we may not look like much, but we were all selected to eliminate this plague. Were the top of the ladder when it comes to magic, and that’s precisely what is needed to fight things like the demons. We should probably get going, we already have a job to take down a winged demon that has a nasty little habit of becoming invisible and ripping apart ponies with green coats.” He began to walk towards the door. “Hope you like wearing green, Knight,”

The scene began to change once again, this time they were on near top of a mountain that looked quite a lot like where Canterlot now stood. “The royal castle used to be where Everfree is now, that will be important later in our story.” Said Mari, who likely knew exactly what Scarlet was thinking. “And that was the Dark that Walker and I knew, before he became a homicidal maniac. This was the day that he changed, I’d like to think. This is about two years after Walker joined us, and was the last demon we had to take down.”

More apparitions began to appear off in the distance. Scarlet watched as Walker and the other Reapers began to walk towards her. Mari had a scar running along the side of his face that wasn’t there before, and Scarlet noticed looking back at the undead version of Mari that there was a scratch along the side of his skull that she had never noticed. “How much longer to the top, Dark?” Asked the young Walker.

“Shouldn’t be that much further. Now remember, we don’t know that much about this Demon, unlike our usual. He is big, though. Mari, just keep doing what you usually do. Knight, try attacking him mentally, but since we don’t know if that’s how he fights you should be careful.”

“Will do, sir.” Replied Walker, giving him a half hearted salute.Walker gave a sigh, then his eyes shot open and darted around wildly. His nose began to bleed and he fell down onto his knees.

“Of all the times to have a vision, you pick now?” Mari rushed over to Walker and began to help him back up. Walker’s hoof was pressed against the side of his head and he was groaning in pain. “What was it this time? Anything about the demon?”

“No... This one was different from my usual cryptic visions... I saw Dark, standing over a bleeding Celestia, just laughing like a mad-pony.” He glanced over at the group’s leader. “For once, a vision was somewhat clear. I’m not sure what it means but-”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. The visions you usually have are off, or sometimes you just misinterpret them. What possible reason would I have to attack Celestia? She’s the one that helps put food on the table for me.” Dark said, giving a smile. “Now back on your feet, we need to take that thing down and be done with these shenanigans.”

Dark began to march off to the distance once more and the scene shifted again, this time moving them up to the peak of the mountain. A massive demon that resembled something between a chimera and a dragon was fighting against Dark and Walker. Mari was on the ground with a gash along his side. Scarlet assumed that he was still conscious, given that these were his memories.

Walker had a look of strain on his face, and it was obvious that he was hard pressed to hold off thie demon. His magic seemed to be going full strength, but since Scarlet was a pegasus she wasn’t sure. Dark was attacking the demon with a large scythe that looked like it was made of energy. The demon swung its tail, swatting at Walker who had a lapse of concentration in order to avoid the attack.

The demon turned it’s head towards Dark, and it’s eyes glowed with a evil sort of energy. Dark, who was lunging towards the demon at the time, fell to the ground. Walker said something, but Scarlet couldn’t understand what it was. The area around her began to darken, then turned wholly black. “What’s going on?”

“I passed out about this point. Since I was just barely alive the memories are a bit... faded to say the least. I’ve watched this memory hundreds of times and I’m still not sure what happened.” The area seemed to lighten up, becoming brighter. “And here’s the point Walker slapped me awake.” The image came back, and Scarlet saw Walker standing over Mari. Dark was on the ground near them.

“Whew. I thought you were gone for a while. Glad we don’t have to bury you. I have a feeling a funeral for you would be awkward.” Walker looked over his shoulder as Dark began to stir. “And looks like Darky’s back. Our final job and everyone get’s to live.” Walker turned around to Dark, offering a hoof.

Dark had his hoof to the side of his head, with a grimace on his face. He got back up and smacked his hoof away. “I’m fine, thanks for asking.” His grimace turned into a smile. “In fact, I’ve never felt better. Now, let’s head back to our wonderful ruler and tell her the news.” He began to walk away and the scene faded once more.

“So that was your final battle? Seems like it went pretty well, given that it was supposed to be the whole ‘final boss’ kind of showdown.” Said Scarlet.

“No, this wasn't the so called ‘final boss’. If anything, that was just cannon fodder compared to who we had to fight in the end.” The scene shifted again, back to the castle. Scarlet saw Dark with his scythe in the throne room from when these memories were first shown to her. There were several dead guards on the floor, and both Mari and Walker were in front of a badly wounded Celestia.

“Why would you do this?! Why kill all these innocents?! You’re a good guy, Dark!” Said Walker, clearly furious. “My vision was right! You were going to attack Celestia!”

Dark gave an evil laugh. “No, I wasn’t going to. But after I started thinking about your vision I figured ‘why the hell not? I can take her.” Dark swung his blade around, blood flying off of it. “And who says that I’m the bad guy in this story? I’m doing the world a favor by taking out the only Alicorn. All that will be left after you’re a corpse are Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies. No more Celestia, no more division. Why don’t you just let me kill her now?” He gave a smile as if he were just giving a friendly hello, not as if he was on the verge of drowning in a sea of blood.

“Dark, you’ve gone insane.” Mari said simply. “You weren't like this before, why go after her now?”

“Why?” Dark scratched his head with the end of his scythe, causing a bit of bleeding. “I don’t know. I guess I just opened my eyes for once and realized we’ve been living a terrible life, with all this separation.” Dark stopped talking and his eyes seemed to wander aimlessly around the room, then paused and gave a light chuckle. “I’m sorry but it seems I should go now.” Magic began to enshroud him.

“Don’t you dare run from this fight, Dark!” Yelled Walker.

“You want me that badly? Then give chase, O’ brave Knight. Chase me down and bring me to justice for doing what is right!” With those words, Dark disappeared in a flash of light. The surroundings began to fade and Scarlet found herself back in the train cart with Mari.

“What? You’re seriously going to just leave it on a cliffhanger like that? I wanted to know what happened between Walker and Dark. Did he hunt him down? Was there an epic fight? Or... or maybe it-”

“Sorry, holding a spell like that for so long isn’t exactly easy. I would have loved to give you a full history lesson, but I need a while to recharge.” He gave the best impression of a sigh that a skull could. “Given that I just showed you all that I can’t imagine you’d be fine with a verbal only recounting. May I have a raincheck on telling you later?”

Scarlet gave an agitated whine. “Fine, but you better not skimp out on this.” Scarlet began walking back towards the end of the cart. She suddenly felt as if something wasn’t quite right, then felt herself being flung through the air She looked around and saw the other occupants of the cart and all the articles that were not held down accompanying her in the flight. The cart seemed to be at an impossible angle, as she could see the landscape outside was perpendicular to the window, not parallel as it should have been. She stopped thinking about what was happening, then everything went black.