Thirty Minute Pony Stories

As the pale pegasus landed amid the reaching stalks of grain, they withered and fell to the ground, blackening as rot and decay sapped the robust plants of all that was good and wholesome. The pegasus paid no heed to the fate of the field; she had grown accustomed to the effect her presence had on life, and her destination laid in the middle of the field, the farmhouse that rose above the grain.

She began slowly walking towards the farmhouse, her gait hesitant but still moving inexorably forward. When she emerged from the field of grain to the grassy lawn that surrounded the field, a stallion burst out of the farmhouse, a pitchfork clenched tightly in the earth pony’s jaws. “Get away, you monster!” the farmpony yelled, his angry shouts carrying an undercurrent of fear. “My family and I have done nothing wrong! We don’t deserve this!”

“Nopony does,” the pegasus replied, her voice barely a whisper. She slowly turned her gaze towards the stallion, grimacing as the dark, empty sockets had their usual effect on the pony. Sighing, she continued walking towards the door of farmhouse, only pausing to whisper, “I’m sorry,” as she gingerly stepped over the stallion’s corpse.

Pushing past the creaking doors, the pegasus took in the cozy country styling of the farmhouse, trying to imagine for a second how things would have been here before all this had begun. She only allowed herself before she focused on the reality before her: a mare standing defiantly before her, two young fillies cowering behind her legs. “Stand back! I–I won’t let you take them!”

“I wish it didn’t have to be like this,” she said lamely, fully aware that nothing she said could make what she was doing right. Another stare sent the mare tumbling to the floor; the foals suddenly set upon their mother, desperately shaking her and pleading for her to wake up. They didn’t even notice the pegasus approach until she was upon them.

The two fillies looked up into the face of the pony that had just killed their parents; one showed a defiant anger that would have done her mother proud, while the other’s eyes glistened with nothing but tears. The pegasus decided not to use her stare here, instead whispering to the fillies, “I can send you to be with your mother and father. All you need to do is lay down and close your eyes.”

The tearful filly nodded, immediately shutting her eyes and laying herself against her mother’s still-warm body, but the other resisted, staring at the pale pegasus until she said, “Please?” Only then did she join her sister in lying down, though it was a moment longer before she stopped staring at the pegasus and closed her eyes as well.

The pegasus gently stroked the manes of the two fillies, quietly singing as she did so. “Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to lay your sleepy head… Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to go to bed…” It only took a couple strokes of her hoof before the fillies’ breathing slowed and then stopped entirely, but the pegasus kept stroking their manes for a while longer, tears flowing from the empty sockets in her head.

She had thought she was over this by now.

After a few minutes, the pale pegasus emerged from the farmhouse, just in time to spot a shining spot of light emerge from over the horizon, trailing a rainbow behind it. The brilliant figure grew larger as it approached, before finally landing in front of the pegasus with enough force to create a small crater. The pale pegasus didn’t even flinch at the showy entrance; she had been used to such things even before they had started their current work.

“Hey, there you are!” the newcomer shouted, revealing herself to be another pegasus with a prismatic mane and brilliant white armour that perfectly matched her coat. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

The pale pegasus shook her head. “I’m where I always am. Trailing behind, taking care of everypony you three miss,” she replied, her voice bitter yet resigned.

“Oh, c’mon, don’t be like that, Flutter—” The newcomer clamped a hoof over her mouth as she realized her mistake, but it was too late; her friend’s empty sockets had focused in on her, and though she couldn’t die, the dread stare made her wish every moment that she could.

“I’ve told you before, Fluttershy is dead!” she yelled. “I am nothing but the role the Elements have forced on me now! That’s all any of us are, ‘Conquest,’ but at least I have the decency to not revel in it!”

“I don’t revel in it,” Conquest muttered, shaking her head as her friend finally released her from her stare. “But fine, ‘Death.’ I only came to tell you that we’re moving across the ocean to the griffin lands. A— uh, ‘War’ has set about inciting the dragons into fighting the griffins, which should make our… task easier.”

“Nothing about this should be easy,” Death whispered, before looking Conquest in the eye and nodding. “Go, then, and Death shall follow as always.”

Conquest nodded in response and took off with a thunderous lore, leaving Death to both consider her next destination and hope against all hope once again that something would manage to stop her.

——-

Comments by Kyronea:

Okay, you know, out of all the possible ways to take this prompt, I did not expect someone to turn the Mane Six into the Six Ponies of the Apocalypse. This is just a brilliant move on your part, Krizak. You really do it justice too—poor Fluttershy, cursed to be Death. Not to comfort ponies as they pass on, but simply to slaughter them without mercy. She can’t even stop what she’s doing because she has been forced, by the Elements, to bring about the end of Equestria, and indeed, everything. She hopes to be stopped, but she can’t be, for she is become Death, Destroyer of Worlds. All she can do is her job, until finally everyone is dead. What happens after that? I only hope she too gets to die.