"Now comes the tricky part: Getting back home without anypony seeing us," Twilight told Spike. "Gotta be careful if there's any patrols. A few farmers or regular travelers won't cause much issue, but the patrols know how to fight." She looked up at the undead staring at her pathetically. "Hmmm. You're right. What if they're fighters, just not in uniform." She clapped her hooves together. "Well, that's why we're going to try and avoid everypony on the way! Come, come!"
Now it was going to be a long trek back, but this time with an undead dragon in tow! It kept Twilight's saddlebags slung over its left shoulder and kept itself just a few steps away from its master. The unicorn couldn't do anything about the glowing caused by her spell, an unfortunate side-effect of the ritual she used to create Spike, but it at least meant the binding magic was stable and powerful. Until she undid it or was...killed, then the bindings would never dispel themselves.
The travel back was taking longer than she had hoped, and with the exhaustion brought on by the spell, Twilight was starting to pass out from exhaustion. She couldn't just tell Spike to carry her home because it didn't know where 'home' was. Because of this unintentional moment of laxitude, Twilight fell out of the brush and into the open at a frequented road farmers were using. One was a graying earth pony stallion carrying a pitchfork on his back. His coat of tarnished gold vanished in the clay soil exposed by frequent passers, and his well-kempt mane and tail had been fashioned to look like a whip of cream on a pie. He was walking next to a wagon his much younger son was pulling, though not without considerable effort. Unlike his father who had a sturdy body built from years of toil, the son was still small both in musculature and size.
"Come on, son," the father encouraged. "When I was your age I was already able to pull the cart to my city and back home."
The young stallion grunted. "Yeah but...I bet you didn't...have to travel...five hours! I didn't know straw could...be so heavy!"
Twilight's shuffling and near-collapse on the ground caught the two's attention.
"Wait here," the father said. "I'll go check."
His son removed the harness, thankful, and sighed in relief at the chance to rest. His father helped Twilight up out of the piles of dead leaves and errant dried sticks and plants, brushing some off the mare's coat.
"Are you okay, miss?" he asked.
Twilight cleared her throat and pushed herself away from the stallion, stretching thoroughly. "I'm just really tired," she emphasized. "Did a reaaaaaally big spell earlier and-" She chuckled. "I did not expect it to use that much magic or required that much precision."
The stallion raised a brow. "Magic? So you're a scholar of sorts?" He looked towards the forest, his heart accelerating. "Can't say I've seen many unicorns around here."
"Well, forests are the best place to find reagents and such," Twilight said. "And places removed from the really big cities like Canterlot tend to have the best ingredients and als plenty that no pony knew about already."
"That's true..." the father agreed hesitantly. He didn't know why, but he felt extremely uncomfortable around this mare. Something about her presence and her casual attitude after coming out of what is considered to be a dangerous forest by many. "Do you want something to drink? We have some water we can spare."
Twilight waved the stallion off. "No! No. No need to dig into your own reserves. Everypony has their own needs, and I have some water with me anyways," the mare explained. "I just need to relax a bit and take in some spare magic to restore my reserves. If I wait a bit it should come quickly enough." She shifted in place nervously. "I just prefer doing that in the safety of my own home."
"I can understand that," the farmer said. He scratched his head and looked around again, unable to get rid of that uncomfortable feeling. "I don't feel safe out here, for example. Something...uncomfortable is lurking around the forest. You should come with us."
"No need," Twilight said with a smile. "My new friend is accompanying me." She leaned in to the stallion and whispered in his ear. "He's a bit shy so he doesn't speak much at all, sadly."
"A friend? Where is this friend?"
Before Twilight could answer, a glowing, purple light invaded the farmer's vision, and from the crackling branches of the trees and bushes came the skeleton of an adolescent dragon, standing three ponies tall. The lavender unicorn found herself getting pulled aside aggressively by the old stallion.
"An undead! Quickly! Get onto the wagon!" the farmer ordered Twilight in a rush. "Son, I'll be pulling the wagon from now on! We need to get to the city as quickly as possible and alert the guard!"
"Hey, wait--!" Twilight attempted to protest.
"What?! But your joints! You won't be able to move if you push yourself like that!" the son protested.
"Don't pull on me!" the unicorn continued. "Let me go!"
The farmer threw his child a glare and pushed him aside. "I'm not too old to pull a piece of wood with dry grass on it! Get the harness on me and get that unicorn in the wagon."
"I said let me go!"
With a flash of light the old stallion lost his grip on Twilight, freeing her from his misguided protection. The old pony had fallen to the ground, and when he could see again, the younger farmer rushed to his father's aid.
"I told you to stop!" Twilight said angrily. She massaged her foreleg with her magic before turning towards the undead. "This is the friend I was talking about," she said with a smile. The unicorn looked up at the undead that was looking down on them with its empty 'eyes' and bounced in place giddily, the forceful protectiveness of the old farmer having already disappeared from her mind. "Isn't he nice? He's helping me carry my things."
"Wh-wh-why isn't it attacking her?" the son asked his father.
The farmer's brows furrowed and slowly took his pitchfork off his back. "Get ready to gallop away as fast as you can."
"But the wa--" the son attempted to raise his concerns.
"Don't bother with some straw!" the father 'yelled' at him through clenched teeth. "Just get going when I start yelling. I'll follow you right after." The stallion clenched his pitchfork in one hoof and steeled himself. He took a very deep breath he was worried would be his last. It tasted so sublime all of a sudden. "Necromancer!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "Necromancer! Guards! Guaaards!" he bellowed harder.
"No no no no! Stop!" Twilight pleaded. "I won't do anything! I just keep to myself!" she continued while trying to get the farmer to quiet down. The unicorn saw the son bolt off and let herself slump. There went her moment of peace and quiet. "Nooo..." she lamented.
"I'll get rid of you, abomination against nature!" the farmer threatened.
He galloped towards Twilight with the pitchfork in his mouth; Once close enough, the stallion spat it out into his hooves and raised his tool at the unicorn, ready to plunge the spikes into her body.
"Don't kill him!" Twilight shouted suddenly.
"Why would she say that?" the farmer thought briefly.
He quickly learned why.
A giant hand came crashing down from above, jettisoning the farmer into the ground so hard he could hear cracks rumble through his body and the air blowing out from his lungs. He bounced up, slowly flipped, then landed on his back. His makeshift weapon landed near him a few steps away, the clay absorbing the sound of the impact.
Twilight was panicking and bouncing around the body, unsure of what to do. "What did you do?" she asked Spike. "Is he breathing?" She watched the farmer's chest and sighed in relief. "Sir, are you still awake?!" Despite his now-glassy eyes being open, the stallion would not respond to any stimuli. "Ooooh!"
The unicorn paced around more, dragging a hoof through her mane. She would have to use a spark of some kind to garner attention, but then other ponies might be able to track her magical signature. Her reagents from the ritual at least absorbed errant magic for her to dissolve later, but something like this? If she didn't use the flare then anypony around would be none the wiser and the farmer would die. If she did then somepony might come around and help him, but then they might be able to track her.
"Why help them? You didn't do anything to them and they immediately attempted to kill you," a voice said to Twilight.
"But they were just scared," Twilight argued. "Everypony is scared of what they don't understand."
"But did they even try to understand you?" the voice argued. "Seeing how they acted, would they have even listened to you?"
The unicorn gnawed on her hoof, unsure of what to do. She looked at Spike who towered over her and remained as immobile and stoic as he was since his summoning. "But...Celestia wouldn't approve..." Twilight lamented. "What would she think of her precious pupil if they let somepony die when she had the chance to save them?"
"Don't forget that the other pony will be coming back soon anyways. It won't be that hard for him to come back with a horde of soldiers and city guards. Who knows what patrols heard his screaming as well?"
Twilight's eyes widened. The patrols! They would kill her on the spot and destroy Spike. She couldn't afford it when she was so close to her goals! At least, she was certain she was close. It had only been a few years. That was a lot of time. Surely there wasn't more.
"Spike! We have to go! Hurry!" Twilight said in a panic.
She dragged the farmer to the side of the road. Just close enough that somepony would notice him and just far enough that he wouldn't be crushed by a distracted wagon puller. To her dismay, Twilight could see large amounts of armed and armored ponies rushing past the foliage on the main road a half hour after fleeing back into the forest. She had to remain as quiet as she possibly could so they wouldn't hear her. This wasn't the first time she had to hide from patrols, but it was the first time she had 'baggage' with her. An army would be needed to chase off all these ponies, and the mare didn't want to deal with that. That would be far too much work.
It took two days for Twilight to finally be able to return to her home, having had to sleep in caves or little holes she dug out of the ground and kept supported with a spell. It was very unpleasant. She could still feel the uncomfortable, uneven ground underneath her and the humid stuffiness of the soil with worms, insects, and moles wriggling around her.
Now was different, however. Now she was home! Where it was dark and somewhat damp...but she had a straw bed and all her amenities!
And also the ground wasn't lumpy.
"Well, that was an unpleasant experience," Twilight sighed in relief. "You can place the saddlebags at your feet, Spike. I'll take care of everything." When she saw he was about to just let them drop, she panicked. "Carefully! Carefully place them down!," she insisted.
The skeleton acquiesced and bent down to place the saddlebags on the stone floor as slowly and carefully as it could conceive. Twilight felt herself relax again so soon after two days of constant stress. She walked to her rotting shelf holding all her maps and pulled one out from the top left corner and unfurled it in the air. Behind it sat a small clay bowl in which a piece of charcoal sat, and behind that was a piece of stale, dry bread.
"Hmmm. I can't go this way anymore," Twilight said. Her final words ended with a hiccup. She could feel her lips trembling but did her best to hold it in. She circled the road and the surrounding areas with the coal before looking around. "This one I haven't been to in six months." The unicorn paused a moment, pensive. "Okay. I'll put this one on a maybe and scout it out later." She drew a question mark on the road and used the bread to erase as much of the charcoal markings as she could. She had to be careful, because maps like this were hard to come by. Excessively hard, especially for somepony in her position. She yawned and flopped on her bed, exhausted. "Well, I'm beat." The mare buried her face in her pillow and grunted. "Spike, you can watch the entrance for any intruders. Wake me up if you see anypony trying to come in, okay?"
The undead did not respond. It simply did as it was commanded and moved silently to the door leading into Twilight's home and stared at it.
"Close enough," Twilight giggled quietly before dozing off.