"Perhaps I should try?" Fluttershy suggested. "I don't mean to be rude, but you're too, um, invasive, Pinkie," she explained.
The pink pony shrugged. "I like to be loud and energetic, but I guess she's not made for that." She smiled and patted her friend on the back. "Alright, Fluttershy. Try and make friends with her." She started vibrating. "But please hurry. I can't stand knowing somepony doesn't like parties and I can't throw them one to show them how great they are."
Fluttershy smirked and shook her head while rolling her eyes. Pinkie was always so silly. She carefully approached the unicorn under the watchful eye of Cadance and her friends and took a deep breath.
"Excuse me," she called out. Twilight didn't react and instead continued waiting in the shadow of Spike. "Excuse me, miss?"
"What do you want?" Twilight spat out angrily. "Going to try and lasso me or tackle me to the ground like everypony else?" she asked aggressively.
"Oh, goodness no!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "That's a horrible thing to do. I could never do something like that." She waited to see Twilight's reaction before continuing. "Could you imagine if I did such things to my animals?" The pegasus balked at the idea. "I could never look them in the eye ever again." Twilight grunted in response. "Would it be too much if I were to introduce myself?"
"...Fine, if you insist," Twilight relented.
"I'm Fluttershy," the pegasus said. "I'm the Element of Kindness." She looked to her friends, worried. "I would introduce my friends, but I think it would be better if they introduced themselves." Fluttershy smiled sheepishly. "May they?"
"No," Twilight stated firmly. She peered around the leg of her undead. "What do you want, anyways? Are you trying to lure me intro a false sense of security? Going to try and get me into a trap and break my hind leg?"
Fluttershy paled. "Wh-what? Why would I--"
"They tried doing that to me in Canterlot. "I almost fell for it several times, too! Luring me into a false sense of security and then trying to trap me!" She grit her teeth. "The minotaurs taught me how to break them if I was caught in them." She grumbled. "Said they're the ones who came up with them first to catch prey." She squished her lips back. "One of the things I don't like about them, but that's not something I can really judge seeing as they need to eat meat."
The pegasus perked up. "You know minotaurs too?" She didn't want to delve deeper into what she assumed was a bad moment in Twilight's past, not that she was very wise to the happenings of the world. The mare simply assumed that Twilight was in Canterlot during the 'uprising' and got caught in the crossfire. "I know one too." Her ears flattened. "He's...something. He means weeelll buuuut...He's a bit too aggressive?" She cleared her throat. "And who is this...lovely, um, dragon?" she asked with a forced smile.
"He's Spike. My assistant," Twilight said. She patted his leg. "I was convinced to get one, so I did. Was tough work though, but the best feeling in performing a ritual is seeing it succeed." The unicorn fiddled with the medallion around her neck. "Even if, sometimes, the ritual goes weird but you still get the result you wanted in the end."
"I see." Fluttershy paused and looked up at the undead who stared at its master. "He looks like a very big and strong assistant."
"He is!" the unicorn stated proudly. She puffed her chest out slightly, seemingly unaware of it. "He helps me carry ingredients I found, items for my rituals, and supplies for when I travel around." Twilight looked up at Spike and gave it a big, warm smile. "He doesn't need to eat or drink so I don't have to worry about stocking for two."
Fluttershy nodded softly. "Oh. Well, I suppose that could always come as a great advantage, especially if he's helping you so much." She looked around momentarily, trying to let her conversational partner have a moment of 'rest'. "I was just wondering if you at least wanted to talk with me a bit about other things? We could go outside, maybe get some fresh air and--"
"No," Twilight answered flatly.
"Oh..."
"Twilight!" Shining called out. "I have everything here."
He startled Fluttershy, having seemingly popped up out of nowhere behind her. Twilight popped out from behind Spike, a giddy look on her face and used her magic to take everything in place.
"Hoooo! You brought so much!" she exclaimed in joy. "I'm going back to my room. Call me if you need my help with anything," the mare said.
The stomps of Spike became quieter and quieter as they disappeared up the stairs into the floors above. Shining and Cadance both heaved a loud sigh of relief.
The farm pony looked between the two and raised a brow. "Y'all wanna explain ta me what's going on?" Applejack asked the rulers.
"I suppose it's okay, considering you're the elements," Cadance said hesitantly.
"I'll explain to them," Shining said as he approached. "I had to contend with that gigantic abomination anyways."
The stallion explained everything to the three, from a necromancer's discovery and capture to the damages 'Spike' caused, the reaction to discovering that the 'necromancer' they had found was actually his sister he had seemingly lost years ago. He also shared the little that Twilight shared with him while clearly keeping a lot hidden away and what to do and not do -that they've understood- around 'Spike'.
"That's a doozy of a reveal," Pinkie said.
"It's relatively passive around everypony and doesn't seem to care when it's getting attacked," Shining added. "I figured it's because it has no self-preservation instinct or that it only reacts to something that can actually wound it."
" 'N what about that necklace she's wearin'? Thought ya'd take it away," Applejack said.
Shining shook his head. "No pony has been able to remove it. It's the strangest thing. Twilight is unaffected, but everypony else can't even touch it. The worst part is that we've all tried to dispel whatever she used on it, but nothing seems to work. It almost like there's no magic on it."
"That's because there isn't, silly," Pinkie said. Everypony turned to her, wide-eyed and confused. "What?"
"Then what is it?" Cadance asked. "I'm worried she might have something very dangerous with her."
Flurry was resting in her foreleg, her magic still being circulated by her mother.
Pinkie shrugged with a big smile. "I don't know. It's just something weird and icky on it. Like..." She put a hoof to her chin and looked at the ceiling while she was trying to find a good comparison. "Liiiiike it's made from the opposite of our world?"
"What? What does that even mean?" Shining asked.
The pink pony shrugged again. "I dunno. It's the best thing I can come up with for an explanation."
"And how would you know what that is?" Cadance wondered. "Seems very specific and arbitrary."
"Well, that's because there's plenty of things like it underneath my family's rock farm," Pinkie said casually. "Sometimes Maud and Limestone have to bash them with a rock to make them go away." She huffed and crossed her forelegs. "They're very annoying and persistent. Don't even want to leave when you tell them to, and they always make the farm look weird." She gave a great, big smile. "But they make the best rocks grow so we deal with them. It's like farmers and wasps. Wasps are mean but they eat all the pests that eat the crops. Same thing here."
"Ah don't think that's the same, but alright. Good 'nough Ah s'pose," Applejack accepted.
"I don't like what you said about those things under your farm," Shining said with apprehension.
Pinkie just smiled in response. "They're harmless. A good bonk on the head and they go away, like any problem!"
Applejack looked at her sideways. "Ignorin' what she just said, Ah can't believe the map would send us here ta help her." She noticed the rulers looking at her negatively and was quick to try and 'reword' her statement. "Ah mean, she's a necromancer. What makes her so special compared to others that have existed 'round the world? Ain't they all obsessed with gettin' immortality and becoming an embodiment of death 're somethin'...or so Ah've heard."
Shining stifled a chuckle, leaving his wife to answer. A very disappointed wife.
"It's true that most that practice necromancy get an unhealthy obsession with the aspects of death and what it can both be and accomplish, but as far as we've seen, Twilight is focused on bringing Auntie Celestia back."
"She wants to bring the princess back?" Fluttershy asked. Her face was flush with empathy. "But isn't she gone?"
"Yes, but that isn't stopping Twilight." Cadance looked at the stairs her sister-in-law took and concern filled her. "Considering Spike, she might be getting closer to that than we all think, but I'm worried that Twilight might not even succeed in her endeavor."
The group became silent until Flurry yawned and made a small burp, a sign that her belly was doing slightly better.
"Ah heard there's necromancers studyin' sum'in' called arbo...arb...arber...bah! Tree necromancy!"
"Tree necromancy?" Shining repeated. "How would that work?"
"Ah have no idea ahdea. Makes no sense to me, but it's apparently sum'in real rare. Here's ta hopin' yer 'Twahlaht' ain't gonna try studyin' that next ta reincarnate Princess Celestia inta a giant shrub er sum'in'." She heaved a sigh and massaged her neck. "Even Ah know what happened ta the princess was unspeakably terrible, but what's done is done. Too late ta change the past, and ain't nopony gonna be able to stop nature. As a farmer, Ah should know." She readjusted her stetson and kept her hoof on it for a short moment after. "Ah'd do anythin' ta see mah folks 'gain, but ya cain't fight death. Bad things happen when ya try ta."
"No one is saying anything against that," Cadance sighed. "But Twilight has been through a lot. We just think that, with her, erm, experience in dealing with dead bodies that she would be better suited for something like medicinal work."
"We hope that she gives up on Celestia and utilizes her talents in something other than necromancy," Shining added. He pretended to chew something as concern gripped him. "She seems fine right now, as much as she can be, but I'm still afraid she'll be consumed by the magic of necromancy." He looked to Pinkie whose smile slowly faded. "Pinkie Pie, you yourself said that there's something weird attached to her medallion."
"Yes?"
The stallion audibly gulped, seemingly too terrified to ask. "Do you think it's something that's trying to drag her into those dark recesses?"
"I told you I don't know what it is. I'm sorry I can't help you more, your Highness. I'm a party planner, not a weird-thingy-majingy identifier," Pinkie said.
Shining sighed and dug his hoof into his mane. "I really thought you might be able to at least identify whatever it was specifically, or at least figure out what it wants."
Applejack nodded. "Ah think a better question is 'where'd she find it'? Somethang like that ain't gon' be waltzing about all casually."
Fluttershy looked to the stairs, concerned. "I think we should just leave it be," she suggested. "She hasn't done anything with it and it hasn't done anything to anypony yet."
As the group continued to discuss the intricacies of necromancy and the strange entity that touched Twilight's medallion, the unicorn herself was impatiently tapping the head of her quill against the paper. She had already filled out eight pieces front and back, but the ninth remained devoid of any chicken scratches save the dot of concentrated ink Twilight created as a result of her block. She had already considered if Celestia's body had been dissolved in acid or what effects salt could have on a body, but what she never took into account was: How would she get Celestia's soul back? Was the princess lying in limbo, waiting? Was she tethered to the sun? Was her soul in one of the many afterlives that seemed to exist across the world?
Twilight looked at Spike and felt her concerns deepening. The dragon didn't seem to have a soul, but he was there, wasn't he? If Celestia was brought back, would she be like Spike? The unicorn didn't want a subservient princess as an assistant. She just wanted Celestia back. She leaned over the desk and angrily ran her hooves through her mane. Those three ruined her concentration! If the guards had brought the supplies then Twilight would have already gone over the idea several times already! It was still morning and Twilight wanted to go to back to bed. Seeing the orange mare again pulled her out of the false sense of comfort she had developed knowing that Shining and Cadance were close by.
The mare fiddled with the lock on her horn and Spike leaned forward slightly. Should Twilight ask him to break the ring off? It felt like it had been burning ever since she got captured, and she didn't like the idea of staying in a place where the guards who beat her up while she was down were still all around her. Then again: Shining said he missed her and wanted Twilight to see her parents again. She could do that after she brought back Celestia, too. It would just take longer. Why bring in the Elements at all as well?
So many questions, so many possibilities. She could always just have her lock broken, use the medallion, and go home...