Thunder Talon:
Nobody comes here anymore, the world seems to be slowing down, taking it’s dying breath. Ever since Princess Luna went insane and she was banished to the moon things have seemed… off. Especially after the Elements of Harmony were stolen, it was the final nail in Equestria’s coffin.
“Hey buddy, I need some of that special something.” The white unicorn mare whispered to me as she jabbed her face close to mine.
I jerked back, returning my focus to my job. “Special something? I’m not sure what you mean.” She looked really familiar, I swear I had seen her before...
“Look, I need some magic books.” She said glancing back and forth around the library which was empty except for us.
“What kind? Are you going to be a Necromancer or something?”
“No no, nothing like that. I need to spy on somepony.”
“Okay, not invoking dark magic, just peeping, that’s good.”
“Hey, I wouldn't do that! Probably.”
“That’s reassuring, how about this, I can scry for whoever you need to spy on and tell you what I see, okay?”
“Okay… You can’t tell anypony though, this is official Ponyville guard business.”
“Oh, now I remember where I saw you, you’re the captain of the guard, right? Blackjack?”
“SHH! Don’t tell anypony that I messed up- I mean I’m getting an outside consult for this important mission.”
“Alright alright, I won’t tell the hundreds of ponies I see everyday.” I gestured to the empty library.
“Okay, the Mayor has… gone missing.”
“Yikes, and she really needs to be here this week, with the Summer Sun Celebration and her election, this is pretty serious.”
“Why do you think I’m getting your help! Can you find Mayor Mare?”
“Alright, should be easy enough.” I began levitating a bowl and a waterskin over to my desk and filled the bowl with water. I opened up the drawers in my desk and levitated out the rest of the ingredients for scrying and put them in the bowl of water.
I reached out with my magic into the bowl of mixed ingredients began picturing Mayor Mare. I felt myself being pulled from my body, the experience was always a bit scary, it felt like being on the edge of a cliff and being slowly pushed forward until you started to float above a massive chasm.
I saw the Mayor, she was in a dark room, strapped to a stone table with sharp instruments scattered around her.
“Silver, we should move this operation somewhere else,” Someone said in an odd accent. “If they even suspect you then they’ll storm the place with the entire town guard.”
“Darky, you worry too much, they don’t think I’m capable of doing something like this, I bet you fifty bits that we will pull of the ritual without a hitch.”
“Then you better get your money ready you moron, they’re scrying us right now! We have to move or get more mooks, now!”
Going into a scry is a scary experience, being pushed out forcefully is incredibly unpleasant. Hence why when I was kicked out of this one I vomited on the floor before falling into the pool of vomit.
“Book guy! Are you okay?” Blackjack shouted.
“My name is Thunder Talon, though Book Guy may be a more apt title. And yes, though your mayor won’t be for long.” I cast a quick cleaning spell. “Know anyone named Silver or Darky?”
“Silvertongue, it has to be! I’ll round up the guards and-”
“He’s either going to be gone by the time you get there or he’s going to have enough undead mooks to mount a defense. Where exactly does Silvertongue live?”
“He lives at the base of the Diamond Mountains, near Deadtown.”
“A Necromancer who lives near Deadtown, so a dark mage with an army at his disposal, nice. We’re gonna need a plan…”
“We? Are you part of the Ponyville Guard now?”
“No, I just want to help out, if you don’t need a skilled mage then I can stay here.”
“No no no! Please help me, you’ve got a lot of books, so you can do the brainy thing, right?”
I levitated a few old tomes onto my desk. “Brainy thing? You mean psionics?”
“No, I mean thinking and planning. Most of my plans end with pain.”
I opened a book about the architecture of the area to the chapter on Deadtown. “We’re gonna need a team.”
Lethal Scratch:
I always liked taking walks outside of Ponyville. You met interesting ponies, you got to experience nature and it’s always good to improve your mood.
Who did I meet this time? Undead, lots of undead. I got to experience natural selection as I smashed and battered them into dust and it wildly improved my mood. There were only about twelve skeletons and they went down easy enough, shame there wasn’t anything fleshy to kick the flank of.
Although it was fun it wasn’t a good sign, undead ment bad guy, bad guy means that some hero wants to fight them, so I went to find the closest thing to a hero in the general area, the guards.
The guard post wasn’t much more than a tower with a few rooms at the base, but with a town like this you didn’t need much more.
There was a skeleton crew at the guard post, only four armored ponies were crowded around a table with a map of Ponyville with various locations with red X’s on them. I levitated a pastry from one of the nearby desks and started munching on it.
“So, you guys wanna know something cool?” I asked before taking another bite.
“Not now Lethal, we don’t have time to go on another one of you goose chases.” Said one of the guards I knew, I think her name was Twister.
“Although it is hilarious when you think there’s actually a manticore pack attacking, this is real.”
The grey pegasus turned on me with a glare. “Although I’m sure you’re just yanking my wings, what is it?”
“A pack of skeletal mooks were wandering outside of town, I killed them but I’ve still got the stab wounds to prove it.” I said, gesturing to the long cut along my side.
“Oh torrential downfalls, can this day get any worse!?”
I took a bottle of apple cider from another desk and chugged it. “Need a hoof? I always need some more money and I’m very good at… things.”
“I suppose, but we can’t pay you the normal price.” The mare said, looking at her hooves.
“Well, you always need to give a little charity, right?” I said with a smirk. “What’s the issue?”
“Mayor Mare’s gone missing, we’ve been sending out search parties and none of them have found anything. It’s like she disappeared.”
“Cool, I think I know a guy who can help.” I headed for the door. “He’s in an interesting situation though…”
Spring Valentine:
My cell was dark, wet and cold. I had a bench and a hole in the corner. I suppose that’s what I get for stealing a couple thousand bits worth of fine cheeses…
I heard the sound of hoofsteps and one of the guards came into view, along with a familiar white stallion with an electric blue mane.
“Hey Lethal, to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here?”
“I need your contacts Valentine, a high value pony has gone off the map.”
I got up and tapped on the lock of my cell. “There’s a slight issue with that, if I were free, then maybe I could help out.”
The grey pegasus mare grumbled as she took a key from her armor and clicked the lock open. I walked out into the hallway and grabbed my things from a shelf on the wall.
“I would recommend that you fix up these cells, they’re awful dark and don’t have very good plumbing.” I bumped the mare’s flank with my own. “Same time next week?”
“Don’t try your luck, criminal scum.” She said as she walked off with her wingblades extended threateningly.
I looked to Lethal with a shrug. “Mares? Am I right?”
“Look, I got you out of jail, again, now there’s an actual issue.” He said, nudging me to go forward.
“What? You, caring about something?” I put my hoof to my chest and spoke with a sense of hyperbolic surprise. “This I’ve got to hear.”
“The mayor’s gone missing.”
I gave him a look. “You know who the obvious target is, right?”
“Of course it’s Silvertongue, nopony else has anything against the mayor.”
“Then why in Celestia’s name do you need me?”
“Because we need killers.”
Fire Storm:
Red Heart barely dodged the hound bursting up through the ground, I wasn’t so lucky as one rammed me in the gut and sent me flying. Being a pegasus I could use that to my advantage. I swooped down and raked the back of the diamond dog with the blade I had connected to my right foreleg. It howled and lept to the side while its companion tried to no avail to hit Red Heart.
“Storm!” The white earth pony shouted to me. “Keep ‘em off me and I can take ‘em down!”
I flew at the diamond dog attacking Red Heart and turned at the last second and kicked off of its face and zoomed at the other with my hooves outstretched until I slammed into its gut. Good news, I had their attention, bad news, I had their attention. One leapt at me with its razor sharp claws ready to rip me apart. I twisted with my leg out hitting the dog in the face and knocking it to the ground.
“Out of the way!” Red Heart shouted, I followed her direction by zooming straight up as a cascade of lightning flew out of her amulet.
One of the dogs was on the ground whimpering and the other was barely standing. Now was our chance to get some answers.
“Alright Doggy, you’re on the ropes and we’re just fine, so I’d like some answers or you’re gonna get another lightning bolt.” I said, getting closer to him.
“Dog not tell anything stupid pony.” He growled. “Dog not going to talk about striped pony.” He instantly covered his mouth.
“Striped pony?” Red Heart asked. “You mean a zebra? Which zebra?”
“Pony must promise dog not to tell striped pony or silver pony.” He whimpered.
Me and Red Heart agreed and the dog reluctantly revealed the information. “Striped pony call self, Darkstripe, he live in big tower in bone town. He tell dog to get metal from old pony home. He kill dog if he know I tell you.”
“I won’t tell him, take your friend out of here and I’ll go speak to this Darkstripe.” Red Heart said. “What about this metal? Do you have it?”
The dog nodded and gave Red Heart a blue metal helmet. It was much bigger than a normal helmet and had a hole for a horn.
“Do not hit metal, it makes dog’s ears hurt.” The dog whimpered before taking his companion away into the forest.
“What do you think that means? It hurts the diamond dog’s ears.” I asked.
“Only one way to find out.” Red Heart drew her mace and tinged it against the metal.
It didn’t just hurt dog’s ears, it hurt pony’s ears. And their whole body, right down to the soul. It made my heart hurt, my muscles, my bones and all of my organs. I couldn’t think straight, I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. And in an instant, it ended, me and Red Heart just laid there for, Celestia knows how long.
“Okay,” I said after a while. “We need to find who this Darkstripe is.”
Thunder Talon:
I was almost trampled by the big white unicorn as he left to guard post. He looked down at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, somepony’s in a hurry.” He chuckled. He nodded at Blackjack before leaving with a tan earth pony stallion with a blonde mane.
“Damn it Valentine!” Blackjack said to the earth pony. “Stop breaking out of my jail!”
He looked at her with a look of feigned shock. “How could you insinuate- The nerve!” He slid into a sly grin. “Just kidding my sweet, I got released to help with,” He raised his voice. “Your little issue that you don’t want anypony to know.”
Blackjack put a hoof in his mouth to shut him up. “Right, you guys know, you guys can help, we know who did it.”
Blackjack and the other two ponies all said, “Silvertongue” In unison.
Blackjack grinned. “Oh, good. We were looking for some able bodied fighters, now we got two.”
“Whoa whoa whoa.” The big white unicorn said. “We’re not going to be some lackeys, going to our deaths for you.”
I spoke up. “That’s why we have a plan.”
“Who’s this guy?” The unicorn asked.
“That’s Talon, he’s the librarian.” Blackjack said. “If you ever read anything you’d have met him, Lethal.”
Lethal waved his hoof. “Yeah yeah mom, I’ll go read up on the reproductive systems of sea anemone.”
“Blackjack! Blackjack!” A mare shouted as she ran toward us. “We need to go to Deadtown, something dark is going on over there.”
We all gave her a look.
I raised an eyebrow. “Hey Blackjack, you remember that team I talked about?” I looked at the assembled ponies. “I think we’re good.”
We had decided to go through the Everfree Forest path to Deadtown, it would save us at least an hour. Unless we just happened to come across a pack of manticores. It wasn’t a whole pack, only about four of them, but we were ever so slightly screwed.
Our team consisted of me, Thunder Talon, Lethal Scratch, a big white unicorn with a blue mane, Spring Valentine, a tan earth pony with a blonde mane, Red Heart, a grey unicorn mare with a white mane, Fire Storm, an orange pegasus with a red mane, Blackjack, a white unicorn with a red and black mane and Twister, a grey pegasus with a black mane.
Currently, these valiant ponies were having their flanks handed to them by manticores. Lethal and Valentine fought in tandem, Lethal would take a hit and Valentine would hit the manticore from behind and when it turned Lethal would lay a crushing blow. Red Heart and Fire Storm also worked together, Storm distracted the manticore as Red Heart called on Celestian magic to hit it hard. Even Blackjack and Twister were a team. They stood side-by-side, hitting together. Meanwhile I was running from the remaining manticore as it roared at me and tried to rip my hide off.
“No! Bad kitty!” I shouted as I tried to prepare a spell, but that was a little hard when a giant winged lion is trying to eviscerate you.
I jumped up into a tree and tried climbing, I managed to make it to one of the higher branches. I clung to it, hoping the manticore got distracted by something else. I seemed to forget that manticores, A: have a good sense of smell, and B: can fly. The beast burst through the branches with a roar and lunged at me. I rolled off of the branch I was clinging to and dodged the attack barely.
I landed hard on my back, all I could see when I looked up was the manticore pouncing onto me.
Gearbox:
Today was an interesting day, usually I would wake up, have some breakfast, tinker with some clockwork a little. It was nice. Today however I woke up and happened to be about 300 feet in the air. Mind you, I’m an earth pony.
I wondered what caused this phenomenon as I sailed past a flock of surprised ducks. It could’ve been that I left by clockwork cannon’s loading bay open and sleep-walked into it. Or maybe my butler became rebellious and loaded me in. Possibly my cyber ducks thought I wanted to fly like them. Either way the cannon was involved as my tail was half singed off.
Being up in the sky, flying like a bird was supposed to be amazing. But it was just… higher. I could see all of Ponyville, from higher up. The gorgeous landscape, from higher up. The Everfree Forest, from not as high up as I was befo-
I crashed into the large furry monster with enough force to knock the beast across the clearing. Thankfully my mental strength allowed me not to break my head open when it connect with the fuzzy creature’s face.
I stood up and looked at the battling ponies around the clearing, they looked like they were having fun.
“Wh- where did you come from?” I heard a stallion ask from behind me.
I turned to him and raised an eyebrow. “Why, up there of course!” I pointed to the skies above Ponyville.
“How are you alive?” He asked.
“What a silly question you silly pony, you’re just a cornucopia of pure silliness. Hah!” I laughed.
“Are you insane?”
I thought for a second. “A little bit, yes.”
I felt hot breath on the back of my neck and a low growl. “Mister kitty, you’re back!” I said, turning to the monster.
“Stand back, I’ve got him!” The stallion behind me said.
I stepped backwards and watched as he cast a bolt of lightning into the winged cat who convulsed and fell over.
The rest of the flying kitties were either incapacitated or had run off so I went to examining the ponies around me.
“Um, hello there, may I help you?” The grey pegasus mare in the guard armor said as I stretched out one of her wings and poked it with my poke-o-tron. “I-is that a fork?”
“May I ask, who the Tartarus are you?” The big white one said.
“Why, I am a doctor, Doctor Gearbox.” I said with a bow.
Thunder Talon:
With Gearbox in tow we made our way to Deadtown. I kept glancing at the pony who had fallen from the sky onto a manticore. He seemed normal enough, brown coat, maroon mane. Though he was covered in odd gizmos and had pair of goggles on his forehead and an odd contraption on his right forehoof.
We reached the edge of the forest and the sad little town surrounded by graves came into view. An oppressive tower loomed over the little village. There was a low stone wall around the graves and a wooden barricade around the buildings.
We approached the town and hopped the little wall with ease. The graveyard was empty, not a single pony visiting a dead relative or honoring the dead. Even more ominous was the fact that many of the graves were dug up and the bodies were missing.
A figure began approaching from behind one of the mausoleums, it moved toward us with a purpose. A tattered black cloak covered the thin frame of the pale white pony. It had a hat that covered its eyes but we could still see the horrible grin that adorned its face. A shovel was being dragged in its black magic.
“Hey, don’t come any closer!” Blackjack shouted. “That’s an order!”
It continued getting closer to us without caring for Blackjack’s order.
“I don’t think that pony is alive,” Red Hoof said. “It must be undead, I can handle it.”
She braced herself and began muttering. Her amulet began to glow and levitate. A beam of light flew at the thing in the cloak. A flash of light later, and it was gone.
We entered the town, and found it empty. The doors all hung open, there wasn’t a sign of anypony here. No sign of a struggle either. It was like everypony just… left.
“Right, um.” Blackjack started. “Everypony spread out?”
Storm and Red Heart, Lethal and Valentine and Twister and Blackjack went off to search the town. Gearbox smiled at me as I let out a sigh.
“You know we won’t find anything here.” Gearbox said. “Any kind of villain is in that big tower.” He pointed a hoof to the looming structure.
“I know, but there may be something useful here.” I pointed out. “Like, some sort of artifact or something.”
“Or maybe a secret tunnel that leads right into the tower so we can sneak in and get the jump on our enemy?”
“Yeah,” I said, opening a storage crate filled with rotting fruit. “That may be useful.”
“Well-”
“It seems like the ponies have been gone from here for some time,”
“About tha-”
“There was a high zebra population here, maybe they all went to the dark arts?”
“You kn-”
“No, none of the zebras I’ve met here did anything bad.”
“THERE’S A SECRET TUNNEL RIGHT HERE YOU MAGICAL SOD!”
I turned and looked to where Gearbox was. There was a trapdoor open in the ground. A zebra glyph was written on it that said: “To Silver Tower, no unauthorized access.”
“Huh, good job Gearbox.”
The earth pony facehoofed.
Gearbox was right about the town, there was nothing to find but that secret passage. Now we were all cramped in a small tunnel leading to the tower on the cliff above Deadtown. The only way we could see was by Lethal, Red Heart and my light spells, and only Gearbox seemed to know where we were going, which I wasn’t going to question. Valentine complained the whole way, saying this was degrading to him.
Being in front, naturally when we hit the dead-end I was the first one to get my face knocked into something and the only one who kept their muzzle out of anypony’s flank. Valentine stopped complaining.
“We have an issue.” I said.
I pressed my hoof to the wall, it was corporeal, so there was something too this. I pressed on the ceiling of the tunnel and it moved until I had lifted an entire floor tile out. I climbed out of the newly made hole and brushed myself off. I was in a study of some sort, it was full of all kinds of books and had some nice lounge furniture and a roaring fireplace.
“Nice pla-” Then I noticed the zombies.
A zombified mare and a zombified stallion stood by the door, watching me with a low growl from each. Twister crawled out of the hole with a blush followed by Valentine who looked too happy for crawling through a dark dank tunnel. Then Lethal, Blackjack and everypony else came out into the lounge.
“What’s with the stiffs?” Lethal asked as he looked at the undead.
Red Heart raised an eyebrow. “Shall I turn them?”
“Maybe not.” I said. “If I remember The Big Book O’ Necro correctly, then the less focused on control a necromancer is then the less life-like the undead mooks are. So if we get close then they’ll attack and warn whoever raised them.”
“So, if whoever raised them isn’t focusing on them, then what are they focusing on?” Gearbox asked.
“Okay then, we need a way out of here, not past the mooks.” I said, scanning the room.
“Ooh! Ooh!” Lethal raised a hoof. “I have an idea! We blow them to the Moon and back with magic!”
“That could work, except that necromancers know when a mook dies.”
“I have another idea then.” His horn glowed and all of the books glowed and were pulled off of the shelves. “Okay, that maybe didn’t work how I thought it would.”
“How did you think that was an intelligent idea!” I shouted, throwing my hooves up in the air.
“There’s always secret books that make passages appear in books.”
“Nobody has random contraptions that open passages into other parts of their homes.”
Gearbox whistled very conspicuously.
“Oh this is hopeless.” I leaned against the fireplace. Then I heard a click and the fireplace sunk into the floor and a passage opened.
Lethal smiled smugly as he crawled through. The passage led to a hidden staircase that went up to the top of the tower and down to… somewhere.
“Right, which way do we…” I began as Gearbox walked up. “Guess we’re going up.”
Next to each door was a list of what was on each floor, Gearbox kept going until he stopped at a door that just said: “Lab.”
He politely knocked on the door to which everypony winced and braced for some sort of attack. When there was no answer Gearbox shrugged and opened the door.
Inside was a large room full of tables covered in alchemical equipment and magical machines. The entire room was lined with bookshelves except for a large window which overlooked Deadtown and Ponyville. Next to the window was a large stone table where the Mayor was chained. Surrounding the table were pedestals with pieces of blue armor on them, one of them was empty but the rest were glowing with ethereal light.
A zebra who was black and grey rather than black and white was at one end of this alter, a book was laid out on a pedestal in front of him and red runes floated about it. He was mumbling something that I couldn’t make out but sounded like an incantation of some kind.
“Do you like my pet?” Said a voice like a noblepony. “He’s so very useful.”
“Show yourself criminal scum!” Blackjack shouted.
“Blackjack.” I hissed. “Don’t test him.”
“Why not? He’s just some petty criminal.”
Mist started forming in front of us. It began to take the shape of a pony, and before long a
white unicorn with a grey mane stood before us, his piercing silver eyes stared into me as he gave a little smirk. He wore a military dress uniform, a necklace hung from his neck, it was an ornate bottle filled with a cloud-like substance.
“You should listen to the librarian,” He said with a voice as smooth as silk that hid a knife behind it. “You might’ve gotten a quicker death.”
He vanished in a cloud of green smoke. I reeled back and pulled my scarf up over my face as the smoke wreathed around us. My companions began to fall as I lept out of the paralyzing smoke.
“Oh, you’re a smart one.” He said. “Not many ponies can recognize Burrow Flower gas that fast.”
“I’m guessing you’re not planning to stick your roots into my comrades.”
“No, more like my knives.” He formed again in front of me. “This may sound cliche, but I would like you to join us. Our master will soon rise again and it’s only a matter of time before the world is swallowed up by the darkness of chaos. We could use somepony like you on our side.”
“I’m sure you could.” I said glancing at the table behind the unicorn. “What exactly is it you’re doing?”
“Join us and find out.” He said with a smirk.
I weighed this in my mind, on one hoof I could gain incredible magical knowledge from these two, the pony I assumed was Silvertongue had a magical amulet that was far beyond anything I’d seen since I came to Ponyville. On the other hoof, I could cast an electric shock in roughly .3478 seconds.
Apparently he could turn into mist in .3477 seconds. The electrified mist flew up into the air and crashed into one of the tables, turning back into a pony.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
He flew up into the air and blew pink gas at me which I evaded, though it almost hit my paralyzed allies. I used my telekinesis to move the six of them into the stairwell and closed the door after them. Good news, my allies were safe. Bad news, Silver had enough time to attack me. Green noxious gas stung my skin as it touched me. I rolled forward to escape the cloud, then had to keep running as he sent out another cloud of gas.
An idea hit me, his attacks were area attacks, it would be a shame if he were to hit an ally. I took cover behind the stone table which stopped Silvertongue’s barrage.
“Oh, now that’s hardly fair.” He said with a bit of annoyance. “I was having fun.”
“It looks like we’re at an impasse,” I shouted to him, looking for any way out of this situation. “I can’t hit you and you can’t attack me without hitting your friend.”
He rolled his incorporeal eyes. “Fine, if you want to be boring.”
He held up an charm and a side door opened. Ten skeletal ponies in armor wielding weapons marched out and moved toward me.
“Well then.” I said before I began running again.
I wasn’t great at alchemy, but now that my life depended on it I thought I’d give it a try. I began looking for the ingredients for my least favorite magic compound in existence, while being chased by skeletons and dodging toxic gas. This was just one of those days.
I spotted two of the ingredients I needed, wolfsbane and hydra powder. I grabbed them and slid across the table. I used my momentum to leap onto the next table and grabbed a bottle of ruby dust. I dodged more pink gas as I combed my mane until I pulled out one orange manticore hair. I tossed the ingredients into a bowl, but I had to leave them as the skeletons caught up and one almost took my head off with a halberd. I grabbed a pestle with my magic and began grinding the mixture as I ran around the room.
“This is getting boring scarfy. You were making something, what is your little concoction?”
I jumped over one of the tables next to the bowl which now had a glowing red goo in it. I lifted the bowl with my magic.
“This?” I smiled. “Magic-Dampener.” I threw it at the incorporeal unicorn.
He let out a scream of agony and wherever it touched he became physical, and it spread until he came crashing down onto one of the armor pedestals. He didn’t get back up.
As soon as the pedestal was knocked over the zebra opened his eyes and looked at me. He picked up a crooked knife and rushed over to where the mayor laid, without her chains, and put the knife to her neck.
“Silvertongue lost, eh?” The zebra I assumed was Darkstripe rumbled in a foreign accent. “He was weak, it’s hardly a feat.”
“So, since Silver wouldn’t tell me what you were up to I guess you should tell me.”
“You will know what we are doing soon enough,” He smirked. “Sooner than I thought, you brought me the final piece.”
A mook walked into the room with the blue metal helmet in its mouth. It put it on the remaining pedestal and put the fallen one back up.
“Now, all we need is a sacrifice, and when the full moon is at its peak, we shall be victorious!” The zebra started cackling madly.
He dragged the mayor onto the table and placed the knife at her neck.
“Stop!” I shouted. “If you do this then the entire Ponyville guard will be after you.”
He smiled. “My life is no matter, if I can complete the ritual, then I shall live on as a hero. Now, now is the time.”
His smile faded and he let go of the mayor.
“I… Still… Win…” He fell forward onto the table with a knife in the back of his neck.
His blood began flowing onto the table, going into the many intricate nooks and symbols adorning it. Then it began to glow and in a flash Darkstripe and the pieces of blue armor vanished.
Valentine stood behind the table smiling. “Heh, scrub didn’t even see what hit him.”
“You do realise what you’ve done, right?”
“Yeah, lost one of my good knives, and killed an evil necromancer. I guess it evens out.”
“No, you just completed his ritual, he needed blood, you provided it.” I shook my head. “The repercussions could be catastrophic. How did you even manage not getting paralyzed by that gas?”
“I work with poisons, saw how dangerous they were, prevented them being used against me with a little artifact.” He lifted a necklace up. “Got this from a duke who was paranoid of being poisoned, he died the week after… I wonder why.”
I walked over to Silvertongue’s unconscious form. I took his amulet and began looking for a paralysis antidote. Most of the bottles around the room were smashed during our fight so that was easier said than done. Eventually I found a bottle of yellow liquid which was marked “Anti-Paralyzer.” That was awfully convenient...
I looked around for Valentine but he seemed to have slinked off somewhere. I ignored him and went to give the rest of our group some of the antidote. As I helped my comrades to their hooves I worried about what that ritual did. I could only hope that it called for the blood of somepony who was considered “good” and not just anypony who happened to bleed on it. Darkstripe said something about his master, we were probably up for some dark lord or something rising up, but who? That armor must have belonged to whoever he was summoning, shame it disappeared and I couldn’t study it.
I walked around Darkstripe’s lab, looking for some sort of journal or incantation book. I found a few scrolls about how to do the ritual, they told how to do the ritual but not what its ultimate outcome was.
I paced around the room thinking until I stopped at the window overlooking Deadtown. I often had this kind of problem, I get so focused on one task that I forget about other important ones. This task being finding the citizens of Deadtown who seemed to have vanished.
I turned to the group who were still recovering from the paralysis and ordered. “Right, Blackjack, Twister, Red Heart and Fire Storm. I want you to search the tower for the citizens of Deadtown, they’re most likely around this tower somewhere, maybe in the basement.” I turned to the remaining three. “You search through the documents around here and look for anything regarding rituals or the missing townsfolk.”
“What are you going to do?” Lethal said, sounding a bit annoyed.
I gestured to the window. “I’m going to see what our god wants.”