The Necromancer's Forces

by InTheNavy

Chapter 9

“What do you think is going to happen now?” queried Trixie, who was put in a cell in the dungeon with Twilight.

“I have no idea, but it can't bee good.”

The ghoulish forces walked by outside the cell, stirred by their talking. The two ponies watched, horrified, as the castle's new occupants made their way downthe coridor. The soft moaning and crying of ponies could be heard down the halls, and the scene was something of nightmare.

In the distance, the door to the dungeon opened, hissing and creaking as it did so. Footsteps could be heard coming down the hall, although these were diffirent; the timing was off. Whatever was approaching was walking on two legs.

A gruff voice was heard “Open the cell, hold them down.” In reply, the noise of a cell door opening was heard, and the screams of a few ponies were heard. The screams grew louder and louder, more and more frantic, until they stopped completley. The creature could be heard stepping out of the cell, and the door did not close behind him. It continued on to the next cell, the guards opening the door and repeating the proces.

The ponies began to hurl insults at their tormentors, and cause a general commotion. The skeletal guards replied by smashing their clubs on the doors to the cells, scarring the ponies into submission. Trixie began to weep as they heard the cell next to them open, and the process of the screaming continued, and then silence.

A ghoul rounded the corner, coming face to face with the pair in the cell, it looked at them, then to its mater. As the creature presented itself, it was apparent that this was obviously the creature that Twilight had summoned almost two weeks ago. It wore a skull as a mask, and a long, dark robe trailed behind it. Tears began to stream down Twilight's eyes when she noticed that the crowns of the princesses were affixed to the skull at odd angles.

The skeletons opened the door to the cell, and quickly overpowered the two, as the cell made it very difficult to use magic. The necromancer carried himself in.

“Ah. Are you the one who brought me to this virgin world?”

“Y... Yes. And I wish I could send you right back!”

“Why? I like it here. I think I'll stay!”

“You can't. We summoned another champion to fight you!” with this, the Necromancer's expression changed, it went from a wry smile to a look of fear.

“Another champion? And what is stopping me from convincing him to fight under the Blight Legion?”

“...we kinda pissed him off... he might just want to kill everything...”

“Oh. Well shit.”

With their exchange finished, the necromancer raised his staff, the end of which began to glow a slight green, despite the powerful incantations of the walls of the cell. He touched the end of the staff to Trixie's head, and her screaming ceased. She stood upright, and the guards released her. Twilight was next, and the Necromancer raised the staff and repeated the proces. The spell was that of a mind breaking spell, anyone that it contacted would be forced to do anyhting that the Necromancer wanted. The ponies that remained in the cells were assimilated into the 'Blight Legion', one by one.

“So an infaltrator opened the gates?”

“That's what I think happened. The skeletons just marched right in!”

“So the sun isn't rising because this Celestia person is dead or incapacitated?”

The thought of this made the ponies grimace, they feared the worst for their beloved ruler. Bradely looked around the room at the solemn expressions of the ponies around him. He released a sigh and continued.

“Well, perminent night is bullshit. I'll fix it.”

The ponies all stared at him, half disbelieving that he could not attack the caslte single handedly, and half disbelieving that he would so on a whim.

“The way I see it, she is the only one that can put me home. And I sure as hell don't want to spend my life here.”

“There's no way that you can assault the walls, the entire skeletal legion took a week to find a way in!” commented Rainbow Dash.

“Boo freaking hoo. I'll do it in a day.” with that, Bradley lifted himself, and began moving towards the door.

“Um. Bradley, maybe it would be better to wait for the night? You could wage war in the morning?” commented Fluttershy

The time had caught bradley off guard, as the moon was still up. His watch read that it was now around five in the evening. He stopped and slumped down a bit, rubbing his eyes.

“Fine. I'm going first thing in the morning.” and with that he slumped into the large armchair. He lifted his book on magic and bega to read again, assisted by his helmet light. As the ponies began to grow tired, they each went their seperate ways to bed, one by one. Finally, Rainbow Dash and Bradley were the only ones awake. He lowered his book, as he considered it rude to ignore an individual.

“So, how fast can you fly?” he queried, eyeing her wings as he asked.

“Fast enough to cause a sonic rainboom!” Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up, proud of her self.

“Sonic? You can break the sound barrier?”

“Yup.” she stated, as smugh look on her face. “Do humans have anything that can go that fast?”

“Uh, yeah. The missiles that I worked on had a cruising speed of mach two point five, so two and a half times the speed of sound. But some of the missiles that are being developed travel around mach five.”

Rainbow's jaw fell, someting that ccould go five times as fast as she could go?

“That's.... That's....” she stuttered “Freaking awesome! How can they go so fast?”

“Well, they basically light fuel on fire, and as it expands they push the expanding gas out the back, and that propels them forward.”

“And that works?”

“Yeah, it works like hell!”

This casual conversation carried on for a while, until Rainbow eventually grew tired. She said 'Goodnight' and went off to the room she was sharing with Pinkie and Rarity. Bradley lowered himself to the floor, checking his watch. The display read that it was only a bit past eleven, he would be able to read for a bit before nodding of.

As he flipped through the pages of the book, he heard soft footsteps on the floor above him. He realised that Fluttershy must have stayed awake, waiting for Bradley. He dropped the book to his chest, and looked towards the stairs. As if on command, a shadow appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Um... Hello? Are you awake.”

Fluttershy let out a small cry of terror as he lifted himself, he had startled her. He grabbed his pack and followed her up the stairs. She placed herself gently on the ornate bed, snuggling herself under the blankets. He flopped down on the bed, the frame shaking as he did so. She looked at him from under to covers, he lay on top of the covers.

“Why don't you use the blankets?”

“I don't know, I prefer to sleep on top of the covers.”

“Oh, okay. It's just a bit cold tonight, I was worried that you might freeze.”

“Aha, no problem there. Where I come from, we wear our tees until the weather is around freezing, even then, we still dress lightly.” he stated with a smug grin

“Will you tell me about where you are from?”

“Ah... Okay. I come from a country called Canada, we are the northernmost country on our side of the world. It's the second largest country on my planet, and we are known for our tolerance to the cold.”

“Are you like the nords, from fairy tales?”

“A bit” he stated with a chuckle “we are known for our politeness, and most of the world likes us.”

“That's good!”

“Yeah. Aside from that, we are known as a peace loving country, but I don't know why; we kicked the crap out of a couple of Europian countries in the last world war.”

“World war?”

“Every militaristic country took a side, and they had a fight to end all fights. Millions of men met each other on the battlefield, and weapons that destroyed entire cities were used. My grandfather's father was in the war, he flew a plane that dropped bombs on the Germans.”

“Are the Germans like you?” she paused while saying Germans, stumbling on the word

“Actually, yes. I am of German descent, but my ancestors left the country long before the war.”

“So everyone on your planet is like you?”

“Ah... A bit. We vary slightly, our eyes and skin tones are different, but other than that, all the animals that can talk are like me.”

“Aside from being a soldier, what do you do for work?”

“I am a full time soldier!”

“What? Your planet has people whos only profession is killing?”

“Yeah, but it's not all 'kill kill kill' we do humanitarian aid, and we hunt pirates, but I don't think that helps my case.” his expression went sheepish as he finished the statment. Fluttershy let out a yawn as she turned to him, and he could tell that she was loosing her battle with sleep. He chuckled.

“Go to sleep if you are tired” he said with a smile. He turned away from her and stretched out, his legs reaching past the end of the bed. He folded them beneath him, reaching around, he pushed her wings down, as they buffeted his head.

“Sorry!” she squealed.

“No problem.”

And with that she fell asleep, with him folling soon after.

Fluttershy woke to the sun shining on her face, and she rolled over to avoid the bright lights on her face. She wondered why she hadn't closed the curtains the night before, as she always does. She remembered why in an instant; there was no sun yesterday. She turned to Bradley in excitment, but found only a note where he had slept the night before.

'Gone to kill necromancer. Be back for dinner.'

She shuttered at the note's implications. Was he crazed enough to actually attempt an assault on the castle? His fight was obviously not in vain, as the sun was now up. Fluttershy lifted herself from the bed, and carried herself downstairs. Rarity and Applejack were already awake, drinking coffee in the kitchen.

“Notice the sun yet?”

“Yes!” Fluttershy commented excitedly

“Any idea why?” queried Applejack

Fluttershy showed the pair the note that she had found, and the two recoiled at the statment. How could someone assault the castle alone? It was impossible. The beating of wings sounded as they began making breakfast for everyone.

“Who is flying?” asked Rainbow Dash

The group froze, they had assumed that Bradley had taken Rainbow with him to assist or to send massages.

“If that's not you, then who is it?”

Answering their question, the door to the cottage creaked open, and the ponies inside froze in fear due to the sight they were witnessing. It was Celestia, but not the formal, regal, Celestia. Her brilliant mane was matted with blood, and her white coat had specks of blood on it. The group rushed to her assistance.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

After taking a moment to compose herself, she stood up on her own and faced the distraut ponies.

“The necromancer, he took the castle. He used some form of spell to control the minds of those inside. Even I was unable to resist the magic that he used. We were forced, although we were willing under the effects of the spell, to make weapons and work on armor for his forces.” she took a moment to breathe “Then, early this morning, the warrior that we summoned came crasing in the window. We attacked him, but none of the spells were able to hit him. He ran towards me, and he grabbed my horn. I tried to fry him through my horn, but he held fast. Once I had started expelling magic into him, I couldn't stop. Fortunatley, he used his body to absorb enough magic, and the spell broke. He cried for me to leave and forget about him. The last I saw of him as I escaped was him taking the full force of a magical bolt from the other magic users in the castle.”

Fluttershy interrupted “Could he have survived that?” tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

“No... I doubt even I could survive that.”

“Could he?” she continued

Rarity embraced Fluttershy as she began to weep, realizing that her new friend had sacraficed himself in order to save the people's symbol of hope.

“Rainbow.” Fluttershy spoke between sobs.

“Can you go see? I don't care how unlikely it is.”

“Will do.” Rainbow said, sprinting out of the house. She hated to see her friend cry, and she was willing to do anything for her.

Rainbow travelled as fast as she could, flying as low as possible to avoid being seen. In a matter of minutes she reached the castle, circling around it, she was able to see where he had made his stand. A rope was attached to the roof of the great hall, and skeletons peered at her from a broken window. She was too high at this point to be hit by their weapons, and she swung around to the front of the castle. She was met with a grizzly sight, she came in closer to confirm what she had thought.

The necromancer had his skeletons hang Bradley's corpse in front of the castle, his arms outstretched, roped binding his wrist. She began to hover in place, she had hardley known him, but that was an aweful fate. When she was about to leave, she noticed something strange about the body, it seemed to sway in the wind, but there was no wind.

Rainbow risked approaching the body, fortunatley, there was no vantage point where any of the skeletons could shoot at her from. She came up close to the body, and hovered about three metres from it. Blood dripped from the bottoms of his boots, and the 'ropes' that had been used to hang him were actually chains. His body moved slightly, and his head raised slightly. Rainbow gasped in shock, to do this to a dead man was one thing, but hanging a live man by his wrists, wrapped in chain, left to die, was another thing. He moved his head, again, using his shoulder to pull the scarf that covered his face down.

“H... Hello. I don't suppose I could get you to leave me here?”

“What!”

“If... If you stay for long, they will notice. And they might get you.”

“But! You'll die if you stay there!”

“I've already died. There's no way for me to get back to my world, the Necromancer at least had the decency to make me give up by telling me that. I might as well die, my life at home is over.”

“And what about your life here! Fluttershy and Rarity are your friends! How could you leave them.”

“Well. Mostly, it's not my choice.” as he spoke, blood started dripping from the corners of his mouth.

“Celestia said that you took a hard enough hit to even kill her, a god. How did you survive.”

“I cheated.”

“What?”

“That magic book. I know what your magic really is.”

“What?”

“I am really tired now” he said, his speech lulling as he did so. “I'm gonna go to sleep. Maybe I won't wake up.”

Rainbow noticed a small purple glowing coming from his eyes. He was being put to sleep by an unseen magician. She moved close to him and yelled in his ear;

“Don't give up! If you give up, we will to!”

With that he began to fall asleep, his head nodding down.

“What do you mean someone talked to him?”

“I'm sorry m'lord. The archers said they were unable to fire, and by the time we alerted spellmaster Twilight, he had already spoken to the intruder.”

“Do you have any idea how incompetent you are? An intruder comes to our gates, and you let them leave!”

“She was flying m'lord, the magic was unable to target her with her heart beating too strong.”

“Fuck!”

“What shall we do next?”

“Get him down from there, and make it hurt. Also, find something that looks like blood and cover the door in it, make it look like we butchered him.”

“Should we kill him?”

“No. If he dies of anything other than 'natural' causes, his body won't fight for me when he is raised a second time.”

“What shall we do with him?”

“Put him in the dungeon with that girl who resisted the spell.”

“Shall we gag him?”

“No. He would chew through a leather gag, and I'm unsure if we have anything else.”

“You are correct m'lord, we do not.”

“Then go, shoo, get to work.”

Bradley grunted as he was awoken from his slumber. His feet cracked as they hit the ground beneath him, with his arms weak from his hanging, he was unable to stop himself from smashing hsi face on the ground. A pair of large guards cane and dragged him by his feet, his beack and head thumping over obstacles as he went. They carried him down the great hall, all of the magic users's horns glowing, ready to strike him again if he attampted to escape. He was too out of it to do anything, and he didn't thing that he could survive another strike from them.

The guards pushed open an old door, the hinges creaked from lack of use. He was shoved down the stairs, and his tired body rolled down. The guards followed him, their eyes glowing with the magic of the Necromancer in the dim light. The grabbed his boots again, and resumed dragging his now limp form.

With the jingling of keys, they opened the cell that Trixie sat in, and threw his body in. He moaned and released a barrage of curses at the guards, who sniffed and smashed the door shut. He sat bolt upright, and turned to Trixie, who was now backing into the corner, terrified of him.

“You... You're him!”

“Wha?” Bradley asked, still to dazed to piece together his infamy.

“The one who defeated Celestia, Discord, and Luna!”

“Who?”

“You!”

“Me?”

“Yes!”

“Then why does everything hurt!”

“I don't know what you did! Idiot!”

“Oh... Okay.”

With that Bradley fell backwards, blood seeping out of new wounds and staining the floor. Trixie reared back in disgust, but approached him out of pity. She stood over him, now unconscious, and poked at his muscle bound form. She had seen some large ponies before, but his muscles made them look tiny. Wounds peppered his body, and a massive scorch mark covered his back.

“Why do I always get stuck with the weirdos?” she said to herself.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay.
Ballistics engineering is hard and time consuming -.-