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Prologue: Out of the frying pan.2,488 words
1 - Through the fire and the flames, we fight on!7,539 words
2 - Retrofits and Holy Handlemons6,788 words
3 - That is not dead which can eternal lie...6,966 words
4 - Botch! & Death's Doom5,726 words
5 - Changes and Challenges5,343 words
6 - Pet the Morality Pony6,034 words

6 - Pet the Morality Pony

Genesis - 12th of Snowfall - Morning

“Halt!” I shouted, throwing a hoof up in the air to stop the column of troops behind me.

A clattering of armor, grunts of irritation, weapons striking weapons. Imbeciles, all of them. Foals would do a better job at most things!

The sea lay before me, and between the expanse of water and myself was the towering walls of Spur. The city of Spur was a nice little place, remarkable for a city state this close to Neighpon, especially one with a booming trade port. In any case it was good they had not yet taken her, otherwise securing passage to Zebraca would be impossible.

I turned to my regrettable second in command to give him an order. “Greyhound, keep the dogs here, behind the tree line. Nohound is to move until I come back.”

“We could walk to zebra place, yes?” Greyhound asked irritably. Dogs do not like the sea.

“If we had half a year, yes we could. But my father is expected to retrieve his half of the key within two months. We can not return later than he will.” I informed for the fifth time.

“We could take the Dragon’s teleport.” Grayhound objected. Again, for the fifth time.

I sighed, my breath pooling inside my mask. “Sure, why not? Let’s do it! I’ll expect you to bring me the head of the nearest dragon at dawn so we can use their network unhindered. Oh and of course you will clear the other dragon on the other side of the link too. I believe you and your hounds are most definitely suited to fight two grown dragons at the minimum, back to back.”

What was it about covert operations these mutts could not understand? The Library of Zebraca was one of the most well fortified places in the world. They had troops, advanced weaponry, lots of arcane support… It would be a mess to assault if they knew you were coming. Yet no matter how many times I informed these dolts of my strategy they insisted on trying to just burn a path a mile wide to the damn fortress!

Grayhound was silent for a few minutes, his brain probably burning from the effort of thinking up his response. “You could fight the dragons, then we could go through.”

“I could fight a dragon. One.” I chided. “Then, I would need to wait a day to use my avatar again, by which time we would be attacked by… Just sit in the trees and keep your hounds quiet.”

“We don’t want to go across the sea!” Grayhound shouted ears laying back in anger, white furred muzzle dampened with spit.

“Too bad, because I say we are taking a ship to Zebraca. I may not be able to fight more than one dragon, but I could easily fight all of you.” I warned. “What do you want, to die here, or to be paid later?”

I glared at him through my mask. He glared back. I let a few tendrils of dark magic drift from my eyes, he growled and lurched back towards the tree line. I kept glaring for a few more moments, just in case he turned around to throw a weapon.

It was both pathetic and awe inspiring how controlling a single one of those beasts allowed me to control the entire band of eight thousand. If they had any real magic at their disposal, or were seasoned troops, I could probably have just taken the city and looted a ship. Even so that wouldn’t be right, they had done nothing wrong as far as I knew. I pulled my hood low over my head, turned around and marched for the gate.

I hated entering civilized places. Even with my Somepony Else’s Problem spell preventing the casual observer from noticing me, towns were still painful. Everywhere I looked, peace, prosperity, love, friendship, kindness, everything I was never allowed to have, everything I was sworn to protect.

I didn’t choose to stand on the edge of civilization and ward it from the abyss. Yes, my blood formed my signature on the contract, yes I had given an oath of allegiance, but so had everypony else I had ever known. No other options had ever been presented.

We grew up in a single room, a bed, a foot locker. We never knew our parents, most of us didn’t even have those in the first place. We just awoke one morning, already grown, laying on a bed. A cloaked and masked pony the only one besides us we saw. ‘Welcome, you will protect this land from evil. Here’s your armor, it’s time to learn the arcane arts.’

The two guards who stood watch outside the city gates had a nice job. A pegasus and a small minotaur, diligently standing armed and armored to ensure no evil passed by. As I walked past them I couldn’t help but feel jealous.

They grew up in what they chose to protect, this city with it’s beautiful Romane inspired architecture fashioned from polished limestone and brass, was their home. They wanted to keep it safe. My home was a gray stone room beneath the earth, nothing worth protecting, nothing like Spur.

It was like this for every town I had to go to. The streets were filled with merchants calling out for people to buy their wares, foals played in the streets, running among the carts and crowds, young couples gossiped about those around them. It was wonderful, this sort of life was worth protecting with the swift justice I was trained to use, that was certainly true. It would have been nice if I could ever have been, or be a part of it.

Thank Faust I only had to find somepony who could rent a large ship. It wouldn’t be like the time I had to bunk in Manehatten for three months. I could just find the harbormaster, secure a ship, arrange a pick up point for my ‘mercenary band’ and be on my way.

The sea was to the south, so logically all I had to do was follow the streets southwards to the docks district and -

“Did you hear about Furlong?” a affluently dressed peach and green unicorn mare asked me.

I stopped in my tracks. My spell should have made me totally invisible to anyone who was not… Ah, she must be looking for somepony to gossip with. Given my clothing’s embellishments, I might be mistaken for a noble myself.

“No I have not. Do excuse my mask, there was a delightful costume party this dawn.” I replied, doing my best to sound like the usual stick up the plot noble.

She nodded, “Jubilee's Winter Welcome? I trust it must have been nice.”

“Quite. Now, what’s this about Furlong?” I replied automatically. Lucky break with there actually having been a party this morning.

“Dreadful business that. The entire village was slaughtered, and I say that only because it’s the most appropriate word for the completely barbaric manner the villagers were killed. I don’t know where we will get mead for the winter now.” she leaned in towards me to whisper, I had to resist the urge to throw lightning at her and run. “They say the remains were cursed, and the rescue party was transformed into monstrous creatures. The entire village was profaned and covered in dark crystals.”

“That’s terrible!” I exclaimed, gritting my teeth behind my mask. “Tell me, where is Furlong from here? I mean, should the city guard be on alert?”

“Oh it’s to the north east, about a week's journey. It all happened on the fifth.” she answered. “I believe we are quite safe, after all His Majesty's court mage should be able to spot anything that evil coming hours in advance.”

Was that a threat? That sounded like a threat… “It’s good to know somepony here can keep an eye out for evils like that. I would hate to see anything happen to our fair city.” I said looking off towards where I believed the docks to be.

“Do you have business to take care of?” the mare asked me curiously.

“Yes, I forgot to check on a shipment for my husband last night and I really should take care of it before he returns home this evening. I’m afraid I must be going.” I informed giving her a polite bow.

“Oh, well I’ll let you go then. Just one thing, I couldn’t help but notice you have a rather powerful aura, you must be something of a mage. His Highness recovered an artifact from Furlong which seems to be what cursed the rescuers. You should go to the palace when you can and see if you can't determine what it is. There is a rather substantial reward.”

Oh ponyfeathers! I mentally checked my spells to be sure my aura was disguised properly, and sighed in relief as it looked to be nothing but light magic and normal unicorn signatures. “Er- That sounds like a good idea. I’ll be sure to drop in and help as soon as I can. Have a good day miss.”

“You too darling.” The mare said waving a hoof as I resumed my course for the docks.

Bucking hell. This was bad. That was no random mare, that had to be part of the city’s clandestine service. If she was well trained enough she would know I was masking my aura. She had managed to spot me despite being cloaked because she was watching for suspicious people…

I began to move more quickly, winding through the streets into an ally heading south and downhill. I needed to get this over with as quickly as possible. Spur was a big city, if she had reported me, I could still find passage and leave before the guards could be alerted and find me. I could get out of this without major conflict and continue the operation undetected.

I hadn’t noticed her cast any spells but here were ways to mask casting. She could have seen through my disguise. The next nearest port was a full hundred miles away, if I backed out now I would be delayed at least two weeks trying to get my inept army to march overland that far.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Dark crystals, profaned, slaughter, north east by about a week, on the fifth. “No…” I whispered.

It couldn’t be. It mustn't be! Yet it had to be. The rescuers became monsters, that screamed necromancy, and the only powerful necromancer for a thousand leagues was my father.

There had to be a reason, right? Perhaps they were plotting to- No, a farming village with a meadery wouldn’t have any real military or arcane power. He’d killed them. All of them. Why? That was not our-

“Faust no…” I moaned.

He wasn’t one of us. He had never been one of us! How had I been so blind as to miss such a basic fact? Sombra had never belonged to the Tribunal, he was free agent. Our ideals, our goals, our morals, he did not share them. He had sought out dark magic, necromancy, and a thousand more arts on his own for his own ends, and I had aided in restoring him to life!

The blood of Furlong was on my hooves. They were covered in more blood than I could remember, but never before had truly innocent blood been upon them. This was entirely my fault!

Or was it? The Mad Mare would have brought him back without my help, it merely would have taken longer. If anything I was only guilty of accelerating things. This was still a terrible thing, but the fault was not solely mine.

I wish I could say I had been tricked, but no, I had known what we were doing. I simply had not realized the truth of it. I owned at the least, a third of the horrors my father had wrought, that much was on my shoulders. The question was, what could I do about it?

Like any warrior, I needed to properly assess the situation. I had made a grievous error, and assisted an ally of my former commander in doing exactly the sort of thing I had been made to stop. Because of this, a powerful evil force had entered the world and was tasked with acquiring an item to free a greater evil. Given the nature of my father, and his words to me, this was not so we could then kill that evil. Therefore, I had to stop it, yet my father was well beyond my capacity to kill.

The proper and direct approach therefore was not an option. Meaning only thing I could do was ensure no one recovered the half of the key I was sent to retrieve. I would have to find it as I had previously planned, and if possible destroy it, or otherwise render it unusable.

That left only what to do about the evils my father had unleashed. I could not stop him, but perhaps I could repair some of the damage. I couldn’t however walk into the palace and simply tell them what was going on. That would result in battle, I would be delayed and likely lose my opportunity to acquire the key. The greater of two evils must always be slain first.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a filly. She was hunched between two rotting baskets on the side of the ally, resting in a sorta-kinda tent made by the slumped baskets. I knew everything wasn’t sunshine and rainbows in towns no matter how nice they look, and this young filly most certainly did too.

She was so covered in mud and dirt I couldn’t tell what color her fur was, or even see what he mane or tail were like. She just looked like a big ball of brown, black, and bits of straw. It took me a few moments to realize those bumps on her back were wings thanks to all of that gunk.

“Atonement starts small.” I muttered to myself, recalling an old saying I heard once.

I walked over to the filly, took a few small gems from my pocket, and dropped them in front of her with my magic. “Here. Get something to eat.”

She looked up at me with nutbrown eyes. The same shade as my eyes before they turned red. Her whole face parted in a smile so wide it cracked the mud. “Thanks! Miss...Mister…Mask?”

“Miss.” I shook my head and trotted off down the alley.

I had just rounded the corner when I heard a voice taunt, “Hey Earth Cloud, still being an Earth Clod?”

There was a quick rustle of read basket on stone and another voice exclaimed, “Whoa! She just hid an emerald under that heap!”

“Go away!” the filly, Earth Cloud I presumed, wined in a defeated tone.

Mother bucking ponyfeathers! Seriously? No way in tartarus was some piss ant little shit going to mess up the first bloodless nice thing I had done for somepony! I turned around and moved back around the corner just in time to see a red unicorn colt about twice Earth’s age levitate her baskets up and snatch the gems I’d given her.

The other bully was also a unicorn, and also red. Presumably brothers. He was currently occupied laughing at Earth as she crawled forward to try and snatch one of the emeralds as his brother tucked them into a saddlebag. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why Earth didn't get up and punch one of the brats across the muzzle.

Oh that’s why, she didn’t have rear legs. Wait, these red furred little pukes were robbing a cripple? A below the knee amputee cripple? Who was clearly homeless? I narrowed my eyes in anger. Urge to kill... rising!

This sort of behavior is not tolerable. Their age was no excuse, I was honor bound to correct the situation with extreme prejudice. It would be a delight!

As I walked forwards, readying a paralyzing spell the two unicorns began to leave. “Give the gems back. You have five seconds.” I shouted down the alley, letting my cloak’s hood pull back enough to show my mask in full.

“Oh yeah? Who's going to make us?” the one who had taken the gems rebuked, “My daddy owns the whole dist-eep!”

I could taste their fear as their eyes widened in terror. That’s right you little shit. Glowing eyes and dark magic radiating from a horn at the end of an ally is far more terrifying in reality than your darkest nightmare.

“Four.” I announced taking a step closer.

“You should probably give those back now.” Earth said smugly and surprisingly enough, totally unafraid.

“Three.” I warned.

“Okay! Here take them!” The colt squeaked, tossing the gems at Earth and bolting down the alley.

I grabbed him by the neck with my magic and pulled him back to her side, turning him around slowly. “Pick them up.”

He gulped and picked them up again.

“Gently hand them back to her.” I ordered, maintaining my deathly serious tone.

He gurgled something, my magic gripping him too tightly to speak. Earth took the gems in her left hoof and stuffed them back under her rotting basket. “Thank you.” She said, both to me and oddly enough the little brat.

“You aren't afraid of me,” I said looking at Earth curiously, “that’s quite rare. Would you like to help me decide how to punish this criminal? He’s quite young, death might be a touch extreme but if you think it’s fair…”

She gave me a curious look, “You’re like a witch right?”

“Sort of. Why?” I asked, truly curious.

“Cuz he’s really mean, but you shouldn’t kill him. Cuz then he won't learn any lesson. You could curse him though right?” she asked in a way I honestly found adorable, also oddly logically.

I nodded. “I can. I suppose you are right. A harsh lesson might show this waste of a soul the right path in life. He is still young enough to change… Does he harm you a lot? What seems fair to you? I could rip his legs off to show him what it’s like to be you.”

Earth’s ears drooped sadly, “Aww… you’re an evil witch?”

I shook my head, that wasn't… I wasn't… How best to put it for a foal? “No. I’m a witch with no tolerance for evil who isn’t above giving evildoers a taste of their own medicine, only three orders of magnitude more potent than they dish it out.”

The colt gurgled more in my grip and started to kick. Earth’s ears perked back up, “Oh! Okay! Then you should make it so he cant eat except like, once a week. That’s what he does to me… Oh! And somepony should eat food in front of him every day he doesn't get anything to eat and laugh at him. That’s what would be fair.”

“As you wish.” I agreed with a slight nod.

I readied an appropriate hex, the ally flashed purple and black as I delivered the spell. A second flash lit the alley as I layered a second, harder to detect spell which would renew the curse a few hours after anypony removed it. With that I dropped the cold to the cobblestones with a dull thud.

“You’re lucky she’s nice.” I said to the colt as he lay gasping for air.

I turned my attention back to the filly. I had an important question for her. “Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

“You helped me, bad guys don't help ponies, and every superhero has a mask, right?” She asked before shaking her head, “Well… no I mean, Supermane doesn't have a mask because she has those magic glasses.”

I felt my jaw drop under my mask. How dumb was this filly? “You honestly think I’m a superhero?”

She shook her head as the colt scrabbled to his hooves and bolted off. “No. I mean, you said you were gonna kill him, so your um… not a villain, cuz you helped me… but um… Oh! Like the Pun-neigh-sher! Only with less puns. You know, a grown up superhero!”

“I honestly don’t know what your talking about. I guess I’ll be complemented.” I chuckled, letting the dark magic fade from my horn and eyes.

“Besides, you totally have powers! Like super advanced magic. Like Princess Twilight!” Earth exclaimed.

How the bucking hell did some filly three thousand miles from Equestria even know-

“I have her first issue! It’s awesome! I wish she was real because she would… um… do what you just did…” she gasped in shock and gave me a deep incredulous stare.

I couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m not Twilight! But I did talk to her once. I didn’t know somepony made a comic of her.”

Her ears dropped so hard she flicked a bit of mud off them revealing a bit of white fur on one ear and a bit of light brown on the other. “Awww… wait you said you talked to- Oh my gosh! I knew she was real!”

That heartstring pulling bright grin of her’s was back. It quite literally hurt. Could feeling an emotion hurt? Was that a thing? “Yeah, she’s real. She’s one of the rulers of Eq-”

“Equestria!” was all I picked up before she launched off into a three minute rapid fire rant about well, everything.

“-Oh my gosh! Imagine of Rainbow taught me how to do a Sonic Rainb-eep!” Earth suddenly hunkered down onto the ground, wings moving to cover her eyes, but not yet big enough to even begin to move far enough.

“You didn’t even move from the spot you assaulted a foal… Heh.” An old stallion’s voice chided from behind me.

I sighed and turned around slowly. Sure enough, there was the same spy from earlier, a pair of fullplate clad guards with enchanted halberds, and an especially old looking stallion whose fur and beard was probably gray with age and not naturally so colored.

I rolled my eyes. This would be cake, but completely blow my plans out of the water. Bucking tartarus. “Old timer, the kid deserved it for robbing a crippled orphan. I presume you are here to do something about it, and I am going to have to advise you-” the old gray furred unicorn’s aura was so powerful, it might have leaked into the visible spectrum a little, and every single bit of it was refined with age I couldn’t even begin to fathom. “-oh… Well that’s just not fair at all.”

“I’m sorry,” The obviously thousands of years old wizard mock apologized. “I don’t give a buck.”

There was a flash, a thunderclap, and I felt the sensation of dying as I dropped to the cobblestones.

Genesis - 12th of Snowfall - Sunset

Darkness. Stillness. Nothingness. No thought. No self. Only the Abyss.

Stars exploded, a thousand different colored lights popped and flashed, pain, everywhere, cold smooth rock under me. Systems check… Magic’s doing good, armor’s still on, eyes still exploding, ears ringing, touch feels like somepony’s electrocuting me. Yep, that happened.

Vision slowly cleared, white marble altar, no cloth, laying on it like a bed, outside, mask lying in front of me. I felt my spine twist back together. It wasn’t pleasant. The old bastard had almost done it, the last time it hurt this bad was when my commander killed me himself to show me what the worst would feel like.

Smell came back like somepony lighting a candle. Salty air, recently burned incense. I was outside, on an alter, with all my gear. Huh. Last time I was caught in a city they just set me on fire.

I dragged one hoof to reach for my mask. I felt the porcelain underhoof, but I couldn’t grip it. My manipulator nodes were still reforming I guess. The real question was how the buck did they get it off?

My ears twitched, rotating in the direction of a startled gasp. “You’re alive? I knew it! I told them if you want to kill a witch you have to set her on fire, but they didn’t listen and did this whole silly blessing thing and you’re okay!”

Ow… sound… high pitched. I swiveled the only eye which was responding towards the sound. Oh, right. Tiny pony. What’s her name… She better have got herself a Faust damned sandwich!

I turned my head slowly, looking at her in the same manner one looks at a chimp screaming into a megaphone. “Ever… had… hangover?” I asked in a raspy tone. Buck… no wonder I hurt, he knocked the Equinity right out of me.

The filly nodded, ears drooping. “Once. I thought it was punch that went bad.”

“Undeath… like… morning… after… barrel… Tequila.” I managed to rasp while slowly getting my right hoof to move so I could rifle through my pockets.

“Oh. Sorry! I’ll be quiet.” She hunkered down on the little wooden bench I just noticed she was laying on. “Wait, undeath? You’re a zombie?”

“Not… exactly… ow…” Somepony in Spur a few miles away in my line of sight lit a candle or something. It hurt.

My hoof found the pouch I was looking for. Unfortunately, the buckle was a thing, and this hoof wasn’t ready to grip things either. “Bucking… damn… it.”

What’s-her-face’s ears perked. The somehow still muddy filly asked in a much more polite whispery voice, “Do you need help opening that?”

So it would seem. “Yes.”

She slid off of the bench and pulled herself over to the edge of the alter. A few moments of scrabbling later and she managed to prop herself up on her stumps by leaning against the marble surface, stretch one hoof up and open my pouch. “You’re lucky they didn’t take your stuff. The big wizard guy said it might be cursed so they should leave you and everything here overnight before doing anything.”

Oh that’s why she still looked muddy! She was cloud white and mud brown in a calico pattern, with a flat, spiky black mane and tail. “Heh… I get it… Earth… Cloud…”

She blinked in confusion before smiling, “Oh! Right! I named myself. You know, I look like dirt and clouds so… yeah! What’s your name?”

I felt my right hoof tingle. I could grab things again. I reached into the pouch, grabbed a small piece of black quartz, lifted it up as much as I could, and set it on the alter’s surface. Remembering I would need a second one, I set another beside it. “Okay… I need help. How about… you… help me. Then I… help you.” I asked.

“Um, okay. But I’m doing fine.” Earth said, pulling herself up to look at the crystals more closely. “What do you need?”

“Are my swords under… cloak?” I asked.

“Um…” Earth looked around, slid back down to the floor, crawled out of sight, and came back a moment later with a stick which she used to push the edge of my cloak up with. “Yep!”

My heart did that hurting thing again. “Take… middle one and put it… on floor.”

It took her a full ten minutes to climb onto the altar and retrieve my blade. I hoped I would have regenerated enough to do it myself by then, but something was slowing my recovery to a crawl. Probably whatever Vengeful Hoof of Faust type spell that old bastard hit me with. But after a heroic amount of effort on Earth’s part, my estoc clattered to the stone floor below.

“Good job. Now… the red ribbon around the… blade’s… fort… unwind it, then get some… kindling… I need… ritual spell…” I said as simply as I could manage.

As I watched the filly scoot about and painstakingly gather small bits of burnables, I couldn’t help but wonder what in Tartarus I had done to earn such respect that a cripple would drag herself across the ground for me. It made absolutely no sense. I couldn’t even comprehend- Buck it I had to ask. “Why… are you helping… me?”

“Because you helped me. Nopony else is ever nice to me. And your face is all burnt, so you’re a cripple too! I mean, that’s not good but you well… you know get it. Also you did something about Spark and Hearth.” Earth dropped a stick atop the pile of cloth, wood, and paper she had got together. “Is this enough?”

I nodded in response, deciding to try and understand her reasons later. “Yeah. Stick sword… point first… in pile.”

She hefted the blade in her hooves, and wrestled it into position. Working it to the proper angle with my guidance. When she had finished, I had her stand back, focused my will on the magic in my blade and my mind, and the pile erupted into dull red flames.

I crushed the first crystal underhoof and tossed the dust into the fire. Immediately the pain stopped, my eyes adjusted to the light, and the feeling of fishhooks in my brain faded away. I crushed the second crystal and tossed it in. The fire sparked, popped, and I felt new flesh run down my body, restoring me to proper life, though not quite healing my injuries.

“Okay. Now that I’m properly alive again, let’s get you something nice.” I said, standing up and climbing off the alter.

I reached under my cloak, took out the small wooden box I kept my things in, retrieved my flask and set it in the fire. It would take a while to absorb the magic and fill, and since I was going to be stuck in the chapel at a graveyard anyways, I might as well make use of that.

“So… your legs. How did you loose them?” I asked looking over Earth’s hind quarters critically. If she had been injured it happened a long time ago, there were no obvious scars.

She shrugged. “I dont know. I dont think I ever had any.”

“Nopony got you a wheelchair?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I don't have adults.”

“You mean parents?” I asked curiously.

“Is that what you call grownups who take care of you?” Earth asked in the same tone of somepony asking if that was the proper name of a specific type of spoon.

Ow! That feeling. Like the opposite of hate. Stop it heart, you dick!

I stood up and lifted Earth onto my back with my magic. “Come on, let’s find the grave of somepony your age.”

“What? Why?” she asked as I trotted out of the chapple’s entry arch.

“So we can dig it up and use the bones as part of an undead graft so I can get you some legs.” I informed. I didn’t have any spells which could restore severed limbs which had never existed in the first place.

“Um… won’t somepony be mad about that?” Earth asked.

“Maybe, but who cares? It’s not like the dead are using their legs.” I pointed out. “How old are you?”

“I don't know… Um… Fourteen?” she answered. “Can we ask permission first?”

I blinked and turned to look at her on my back. “You want me to summon up the spirit of a dead foal just so you can ask if it’s okay for you to have their skeleton’s hind legs?”

“Yeah.” She said looking a bit concerned.

Faust damn that stupid big eye triggered heart squeezing feeling!

“Nnn… okay.” I conceded.

Three hours, fifteen summons, and an impressive amount of exasperation later, I finally found one. Seconds after the young unicorn’s ghost had said ‘Um, okay. Sure. I guess.’ I dismissed it, dug the old bones up, threw the entire skeleton into my bag and taken Earth back up to the chapel.

It wouldn’t be a simple operation to perform the graft. As a pegasus Earth would reject the unicorn bone over time unless I grafted enough of it in place, meaning I would have to replace half of her skeleton with the unicorns. A little voice told me it wasn’t a good idea to tell her that, so I simply told her I would get started and hit her with the strongest sleep spell I had.

It wasn't the first graft I had performed, but it was the second. This was a good deal more complicated than attaching wings to an earth pony comrade too. I lost track of time as I cut, removed, inserted, and arcanely bound bone together.

When I was done, the poor filly was a real mess, but her chest still heaved. She was alive. Which was pretty impressive in my opinion. The insertion of that much dead tissue into her body should have killed her. I was pretty happy she didn’t end up like me. Maybe that’s what happened if you got a spirit's permission to use it’s remains. You didn’t get sudden onset undeath.

Her injuries were easily enough treated. I retrieved my flash from the fire and simply dropped the amber manna infused liquid into each wound. Her flesh knit itself shut as if it had never been cut, and the bare bones of her knew legs had muscle and skin twist down their length in a few seconds. Fur should grow over them in a week or two at most.

When I was done I took a sip from the flask myself, irked that I had used all of it in my work aside from a few drops. Fortunately that seemed to get rid of almost all of the pain I was in. After putting all of my things away and putting out the fire, I gently shook Earth awake. “Hey, come on. Get up. You’re all better now.”

Earth rolled onto her side and angrily batted at me with a hoof while murmuring a little sleepy “Noooo…”

Ah! Okay, that time actually literally hurt! Didn’t feel so bad now though.

I couldn’t just leave her, but I couldn’t stay here either. Odds were pretty good that Spur’s guards were searching the area, which mean they had already found my Dogs and likely driven them off. They thought I was dead, otherwise guards would be here.

My forces could not be rallied because I couldn’t spend time here. I would have to make for Zebraca myself and work out a way to get what I needed enroute. Perhaps I could recruit some local mercenaries.

That was a question for the future. The question for now was what do I do with the homeless orphan I had just grafted half a unicorn to? I winced, realizing she could develop complications from that graft and wouldn’t be able to get help on her own. I would have to take her with me or I would be causing her unneeded cruelty.

I lifted my mask off the altar and slipped it on, immediately comforted by the lack of wind and cool porcelain on the scars that was my face. Then I checked my gear, picked up Earth and set her on my back, and began walking along the coast heading east.

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