It didn’t take too long to finalize our arrangements and take to the seas. Kukri wasn’t happy about being left behind, but there was no way I’d be taking her into a fight with a bunch of zombies—she was way too young to be doing fieldwork. Between everything that happened when I first arrived in Freeport and the run-in with the primal changeling, Kukri’d already gone through way too much for a kid her age.
We wound up taking two separate ships out to the commune, mostly because Puzzle wanted to be able to check in with a few of his contacts on the way out. I couldn’t exactly complain about that when half the reason I wanted him around was his information network, but it did mean I was stuck on the other ship—which in turn meant I was stuck with Strumming and a couple of the embassy guards she’d apparently talked into coming along for our undead-and-warlock hunt. Considering this was the first time I’d seen some of those ponies since I broke out of the embassy, things were just a bit awkward.
Strumming did her best to break the ice in her usual manner. “I made cheese dip.” She pulled out one of the many bags of chips she always seemed to have access to and immediately got to work on decimating the dip. “Don’t worry, I almost certainly didn’t poison it.”
I rolled my eyes, but tried some of it anyway. Credit where it’s due, Strumming is good at junk food. “Thanks.”
Strumming nodded and swallowed before she spoke again. “Been thinking. Bug boy said there’s some zebrican necromancer about half a day away from where these farmers are set up, right? And since he’s gotta go check with all his spies, we’d be waiting a while before he could join up with us at the commune.”
“Right.” I frowned warily at her. I knew she was building up to something, and I had a pretty good idea what it was.
“Well, here’s the thing: I don’t love the idea of heading to the commune that could be a big nasty trap without maximum intel, which means waiting for Puzzle to get back. I also don’t like the idea of just sitting around and doing nothing while we wait for Puzzle, so how about we go check out this necromancer?”
I thought it over. I had been planning to start the investigation with him once we checked in at the village anyway. I would’ve preferred to do that with Puzzle backing me up, but I couldn’t spend my whole life sitting around waiting for Puzzle’s approval before I did anything. Nothing wrong with taking the initiative every once in awhile. “Yeah, why not?”
As it turned out, the zebra necromancer—I think the term Puzzle had used was a bokor—had his own little walled-off compound on an otherwise deserted island. I suppose that was one advantage to the out-islands: plenty of free real estate as long as you didn’t mind being far from civilization. The walls certainly looked like they belonged to an evil necromancer’s secret base of operations—while the actual walls were stone, the main decorative theme was skulls and bones, and I could feel the magical defenses thrumming with power. “Looks like we found it.”
Strumming’s eyes pointedly lingered at all the bones. “Gee, you’d never think this place belonged to some crazy necromancer shaman. It just looks so homey.”
“He’s rolled out the welcome mat and everything.” I concentrated and scanned the wall’s magical defenses. Pretty standard, from what I’d seen of zebra work. Several strong stone spirits bound to the walls, and a lot of weaker but more numerous air spirits covering the skies. However, there was one weak point to it: the gate. There was only a single wood spirit on it, and aside from the gate itself there wasn’t too much wood around. I hadn’t quite picked up all the rules about how shaman magic worked, but I did know that elemental spirits were generally bound to their element. The wood spirit couldn’t move through air, earth, fire, water, or metal. Maybe some other things too. I was still picking up all the rules.
So, all I had to do to neutralize the spirit was destroy the entire gate before the spirit could get off a warning. Admittedly not at easy task for most spellcasters, but most spellcasters weren’t Alpha-level unicorns with a mastery of pyromancy. I took several moments to gather my energy, then tossed out a solid sheet of fire. For once, everything went according to plan, and the entire gate was encased before the spirit could warn anyone we were there.
“Subtle,” Strumming deadpanned. “You see, this is why pyromancers never get invited to any of the nice parties. You keep on burning things.”
“I had to burn the whole gate at once to keep the spirits from setting off any alarms,” I explained patiently. “I could’ve tried it with ice, but have you noticed how hot it is? Ice doesn’t exactly last a long time in a tropical climate.”
“Yeah, great job stopping the spirit from setting off any alarms.” Strumming sighed and rolled her eyes. “But there is the slight problem of the fact that you lit up the entire gate like a torch. I think someone just might noticed that.”
“Well we had to get past the defenses somehow.” The argument probably would’ve kept on going for a while, if not the gate suddenly and noisily collapsing into a pile of burning rubble. I couldn’t resist using that to score one last point. “See? It’s not huge and standing out anymore. Happy now?”
“Ecstatic,” Strumming deadpanned. “What do you plan to do about them?”
I followed her pointing hoof to the cluster of creatures on the other side of the gate. Creatures with wet, slimy skin and vacant blue eyes. “Great, looks like there were draug around after all.” The undead started shambling towards us, threateningly brandishing a collection of pitchforks, hoes, and scythes.
So the necromancer had guard zombies. What a shock.
“Think you could fry those too, bacon-mane?” Strumming shot out. “You know, what with your direct approach to problems?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah...” Throwing a fireball out at the zombies was simple enough, but there was a bit of a snag—draug are wet. Not so wet I couldn’t burn them, but the fireball didn’t cause nearly as much damage as it should’ve, and it left behind a huge cloud of steam.
I was nothing if not adaptable, though. I snatched all the moisture out of that steam cloud and formed it into a wave of ice darts I hurled at the oncoming draug, then followed that up by freezing a couple of them solid—all the water on those zombies might protect against fire, but it just gave me more to work when I was using ice instead.
As a couple frozen draug toppled over and shattered, I smirked at Strumming. “How’s that for direct? Besides, didn’t we come here to send a message to this necromancer guy? Messages work a lot better when they’re big and dramatic.”
“So far the only message I think anyone’s getting is that wherever you go, insurance rates go up.” Strumming sighed and shook her head. “I bet pretty soon companies are gonna add a special coverage category just for you.” She tossed a look at the shattered zombies. “Then again, I probably shouldn’t be complaining too much. Sure, you cause mass devastation, but so far you haven’t pointed it my way or caused any collateral damage to someone or something I care about.”
“Even that time I punched you in the face?”
Strumming shrugged. “I can’t entirely blame you for that, considering the circumstances. I’m just glad you didn’t set me on fire.” She pointed to one of the shambling zombies slowly staggering away as the flames consumed it. “Just saying, that would be a lot harder to heal than the bruise you left on my jaw. Plus it’d ruin my good looks.”
“Can’t ruin something that doesn’t exist,” I quipped. “So are you gonna help, or sit in the back being a smartflank?”
Strumming smirked and stepped up to my side. “I didn’t see any reason to get in the way when you were doing a perfectly good job blasting them all to bits. Besides, I figured the great and mighty Magus Sunset Shimmer wouldn’t need any help from a few lowly spies and soldiers to handle a couple weak little zombies.”
I rolled my eyes and blasted a couple more draug that were getting a little too close. “I haven’t come up with a spell to put eyes in the back of my head, and even I have trouble casting more than two spells at the same time. Someone needs to watch my back.”
Strumming’s eyes lingered on me for several seconds, then she slowly nodded. “What do you know? Looks like you’re actually learning from your mistakes.”
“I was the best student Celestia ever had,” I shot back. “Now make yourself useful, and keep me alive while I clear these things out!”
As Strumming and the guards formed a circle around me, I closed my eyes and spent several seconds concentrating on my next spell. It was a bit outside my usual field, but it was only useful against undead and I’d never faced off against a horde of zombies before. Instead of the usual fire, ice, light, or darkness I tapped into the raw power of the sun itself. Technically the sun belonged to Celestia alone, but there were one or two spells that borrowed just a tiny bit of that power with her permission.
Thankfully Celestia didn’t do anything to shut down my spell. The spell’s radiance hammered down on the zombies, smiting the undead with the divine might of the sun itself.
Or at least, that’s what the spell was supposed to do.
Strumming poked me in the side. “Did you just spend half a minute charging up a spell to make the sun a bit brighter?” She paused for a moment to sink a throwing dart into the head of one of the oncoming draug. “Because if that’s all you were doing, it seems like a huge waste. I was expecting you to set half the island on fire or something.”
“Why didn't that work?” I growled under my breath.
“I could probably answer that question if I had any idea what you were trying to do,” Strumming called out while casually taking out a draug’s knees with two more darts. “Though I think I’d probably also need a couple advanced degrees in high-level magic.”
I scowled and shook my head. “Must be because they're made differently.” I didn’t know too much about all the different ways of creating undead—I’d kind of avoided the topic after that one incident in the graveyard. It was entirely possible that the zebra method of creating undead meant they weren’t quite as vulnerable to the sun.
Thankfully, my usual bag of tricks seemed to work just fine. One nice thing about zombies, whether they were zebra-made draug or the type made by unicorns, is that they aren’t exactly known for their brainpower. The draug mindlessly shambled forward, and I unleashed fire, ice, and cutting beams of light against them. I probably could’ve handled them all on my own, but I let the guards and Strumming mop up the occasional stragglers so I could focus on the big groups. Plus that way I conserved my strength and let them feel like they were contributing.
We were just about done carving our way through all the draug when a zebra stepped out of one of the larger buildings within the compound, his jaw hanging open in shock as he viewed the scene. Judging by the black robes with dozens of fetishes hanging off of them, I was willing to bet that was the bokor we’d come here to deal with. After staring at us for several seconds he shook his head and shouted, “Knock it off, you damn berserkers! What are you doing to all my workers?!”
Workers? I took another look at one of the draug as I skewered it on a spear of ice. Come to think of it, scythes and pitchforks were more along the lines of farming equipment than weapons of war. Then I noticed the large field of plants—jute, I think—and the clusters of carefully cultivated palm and rubber trees.
Oh. So it wasn’t an army of attack zombies so much as a bunch of free farm labor. Oops. I tried to think of a way to apologize for blasting our way into his compound and destroying most of his workers, not to mention the rapidly spreading fire I’d started in his crop field. Somehow ‘sorry’ just didn’t quite cover that.
The bokor snarled furiously and dug into his cloak, pulling out a pouch and dumping out its contents. After several seconds the earth itself shifted, forming four large rocky pillars that slowly grew and connected until they were in a vaguely equine shape.
Great, now that I’d killed his zombies he was calling up spirits. Guess that meant diplomacy was a bust.
I might not be an expert on zebrican magic, but I knew that the first rule of handling elemental spirits was to separate them from their element. As the earth spirit started lumbering forward I created an ice spike beneath it, then rammed it straight up into its rocky body. At first there was almost no reaction to the damage, but eventually I made the spike thick and tall enough to break the spirit’s contact with the ground. The instant that happened, the rock monster fell apart, returning to the soil.
I didn’t have much time to feel good about my victory, because I could already feel more of the spirits coming in. Presumably, all the ones he’d put in charge of watching the gates I’d smashed through. Well, except for that wood spirit—pretty sure I’d already gotten that one. Either way, I wasn’t eager to take on that many at once. “I don’t suppose we could talk this out?”
“You didn't even tell me what you want!” the bokor snarled through a heavy accent. “You have some nerve attacking my home, you upstart c—”
Before he could finish that particular rhyme I threw a fireball his way, sending him scrambling. One thing I knew for sure about both necromancers and spirit binders, the best way to deal with them was to ignore their minions and go after them directly. After all, if this bokor was any good in a straight one-on-one fight, he wouldn’t have a skillset that was all about getting other creatures to do all the fighting for him.
One of the air spirits caught Strumming in midair, tossing the pegasus through the sky. I tried to help her out, but the fighting was fast and close, and air spirits are as fast and nimble as earth spirits are slow and ponderous, not to mention hard to spot. Hitting one with a spell at anything less than point blank range would require more luck than skill, and considering the circumstances I was likely to end up accidently hitting Strumming instead.
Thankfully, she was capable of taking care of herself. The next time the air spirit came after her she faked a dodge to the left, then, spun in a quick dive-roll down and to the right, hurling a throwing dart as she fell. The cold iron weapon struck the spirit dead on, and the anti-magical material did enough damage to make the air spirit let out a shriek that sounded like a small tornado as it plummeted to the ground. Once it hit, one of the guards followed up with a finishing blow, which dispersed just like the earth spirit had once I cut its connection with terra firma.
As more spirits closed in, I kept my attention on the bokor. He was scrambling back to one of the buildings that could provide him some cover while his spirits fought it out, so I set the building on fire before he could get to it, then followed up with a wave of razor sharp ice shards.
The bokor dropped and rolled, managing the avoid the worst of my attack. “What are you doing here?! I've never given others cause to fear!”
“You're a necromancer,” I countered.
“Oh, save your breath!” he snapped. “I didn't do anything to cause someone's death! My servants were nothing but lowly draug and barren bones, fished from bogs and watery homes. I merely acquired bodies already present, and only used them as a labor supplement.”
“Tell that to the village getting attacked by undead!” I snapped, throwing out a bright flash of light to try and blind him.
“That was not me!” the bokor protested. “I had no reason to do that if they left me be! I have even traded them some of my jute in exchange for baskets of fresh fruit.”
I’m not an expert, but pretty much every instinct I had was telling me that this guy was being honest with me. The undead didn’t look anything like the description we’d gotten from Equal Share, and all appearances were that he’d been using them for nothing more nefarious than free manual labor. Sure, it was still necromancy, but it wasn’t like he was a moustache-twirling villain plotting mass chaos and destruction.
I was trying to come up with some way to de-escalate the conflict when when one of the guards let out a startled yelp. “What the fea—” I whirled around just in time to see him get dragged down into the earth, and I could hear his muffled shouts echoing up from under the ground.
Damn, another earth spirit must’ve grabbed him. I took my attention off the bokor for a moment to try and figure out where the guard was so I could rescue him. However, earth spirits were about as good at moving through the earth as air spirits were in their domain, and unlike the air I couldn’t rely on my eyes to find anything. Even if I could find the guard, there was his captor to consider. While I was more than competent when it came to earth magic, I didn’t like my chances of taking on an earth spirit on its home turf.
“Stop this!” the bokor snarled at me. “I haven't killed him and I don't want to—but that depends on what you do.” He glared hatefully at me and pulled several more fetishes off his robes. “I did not want to start this fight, but I do believe my cause is right. You will leave my home and lands, or your soldier will remain buried in the sands.”
“I don’t like blackmailers,” Strumming cut in, glaring at the zebra. “Tell you what, though. You surrender to us, and we’ll work this out peacefully. When it comes to your trial and sentencing, I’ll make sure your behavior here is noted. If you really haven’t killed anyone, they’ll go a lot easier on you.”
“My trial and sentencing?” he repeated incredulously. “Surely it is you who should face a reckoning. You offer to end this peacefully.” He pointedly looked at all the out-of-control fires slowly consuming his compound. “Like how you came to greet me?”
“You are a necromancer with a secret base of undead monsters,” Strumming countered. “In an area where innocent communities are being attacked by undead. Not to mention that your undead acted aggressively towards us.”
“You set them on fire!” the warlock’s voice came out as a strained shout. “How did you expect them to react to something so dire? Anyone who actually came in peace would knock at the gate, at the least.” He scowled and shook his head. “And speaking of the gate, I suggest you leave without further wait. Your companion remains trapped under the earth, where of fresh air there is a dearth.”
“I’ll make you a counter-offer.” I lit my horn threateningly. “How about you give me my soldier back before I make you?”
The bokor snarled and slashed a hoof through the air. “If I meant you harm, you would already be dead—what do I need to do to get this through your head?!”Another muffled cry from underground made his case all the clearer. “Do you think my spirits are limited to grabbing one? I could hide you all away from the sun.” He took a threatening step forward, and two more earth spirits emerged to flank him. “My answer is the same—I didn't attack your town, and this all started with your flame.”
“Right now I don’t care who started it.” My eyes narrowed and my teeth clenched. “Give me back my soldier now or I'll show you just how much flame I can produce.”
“And then where will you be?” he countered. “Dead soldier, and no information from me.”
“That’s true,” I admitted. “But you'll be burnt to a crisp. I’d say you’re still getting the worse end of that deal.” I decided to push my bluff a step further—it was too late to back off without looking weak and indecisive. I conjured up several fireballs and kept hovering around me, advancing menacingly. “Ten. Nine...”
I got to five before an equine muzzle poked out of the ground and took a deep gasp of breath. Enough of the soldier emerged from the earth to let him breathe and for us to identify him, but his legs and wings remained encased in solid stone. “I will allow him air in good grace. But until you're gone, he stays in place. Once you’re safely back on your ship I’ll have a water spirit take him on a little trip.”
I wasn’t wild about giving in to what was essentially blackmail, but I didn’t want him killing one of our embassy guards either. That left me with very limited options. “Prove you didn't attack the village and we’ll walk.”
“You would demand that I prove a negative?” he remarked incredulously. “I think perhaps I should suggest an alternative. What would it take to satisfy you that the attack on the village is something I didn’t do?”
Strumming thought it over for a second. “Aside from letting our guy go, how about you let us study your undead?”
I couldn’t resist muttering, “What's left of them,” under my breath.
The bokor grunted and nodded, so I stepped over the nearest reasonably intact draug. I’d already confirmed as much, but I double and triple checked, plus did a scan for any more intact undead in the area and came up empty. It was possible the zebra had some hidden away in a magically sealed room my spells couldn’t find, but that would be an awful lot of trouble to go to. Plus I rather doubted he’d let us spend a couple weeks thoroughly searching the entire island for any hidden hiding spots.
I announced my final verdict. “They look like pretty standard draug. Certainly nothing like the green fire and metal bits Equal Share mentioned.”
The bokor’s eyes widened slightly. “Green fire is not something I can do. And a metal undead ... that is new. Perhaps a spirit of metal bound to the fleshly frame? But that still would not explain the presence of green flame...”
Strumming stepped up to my side, dropping her voice to a careful whisper. “What do you think, Sunset? Is it him?”
I sighed and shook my head. “Doesn't look like he's our guy. Not unless he had an incredibly well-prepared cover-up and had all the incriminating evidence already hidden away when we launched our surprise attack.”
Her eyes narrowed and she nodded sharply. “Sounds to me like there’s not much left for us to do here. You got anything else?”
“No.” The investigation on this island had done nothing but rule out a suspect and result in a lot of pointless property damage. “Let’s just get our guy and get out before this gets worse.”
Strumming shifted her attention back to the bokor. “We’re done here. Give us back the hostage, and you’ll never see us again.”
The bokor nodded grimly. “Head through of what's left of my gate; once you're out, you won't have long to wait.” He hesitated, staring at us piercingly. “But one quick question before you do: who exactly are you?”
I decided to keep it simple. “Ponies who don’t like necromancers.”
The zebra rolled his eyes. “Do you know how little that narrows it down? Equestria’s hate for warlocks has no small renown. Hostis Equinus Generis they call us, and would happily leave us hanging from the nearest truss.” He looked us over, slowly rubbing his chin. “You aren't from that commune, so why are you serving as their goon? That armor isn't Striker or Doo...” His eyes widened in comprehension. “Oh! The Equestrian magus—that's you!”
I didn’t see any point in denying the obvious. “Yeah, I am.”
“Interesting.” The earth itself spat out the guard he’d been holding captive. “Now get out. I have a lot of work to do to replace this destructive bout.”
“Fine.” I set my hooves and delivered my best death glare. “Just make sure you don't cause trouble, or I'll be back.”
The bokor didn’t even dignify me with an answer, turning his back on me and looking over the burning wreck I’d made of his compound. I didn’t know enough zebrican to make out what he was grumbling under his breath, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t anything friendly about me.
Strumming gave me a quick pat on the shoulder. “Come on, time to regroup and rethink.”
I grunted and nodded. “Looks like this was a bust.”
Strumming pulled out one of her ever-present candy bars and bit into it. “Next time let’s try knocking first,” she suggested.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I grumbled.
Strumming grinned. “Good move.” She took another bite of her candy bar, and then without any change of expression flicked a wing out to the side. A second later I heard the deep, meaty thunk of one of her throwing darts hitting flesh.
I whirled to the side, and found the bokor’s body slumped in the dirt, one of Strumming’s darts buried in his skull. “Why did you do that?”
Strumming shrugged and finished off her candy bar. “He was a threat.”
I growled and shook my head. "He'd already agreed to let us go!"
Strumming quirked an eyebrow. “Did he? Or was he just playing for time until he was ready to deal with us later?”
“So what, you killed him just in case?” I demanded, stomping towards her.
“Tell me.” Her eyes locked onto mine, and the normal humorous gleam in her them and the flippant smile on her lips were suddenly gone. “What would you have done if someone had attacked your tower, destroyed your things, and threatened your life?”
I opened my mouth. I closed it again without saying anything. I knew exactly what I would do in that situation, and Strumming did too. I’d chase down whoever attacked my tower and make them pay for it. If they’d put Kukri in danger I wouldn’t be pulling any punches either. And that was coming from someone who wasn’t a warlock. Suddenly, his decision to let us go seemed less altruistic and more like he just wanted to buy time to build up a new army of draug before coming after us for revenge.
I sighed and shook my head. “Sometimes I hate Freeport.”
“There's a free ship back to Equestria anytime you want it,” Strumming offered.
I’d be lying if I said I’d never found the idea of going back to Equestria tempting, but... “I’ve got a job to do here. There’s a village full of innocent people getting attacked by zombies, and if I don’t help them...”
“There’s always tomorrow,” she prompted.
“No, tomorrow there’ll be someone else.” I nodded, more to myself than her. “I came out here to make a difference. Going back to Equestria would mean giving up.”
Strumming grinned and used a wing to clap me on the back. “Then let’s go make a difference.”
We made the rest of the trip to the commune in relative silence. I didn’t particularly want to talk to Strumming, and she seemed fine snacking and chatting with her soldiers.
The whole thing with that bokor was just ... ugh. I knew she was right that he probably would’ve come after me for revenge at some point. Probably once he’d replenished his undead horde and summoned up a lot more spirits. Making sure he couldn’t do that was logical, but the way Strumming had killed him just didn’t sit right with me.
It was a relief when the ship finally pulled into the commune’s simple wooden dock. The commune itself looked about as drab and unimpressive as I’d expected. Lots of simple cabins made out of local logs, attached to crop fields. It didn’t look all that defensible: there wasn’t anything like a wall around the village and they’d stuck the town in a wide open area so they’d be living right next to their farmland. Big surprise, the farmers had been more concerned with convenience in everyday life than they had been with securing themselves against a potential invasion.
Apparently the detour had take longer than we’d expected, since Puzzle was standing on the dock waiting for us. After being stuck on a ship with Strumming for the last several days, the chance to talk to anyone other than her was welcome.
While the ship was still a ways out from the dock Strumming grinned and spread her wings, flying over the water and landing next to him. Her voice carried over the water well enough for me to make out the words. “Hey, bug boy.”
“Strumming.” Puzzle smiled politely. “This one trusts you are all well?
Huh. Strumming. Not Heartstrings-mare. That definitely meant ... something.
Strumming grinned and nodded. “Yeah, I'm just dandy.” She pecked him on the cheek. “What’s new with you?”
I was getting a bit tired of being left out the conversation, so I decided to stop waiting for the ship and just teleported onto the dock. Puzzle didn’t seem the least bit surprised by my arrival. “Shimmer-mare.” He looked the two of us over, frowning faintly. “This one suspects that something happened it was not privy to. It does not like being denied information.”
“I was getting to it,” Strumming declared with a careless shrug. “Anyway, we got into a fight with a necromancer.”
Puzzle quirked an eyebrow. “And which necromancer would that be?”
“The zebra one you told me about back at your office,” I supplied. “Since you were busy checking in with your contacts, Strumming and I decided to take a detour to check him out.”
Puzzle frowned at both of us. “This one was meeting with its contacts so that we would know what we were dealing with. For example, this one could have informed you both that according to the information it has gathered, it seems highly unlikely the bokor had any involvement with the current undead incursions. However, it seems you two decided to act before this one could inform you of such, resulting in a great deal of wasted effort.”
Strumming brushed off his displeasure with a wave of her wing. “He was a necromancer. Now he's dead, and the world's a better place.”
Puzzle scowled at her. “You know what you were doing. You must have known this one would not approve of your decision to pursue the bokor, and so you acted during a time and place when this one couldn't object.”
Strumming’s eyes widened, and she drew herself up. “Excuse me? Since when do I need your permission to deal with the bad guys? Or do anything else, for that matter?”
“This one was under the impression we were part of a team.” Puzzle answered frostily. “How would the Heartstrings-mare feel if this one went off and did something it knew she would not approve of, and did so without her knowledge?”
Oh, she was back to being ‘the Heartstrings-mare’ now. Such a shame...
“What, are you saying you don’t want me dealing with warlocks?” Strumming demanded. “Last I checked, they’re still hostis equinus generis, so it can’t be a legal issue. And if you were worried about our safety, Sunset and I killed him off with no serious problems.”
I had to cut in at that point. “You killed him, not me.”
“Ah.” Puzzle pointedly looked between the two us. “So, that is how it is then...”
“How what is?” Strumming demanded.
Puzzle fixed his eyes on her. “You went in with the intention of killing the necromancer, whether he had anything to do with this or not. This one is not surprised that the Heartstrings-mare would do such a thing, considering what happened with—”
Strumming cut him off with a hoof over his mouth, her teeth clenched furiously. “You do not want to finish that sentence,” she growled out. “Either you have no idea what you’re talking about, and you’re about to make yourself look like a total idiot, or you pried into something that’s none of your business. Either way, shut the hay up right now.”
Huh. Well someone sure touched a nerve. I don’t think I’d ever seen Strumming so worked up. Her reaction to me bringing up the time I’d punched her in the face was a nonchalant shrug, but a couple words from Puzzle had her absolutely livid. It made me a bit curious about just what it was Puzzle knew about, though if it got Strumming that worked up maybe it was better if I didn’t know after all.
Puzzle weathered the storm impassively, his face an unreadable mask. “This one only wishes to point out that it is unwise to allow one’s personal feelings to compromise one’s judgement. It can lead to errors, like needless killing.”
“Nothing needless about it,” Strumming shot back, her fury seemingly replaced with her usual flippancy as she tore into a fresh bag of chips. “He was a necromancer.”
Considering I’d once briefly experimented with necromancy before instantly regretting it, I wasn’t entirely sure I liked her tone. “You think you can just kill anyone who's a necromancer, regardless of whether they’re guilty or not?” Once I’d started getting pissed, I just kept on going. “And you were planning to kill him from the start, weren’t you? You lied to me!”
Strumming cut me off with an upraised hoof before I could get any further. “I know the difference between a kid who made a couple mistakes and the real bad guys. But yeah, don’t forget necromancy is against the laws of magic. The same laws of magic you’re supposed to uphold, Magus Shimmer. I would’ve been fine with taking the guy alive if that was an option, but the risks didn’t justify it.”
“Horseapples,” I snarled. “You used me to bust through his magical defenses so you could kill him off. If you think I’m gonna let you get away with that...”
Puzzle quickly placed himself between the two of us before things could get any worse. “Maybe we should concentrate on the matter that actually brought us here?”
“Sure.” Strumming finished off what was left of her chips. “But for the record, whatever warlock's summoning up the creepies attacking this town isn't getting a forgiving hug after he apologizes and promises to never do it again.”
“This one didn't think that was part of the agenda,” Puzzle answered dryly.
“But we’re not killing anyone unless we absolutely have to.” I had a sinking feeling we wouldn’t have any choice in the matter if this guy was as bad as it seemed, but I certainly didn’t want Strumming thinking I’d just go along with her plans to kill anyone who used dark magic.
“We’ll figure that part out when we get to it.” Strumming opened up her seemingly bottomless saddlebag to grab a candy bar. “Anyone else feeling snacky?” When Puzzle and I shook our heads, she grinned and winked at the changeling. “Oh, and seeing as we had a fight I’m already looking forward to the makeup sex tonight.”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Seriously? I’m right here!”
“Which is why we’re waiting until tonight,” Strumming shot back with a smirk. “No peeking.”
While I struggled with the urge to start vomiting uncontrollably, Puzzle chuckled and nuzzled Strumming. “At least this one has that to look forward to. But returning to the matter at hoof, this one has put its time to good use. It has learned a few useful things about the commune, and it has confirmed the presence of undead.” He nodded to a small cart waiting on the shore. “And this one got a specimen for you to look at.”
“You got one of the zombies?” I asked, and Puzzle confirmed it with a nod. “Great, I should be able to work out something about what we’re dealing with. Is there somewhere I can study it without everyone making a fuss?”
Puzzle nodded and pointed. “There's an empty stretch of beach over there. We might be able to requisition a building, but this one would prefer not to go to the trouble when a beach will serve just as well.”
“Yeah, that should work.” A sterile environment would be better if I wanted to do a really in-depth analysis, but that would require a lot of tools and books that I’d left back at my tower, and would probably take weeks of research. For a quick and dirty field inspection, an empty beach was as good as anywhere.
Strumming looked back and forth between the two of us, then smirked at Puzzle. “Should I be worried you're giving presents to other mares, or grateful that it's just an icky corpse?”
Puzzle answered her with a dry smile. “This one hopes you will not be too disappointed when it decides to gift you with random corpses for our anniversary.”
“I’ve gotten worse presents,” Strumming deadpanned. “But seriously, stick with flowers and chocolate. Jewelry is good, too. Can’t go wrong with the classics.”
Puzzle chuckled and nodded. “This one will bear that in mind, Strumming.”
Ugh, she was back to ‘Strumming’ with him. I rolled my eyes and turned my back on the two of them. “I'm gonna go do something useful.” I grabbed the cart and headed for that deserted stretch of beach, leaving the lovebirds behind to do ... whatever it was they were doing. I certainly didn’t care nor wanted to know.
Puzzle caught up with me when I was about halfway down the beach. “Shimmer-mare.”
I glanced back over my shoulder at him. “Hey, Puzzle. Just gonna check this thing out.”
“This one might be able to help with that.” He nodded towards the ship, which was finally docking. “Strumming will be busy having her guards see to the village’s defenses, and this one knows quite a bit about the necromantic arts.” I was briefly curious about just how Puzzle had learned anything about forbidden dark magic, but considering his profession I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. “At least from what this one is told, the Glimmer-mare managed to disable this specific zombie.”
Oh. Right. In all the excitement of arriving I’d almost forgotten that she was here. Running into Starlight Glimmer again was sure to be fun. “So I'm guessing what's in the bag is not so much a zombie as it is several hundred parts of something that was once a zombie?” Starlight certainly hadn’t been a subtle spellcaster when I’d taken her on.
“Only three parts of a zombie,” Puzzle clarified. “This one suspects the Glimmer-mare actually sold this one three different zombies, and claimed that she was giving this one a complete specimen.”
I scoffed. “You actually gave her money? I thought you were smart.”
Puzzle shrugged nonchalantly. “This one only parted with a few ducats. It was the simplest way for this one to get one of these new forms of undead for study.”
“Yeah, yeah...” I pulled the bag out the cart and opened it up, only to immediately regret it when the smell hit my nose. Zombies who’ve been completely blasted to bits, then left in an enclosed space to ferment for several hours in the Freeport sun had a bit of an odor.
I averted my nose in the hopes that the smell wouldn’t be quite as bad after the initial burst of it. That gave me a chance to notice several hoofprints in the sand that hadn’t been left behind by me or Puzzle, but still looked very fresh. I decided to play a hunch and turned to Puzzle. “You said you got it from Starlight? So where is the nag queen of hypocrisy, anyway?”
Sure enough, Starlight Glimmer dropped her invisibility spell. “Right behind you.”
I rolled my eyes. Seriously, how melodramatic could you get? “Cute. How long were you sitting around invisible, waiting for the perfect moment to reveal yourself?”
“Long enough,” she announced with an arrogant smirk. “So, are you ready for round two, Sun-butt?”
So far, the biggest threat she’d posed to me was that my eyeballs might fall out of their sockets from how often she was making me roll them. “Why would I want a rematch? I won, so I don’t have anything to prove.” I pointed at the remnants of the undead. “How about we drop all the posturing and you make yourself useful. I need an assistant who isn't completely incompetent.” I let that remark hang for just a moment before following up with, “Go find someone like that and tell them I need them.”
One of Starlight’s hooves slammed down on the sand as she snorted angrily. “Get off my island. I don't want you here.”
“Your island?” I repeated incredulously. “Last I heard it belonged to the commune, not you.”
“And I’m part of that commune,” she shot back without missing a beat. “It certainly belongs to me more than you.”
“And here I thought the whole point of a commune was that everyone was working together as equals without any personal property or possessions.” I shook my head. “And you obviously aren’t in charge, because the guy who does run things asked for my help.”
Starlight scoffed. “Oh please. Equal’s just our current community manager. He doesn’t have any right to bring in some outsider to come stomping around and ruin all our hard work at making a fair society. If you make half as much of a mess of this as I think you will, he’ll be voted out within a month and the commune will pick someone who actually knows how to run things. Someone who can keep them safe and create a fair, equitable society.”
I had a pretty good idea who Starlight had in mind for the position, but to be honest I couldn’t care less who was running this place a month from now. Small farm town politics weren’t why I was here. “That’s assuming your commune doesn't get eaten by zombies first.”
I snorted and turned my back on her—mentioning the zombies just reminded me that she really wasn’t worth the time and trouble. Instead I took a close look at what was left of the zombie Puzzle had acquired. “Huh. Well none of the green fire Equal was talking about. I guess that goes away when you take them out?”
After several seconds, Starlight surprised me by actually saying something useful. “Yeah, seems to die out with their magic. There's still some aetherial aura left afterwards, but the real power seems to fade away once you take them out.”
“No surprise. Once the vessel’s not in good enough shape to contain the animating power it fades away.” There were some types of undead that would keep moving despite getting torn to bits, but they were incredibly rare—from what I remembered of my lessons with Celestia, they only showed up when a necromancer wanted to experiment and didn’t mind the ridiculous amount of time and energy it took to make a zombie that could keep moving after it was ripped apart. You could make dozens of normal zombies for the same amount of effort as one tough one, and having the detached limbs move on their own really wasn’t good for much.
“Yeah, best way I found was to just blast them to bits,” Starlight supplied. “Taking out the head works too, but it’s easier to just shred them.”
“This one will bear the value of targeting the head in mind for those of us who cannot destroy dozens of them with a single spell,” Puzzle murmured dryly.
Meanwhile, I’d turned my attention to checking over the rest of the undead now that we’d dealt with the matter of the green fire. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of flesh left on this one, though I couldn’t be sure if that was how they were made or on account of Starlight’s destructive casting. In either case, that did leave its metallic bones exposed, not to mention massive coverings over all four of its hooves. I tried to tug one of those coverings off and got a nasty surprise. “This isn't equipment, it’s been fully integrated into the body.”
“I think it might be some sort of augmentation,” Starlight suggested, which made for three actually worthwhile remarks in a row. Credit where it’s due: when she wasn’t spouting off about her politics or being a total nag, she had a halfway decent understanding of magic. If she kept this up, she might actually be worth something. “It’s hard to say for sure, I didn't have any intact versions to study or a bunch of unmodified zombies to use as a control group to test them against.”
“Seems likely, though,” I conceded. “Can’t see any reason to stick all this metal on them unless it’s doing something useful. Having steel-plated bones would make them a lot harder to kill and increase the stresses they could sustain while attacking.”
“Especially when they’ve got plenty of raw magical power backing that up,” Starlight agreed. “I went to go see that crazy zebra guy once. His zombies weren’t even close to these. Whoever was putting these together must have done a lot of work just for some zombies.”
“Yeah.” I grimaced as a particularly unpleasant thought sprang to mind. “That makes me wonder if these are just practice for what he's really working on.”
Puzzle frowned thoughtfully. “If that is the case, then it seems your theory that this is some sort of test has a bit more credence. Someone capable of producing such an advanced form of zombie should be able to produce higher forms of undead.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “At least if they had the resources to do so. This type of thing doesn't come cheap.”
Starlight started pacing back and forth, kicking up little clouds of sand as she went. “Yeah, but that just raises more questions. Why is someone sending a bunch of powerful advanced zombies after us? We haven’t done anything!”
“It's unlikely to be about land.” Puzzle tapped one of the undead’s metallic bones. “There are better and easier ways to get everyone in this commune out of the way. This one expects the creature’s creator could make enough profit to buy this island a dozen times over by displaying its techniques in the proper circles.”
“Not to mention this island isn't all that great in the first place.” I noticed Starlight bristling a bit at my remark, and clarified it to avoid another stupid, pointless argument. I pointed at the horizon, where several other landmasses were visible. “We’re in the middle of the out-islands, and as far as I know there’s nothing that makes this island better than any of the dozens of uninhabited ones.” I gave the zombie a half-hearted kick. “I can't imagine you have anything else worth all the trouble of making these guys.”
Thankfully Starlight just nodded instead of throwing a hissy fit. “And it's not like whoever is doing this has told us what their problem is, and I can’t imagine anyone else out here hating us that much. We had a gang come by to try and shake us down for protection money, but between what I could do to them and the fact that we didn’t have anything worth taking, they backed off. I know some of the people here are like m—er, they’ve got some stuff in their past, but I can’t imagine anything this big.”
“Yeah, none of this makes sense,” I agreed. Which had to mean we didn’t have the full story, because I couldn’t imagine anyone intelligent enough to create these sorts of creatures was also so utterly bonkers they just did things for no rational reason. As Puzzle had warned me more than once, what you don’t know can still kill you.
“That's what's been driving me up the wall,” Starlight grumbled. “It’s like one of those puzzles where you know there’s a piece missing, and until you find it you can’t figure out what you’re dealing with.” I shot a quick grin at Puzzle, since I couldn’t help but be amused by the reference to his name. Meanwhile, Starlight sighed and shook her head. “Dammit, it’s not fair. I was finally settling in and starting to build a good thing here...”
That remark brought an interesting possibility to mind. “Anyone new in the group? Any other major changes lately?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s a pretty tight-knit group, and things stay pretty quiet out here. Aside from the undead, the only excitement we’ve had was that one gang that tried to shake us down for some ducats. Nobody new’s shown up since I got here either.”
I tapped my chin thoughtfully as my theory got a bit firmer. “So the attacks started after you showed up. Nobody else new in the area, no other major changes...”
Starlight scowled at me, pawing at the ground. “What are you getting at?”
“You made plenty of enemies back in Freeport,” I pointed out. “Robbing the richest, most powerful bank in the city and then starting a riot will do that. Maybe the World's Port Bank put out a hit on you?”
Puzzle frowned and shook his head. “Unlikely. If the World’s Port Bank wanted her dead, they would have done it before she was exiled, not while she’s on an isolated out-island. They would want her death to make a statement.” He tapped his hooves together, as it he were counting off points on a list. “Not to mention the bank is old money: if they were going to hire someone to attack Starlight, they're going to hire an established assassin to make sure the job gets done professionally. If this is them, then they handed a revenge job to some rookie in their organization who doesn't know what they're doing. That would be highly unusual.”
“Can’t argue with that,” I agreed with a shrug. “I’m no expert, but unleashing a zombie horde isn't how assassins usually do things.”
“It's too big and flashy,” Puzzle agreed. “And messy. Not something an established business would like.”
“Well, I haven't ticked anyone else off lately.” Starlight paused, then whirled on me, glaring suspiciously. “Unless you’re involved somehow.”
“Oh please.” I think that was the new winner for ‘stupidest things Starlight Glimmer has said in the course of this conversation.’
“You ruined my life!” Starlight shrieked, storming towards me. “Before you showed up I was living in a mansion!”
“You ruined your life all by yourself,” I answered calmly, though I did mentally prepare myself for the possibility that she was about to do something exceptionally stupid.
“Everything would have been fine if it wasn’t for you mucking everything up!” She jabbed me in the chest. “It’s all. Your. Fault!”
“Yeah, I’m sure that if not for me you would’ve been just fine after robbing a powerful bank that had put a big price on your head and wasn’t picky about whether you were captured dead or alive.” I glanced up at her horn, noting the small, circular discoloration where I’d burned a hole through it last time I’d dealt with her. “Looks like that healed up just like I said it would.”
Starlight’s horn lit up, and I could feel her drawing together energy for one of her ridiculously overcharged spells. However, she wasn’t shaping it into anything just yet—she wasn’t getting ready to attack, just thumping her chest. “You want to thrown down, nag?! Because I’d be happy to show you how much I’ve learned since you got lucky last time!”
In response I turned to Puzzle, not quite leaving my back exposed to Starlight but only barely watching her out of the corner of my eye. “I know I’ve got a bit of pride and temper, but I’m not that bad, right?”
Puzzle chuckled and grinned. “This one was always under the impression that the Shimmer-mare is quite good, for the most part.”
“Thanks.” I glanced back towards the village. “So, maybe we can get Strumming’s guards to set up a quick palisade around the town? I doubt we can make anything too strong with the time we’ve got, but anything’s better than nothing.”
“Hey!” Starlight tried to cut in. “That’s my village you’re talking about!”
Puzzle continued as if she hadn’t even spoken. “This one thinks it would be best to set up our defenses near the townhall. It’s the largest building in the commune, and the best built. It would give us a shorter line to defend and concentrate our forces. Not to mention we could build a short wall much more quickly, and there likely isn’t enough wood on the island to completely surround the entire village.”
“But the farmers won’t want to abandon their homes,” I pointed out.
Puzzle shrugged. “This one expects they will understand once the stakes are made clear. Homes can be rebuilt, and crops replanted. Replacing the dead is far more difficult.”
“And a bunch of zombies wouldn’t be looting everything in sight the way a living army would,” I pointed out. “Honestly, the biggest threat to everyone’s property would be collateral damage from our own defense efforts.” I shot a rather pointed look at the mare who’d leveled her own home trying to stop me from arresting her.
Unfortunately, acknowledging that she still existed seemed to encourage Starlight to try and get involved in the conversation again. “Hey, who said you could make decisions about my home?! You don't get to make decisions for us. I didn't ask you to come, and I don't want you around. You don’t live here! You don’t know anything about what our lives are like!”
As amusing as ignoring her had been, I wasn’t going to let her latest remarks pass. “So sorry I hurt your feelings by trying to save everyone in this commune. If you're gonna contribute something useful, go right ahead. If you just want to keep acting like a worthless whiny little pile of horseapples, you can stay outside the palisade when the zombies come again.”
“That does it!” Starlight stomped over and got in my face. “You and me! Right here, right now! I’ll kick your sorry plot so hard you’ll be running all the way back to Freeport! You already stole everything else from me. There’s no way I’ll let you take away my village too! It’s mine!”
Ugh. Maybe I should just go ahead and fight her already. She was obviously going to keep causing problems until I put her in her place. Managing any sort of defence plan was going to be close to impossible if Starlight kept pitching a fit about everything and trying to turn everyone in the commune against us. If the undead really were after her, maybe I could just knock her out, then toss her over the wall and solve all my problems at once.
Puzzle must’ve had some idea of what was going through my head, because he pointedly cleared his throat and stepped between the two of us. “Let’s not do anything hasty we might regret later.” He set his attention firmly on Starlight. “Think of it this way: we know that whoever is behind this is most likely going to attack again, and next time it will be with something worse.” He waved towards the dock, where Strumming was going over plans with her soldiers. “You will need help if your commune is going to survive, and attacking Sunset will only weaken yourself when they attack later, and deprive you of our help. You might be able to fight a bunch of zombies, but how well will things go if you have to fight Sunset, then more zombies, whatever abomination comes after them, and then this necromancer that has it out for your village?”
Starlight opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out. I guess even her skull wasn’t so dense she couldn’t follow Puzzle’s reasoning. She glared hatefully at the changeling, then shifted it to me for a bit, then back to him. “Fine then. You can help. But only because I don't want my new home to get smashed to pieces like my last one.”
“Works for me.” I turned my back on her, and muttered under my breath. “As long as you control your spells, we'll be fine.”
“Yeah, buck you too,” Starlight snapped, turning her back on me as well.
Puzzle and I walked off, glad to be done with the least interesting mare in the world. Once she was safely out of earshot, I smirked at Puzzle. “That went better than expected.”
“This one likes to think it can be very persuasive,” Puzzle answered immodestly.
“And I didn't set her on fire,” I chimed in. “You have been telling me to work on my diplomatic skills. I think that shows real progress.”
“Yes,” Puzzle agreed dryly. “You showed a great deal of self control. This one is proud of you.” He grinned and nudged me. “Which reminds this one, it does actually have another present waiting for you...”
That piqued my curiosity. “Oooh, lead the way.”