//------------------------------// // Secure // Story: Sanctioned Necromancy // by One-Of-Three-Names //------------------------------// "So we've got a little sorceress on our hands?" Scarlet kept pace besides Bones as he made his way towards the castle. "Looks like it, seems she's really taken to her new powers. Apparently she has nearly half the town under her control." They had made their way into the gardens now. Scarlet was stunned into silence for a few moments, falling behind. "Half the town? And you said she was how young?" "Doesn't even have her cutie mark yet apparently." Bones said, though he wasn't sure Scarlet could hear. He just hoped the little filly didn't decide that mind control was her special talent. "I'm going to need your help with the memory charms this time if we don't want to be there all week." He stopped near the entrance to the castles stables and turned to face Scarlet. "You up for it?" "You bet!" He was sure Scarlet was grinning under that mask. Which wasn't saying much considering she had no lips. Scarlet wasn't quite as skilled with memory magic as Bones was, but they had practiced enough that he was reasonably sure he could trust her to go poking around in his brain. For what that was worth. "Oh!" Bones stomped a hoof on the ground. "Could you run to the archive and grab a sleeping draft? And the instant gas infusion." He felt an itch on the back of his neck and he looked over his shoulder. It felt like he was being watched. "Sure thing, boss!" Scarlet laughed and Bones heard her hoofsteps fading as she disappeared into the hedge maze. Bones twitched and turned back to where Scarlet used to be standing "And my cloak!" he shouted. Hoping she heard that, Bones resumed heading towards the stables, pondering how he should explain the situation to the night guards. Still, he smiled in spite of himself, he had never been authorized to use Luna's chariot before. He found it fitting somehow. Bones was never particularly fond of flying, he wasn't terrified of it or anything, but he always forgot how cold it was above the clouds, and looking down tended to make him dizzy. This was in stark contrast to his partner, who was leaning over the side of the chariot, apparently taking great fascination with how very far away from the ground they were. Bones wrapped his cloak more tightly around himself, muttering under his breath as the wind whipped through his mane. "You wanted to go to Ponyville, right?" One of the driving night guards called back to them. "Yes! Land near the outskirts of town in possible, please!" Scarlet said cheerfully, raising her voice over the wind. It was at times like these the eeriness of how her voice echoed was the most pronounced. There was no surface anywhere for it to reverberate off of. He supposed the night guards, being quite eerie themselves didn't mind though. "Would either of you care to explain how you two managed to get clearance to take the princess of the night's chariot?" The other night guard had been silent until now. Bones shivered in his cloak. He was in no mood for this. "No, we wouldn't. Now please just focus on flying." he said, a little more harshly than he intended. Scarlet nudged his leg with her hoof. "Be nice." Bones harrumphed, and pulled his hood down. It might have been his imagination, but he thought the flight was much more turbulent from that point on. Bones wobbled on his hooves for a few moments after stepping off the chariot, but managed to not fall over. So far so good. Scarlet hopped off the cart with ease and approached one of the night guards. "Thank you, sirs! Wait here for us, alright? It might be a while." She sounded so polite. "Anything else we can do for you?" The more friendly of the two stallions asked. Bones snorted, making sure the two potions he had packed were still intact before heading towards Ponyville. Scarlet seemed to be enjoying the attention. "No thank you, this is still technically classified." She caught up with Bones with a bound or two. "You think he has a thing for darkly dressed mares?" Bones smirked. "Don't spoil my fun." Scarlet replied, punching his shoulder with a hoof "He was just trying to be nice." "Mhm" Bones mumbled. They were just entering town now, he had been to Ponyville several times before, usually to deal with some unusual problem that the elements managed to fix themselves. He shivered as he recalled the Ursa Minor incident. Bones had been dangerously close to summoning planar help for that one. From what he saw, the town seemed pretty normal, aside from being excessively busy. Most of the ponies on the street seemed to be carrying something or other, food seemed to be most common, but one of them was dragging what appeared to be a large grandfather clock; which was somewhat odd, but not so out of the ordinary he was willing to blame black magic. Abruptly there was Pinkie Pie. "New ponies!" she screamed, then paused. "Wait, not new ponies. Hello again!" she beamed with an infectious smile, somehow managing to balance on her hind legs for an extended period of time. Pinkie was impossible to avoid, and they encountered her every time they came to Ponyville. Bones had long since given up trying to alter Pinkies memory, hers was a mind he simply could not understand. Instead, he simply made her promise not to tell anypony about them, and rolled with it. "Hey Pinkie Pie, how is everything today?" Bones had never actually told Pinkie what they did, but he suspected she at least understood that they showed up when something was wrong, or distinctly not normal. "It was normal, then everypony decided decided to throw Sweetie Belle a party all at once! Its one of the biggest parties I've ever seen!" her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper as she leaned in close to Bones's ear. "And I've seen a lot." Then her face becomes downtrodden and she says "The whole town is in on it, but they didn't tell ME? Everypony knows Pinkie is the best party planner!" "Calm down Pinkie" Scarlet attempted to comfort her, "Did you say the entire town was in on it?" "Well, most of them." Pinkie adopted a worried look "And Twilight seems really upset about the whole thing. She locked herself in the library and wont come out!" She looked thoughtful for a moment "Did you two want to talk to her?" "No" Bones said without pause. The last thing they needed was the element of magic poking into their business, and things would be all the worse if Twilight actually recognized him. She was notorious for seeking answers, and Bones didn't think he had the power to keep them from her without resorting to some really dirty tricks. "Where is this party being held?" Bones inquired, scanning the other ponies as they bustled around him, noting the blank stares and mechanical movements. Thankfully he did see that a considerable amount of them seemed to be confused about what everypony was doing. "Oh, its at Rarities boutique!" Pinkie Pie stated cheerfully, bouncing up and down. "Rarities boutique? Why is it being held there?" Scarlet said, sounding confused. Bones could think of better places to hold a party too. "Because that's where Sweetie Belle has been staying, silly!" She began bouncing away "I'm going to go help Mr. and Mrs. Cake! See ya!" with that, Pinkie Pie disappeared around a corner and out of sight. Bones turned to Scarlet, sounding worried "Does Rarity have a daughter or something?" "I dont think so." she sounded unsure of herself. Bones cursed under his breath, wondering why this wasn't in the briefing, then scolded himself for not knowing these things already. "Well, if she is related to her, this just got a lot more urgent." Bone set off at a brisk pace, weaving between the active ponies on the road. If Sweetie Belle did decide that mind control was her special talent, that would not be good. Most who dabble in dark magic go bad, permanently. There were exceptions, Bones and Scarlet were examples of that, but they were few and far between. And if a practitioner couldn't be controlled, it was part of Bones's job to deal with them. It was the part of his life he hated the most. He was good at memory charms, but erasing a loved one from somepony's memories was not something he could do without serious risk of causing psychosis. Usually they would just have to deal with the grief, and there would be a cover story put in place to describe the disappearance, but destabilizing one of The Elements of Harmony in any way was not a good idea. This was the entire reason Twilight Sparkle was not allowed to know of The Archive's existence, Celestia wanted her to be able to enjoy her life without worrying about things like dimensional eldrich horrors and the creatures that lurked in the night. Bones came to a crossroads near the middle of town, and paused for a moment. Wracking his brain trying to remember which direction to go from here. "Howdy!" A familiar accented voice sounded from behind them. Bones froze, then slowly turned round. Coming face to face with Applejack, her eyes seemed to almost be glazed over. Sweetie Belle had gotten to her too. Applejack did seem the type to face a problem head on. Unfortunately that is the one thing you shouldn't do when it comes to controllers. "What y'all up to? Haven't seen you in town before." Her voice sounded cheerful, but Bones stayed wary. He was aware of how protective thralls could be of their masters, or mistress in this case. A violent mood swing was not out of the question if they said something wrong. "We're bringing tribute!" Scarlet blurted out, somewhat loudly. Bones winced and suppressed the desire to facehoof. Fortunately Applejack didn't seem to catch the obvious lie. "Well aint that sweet of ya! Follow me, ah'll take y'all to the little princess myself." She began trotting off down one of the roads, not taking no for an answer apparently. Scarlet shrugged, and fell into line behind the element of honesty. Bones hesitated a moment, then figured having an escort might prove to be an advantage. He rushed to catch up with Scarlet. "Little princess?" Bones whispered, quiet enough that he thought Applejack couldn't hear. "Beats me. Ego I guess?" Scarlet threw her voice to him without moving her head, which was a little creepy. Pinkie Pie wasn't joking when she said they were planning a party. The area in front of the boutique was full of tables, and the tables were covered in food. Nearly every kind of food Bones could imagine, and more apples than he had ever seen in one place. The problem was nopony was eating it, they just kept bringing more until it was quite literally piling up and falling off the tables. Bones began worrying that they might actually run out of food to bring. Applejack led them through the tables, careful not to trod on any of the fallen food. "All those apples came from my farm." She stated proudly. "Big Macintosh has been bringin' the entire harvest!" "You don't say." Bones muttered, hoping Ponyville wouldn't have to postpone winter due to lack of food. The inside of the boutique wasn't a much better scene. Simply put, it was an absolute mess. There was food and torn cloth all over the floor, one of the mannequins had been torn apart and pieces were scattered about, the rest were wearing horrible combinations of clashing colors that looked awful. Rarity, her pure coat stained with unknown multicolor substances, was humming and she doted on a very unhappy looking, and ridiculously dressed filly perched on a pedestal. It was a little harrowing knowing that such a famous designer had mad these monstrosities. Then again, he knew that mind controlled ponies were never quite right. "Just hold still a moment more." Rarity appeared to be putting the finishing touches on the absurd getup Sweetie Belle was wearing. "Ah brought some visitors for the little princess!" Applejack declared, stepping aside to reveal Scarlet and Bones. Sweetie Belle lifted her gaze from the floor, and Bones immediately averted his. "I thought I told you not to call me that." Sweetie Belle said in a hopeless tone. "Apologies miss." Applejack was smiling, staring at Sweetie Belle with what appeared to be adoration. Bones leaned towards his partner. "You got this?" he whispered, still not looking directly at the little fillies eyes. "No problem." Scarlet strode confidently up to the pedestal. "Sweetie Belle? Me and my associate here are from Canterlot. We came here to help you with you little-" She paused and looked the room "Problem." Sweetie Belle did not look convinced. "Who are you?" "I'm afraid I cant tell you that. Just know that we're here to help." Scarlet kept her voice soft and kind. Sweetie Belle's face registered shock. "its not working!" Surprisingly, she seemed genuinely happy at this news. Scarlet laughed. "I haven't got any brains for you to scramble." She tapped her skull through its wrappings, producing a hollow sound. "Oh finally! This has nightmare has been happening all day!" she leaped off the pedestal and over to where Scarlet stood. "Sweetie Belle! I was just about to finish!" Rarity was not pleased. She walked over to Sweetie Belle, levitating a pin as she did so. "Now I have to start over." "So, you're not doing this purpose?" Scarlet asked, somewhat surprised. It wasn't unheard of, most who discovered dark magic did so accidentally, just as Bones did. But usually once they found them, they used them willingly, and gladly. It seemed Sweetie Belle was a special case. "Of course not! Everypony has been obsessing over me ever since this morning. I had to tell all of them to do random things just so they would leave me alone!" Her voice cracked near the end of her story. Well, that explains the grandfather clock. "I see." Scarlet said, remaining neutral now. "Why don't you tell me exactly what happened?" Bones noticed that Applejack was now watching them warily. They would need to hurry this up. Sweetie Belle launched into explanation. "Well, yesterday was a really bad day for me. And I was upset because my friends were both out of town and everypony was really busy and nopony had time for me. So I woke today wishing that somepony would just listen to me, and then everypony did." It was an incredibly simple explanation, but it made sense. Subconscious desires often manifested themselves as unintentional spells in young unicorns, partially as a way of helping them learn magic, though usually it wasn't mind bending black magic. Scarlet seemed to be mulling over the same thing Bones was. She didn't speak for a few seconds. "Am I in trouble?" Sweetie Belle was looking worried now, and it was showing in her two mind controlled guards. Bones noted that Applejack was now moving to block the exit. Rarity had ceased fussing with the dress, and had acquired a disturbingly large amount of needles from somewhere. "Of course not, but we're going to need your help turning everypony back to normal." Scarlet reassured her, in a mostly believable tone. Sweetie Belle eyed Scarlet suspiciously and began backing away. "Your not going to banish me are you?" This was getting dangerous. Bones didn't want to take his eyes off Rarities needles, but he didn't want applejack to have a clear path to his back either. "Scarlet, we had better go. Now." Bones said, his tone urgent. Scarlet looked up from the filly and realized her predicament. "Ah. Not going to be easy then, huh?" She asked, a note of pained amusement in her voice. "What do you mean by that?" Sweetie Belle sounded terrified now, she was almost out of Scarlet's reach. "Scarlet, now!" Several things happened at once, Scarlet leaped forward and wrapped her forelegs around Sweetie Belle, Bones formed a shield around Scarlet as she was bombarded by Rarity's magically propelled needles, and Applejack Bucked Bones about halfway across the boutique and into a wall. Her horn glowed red briefly, and Scarlet popped out of existence, reappearing behind Applejack at the exit, Sweetie Belle still clutched against her chest. "Come on, Bones!" Scarlet was laughing, as though she actually enjoyed this. Though it was difficult to hear her over Sweetie Belles shrieks, and Rarity's roar of rage. "Unhand my sister you, you ruffian!" Rarity unleashed another pin missile attack, which Applejack actually had to duck to avoid. Scarlet vanished from sight as she dashed outside, promptly followed by the two elements of harmony turned thralls. Bones remained plastered to the wall for a few moments and thought about life choices. "She's made of bone, Bones. Needles aren't going to hurt her." After prying himself away and making sure his spine hadn't snapped, Bones followed the sound of chaos into the street. Havoc was a bit of an understatement. There was a literal stampede of ponies following Scarlet as she sprinted towards the town hall, Sweetie Belle hovering in a shield bubble just in front of her. She was making ample use of the wing-bind curse as a steady stream of pegasi attempted to tackle her, and went careening out of control at the last second. "Oh boy." Bones hoped he was guessing her plan correctly as he ran after the horde of angry thralls. She managed to make it onto the town halls stage, where she set up a protective shield around herself and Sweetie Belle just in time, a veritable wave of ponies crashing against it. Bones caught up to the edge of the crowd several seconds later. "I HOPE YOU'RE READY, BONES!" Scarlet roared over the din, she was amplified by what sounded like the royal Canterlot voice spell. Bones frantically fished the two potions he had brought with him out of his saddlebags. He certainly didn't have time to prepare them properly before Scarlet's shield would give out. He began forcibly pushing his way through the crowd, trying to get as close to the center of it as he could. Something knocked into his side so hard that he fell over, nearly being smothered as the raging crowd constantly stepped on him, making it impossible to get up. Taking a deep breath, he desperately raised the two vials with his magic, and smashed them together. The resulting bang surprised even him. The instant gas infusion mixed with the sleeping draft, doing what it was supposed to, sending an explosion of sleeping vapor over the entire crowd and beyond. It didn't linger long, the wind pulling it away within a few seconds, but a single inhale was all it took. The sea of enraged ponies slowly crumpled and collapsed. Bones dared to take a breath. "Bones?" Scarlet sounded worried this time. He could hear scuffling as he assume she got off the stage. "Here." He pulled himself out from under two pegasi who had collapsed on top of him. "Pretty banged up, but I'm alright." "Oh good. Thought you might have been trampled to death for a second there." She started making her way towards him, picking around the collapsed thralls. Bones noticed that the wrapping around one of her hind legs and come undone, showing the bleached bone beneath. When she came within twenty or so feet of him, she froze, looking at something over his shoulder. Bones tensed up. "What?" He turned around, and saw a familiar figure standing at the edge of the pile of sleeping ponies. "Oh." Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes into a leer. "Oh bugger." Authors note: Well, that wasn't nearly as dark or exciting as I expected it would be. I think I'm getting the hang of this though.