Here is a Christmas gift to all my readers in the form of a chapter. Enjoy!
There was a strange detached moment of calm in the ruined hatchery right after Grogar’s wailing spirits cackled with unnerving glee. The quasi minotaur and griffin instinctively tightened their grip on their warhammer and twin blades respectively. Polybia sweated with mounting terror from behind what scant few living puppets she had left in the area. Although she still had enough wits to search for and prepare a few spells for combating spirits.
Her mounting panic wasn’t helped by Grogar’s impassive, almost uncaring expression. “If you have even a shred of free will left, I suggest you save yourself. Polybia is the only soul I demand… presently at least.”
Commander Talon banged his blades together in a long-forgotten salute. “I would throw my very soul into your worst hells for my queen. Honor demands no less.”
“Honor.” Grogar rolled the word around in his mind, allowing the warriors around him a bit more time to contemplate their fate. “What a strange thing to hear from a being that is controlled so deeply by another.” Grogar stealthily used the time to apply his own enchantment on the eager spirits that bobbed and weaved around him. “If I recall, Commander Talon your culture sees such lack of self-determination to be the gravest dishonor ever conceived.”
“You think we were forced into this life?” Split Horn scoffed scornfully. “I was but a mewling runt when my queen found me. I was no general, no brave warrior, but a failure who was disowned by his own family.”
“As was I,” the Talon barked in shared admiration. “We belong to her and the Silver City!”
Even in her precarious position, Kreesus could not help but belt off a dismissive huff. “A quasi in the Silver City? Oh what lies you’ve spun in their heads, Polybia. I’d wager those are false memories too.”
That’s stalled them long enough. With a flash of magic from his eyes, Grogar placed a sonic barrier around Kreesus, signalling the spirits to begin an ear shattering banshee wail. The howling was so loud, so piercing, that even the observers aboard the Steamrunner felt some unnerving ringing in their ears.
At the epicenter of it all, Grogar stood unmoved, as if he was wholly unaffected. You can always count on the hubris of others.
The unholy wail heralded the spirits surging forward into the off-balanced quasi. Polybia fired off a slew of mana bolts from the various living drones and even the quasi’ own horns. The spells shredded most of the howling ghosts, but she wasn’t quick enough to stop four of them from sinking into her champions’ bodies.
Both quasi spasmed and crumpled, buying Grogar enough time to force his will upon the local undead now that their proxy masters were incapacitated. “The game was fun, Polybia, almost a pity you are still such a novice.”
Without a local necromancer to keep control, all of the undead in the vicinity fell under Grogar’s dominating will. Even though Polybia was quick to both realize this and act to cut down some of the undead with both spell and blade, Grogar was no slouch. His undead turned on the living with equal ferocity, but far more in number.
Before more than a dozen drones could be killed in and around the hatchery, Polybia pulled back to regroup, leaving Grogar to focus on the two quasi. “Tell me, Queen Kreesus, why do you disregard these two?”
Kreesus was hesitant to join Grogar as he walked over to the two quasi writhing on the floor as the spirits performed their terrible work. She shadowed him to keep Grogar between her and the shuddering victims. “Quasi are a necessary evil. A queen can’t possibly personally know every facet of running a hive in modern times, so we… borrow or get volunteers to lend expertise that we lack. Normally farmers or the disgraced general if we’re lucky enough. Gives our swarms more unpredictability. Yet having them fight directly like this is both wasteful and undermines your singular voice in the hive mind.”
Grogar gave the explanation a bit of thought, long enough to come to a stop in front of Split Horn. “Such narrow mindedness. I’ve seen countless upstart necromancers fall into the same trap.” Kreesus scowled behind him, but ultimately didn’t want to test Grogar’s patience, and remained silent. Grogar slapped the minotaur to wake him up. “Split Horn. Whom do you serve?”
The voice that left Split Horn was initially not his own, but a collection of the ghosts that possessed him. “I am yours to command, my queen.”
If Grogar was affected by the title, he didn’t show it. “Good, you will personally guard Queen Kreesus with your life.”
Split Horn gave a sharp nod. “It will be done.”
Kreesus on the other hand, was not so unphased by the title. “Isn’t it a bit early to be called a queen?” Assuming you even get the chance at rebirth.
Grogar said nothing in reply right away. Instead he waited until the spirits left the minotaur’s body, much smaller and mostly transparent. They circled his head, whispering things Kreesus couldn’t make out. Eventually, Grogar nodded. “I consider your service concluded. Pass on to whatever afterlife awaits you.”
The moment those words left his lips, a tear in reality appeared in midair in front of Grogar and Kreesus. Hands of black oil burst out and latched onto each of the spirits who started to wail in fear and panic. The hands dragged the spirits into the tear that sealed itself up once the last ghost had been claimed.
Kreesus backpedaled away from the scene, and clutched a hoof against her racing heart. “W-what was that!?”
“The Reapers. They tend to take on the appearance of whatever afterlife awaits a roaming spirit.” Grogar turned to fix Kreesus with a cold stare. “They had already damned themselves. Pay them no mind.” He started moving over to the griffin, intent on repeating the event with Talon. “As for your earlier question, apparently there’s a deep-rooted death geas placed on these - quasi - I believe you called them. They have to serve her or die. The spirits couldn't get rid of it, so they simply introduced a cognitive switch where they see Polybia when they look at me, and the real Polybia will appear as some unknown queen. With the spirits severing the psychic bond, they’re as good as mine.”
Only a geas? Polybia has become far too sloppy with quasi. More of Grogar’s influence perhaps? Staying quiet for a moment, Kreesus waited it out until Grogar repeated the process with Talon, bringing both quasi into his service.
It was only when Grogar had gathered a dozen or so undead, along with the two quasi, for his march further up the ram-made tunnel that Kreesus spoke up with some measure of dignity. She wasn’t sure if he had a title so forwent trying to guess one. “Grogar, if at all possible, could you try to capture some living drones? It would make rebuilding my hive easier, along with getting you that new body that much sooner.”
“I will make no promises,” Grogar stated flatly before giving Kreesus a studious look behind smoldering red eyes. “Polyba may look like she’s falling back, but I expect a trap, and I-” Grogar paused and slowly turned his gaze to the nearest quasi. “Talon, why hasn’t the local queen fled her throne room?”
Talon stared blankly forward as his mind tried to reconcile what just happened, but the spirits' magic was filling in enough blanks to put him at ease. Slowly, he addressed Grogar, who he saw and believed to be his queen. “I do not know. She didn’t feel the need to share that information when we were spying on her. Perhaps it is pride or hubris that roots her hoof.”
Grogar cast his gaze towards Split Horn who delivered much the same answer. Which eventually pulled his attention back towards Kreesus. “As I said, a trap. Now stay safe, it’d be in your best interest to keep a stray necrotic poison from rendering you barren.”
Luna stood on the deck of the cloaked Steamrunner resplendent in her armor. It was silver plated steel etched with enough holy runes to be a shrine in of itself. The same could be said of the two pony honor guard standing beside her, though maybe not quite so intricate.
By now, the sun was just over the horizon, leaving Luna anxious about the timing for her to raise the moon. Luna’s gaze slipping between the deceptively quiet hive below and the sun slipping further below the horizon. Yet above it all, she hated the waiting when her quarry was right below her. I will not let that demon run free because of some stupidly rigid honor code.
Her mind made up, Luna turned to address the single liaison drone that was kept with her aides. The young changeling was barely seven months into adulthood, and had been beaming with optimism to serve, only to end up a train wreck of nerves after being placed in liaison duty with The Princess of the Night. “Corporal, tell my soldiers to execute Paperclip, and have Rolled Scroll inform my sister that she’ll have to be the one to raise the moon tonight.”
Luna’s honor guard were not the ever-stoic palace guards, so they were much more willing to show their of support for the command. The changeling mare however, gulped worriedly. “B-begging your pardon, Princess Luna, but we’re under orders to wait for word.”
Luna stepped in close, muzzle to muzzle. “You are under those orders. Not me. Now relay those messages immediately.”
The corporal inched backwards and snapped a hasty bow. “Yes, princess, right away.”
“Oh, and no need to inform your queens until after we leave,” Luna added quickly. “Wouldn’t want a diplomatic incident to sour things between us.” Not that it would, but the corporal doesn’t need to know that. Luna stood a little straighter as purpose and haste filled her every vein and nerve. “Captains!” Her honor guard stiffened at attention. “Get ready to move, we’ve got a necromancer to catch.”
Down below in the main barracks of the Steamrunner, Regiment Commander Sea Breeze of the PCE penal regiment presided over her ill disciplined mob. She was a pale green unicorn with a curly forest green mane. The eighty strong group had an assortment of weapons with no real consistency, ranging from daggers to bows to rune-encrusted great axes. Their armor was just as bad, save for one bit of uniformity. Each of them had a death-switch enchantment that would bless their corpse upon death to deny Grogar another body to add to his army.
Presently, the band of felons were watching two of their number sparring with daggers. Sea Breeze watched on, and had no desire to stop them, even if someone ended up dead. The nearby changeling MPs were unwilling to stop two PCE trying to kill each other.
The crowd was hooting and jeering the two combatants on as the earth stallion and pegasus mare took swings at each other. Both already sported several cuts, but they were too shallow to cause either one of them to stop.
“Come on, slice him!” one pony jeered.
“Cut her wing off!” roared another.
The duelists sliced away at each other, the mare getting a nick on her cheek while the stallion had a new scar on his snout. Sea Breeze remained quiet through the fight, though she silently cheered the stallion on. The rapid heavy booted hooffalls from further astern drew her eyes towards a pair of Night Guard moving towards them with haste. She gave a loud whistle at the rest of the former PCE, centered on the two brawlers. “Knock it off, we got company!”
The penal regiment broke the fight up and shuffled back to their respective bunks by the time the two bat pony guards arrived. The leader of the two, a black stallion bedecked in his full armor, addressed Sea Breeze with a harsh and gruff tone. “Line them up, I’m here to edit your geas.”
Sea Breeze turned to her troops’ general direction. “You heard’em lads get your asses ready to move!” She turned back to the bat pony. “That’s why we’re here right? The queens finally got off their moral high ground and are letting us loose?”
“All you need to know,” the bat pony replied with a harsh voice, “is that you’re finally going to get your wish for sanctioned changeling killing.”
A loud cheer erupted from those PCE who overheard the news and either spread it further down the line or nearly jumped out of their skin trying to get their weapons together. Then, one by one, each of them were met by one of the Luna Guards wielding a Moonstone recently blessed by Luna to give them the magical equivalent of the power of attorney. Sea Breeze waited until all of her soldiers had been seen by the guards before coming up to the theseral stallion. “So you’re really letting us off the leash? Certain death at the tip of the spear, I wager.”
The captain waved the Moonstone in front of Sea Breeze, allowing the stone to whisper in Luna’s own words, rewriting the geas. As for the guard himself, he grunted irritably at her. “You knew full well this was likely a one-way trip for you.”
Sea Breeze inhaled deeply as she felt the geas slacken in her mind. She glanced at the nearest changelings, who were watching the ponies with mixed levels of confusion. The block on her mind that kept her from so much as thinking about weaving a spell at one of the changelings in the barracks now had a few moments’ delay. A delay that Sea Breeze caught whiff of, but not the actual cause. A wicked toothy grin cleaved her muzzle. “So we’re to fight soon?”
“You’re to fight now,” the bat pony stated bluntly. “Have your ground-pounders loaded in the shuttles with pegasus and thestral support. You get to run amok all you want, but try to focus your efforts on capturing Grogar alive.”
Sea Breeze’s initial good cheer at being taken off the leash was completely blunted by the order. “The princess plans on experimenting on him, I take it?”
The reason wasn’t classified knowledge, and the guard ultimately assumed it would ensure Sea Breeze’s cooperation to tell her. “Hardly. A necromancer of that skill undoubtedly has what the princess calls a phylactery. If we destroy his body first, he’ll just reform somewhere else, and we might never catch him.”
Satisfied with that answer, Sea Breeze grinned with an evil glint in her eye. “Makes sense. Shall we go play?”
Shortly after the PCEs’ geas were modified and towards the bow of the Steamrunner, the land-bound members of the PCE penal brigade were in the middle of boarding the shuttles. The well-lit hangar dominated the top side of the bow, and stretched close to the keel, making the use of heavy deck guns this far forward impossible.
Currently, Luna was standing on one of the flanking catwalks overlooking the three bus-sized shuttles with two of the changeling pilots. Both of which were being puppeted by their respective mothers. “Luna,” Twilight started while glancing at the PCE marching into the shuttles, “I’m obligated to tell you to stop.” All three of them could tell by her tone, that Twilight had no intention on actually doing anything about this little theft. “So… stop stealing our shuttles, I mean it,” she said with not one drop of seriousness.
Rainbow Dash smoothly finished Twilight’s thought. “And that we’re honor-bound to not intervene until Grogar is either delivered to us, or he manages to escape Poly Pocket’s hive.”
Luna gave both of them a sly roguish look. “Well, I will make note of your protests. Now hypothetically, where would a shipwright place the controls to open the bay doors?”
“Hypothetically?” Twilight pointed at a small overwatch house at the back of the hangar. “They probably would place it in there.”
“Seventh lever from the left,” Rainbow Dash added with a bemused smile, “should have a red knob.”
“I thank you for those hypothetical answers,” Luna said graciously with an appreciative nod and smile. Yet before she could take off, Twilight held a hoof out for her to wait. A pensive frown crossed her puppet’s face, while a self-deprecating scowl marred Rainbow’s own.
“All spy games aside, you know this is the limit of what we can allow before breaking our word. We won’t be able to send reinforcements or even use the deck guns unless we have evidence Polybia can no longer uphold her end of the deal.”
Luna huffed in amusement and cast her gaze up to the ceiling in remembrance of days long forgotten. “I know full well how hoof-tieing honor and politics can be. For all my sister loves to believe otherwise, politics is simply war of a different nature.” Luna cast a knowing smirk. “It pays to have friends who can act when you cannot.” Her voice grew cold, her face stony. “You got us here and put this blood war on hold by sticking your neck out. It’s time I did the same.”
“It feels weird saying this to you of all ponies,” Rainbow Dash jittered with a heavily worried grimace. “But be careful down there. If even half the horror stories about-”
Luna waved off any further talk. “Trust me, I will. But I must make haste. I will see you soon.” Luna barely waited for the two queens to acknowledge that fact before flying over the hangar watchhouse. The instant the bay doors started opening, the winged members of the PCE jumped down with abandon, leaving the shuttles just about unguarded.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash watched the shuttles take off, loaded down with members of the PCE with wonderbolts acting as pilots. Rainbow Dash looked down towards the PCE vanguard. Twilight waved at the Lunar Guard as they followed after the PCE. “Good luck storming the hive!”
“Think they’ll survive?” Rainbow Dash asked while pointing at the PCE.
“It’d take a miracle,” Twilight replied with a mix of hope and glumness.
Things were actually going rather smoothly for Grogar now. With Split Horn and Talon spearheading the march up the hole towards Polybia. The pair of quasi easily dispatched several ambushes with laughable ease due to Polybia being extremely sloppy in their execution.
The latest of which had several suicide drones disguised as rocks, waiting for Grogar to walk past before detonating in magefire. However, Talon had been the one to create that tactic and saw the signs the moment they walked past the ambush tunnel, and advised Grogar dispatch them from a safe distance with a few choice spells.
Presently, the group was walking past that very same failed ambush with Kreesus kicking a rock over to get a better look at one of the exploded drones. “Just how much did Polybia - er - your former master rely on you two for battle?”
Talon was scanning the tunnel ahead. With the throne room now within spitting distance, he was more careful than ever. Kreesus’ comment caused him to waver, as if something wasn’t quite right. Grogar caught wind of the weakening charm, and thrust his hoof forward, pouring magic into the griffin to strengthen his hold on him. Talon shook his head as the reinforced charm took hold. “She directed overall combat, as fitting for a queen, but Split Horn over there came up with tactical planning while I focused on broader, strategic warfare.”
Troubled thoughts crossed Kreesus’ already worried mind. Polybia must be more broken than I thought if she threw two generals at Grogar. Part of her wished she had done the same with her quasi during the siege, if only to buy more time for a proper escape.
Split Horn pulled back from the edge of the tunnel and knelt before Grogar. “The queen is pulling her drones back. She’s exposed the last stretch to the throne room.”
“Perhaps she wishes to bargain,” Kreesus ventured. “I mean, it’s painfully obvious that it’s a trap, but it’s still possible.”
Grogar mentally commanded a group of eight zombified drones to march straight into the throne room while giving orders for the rest of his army to encircle the chamber via the surrounding tunnels, along with clogging the one he made earlier. “I have not come this far to be denied. We will spring her trap, then… Then I will get what I came for.”
Kreesus couldn’t help but to shudder at the barest hint of a grin on the ram’s face. She purposely faced away from the necromancer, and waited until both he and his army were on the move before she approached the throne room.
The long hole Grogar had blasted meant that the necromancer was climbing out of the floor and into a large dimly lit chamber. Talon and Split Horn flanked him, along with the eight zombies fanned out in front. The chamber was little more than polished rock with some iconography of the original First Mother painted everywhere. Polybia sat upon a massive four meter tall throne that was shaped like an egg-chair with more images of the First Mother. However, what dominated the room was the huge soccer goal-sized organic mass hanging from the ceiling that had a dozen tendrils feeding into Polybia’s spine and the back of her head. A few living drones gently tended to the mass, both keeping it clean and feeding it with a diminished stock of greens nearby. Lastly, Polybia’s eyes were clouded and blind, her chitin was pockmarked and cracking. Some of her chitin was missing all together, revealing pale white flesh that was covered in black sores.
While the two quasi were greatly disturbed by the pinkish pulsating mass hanging on the ceiling, so much so that they nearly dropped their weapons out of revulsion and mild horror. Grogar was completely unfazed. Far worse things existed in Tartarus. Kreesus shared the quasi’ sentiment, but was far more vocal about it after poking her head out of the hole.
“By the First Mother! What have you done to yourself!?”
Polybia’s absent gaze drifted towards Kreesus’ direction. “Ahh, good. Kreesus, stay there while I dispatch my guest.” Kreesus was too paralyzed by Polybia’s appearance to do otherwise. “Now, Grogar, I’ll give you this one chance to return to your prison.”
Grogar sized her up, glancing around the organic mass Polybia was bound to. After a few moments, his first answer was interrupted by the sense that the undead he had sent into the upper tunnels were being cut down in rapid succession. What was more, there was the distant taste of holy magic at work, purging a large swath of his festering magic from the upper hive, but was impossible to tell more at such a distance. “I think we both know what my answer would be.”
Without further warning, Grogar’s eyes brightened with an unholy red as he latched onto Polybia’s soul, an act made far easier thanks to her being saturated in his magic. Yet before he could rip it from her body, Polybia lashed out with an invisible psionic lash so powerful it carved a long gash into the floor towards Grogar. The necromancer was slow to react, thanks to not noticing the attack until it was carving a groove into the floor. He jumped to the side, but still took a glancing blow.
The glancing hit was enough to completely shave off a full inch of flesh off Grogar’s right side side, carving into his ribs and thigh. Brackish black liquid oozed out more like tar than actual blood. As ever, Grogar’s face remained impassive as he studied her in a new light.
A distraction, both in his minions going silent, and heavy use of holy magic from closer above pulled his attention away for a bare moment. That was all Polybia needed to strike again, this time with two lashes that rippled the air above Grogar, with another going low, completely separating him from all four hooves.
Grogar fell on the ground in a heap, leaving Polybia with an easy target to send a smaller lash, striking his face and blinding him. “Go, now!” he ordered the undead and quasi.
Split Horn and Talon surged forward by his command, with the eight undead racing ahead of them. Polybia first acted to latch onto the minds of her former generals in an attempt to revert their loyalty and hold them in place.
As for the zombies, Polybia formed a ribbon of caustic magic and let the undead walk right into it, cutting themselves to pieces and scattering along the floor. With the undead rendered a non-issue, and Grogar blinded, she focused on her former generals.
“Whatever he did to you, know that I will take you back into the fold, one way or another.” Polybia’s voice resonated in both the physical world and echoed in everyone’s mind. She leveraged all of her amplified power into discovering how it happened in the first place, after all, she didn’t want to damage them.
She found it quickly enough, bringing a dark grin to her ashen face. “A simple perception swap? Elegant in it’s simplicity, but easily correctable.” She gave Grogar a glance, just to be sure, only to find his eyes were back to normal. What?
Those very eyes flashed brilliantly crimson, heralding a torrent of dark magic. Polybia retaliated with an angled arcane barrier. The dark magic hit the barrier dead on, but much of it’s force was deflected, being sent towards the left of Polybia, burning a massive hole into the ceiling between them. Boulders and dust caved in, forcing Polybia to strengthen the ceiling above her.
The cave in was narrow enough that Grogar and Kreesus were in no immediate threat, allowing him to weave a knitting spell to get his hooves reattached. A pity I can't do that with my horns.
The cave-in also distracted Polybia enough to release her hold on the quasi, which gave them time to retreat towards their new master and help him back on his hooves. “My queen,” Split Horn said with horrified worry, “I have never seen another royal with that much psionic power. We can’t win here. We must flee and rebuild the swarm, or at least lay siege from outside of her throne room.”
In contemplating retreat, Grogar reached out to his undead army, only to find not one single zombie existed above them. “Something tells me, it won’t have to be us that lay seige.”
“You can’t best me here demon!” Polybia chided as she summoned more of her augmented mental powers to shove the dust and debris aside so she had a clear view of the necromancer.
The moment the dust settled, two earth ponies and three pegasi dropped down with a thump. Kreesus, who had already only been sticking her head out to watch, quickly ducked back out of sight. Grogar had been expecting something was headed their way, and used the dust to mask his presence, casting a spell for him and the two quasi to appear as large rocks. So it was that when the quintet of ponies took stock of their new surroundings, the only person they saw was a stunned Polybia perched upon her throne. One of the pegasi jabbed a bladed hoof at the queen. “Lookie there, fellas! We got the ugliest bug queen that could ever exist!”
One of the earth ponies took one look at Polybia, and grabbed a signal horn around his neck. “Kill her for the princesses!”
As the four other ponies charged in, the leader blew three long deep notes on his horn. The call broke Polybia out of her shock, prompting her to mold new ribbons of psionic power. She cut down the one pegasus who had a crossbow with one ribbon, and cleaved the charging earth ponies straight down the center. Polybia immediately tried to raise them as undead, but moments after the ponies died, their light armor exploded in holy magic. Not large enough to threaten Polybia, but enough that the corpses were completely untouchable by necrotic magic.
Failing to secure new warriors, she grasped the minds of the last two pegasi and used brute force to dominate their minds, quickly burning through their unprepared minds to serve her. Her attention finally returned to the last ponies as he sounded a second tri-note call, heralding the arrival of ten more ponies from above. Each of them were bloodied either with normal blood, or the coagulated mess that flowed through the undead.
“Looks like we got ourselves the motherload, boys!” cried one of the new arrivals. “A hundred bits to whoever takes her head!”
Several ponies fired off crossbow bolts faster than Polybia could swat them out of the air. Two struck the massive organic thing behind her, making Polybia give off an ear flattening shriek of pain. Summoning up as much psionic power as she could spare, Polybia erected a reflective barrier. Every arrow and mana bolt bounced back as if it were rubber, with the charging ponies suffering the same thing when they got too close.
The effort however, gave Polybia only enough strength for a single caustic ribbon, but she couldn’t render it invisible anymore.
Kreesus used the fight to sneak over to Grogar’s rocky disguise. “Grogar!” she hissed over the fighting, “you can’t defeat that kind of psionic power with just magic.”
Grogar watched Polybia and waited for her focus to fully shift to the mounting number of ponies. Once his moment came, he dragged himself and the two quasi over to the hole so he had space to think. “I don’t understand. You queens’ psionic power is supposed to be tied up into maintaining a hive mind, not direct combat.”
“Did you get those lies from your old jailer?” Kreesus chided, getting a dark glower from Grogar in return. She decided to lighten her tone, just to be safe. “Traditionally we avoid using psionics for combat because outside of the hivemind, we normally don’t have this kind of power. It doesn’t help that we stole the magic disciplines from the unicorns, and we never train for psionic warfare. But pound for pound, psionics will always pierce straight through magic.”
“I take it none of you have ever used something like that amplifier Polybia’s attached to?” Grogar asked almost rhetorically. He watched as several more ponies were cut down, yet they were constantly replaced by more fanatics. All them were eager to claim the queen’s head.
Kreesus shuddered at the abhorrent thought. “Never. Our mobility is sacred. If I could relive the siege of my hive, I still wouldn’t have used an amplifier like that. Not even to win a war.”
Grogar grunted uncaringly of her reasonings, and gestured with a hoof at the PCE. “Who ever these ponies are, they’re a complication I could do without.” He reached out with his magic, trying to test the waters on raising the dead, only for the blessed corpses to rebuff even the slightest touch. “And they came prepared to fight necromancy.” If only I had a week and the resources of my stronghold, I could circumvent that kind of protection. Not that it’d be worth it at that point. He addressed the quasi and jabbed a hoof at one of the nearby tunnels that looked like it circled the throne room. “We need to get behind her to destroy that psi amplifier. It shouldn’t be a problem to take her soul and escape these ponies after that.”
Before the quasi could acknowledge and obey the order, Kreesus’ horn lit up and pulled the quasi back. “We can’t do that! Polybia’s swarm is still out there. If you kill her now, they’ll go feral and scatter throughout the jungle.”
“I fail to see how that is a problem for us,” Grogar replied coldly. “You have no hive anymore, so you can relocate far from here without issue.”
“B-but the jungle is my home.”
“Then get a new one.” Grogar’s gaze grew so frosty it put a chill in Kreesus’ spine. “I don’t know where those ponies came from, but I am not going to risk staying in the jungles where they are already looking for me.”
Kreesus was not to be cowed so easily and stood her ground. “For you, yes, but those must be the ponies that Twilight Sparkle brought into the campaign. Can you not simply hide away from them? If you are so determined to have your revenge on that harlot, then let the ponies kill her, and drag her soul to you from afar.
“It’s not like I can betray you when I’ve already signed your contract.” Just to come to an agreement, nothing more.
Grogar knew he didn’t have time to think about it long. A glance at the battle showed that the ponies had wised up to Polybia’s defense and were spreading out and using spells and earth pony might to break the walls around the throne. It would only be a matter of time before the psionic enhancer would fall from the ceiling, and potentially be destroyed in the process. “I must have the soul of a queen for my plans. Hers would be best, but I can still do with yours.”
Grogar’s statement froze Kreesus’ blood as the demonic necromancer summoned the contract in a burst of brimstone. Only now, below her signature, was a large blank spot that started filling with words as Grogar spoke. “By agreeing to this amendment, you will assist in claiming the soul of the rogue queen Polybia when she dies this day. Failure to do so will forfeit your own.”
“W-what do I get in return?”
Grogar faked a smirk. “That I will leave your soul unmarked and I’ll even throw in a bonus to show you how to keep it purified of necrotic or demonic taint, should you ever need such skill in the future.” His eyes glowed as a new signature circle appeared in a flash of flame. “Just so you know, the stipulation of us coming into agreement on my new body doesn’t require you to remain intact. So, do we have a bargin?”
“I am really starting to hate your little contracts.” Kreesus glanced in Polybia’s direction, seeing now that a few heavily armored bat ponies had joined in.
“Hate them all you like,” Grogar rebutted sternly while pushing the contract forward. “I have been toyed with long enough, and I will not be denied any longer. Don’t force me to do something you’ll regret.”
Kreesus and the others ducked as a spell shock wave passed over them from the fighting. The presence of so many ponies emboldened her to a height she’d probably regret later. Kreesus slapped away the contract, only for her hoof to pass through the ethereal document. She took it in stride and glared at Grogar. “You need to stop with this damn contract malarky. If you are so hell bent on getting her soul for whatever revenge you have planned, then fine by me. After what she did to the other queens, she deserves every iota of pain you’ll give her.
“But you’re just going to have to operate on a level of trust, and just tell me what I have to do to get that soul for you.”
Thorn placed one of his swords somewhat near Kreesus’ throat as a warning while his master replied flatly. “I have no reason to trust anyone outside of a contract. You either sign, or I look for a more readily available queen soul.” Grogar waved a sign into the air with a hoof, and gently tugged on Kreesus’ soul. Not a lot, just enough to demonstrate her situation. Even so, the light pull caused pins and needles to tingle all over her body. “As I’ve said, I can still force you to create my new body in either case. But I would rather keep our relationship… cordial.”
“Cordial indeed,” Kreesus snapped heatedly as she slapped her hoof against the signature circle.
“I’m glad we have an understanding.” Again, Grogar faked a smile, and detached one of the bells from his necklace. “When they inevitably kill Polybia, be sure this bell is within ten meters of her at the moment of death. This will also keep her from escaping into one of those ressurection pools.”
Kreesus snatched the bell up with her magic, and instantly regretted it. The bell was freezing cold in her magic, enough so that it chilled her breath. “A word of warning,” he said as Kreesus stood up. “As her soul is being dragged into the bell, it will be visible for all to see, so I suggest you get in close to minimize that, or at least sell a good lie. Don’t worry about getting the bell back to me, I will handle that.”
You know, Grogar, at some point you are going to be weak in your new body. Keep this up marionette game and you won’t even have time to open new eyes before I slit your throat. Keeping the thought to herself, Kreesus studied the battle unfolding while Grogar slipped back down into the depths of the hive. Just need to find an opening to go in there. Grogar’s incessant need for revenge aside, I can’t just let the ponies kill her with that swarm still out there.
The armored newcomers tangoed with Polybia’s calm strikes. Any time a unicorn tried to fire off a non-directed spell to circumvent the repulsion barrier, Polybia was quick to freeze their mind; dropping them dead or into a coma on the spot. As for the rest of the ponies, Polybia was pacing herself trying to cut them down with a ribbon or two. She had collapsed the tunnels surrounding the throne, leaving the hole in the ceiling as the only avenue of attack.
Just need to stall them until my swarm returns, Polybia mused more to reassure herself than anything else. Just stall. I’ve got enough food for a week. Should be more than enough no matter what they throw at me.
Polybia empowered her psionic ribbon and lanced it right at a bat pony hiding behind a boulder. She completely ignored the dozen crossbow bolts and failed charges, focusing on a single target at a time. The boulder was cleaved in two, but the pony had ducked at the last instant, only to leave himself flat footed and unable to flee quickly.
With a trivial flick, the ribbon danced to whip the pony and end his life. At the final moment, something new cut the invisible psionic ribbon right at the leading edge, causing much of the ribbon to disperse. The attack on her ribbon left her perplexed. How? They do not possess the power to stop my attack-
A new dark figure slammed down on the floor, cratering the ground. Intangible hair blowing on ethereal wind, and gleaming silver armor that started shining brightly in the presence of so much dark magic, and a psionic presence that disturbed Polybia to her core had arrived. Princess Luna scanned the corpses of over a dozen ponies littered around the throne room and up to Polybia’s revolting form. “I half expected Grogar to be the cause of so much death in so confined a place.
“You have much to answer for, Polybia.” Luna turned her gaze towards the surviving ponies. "Watch my back in case Grogar attacks."
Polybia huffed dismissively as the ponies made room for Luna's expected fight. “Princess Luna. I should have expected Twilight Sparkle would have made sure she’d have a back door to our agreement. I only acted in self-defense,” Polybia challenged with more spite than she intended as she swept a hoof over the dead. “As for what crimes I’ve committed, none of them were directed at Equestria.”
“Oh but you have,” Luna rebuked bitterly. “Rogue Queen Polybia, I hereby accuse you of tainting massive stretches of wilderness with necrotic taint with no means or intent on correcting it before scarring the land. It would take generations to purify the jungles of what you’ve done. That alone is grounds enough to execute you where you stand.”
Polybia’s ire exploded in rage with her slamming her hooves down on her throne, cracking the stone. “Don’t project your unwanted morality on the queendoms! This is a war between us! Apparently your kind seems to have forgotten how destructive war can be.”
Luna’s horn glowed with blinding silver light while the rest of the room was cast in darkness as sunlight stopped spilling forth from the hole in the ceiling. “That destruction is exactly why we’ve come to stop it here and now.”
“An admirable, noble goal from your point of view I’m sure,” Polybia sneered while marshalling her psionic power for an attack. “But not even the power of an alicorn can touch me here. Your magic is worthless against my mind!”
Polybia hesitated her strike when a shaft of pure moonlight struck down the hole and encompassed Luna. The princess’ eyes glowed with restrained power and she cast that gaze upon her foe. “I may not have the raw magical prowess of my sister, or the finesse of Twilight Sparkle, but so many people seem to forget that I am the Dreamer.”
With the fury of the moon behind her, an inky dark shroud wrapped around Luna, causing her to fade a little from reality. Jumping into a low hover, strings of the same inky magic formed from her six limbs and horn. The strings flew forward until they were outside the moonbeam and ripped a blindingly bright white hole into the dream realm. From there, the Tantabus, a dark amorphous being roughly in the shape of an alicorn and made to look like a starry night, emerged into the material plane. Polybia recoiled at the manifestation of raw psionics given physical form. Luna’s strings attached themselves to the corresponding points on the Tantabus’ body. Luna’s flapping wings caused those two strings to shimmer invitingly.
Luna’s voice took on a reverb that chilled the hearts of both queens and humbled the PCE. “Are ribbons the best you can muster? Even with all your age, you are but a child in a battle such as this, Polybia. I’ll give you this one chance to surrender with some…” Luna wrinkled her nose in disgust at the organic brain thing Polybia had attached herself to. “Dignity.”
Polybia eyed the weaving puppet strings like a hawk, a mad hatter grin cleaving her muzzle. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline the offer. But I must say, very impressive, Luna the Dreamer. You might even defeat me, I admit, but think of this before you do.” Using her magic, Polybia created a hologram of her remaining swarm, still numbering over half a million, that was flying straight towards the hive. “Should you strike me down, all of the drones there will be under the control of the quasi necromancers. I made those quasi capable of being independent of me so that they could still inflict damage to my enemies should Grogar ever take me.
“And now I just gave them a new set of orders. Should you kill or sever my connection to them, all of them will instead head straight for Equestria. They’ll spread the necrotic taint all over your country if you don’t leave.” Polybia couldn’t see any reaction out of Luna from beneath her cloak, but she assumed the alicorn’s hesitation as a good sign. “So I suggest you and your little band return to whatever ship delivered you here and not return.”
Through knowledge given from Twilight, Luna knew that mindless drones went feral, but she knew nothing about quasi. See, Tia? This is what you get when you always tell me to offer a chance for surrender first. Shoving her irritation towards Celestia aside, Luna mulled over how to balance matters in her favor.
“I don’t have all day, Princess, I have a necromancer to capture,” Polybia chided.
It was at that moment when a voice sprang into Luna’s mind with a psionic signature she recognized, but it had an oily aftertaste of muffled magic she couldn’t pinpoint. Princess Luna, I am Queen Kreesus, I was taken by Polybia, but the chaos Grogar caused has allowed me to escape. I am taking cover inside of the holes behind you. A more accurate word would have been hiding, but even Kreesus still had her dignity.
As for Luna, she cooly stopped herself from reacting to the voice. I thought you could only talk within the hive mind.
As if sensing the question, Kreesus explained herself. Please do not waste your time trying to talk back. I can only talk to you briefly and I can’t hear anything you say. But, if you can incapacitate Polybia, I can take over her swarm long enough to tell it to destroy itself. I just need you to give me an opening to get in close.
In her hiding place, Kreesus slumped to the ground, winded badly and gulping air at a long breathless pace. “I think she heard me,” she told Grogar between breaths as a migraine was catching up to her. Projecting like that without a hive mind connection was a bad idea if it didn’t work.
Grogar pulled his amplifying black magic out of Kreesus’ body, taking care to make sure he was completely thorough in its extraction. “This had better work, for your sake.”
Luna grinned inwardly at the hidden ally, and decided to seize the opportunity. “You’re bluffing, fallen queen! No pony can hold a whole country hostage under my watch.” Without giving Polybia a chance to rebuke, the Tanabus surged forward on the attack.