//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: Bringing Balance 
// by Shumiry 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 11

“Seek us out, when shadows rise, murder, war, apathy and lies. Seek our secrets, we will share, knowledge to enhance how you'll fare. We have seen, and record, the methods and weaknesses of the Lords. Here we'll wait, eternally patient, for the ones who'll rise against Desolation.”	-plaque outside the archives of the Forbidden City


The anger burned. His soul felt like it was on fire as he wandered through the dream world. The thread of blackness made a swirl on his back, covering from the small to the base of his neck. With a jolt of pain lancing through his spine, he realized the battle wasn't over yet. Somehow, he could see himself, such is the way in dreams, as the blackness of the swirl began to ooze and bleed, expanding to oust his own green glow.
With cold resolve, his features hardened as he imposed his will upon the stain. Reluctantly, it slowed, then receded. He imagined a lacquer of magic, painted over the thread, forcing it to stay put. In his dream world, a blank paint bucket and brush appeared behind him, and spread a layer of ethereal goo on his back. It seemed to sink in, engulfing the tattoo, locking it in place.
Finally, the burning stopped. With a weary sigh, the boundaries of the world collapsed, and he faded to darkness.
“It was an ancient language,” Celestia said, “something nopony has used since the disappearance of the Lynx almost seven thousand years ago.”
Twilight gasped,
“The Lynx!?” Celestia favored her pupil with a genial smile. They were gathered in Luna's chambers, where the moon Princess and the unconscious unicorn had been put to rest in separate beds. Celestia had noted the other ponies' concern for the exhausted alicorn, unsure how they had failed to notice the cause of her weakness. She also worried for Secret Seeker. The taint within his soul, though isolated, contained far more power than the unicorn had possessed.
He should have lost that fight...
“Yes. Though they were gone before my time, and their city is nigh impregnable,” here her gaze flicked to Seeker, curious just how it was he had managed such a feat, “I have been able to learn a few things about them. One such thing being that they used what they called 'Uldrahkton', translated roughly as 'tongue of the Ur-eldritch', or 'first of the Otherworld'.”
“The language of the Creators...” Twilight whispered in awe. Celestia nodded, pride evident in her eyes at her protege's expansive knowledge.
“By spoken word alone they could bend reality to their will. Some believed it made them immortal, and was responsible for their borderline clairvoyance.” Celestia shrugged her shoulders,
“The world may never know. The phrase we heard was of a simple nature. 'Ur-eldritch from beyond time, bring us together again.'” Even though it had been translated to the common tongue, the ponies felt a chill in the air.
“Woah nelly, don't reckon I much care for that,” Applejack said, a shudder passing through her. The others murmured their assent.
“Mmm, but I do,” Seeker purred, as his eyelids slid open. He rose from the bed, and stretched his neck out, releasing a few loud pops. With a relaxed sigh, he stepped down to the carpet, and walked up to the other ponies.
They were staring at him...
“You uh, feeling alright?” Applejack asked, concerned.
“But of course. Never. Been. Better.” His eyes flashed dangerously, the hazel color distinctly more yellow than green, causing the orange earth pony to take a reflexive step back as she forced a smile. As his gaze roamed over the ponies, it slowly dawned on him that something must be amiss.
“What is it?” he asked, his features relaxing from the menacing expression he'd been wearing. Celestia's eyes closed as she smiled.
“I believe you're experiencing a little bit of leakage from the soul you consumed.” When she mentioned Lotus, her mind returned to the question plaguing her. Seeker nodded, apologizing if he had disturbed anypony. Of course, they quickly forgave him, glad to see their friend was up and well. When the general hubbub had died down, Celestia gave voice to her thoughts,
“I am curious, Seeker. How is it you managed to defeat a Lord who should have been able to crush you?” For a split-second, his face flashed indignation, before being replaced by an easy smile.
“Yeah I was wondering that too when I fought him. I think I just lucked out on my first one being Lotus. He seemed to lose his will to fight at times, and I was able to weaken him considerably during those lapses.” Celestia nodded.
“Makes sense,” Twilight said, “he was the Lord of Despondence after all. It's not wholly improbable that his apathy extended even to himself.” The others were nodding, but Celestia noticed Pinky looking askance at Twilight. Intrigued, she arched an eyebrow at the pink mare.
“Is something on your mind, my little pony?” she asked, her voice soft to lull an answer. Pinkie's eyes shifted from Twilight, to her, back to Twilight.
“Well, if that language they used was so ancient and powerful, how come it didn't work?” Celestia's eyes widened at the astute observation.
“Is our little Twi even stronger than the Creator...s?” Twilight blushed and kicked a hoof at the carpet, embarrassed.
“It probably has something to do with my Element.” she muttered, “It seems reasonable since none of us were affected by the demons' auras, though Princess Celestia was.” Celestia nodded in agreement.
“But why would it work on the Uld... thing? I thought the Elements were a balance to the Lords...” Dash said.
“Well yes, but being the Bearer of the Element of Magic doesn't just mean she's good at it,” Rarity said, surprising everypony, “It also confers an innate resistance.” The gathered ponies gave her surprised looks, causing the unicorn to blush.
“I... may have looked into it after I noticed how gorgeous the tiara was...” she mumbled, causing an eruption of giggles.
“So the power of the Element kept the Uldrahkton from breaking my spell, even though it incapacitated the rest of you...” Twilight mused aloud. Her grin widened as the telltale signs of a plan forming crossed her features. At Celestia's prompting, Secret Seeker explained his journey north, and his adventures in the Forbidden City of the Lynx.
He described how he'd been infatuated with the ninja of his home dimension, and how those skills had twice now been instrumental in his success. As he described the various methods of stealth and subterfuge he'd utilized to gain access to the Forbidden City, the gathered ponies were struck by his depth of knowledge on the subject. When his story concluded, Applejack confronted him, suspicious.
“So why is it y'all know so much about sneakin' and thievin'?” The others gasped, shocked that she'd accost their friend in such a fashion.
“I'm not tryin to say that you're a bad colt,” she said, “but y'all've gotta admit that there's a mighty specific set ah skills.” She narrowed her eyes slightly, “It's only really useful for one thing...” For a moment, everypony held their breath, watching the standoff between the two.
Then Seeker smiled.
“It's true, I learned many methods of breaking and entering, and many techniques for theft.” He shrugged, “Knowledge is power. When the opportunity presented itself, I learned. You never know when some seemingly useless tidbit of knowledge will save your life. But I never learned them with the intention of causing any harm, it was just for a situation such as this.” Twilight was nodding in agreement, and the others relaxed somewhat, though Applejack was clearly not totally convinced. Fluttershy spoke up next,
“Umm, what happened to the griffin you, uh, sucked into your eye... thing?”
“Ah, that technique is called Sealing Sight. It creates a tunnel that channels the gravitational pull of a black hole. Anything that crosses the boundary of my eye is instantly placed within the event horizon, and destroyed. Hence why I can use it on objects or spells with impunity, as even light is affected.” He indicated his right eye, “Course, each time I use it, I'm blind in that eye until the spell recharges, which makes combat considerably harder due to the loss of depth perception. The Lynx, according to the book I learned it from, were capable of doing it to a much greater degree, pulling in entire buildings at a time.” A concerned look had crossed Celestia's face, and the others turned to her as they noticed.
“Seeker,” she asked, “the Lynx used the Uldrahkton in their literature, correct?”
“Yes that's right.” She lowered one eyebrow, raising the other,
“How did you read it?” Seeker stared for a second, his eyes shifting nervously about the room. The others tensed, worry etching their features. With a suppressed smirk, laughter began rumbling through him. Celestia shook her head at the prank, smiling in remembrance of some of her own.
“The translator I found in the laboratory in the moon castle. The Necroequicon showed me how to use it to read the books there.” Celestia recalled the small brown journal the Necroequicon had been disguised as. That must be what he's talking about.
“But now we must discuss serious matters,” he said, his voice losing much of its mirth. The other ponies' visages grew stern, as they focused on the task at hoof. Celestia brought back out the table they had been using prior to the attack, and they gathered round, detailing their plans for the impending war with the Griffin Kingdoms.
While Celestia sorely hoped she could mitigate the damage to their alliance, she knew it would be foalish to imagine that Agitarius had not already begun stirring up his brethren with lies about the battle in Canterlot. She had sent contingents of her royal guard into the city to see to it that anypony wounded in the fight received proper care, and to gather any information about how the incident started. Hopefully there would be something to help alert her to future trouble.
While they were definitely a powerful territory, they couldn't hope to win against the combined might of the unicorns of Equestria. With this knowledge so readily apparent, they tried to puzzle out what the Lords were planning to use to turn the tides in their favor. If they could predict and neutralize that threat, before any griffins were hurt or killed, Any more griffins, she thought, chagrined by her loss of control, then they could possibly undue the influence of the Lords, and stop the war in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, they had no idea what that plan might be.
After a time, weariness began to set in, and Celestia teleported them back to Ponyville, except for Applejack and Seeker, whom she sent to Sweet Apple Acres. In the silence of the room, Celestia silently padded to her sleeping sister's side, and rested her ear against Luna's belly. Whump-whump, whump-whump, whump-whump. And beneath that, whump-whump-whump-whump-whump-whump. She looked down with a mixture of concern and joy. Joy at the promise of another alicorn joining their family, and concern that Luna was trying to keep it a secret.
“You were forgotten!” Mephistopheles bellowed, once again a brown-coated unicorn. “They sent you to die, and then dumped your remains here like waste!” The horde of the undead, many still little more than mobile skeletons, clicked and neighed in agreement.
“Feast on them! Feed, and regain your life!” The gathered dead were cheering, stomping their hooves in applause. “This is the chance I give to you! Consume their essence, and be reborn!” Their goal clear, those who had been rebuilt sank back into the earth, awaiting the signal to strike. The rest lingered, waiting for Carryion to reverse the putrefaction that had beset them since their deaths. Mephistopheles retired to the crypt they had made their abode, weary from the exertion.
Burning the memories out of the dead, and twisting them to his will was cumbersome, and it took a little sliver of his strength for each pony corpse he turned. Furthermore, he was loaning much of his innate persuasive power to Agitarius, enabling the Lord to sway even the most ardent opposition in the Griffin Kingdoms.
It would take some time, a few more months, most likely, for the country to prepare for war. Mephistopheles grinned with malice. But they will prepare, he mused, and when they descend upon Equestria, they will fall upon a country already crippled by fear.
Deeper into the catacombs he delved, until he reached the room he'd been seeking. Dropping the barrier on the chamber, he strode within, taking note of the four ponies. Iron Heart, Celestia's chief commanding officer during the wars. Temptation, the gorgeous filly who'd tended the wounded, and had been like a daughter to the Princesses. Asphyxia, the disowned colt who'd been turned into a ruthless assassin, who had turned his coat, quite literally dying it another color, to fight beside the goddesses. Finally, Rattling Breath, a unicorn after Carryion's own heart, who had devised such brutal magical malefactions that her name had been stripped from most records in the world. She existed only as a legend, but those that believed considered her to be the first Nightmare.
They had been hard to turn, but he had finally managed to devise a way to bend them to his will. It was only a matter of time now before he could unleash them, and reap the discord they would sow.  Mephistopheles was struck by the irony, remembering the draconequus he'd corrupted, a small laugh escaping him. Turning his mind to the task at hoof, he once again delved into the depths of their psyches, carefully, expertly weaving his tendrils of deceit into their souls.
It had been a boon that the dead had been so restless. Most of the souls remained on earth, unwilling, or unable to cross over, meaning the majority of the corpses could be resurrected. Thanks to their anger, they required little prompting, and the violence of their deaths left them hungering for vengeance.
Mephistopheles had easily been able to twist that vengeance upon a new target, and now Carryion's task was much simpler. Since the dead were craving to live again, their angry souls took to his conjured bodies with a gusto, and would eagerly begin tying themselves to theirs.
As he moved among them, growing new skin, muscle, bone and sinew, Carryion reveled in the black aura of their hate and anguish. They would bring death, and, when their purpose was fulfilled, they too would feel its cold hand upon them once more. With a horrid smile, the magenta filly pranced through the ranks of the dead, horn glowing with a black nimbus, suffused with subtle hints of blue.