The Necromancer's Duty

by Fresnor


Chapter 1

“And once again yet another town of ungrateful ponies chases me out over some perceived slight. It wasn't my fault that that mare tried to do something to me and instead afflicted herself with blight poisoning. But of course they don't listen to reason and act like the usual superstitious hicks that they are.” The filly known as Angelic Chorus griped and moaned as she plodded along the featureless plane away from the latest town she had been at. It had been many years since her home had been wiped out, but in that time she had learned much of what had almost killed her and how to face it. The fact that it was necromancy, the reason that had caused it all, that she had learned was ironic in that most would have wanted nothing to do with what had hurt them so. Yet it was the fact that that specific branch of magic was being improperly used to cause such despair and that there was a better way that allowed her to press on.

The years had been mostly kind to her as her lessons in the dark art had allowed her to slowly heal her body of the blight that had afflicted it. While much of her rear half, including her flanks and hind legs, was still blighted from the spell she lived through, her front half was restored back to what it was. Even so her mane, tail, and fur had regrown leaving her with a silver and gold mane and tail, and a purple coat. Unfortunately, something with what had been done to her had kept her from aging or getting a cutie mark.

“Well at least this time they were easy to escape. I barely even had to try to get away, they were so slow. I wonder if had anything to do with that strange cutie mark they all had?” The filly pondered a bit before she shook her head.

“Whatever. It has nothing to do with me. At least I managed to find some clues as to where I should head next.” The filly lifted the hood of her cloak over her head as she pulled out a newspaper she had managed to swipe from the town that a mare had tried to hide.

Terror in Ponyville! Element Bearers Hospitalized After Dark Magic Assails Town!

<><><><><><><><><><>

“Thank you, Harry. Just set me down by the fence, please.” The large bear nodded as he slowly lowered Fluttershy down at the requested location. As she was lowered she reached a hoof out and groped for the rail of the fence until she managed to come into contact with it. As she rose to her other three hooves, Angel bunny hopped up on her back before taking his place atop her head. Feeling her friend take his place, the mare smiled fondly up towards him before she winced and reached a hoof up to rub at her blackened temple.

The rest of her animal friends looked on at their caretaker sadly as she struggled to do the what were basic tasks a few weeks ago. While she was out of the hospital, unlike some of her friends, she wasn't unscathed. Due to the attack, both of her eyes were completely gone as they had been destroyed as a consequence of the battle. In their place were dark holes with a black streak of blight across both of her eyes.

Fluttershy had tried to go back to her usual life after the incident, but without her eyes it had been hard. Her animals had been supportive of her, but she found herself missing the sight of her animal friends. If it wasn't for Angel being her eyes for her atop her head she wasn't sure if would even be able to take care of herself to the extent she had.

“So it seems that I was right. That thing was headed this way.” Fluttershy let out a yelp of surprise at the voice as her head turned wildly searching for the source of the voice. Angel bunny lightly moved her ears around as he directed her head towards the filly, which he had somehow missed seeing arrive, allowing her to focus her full attention in her direction. The pegasus mare cringed back from the figure as she tried to recover her composure.

“Um, who's there? Why are you here? Please don't hurt me.” Angelic Chorus slowly approached the mare keeping her full attention on the damage to her eyes. The animals warily watched the cloaked filly as she approached their caretaker, feeling uneasy about her presence. On reaching Fluttershy, she reared up and put her hooves on the mare's cheeks and pulled her downwards, surprising the mare with the size of the hooves touching her as well as their strength.

“Hmm, standard blight damage except...” The filly paused as she sniffed and poked a hoof into the empty eye sockets of the mare before frowning in concentration.

“Um, little filly? Could you maybe, um, please stop that? It's rather uncomfortable. And creepy. And gross.” The filly ignored Fluttershy's words, but should couldn't ignore the bunny as he reached down to slap her away from his mistress. Angelic Chorus glared up at him, but paused when she saw the intelligence in his eyes before she frowned in confusion.

“This is unexpected. I would think that a druid would have succumbed to the blight already, but that smell... I never would have expected a half-vampire to follow the path of nature. Yet that doesn't explain what I felt though...” She paused as she brought a hoof up to her chin in thought while Fluttershy gasped and slowly backed away from her with her wings flared out in shock.

“V-v-vampire? What d-d-do you mean? I have no idea what you're talking about.” The filly looked back at the mare before meeting the glare of the bunny on her head again. The two exchanged looks as she responded to Fluttershy.

“I almost didn't notice at first, but all vampires, even a half-vampire, have a distinct scent. All the animals around here cover it up pretty good, but from this close it was easy enough to detect. What's with the bunny and why is he glaring at me?” Fluttershy tried to surreptitiously sniff at herself before sighing and lifting her empty gaze towards her head. The bunny leaned over to whisper into her ear and Fluttershy winced at what she was told.

“Um, well, Angel says that you don't smell right, as if something about you was rotten. Sorry.” Fluttershy winced as she says this before trying to hide behind her mane. Angelic Chorus lifts an eyebrow at the bunny before lifting up her cloak to show her blighted back end to the bunny, causing his jaw to drop in horror as he looked between the filly's rear and Fluttershy's eyes.

“His name is Angel? I usually have my friends, what few I have, call me that and I'm sure it fits just as well.” The two 'Angels' look at each other for a moment before they come to an understanding. The bunny allows the filly to approach again, keeping a close eye on her.

“Um, well that's interesting, I guess. But, um, why are you touching my face like that?” The pegasus winced as the unicorn filly started prodding at her eyes once again without regard to how uncomfortable the mare was. After a moment the filly's frown morphed to one of annoyance as she suspected something happened that she didn't like.

“Ugh, this is going to be annoying isn't it with you awake. Well, say goodnight then.” Fluttershy looked confused as she couldn't see the filly light up her horn with a pink color.

“Huh? What so you... mean... by...” She never was able to finish as she slowly fell forward from the spell cast upon her, much to Angel's annoyance as he glares at the filly again who just shrugged at him. Pushing back her hood she revealed her pink eyes and unkempt mane as she started to settle down in front of the unconscious mare as the other animals surrounded her.

“Would you rather I let her stay away to feel what I am about to do? The blight has gotten in really deep, if it wasn't for her heritage I doubt she would be alive still with how close it is to her mind.” Angel looks at her a moment, judging her, before he shudders and waves the other animals back. They settled down, but still remain wary as they weren't sure what to make of the filly.

Taking a deep breathe with her eyes closed, Angelic Chorus lit up her horn once again, but instead of the previous pink it was now a deep black. Her eyes opened, revealing that they had also become an empty void as she exerted her will towards the mare in front of her. Fluttershy twitched as the magic settled over her, and the animals began to move in again until the noticed the black scarring on her start to peel away. They watched in amazement as the blight was pulled away from Fluttershy into the air between the two ponies as it was gather into a ball. Once the blight had been removed, leaving that sleeping mare with bare skin where it once was, the filly sighed as she shook her head.

“Ugh, I always hate this part.” Opening her mouth, the animals watched in shock as the ball of blight began to flow into her own mouth while her cloak billowed away from her form. Once the last of it vanished into her mouth she closed it and let out a loud gulp before her blackened eyes flashed over into a brilliant white.

vvvvvvvvvv

It watched as the ponies milled about in panic as it rampaged through the town. Its gaze settled on a group of fillies and started advancing on them until a yellow pegasus flew in front of them and glared at it with her wide cyan eyes. Suddenly it leapt forward into the mares eyes and everything vanished into darkness.

“Wh-what happened? What's going on?! I can't see. Twilight! I can't see!” Fluttershy began to panic as the light was robbed from her eyes. Suddenly she felt herself being dragged away from where she was until she felt somepony wrap their legs around her.

“I've got you Fluttershy. Oh no, this is bad, really bad! I'll heal you right away, just let me...” The voice faded away as a humming started up and Fluttershy felt her eyes start to tingle. Suddenly a crippling pain erupted and she could hear someone screaming in anguish about something, and she only realized that it was her at her friend's next words.

“They exploded? Why did her eyes explode!? This is bad! Oh no oh no oh no...” This was the last that she heard as Fluttershy screamed herself unconscious.

^^^^^^^^^^

Angelic Chorus shook her head as the memories in the blight flooded through her and she sighed as she recovered.

“Eww, I hate that vile taste. It's like the worst black licorice ever made. But at least now I know for sure what happened. A blight spitter was here, and some amateur used a healing spell to try and cure her. Why hasn't anypony gotten around to telling these idiots that this stuff feeds off of magic like that?” Groaning angrily at the fallen form she slowly calmed down as she looked at the animals staring at her in amazement before she pointed a hoof at the bear.

“You!” Harry perked up and pointed at himself in confusion. “Yes, you. Go over to the river and get me a decent sized fish!” Harry looked over at Angel who stared down at the filly for a moment, then at Fluttershy, taking in what had happened to her. Deciding to take a chance he nodded to the bear who quickly did as he was bade, and soon the filly had a decent sized fish in front of her. Looking it over for a moment, the filly nodded and used her magic to lift it into the air before smashing it with her telekinesis. After doing this for a minute she soon had a good paste made from the entirety of the creature.

“Yes, this should be enough. Now for the hard part.” Turning back to Fluttershy, the filly brought the paste over before splitting it into two piles. The animals made sounds of agitation as the filly poured the mixture into Fluttershy's eye sockets, but were forestalled from doing anything by Angel's lifted paw.

Once the paste had settled in, she closed the mare's eyes and the filly's horn lit up with dark energy once again as she directed it towards the mare. A black glow shone out from below her closed eyelids as the unicorn worked her magic, and the animals twitched in agitation, wondering just what was happening. Ten minutes later the glow stopped as the filly rubbed a hoof at her horn with a sigh.

“That should do it. I hate having to clean up other pony's messes.” Reaching over the filly lifted up the mare's eyelids, and Angel, being right there to see, let out a gasp at what he saw. Where once were empty voids, Fluttershy now had a pair of pristine, if dilated, eyes once again. The left was exactly like he remembered, but the right was now a bright red color to which the filly frowned.

“Hmm, never seen that before. Either she was always like that or something I didn't expect happened. I never have worked on a half-vampire before. Oh well, my work here is done, now to see if there are any other victims. Maybe this time he made a mistake and I can find a hint of him.” The filly looked over herself for a moment, rubbing a hoof at a small patch of skin that now adorned her hide which was once blighted, before covering herself with her cloak fully once again. The various animals just stared in shock at their caretaker as she made her way past them and towards Ponyville.

After she was out of sight Fluttershy began to stir awake, and let out a cute yawn before blinking her eyes and looked around. As her eyes settled on Angel, memories of what had happened flooded back and she looked around in shock.

“Oh, Angel! Where did that filly go? What did she just... do...” Fluttershy froze up in shock before she slowly brought a hoof up in front of her face in amazement. She blinked a couple times in amazement before she let out a whispered cry.

“I can see.” She focused on Angel who smiled up at her tearfully before her own eyes began to leak as well. “I can see.” She was still in shock as she reached out to wrap up her pet in a hug before she completely broke down. “I can see again!” With her final cry, the rest of her animals snapped out of their shock and crowded around the ecstatic mare who had been given back that which she had thought lost forever.