//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Necromancer's Duty // by Fresnor //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle paced in a circle in the lobby of the Ponyville Hospital as she waited for more news on her friends. It had been days since the attack, yet so far nothing could be done to help them and she couldn't find anything on this blight that affected them except for the name. Princess Celestia seemed to know something, but she refused to talk about it which frustrated the young alicorn as the lives of her friends were in danger because of it. “Calm down, darling. You won't be doing them or yourself any favors if you stress yourself out so much that you put yourself right in there with them.” The alicorn looked over to Rarity, and flinched as her eyes fell upon the silver mask that she wore that covered the left side of her face, a symbol marking her own injuries. “Well maybe I deserve to be there. I couldn't do anything to protect them and after what I did to Fluttershy!? Can you imagine what would have happened if I tried that with you!? Or Rainbow Dash!? Or even Applejack!?” Rarity was silent as her friend stared into her eyes, not knowing what to say as that horrible event had scarred all of their friends. One of the few exceptions was there with them, but he had not been told about the incident to spare him the horrors. “I'm sure the princess is doing everything she can to help. I mean, it's not like she would just let them die because she felt some need to hide something from you that she doesn't want you to know about.” The two mares look at Spike before shaking their heads at his innocence, something the two admired as they felt discouraged by the princess' lack of help so far. Silence fell over the three as they awaited word of what was happening with their friends beyond the little that had already been told. The doctors had no idea on what to do with Applejack due to the severity of her condition, yet what they were suggesting with Rainbow Dash? They shuddered at the implications and just what it would do to the mare if they went through with the procedure. None of them noticed the diminutive figure enter the building and start looking them over, starting with Spike. “Hmm, not often I see a dragon in a town so I don't know much about them. Still, nothing appears to be wrong from what I can tell.” Spike blinked at the filly poking and prodding at him while mumbling nonsense. Twilight looked down and noticed the cloaked filly and was about to say something before she winced and grabbed at her head. “Oh dear. Are you still having headaches, Twilight? You really should check with a doctor if they've been happening for this long now.” Twilight shook her head at her friend, while the filly narrowed her eyes at the alicorn and moved over to her and began examining her. “Odd, nothing physically wrong, but I can certainly feel that there is a problem. Hmm, never seen an infection that only targets the internal magic, wonder what could cause that.” The alicorn blinked down at the filly as she ran her hooves over her head and pokes a hoof into her mouth. “Um, hello? Can I help you with something young f- *gasp*!” Twilight froze as the filly looked at her and her eyes turned from their usual pink color to a black void with the whites of her eyes. Before she could react, the filly's horn lit up and wrapped Twilight's in her glow before drawing her magic out of her. Unlike with what had happened recently with Tirek, it did not feel as if her magic was being drained away but was being torn out of her, causing her to scream in agony. In one of her few moments of clarity she shouted towards Spike. “Spike! Code Black!” While both Rarity and Spike were frozen in shock at seeing the filly seemingly attacking Twilight with black magic, her words were enough to snap the dragon out of it. In a frenzy he pulled out a scroll and wrote down a short message before rolling it up with a black ribbon and sending it to Princess Celestia. While Spike was writing the letter, Twilight's magic floated into the air between the two, glowing in its usual raspberry color. Yet within that blob of magic were specks of black and red, of which the filly focused her eyes on while examining the alicorn. “Hmm, interesting. It seems to be linked to five other sources somehow. That would explain how this corruption is here since three out of the five paths have it flowing in. Odd how it looks like one of the other two is damaged like the corrupt three are yet it appears to be healing. And the fifth is weird, it's like the corruption is trying to flow into it yet is repelled for some reason. I wonder...” She prodded at the area the she felt the energy was linked to and felt something familiar. “Huh, is that the mare from before? Even more interesting. That means there are at least three others that I need to find, one of them in really bad shape.” She glances at the frozen mare nearby who seems to be the source of the lightest corruption before poking at one that is nearly fully blighted from what she can tell. Shaking her head, she focused once more on the magic before her and began drawing out the black and red particles into a separate ball. Once she had cleaned out the purple blob she turned back to the alicorn and shoved it back into her, who then promptly collapsed as her eye rolled up into her head as her screaming stopped. Turning back to the blight she had pulled out she sighed before opening her mouth and eating it. <><><><><><><><><><> Fluttershy was once again hit by the spray from the blight spewer. *flash* A stream of blight splashed across a white mare's face. *flash* A cyan pegasus dipped and dodged streams of blight vomit until she miscalculated and her wings were hit. *flash* An orange mare plowed through the creatures attack head on before turning and bucking its head off. *flash* <><><><><><><><><><> The filly shook her head as the disjointed images faded before frowning. “Well that was pointless. I didn't learn anything about him this time. Must be because she wasn't hit directly from that thing. Must only work from direct sources.” Her eyes turn away from the alicorn and settle on the frozen unicorn who flinched when her eyes fell on her. Looking at the mask the elder unicorn was wearing the filly shook her head with a sigh. “Looks like today is going to be a long day. Might as well get started then.” Rarity's eyes widened as the filly took a step towards her with her horn lighting up black once again. As she let out a scream, Spike looked over in shock after watching the letter being sent and let out a yell. “RARITY!”