Chapter Two
Two days of nonstop construction. Two full days. Well, at least the workers got an hour break for lunch, which Trench Hoof thought was good. Then again, he never did like eating lunch for as long as he could remember. Curious, though. Trench Hoof wasn’t big for a construction pony, but he knew two things very well: Dirt and how to dig with magic. His mane, tail and coat were the colors of dirt brown or colored darker because of the dirt. Even his baggy, but happy, eyes were a some form of mixture of dirt and brown. Even the aura of his magic was brown. Plus, the money was always good and he was able to feed himself, keep his food stores stocked, while having some left over as spending money. He was young though, he joined the construction crew a few months after he just finished his schooling.
Trench Hoof didn’t dwell on the train of thought for long as he began working on demolishing the wall of dirt that the new owner wanted around this skull, which sat upon a pedestal surrounded by candles whose wax was not disturbed by the flames on the wick. He never liked looking at that thing, but, thankfully, he was able to fixate upon the work he had in front of him: excavation of a ten foot long and ten foot wide room on his left. He was, also thankfully, done with the room to the skulls left. which was a giant hole.
The work was arduous, but it kept him asking questions that he knew should never be asked unless something happened to him or his family down in Trottingham. He was happy to do this type of work, or that’s what his cutie mark showed since it was a heaped pile of dirt with a shovel sticking out of it at the very top.
As time dragged on with the excavation. His boss, Jack Hammer, came down and checked on him, asking him if he was fine working alone. Trench Hoof responded affirmatively and was given a good luck and keep up the good work.
After Jack Hammer disappeared up the staircase, a few minutes have passed as Trench Hoof hear a voice that was menacing and held so much...hate couldn't even describe the word appropriately, but he never knew of any other word. He thought that it was his imagination at first, but it became louder, more pressing that he had stopped his work and covered his ears with his hooves, hoping some.
Give me your skin, it whispered again. The voice was high pitched. Give me your rage,
Trench Hoof had no idea where the voice came from but he could tell the source as he a malevolent force pushed him all the way down to the floor, but it did nothing but suppress him there for a second before the force gave up. He hesitantly sat up.
He backed away from his hole and stopped in front of the skull, staring directly at it, eyes wide with fear. The candle light harmlessly flickered as it casted his shadow and the skull across the wall, near his only exit. He wanted to get away from the feeling that was being pushed upon his mind. He wanted to run, but Trench Hoof couldn't even move his magic to teleport him away.
When Trench Hoof looked directly at the skull, the presence was gone and he felt no hatred or even heard the voice again. He felt just a sense of peace and whimsical laughter that he would never be able to understand or get. However, he didn’t like it either since skull had all of those symbols and whatnot carved directly into. Not to mention, it was an odd shaped skull, too. He was even able to move again, but his curiosity bested him and he moved over to the skull to get a better look.
The front of the skull was somewhat flat with two holes, which he guessed were eye sockets, sat above a singular hole, shaped in a triangle, in the middle of it. Under said hole - it probably was the creature’s naval passage - was two rows of teeth. He saw six huge molars, four bicuspids, two sharp fangs and four incisors, as he rounded the skull’s left side. Trench Hoof guessed there was the same amount of teeth on the other side of the skull, resulting in 32 teeth. The elongated side and back of the skull had four visible cracks from what he could see since the skull had symbols all over the top and sides of it.
Trench Hoof backed away as a candle must have seared a small patch of fur on his chest. He quickly patted it out, but in doing so he accidentally knocked down a candle, rolled into the skull, bounced away from it with some unseen force and fell off the pedestal.
GIVE ME YOUR SKIN! GIVE ME YOUR ANGER! I WANT IT AND NEED IT! The voice snarled in his head as a black, bilious smoke formed from the candle that had fallen onto the ground. It rose high above, towering over Trench Hoof. Its face was two sharp, almond eyes that beamed red with hatred while two top fangs sprouted down, white and sharp, under a small hole that must have passed as a nose. Two arms sprang from the small neck as the smoke also attached an upper torso to the neck, which was in the shape of a weird V. The arms were long and lanky, but they seemed to have defined muscles. As the hands formed, the ends of five long and pointy claws formed.
The skull’s eye sockets became alight with green fire as it began to move said fires around like they were eyes opening from an a long sleep. The skull seemed to yawn without even opening its teeth. Its gaze then focused on the smoke monster and saw that a candle was out of place. It looked back at the smoke then back to the empty space then back to the monster.
The monster itself looked back at the skull, which made the skull somehow jump back as it screeched at the skull and then entered the Stallion through every orifice on his head. The Skull tsked as it watched the body convulsed on the ground, rolling in pain as Trench Hoof let out wisps of smoke with small bouts of whimpering.
The dirt brown stallion stopped convulsing on the ground and stood up, panting heavily.
“I think I beat it,” He breathed while looking down at his front hooves. Then his eyes bulged, his mouth shot skyward as a long claw shot out quickly. A second later, a high pitched shrill sounded from the opening and the claw went right back into Trench Hoof’s mouth. His head shot down as his chin slammed against the dirt of the floor, his hooves pulled out in front of him. His teeth were clenched in pain as his eyes were shut tightly.
Trench Hoof’s mouth relaxed, but curled up into a menacing smile as the eyes popped open, showing the same red color from the original monsters eyes. Instead of the entire eye becoming red, the stallion’s iris color changed from the dirt brown to a full blood red.
“Well, well, well,” A high pitched, guttural voice came from the possessed stallion as he turned to face the skull, who seemed to have raised a set of invisible eyebrows in surprise and confusion. “It seems I was the first one to leave this forsaken-” The monster started a coughing fit, finishing it up a minute later. “-circle.” Another voice sounded out. The skull guessed it was the Stallions original voice. “Well then, good luck with your life down here while I go and run around and have some fun.” The stallion licked his chops as saliva poured down from his, correction, its mouth. It galloped off at full speed up the steps, causing a ruckus from the construction workers above.
“This is not good,” The skull said to itself, its flaming eyes shown worry and sorrow.
-
The next day, Sign walked back over to the bar, watching as the workers picked up their tools and any leftover supplies.
While they were doing that, Filthy Rich saw Sign and cantered over to her, bowing his head a bit too quickly.
“It is a pleasure to inform you that the renovations are done and we have installed the furniture you have asked for.”
“But?” She asked with a raised eyebrow, but he just shook his head.
“But the rest is none of your concern.” he said with a harsher tone than he intended. She let a small sigh of frustration escape her lungs. “Come, I will show you around.” he said as he began walking to the bar’s door.
The first thing the Earth pony with the money bag cutie mark showed Sign was that he removed the planks and replaced the two giant glass windows that sat on either side of the door, which had a small window on the top part of it. The entire building was colored a light cyan.
They moved inside and Sign saw that they extended the back wall a bit back. There were two shelf walls set up in between the wall to Signs right, and the shortened counter of the original. It was painted a dark brown and held a cash register atop it. The shelf walls each had three sections each for it, but carried four shelves each. There were five shelf lanes in total.
The storage area for the mugs, glasses and tea cups was gone and it held a hanging lamp above the counter. Candles were scattered around the storefront to give the room a lot of light, though half of them was actually, and that half was in the back. The shelves behind counter were still there and looked like they could hold anything.
The two ponies moved through a locked door in the back, which revealed a small bed and bathroom. The bed sat in the back right corner with a dresser next to it. Next to the dresser sat a small rug, which Filthy Rich pulled back and revealed a trapdoor. He pulled it open and they moved down a quiet staircase.
They entered the basement, but instead of dirt, the walls were made of concrete as the floor was made of a hardwood, like the wood on the ground floor.
Sign looked around and saw a small round table that could hold four ponies at any one time. It sat in the middle, near the staircase, where a gas powered oven, a refrigerator and a few oak counters sat in a row on her right, candles hanging everywhere.
They moved to the right of the ‘dining room’ and into an extremely bare area. It was empty save for the eight candles, one for each corner and the other half sat in the middle, above her head. She looked over to her left and saw the pedestal with the skull and candles. She curiously made her way over to it and inspected until she found the candle still lying down on the dirt. She saw scuffle marks and hoof prints. There was a bit of singed sand next to the candle. Sign turned towards the Earth Pony, anger in her eyes
“What happened here?” Sign asked in a commanding tone, anger edged her voice.
“Yeeaahh, ‘bout that,” The Skull began, as it cleared its throat. “One of those construction workers might have accidentally knocked over a candle as he was patting a flame from his fur, or whatever you ponies have. Anyway, the thing that was being held here, I’m guessing that little ghost you saw, was actually a prodding of the monster that was being imprisoned here. She took over the body of the pony working down here.”
“What type of monster escaped?” She said as she stared down down the skull.
“Ah, an, ah, corpus fur,” the skull whispered the name which made Sign move closer to the skull.
“What type of monster escaped?” She asked again, her voice rising in anger.
“A Body Thief! It was a Body Thief!” The skull shouted as small little green sparks flittered from its flaming eyes.
Body Thieves are an ancient monster that was a rare in breed but it was literally made of pure evil. These types of monsters were a combination of a flame spirit and a necromancer’s soul. Normally, Body Thieves would reside in magical candles or in special fires that generates only black smoke. They jump from smoke cloud to smoke cloud automatically, hoping for someone foolish enough to burn themselves. Which, Sign guessed, happened with the construction worker, freeing the spirit from its infinite prison. The worst part about Body Thieves, other than taking your body, they eat the soul of their victim which allows them to take over the host body indefinitely while they hollow out the inside of the skin so their bilious form can use the skin effectively. Not to mention they’re the hardest of the magical creatures to defeat since they know everything about their host’s body before they even jump into it, if necromancers are in a dimension with flame spirits.
“Celestia help us,” Sign breathed as her legs forced her to sit on the wood.
“I doubt she can defeat a creature this powerful.” The skull said a bit smugly.
“How powerful are we talking here?” She eyed it suspiciously.
“I’ve been with the thing from the beginning of its imprisonment, which was about forty years ago and its pretty powerful.” The Skull audibly gulped. “The necromancer was a master, as was the flame spirit. Not to mention, the necromancer was still alive when the flame spirit’s soul entered his body.”
“Two masters as a single Body Thief is never good,” Sign rubbed her chin in thought for a second as she began to pace. “I’ve only heard of maybe an intermediate necros’ trying to become a body thief with a young flameling since they’re the most powerful and they don’t know anything about their powers. But I’ve never heard of the necro still being alive during the fusion of both souls. We’re probably dealing with the most powerful corpus fur in the entire land, maybe even the dimension.”
“So what do you suggest what we do?” the skull asked, hope slivering into its otherwise worried voice.
“For now? Nothing. I’ll have to report it to the High Council and hopefully one of their agents can come down and defeat it.” Sign said as she began to lift the skull up with telekinesis, but stopped. “Was that the only Body Thief?” She asked with skepticism.
“Let me check,” The skull’s eyes burnt out as the actual spirit receded invisibly back into its skull. A second later, the eyes formed again and they looked happy. “Thankfully that was the only Body Thief. I thought they normally lived in the Human Dimension?”
“I thought the same thing as well because the necros love how humans die so much, but apparently not.” Sign answered with worry as she picked up the skull while setting it on her head.
The two of them moved from the pedestal.
Sign made her way to the middle of the room and held out a hoof as it stretched parallel to the ground. She closed her eyes and breathed Scandalum de Terra. The earth shifted under her as a block of earth that was twelve feet by eight feet rose from the ground, stopping just under her hoof. Sign placed the skull down on the block of pure, smooth rock and stood on top of it with just her back legs.
She held out both front legs and closed her eyes, retaining a perfect balance.
Sign casted spell after spell after that would transport all of her medicinal herbs, bottles, her chemistry and alchemy set, books, shelves that held bottles, a small stool and many other things from her first lab. They were scattered around the room in haphazard fashion as books lay open, bottles sat under boxes, the stool was broken into many pieces and her herbs were scattered around the room.
Her eyelids opened quickly, showing off her glowing white eyes as her legs also shot into the air and everything sat up straight. Then things went Fantasia as Sign began to direct the objects as orchestra conductor. Shelves slowly moved into their spots around around the room, two for each corner. The books, herbs, bottles and others climbed their way up the shelves, situating themselves in relevance until they were mostly filled. The broken stool danced and both the chemistry and alchemy set danced around the rocky block.
As she moved off the block, both sets began to climb up with the help of the stool, moving into place while leaving the skull alone, whose eyes shone a sense of awe at the entire thing happening. Once the last beaker sat upon a burner, the stool fixed itself as sap began to seep from the broken cracks. The sap quickly hardened and fell onto the wooden floor that was forced to move as the block was heaved from the ground. The sap seeped into the hardwood and was completely gone.
Sign closed her eyes and held out her legs to their original position, her hooves pointing to each side. Her eyes slowly opened as she sat down on the wide stool, panting heavily as sweat began to bead down her temple.
“Where did you learn that?! I’ve never seen anything like that!” The skull shouted as it jumped around in its spot; the eyes were wide with excitement.
“Let’s just say I learned it from an old mouse.” Sign answered vaguely while winking at the skull, who rolled its eyes. “Anyway, we need to talk to my mentor about what’s happened.”
“Of course,” the air spirit replied as Sign placed him on top of her hat.
She cantered out of her newly set lab, past the dining/kitchen area and up the staircase. She closed the trapdoor and placed the rug over it as she moved into the bathroom where a standing mirror sat next to the tub.
She called her mentor, waiting for his picture to appear. As it did, the teachers face shone that he was surprised at the call.
“Ah, Discipulo Sign, what do I owe the pleasure of this early call?” He asked in a tired voice.
“We have a situation here that I believe this air spirit can tell.” She said as she gestured to the skull.
“Ah, speak then spirit. Let me hear your words.” Sting commanded the skull and so it did.
The skull told everything about the Body Thief, how it came to be, how it was imprisoned and how it escaped as it took over the poor construction worker's body.
“What do we do, Dominus Magister?” Sign asked as the skull finished its speech.
“You will try and monitor the situation as best you can while not trying to attract attention. I’ll go to the high council with this and see if they can offer up some Aqua Peritus and some Ignis Peritus Wizards or a couple of Agent’s. Keep me posted if anything new happens.” Sting commanded.
“I will, Dominus Magister Sting,” She said with a bow. The mirror rippled and it shone Signs reflection.
She sighed heavily and moved to the storefront and sat down behind the counter as she set down the skull, letting it watch as ponies walked by the store, sometimes stopping to see if it was open or not.
“I have a quick question for you, air spirit.” Sign said, putting both cheeks into her front hooves.
“What is it?” it asked while watching the ponies, it’s voice filled with awe.
“Am I your master now?” she asked as she removed her right hoof.
“Well, considering you’re the first Wizard to find me, then I would say you are.” He said with a bit somberness in its voice.
“I’m going to call you,” she tapped her chin as she sat and thought of a name. “I’m going to call you Aeris from now on, ok?”
“Ah yes, the latin word for ‘air’. That would be a fine name,” the skull whispered the last part as a few fillies skipped by the shop.
Sign began to think about the Body Thief. What was it after? What are its motives? What would a Master Necromancer even want with the body of construction worker? Then again, from the story Aeris told that the Stallion was the only one there. The skull even described every detail about the Stallion as from what it remembered a day ago, save for the pony’s name. She could start asking the construction ponies questions about the stallion. Sign could probably even get a name, where he lived and if he had any thing she could borrow to track him and watch his movements.
However, her Magister told her to stay at the shop and do nothing other than see if he pops up. Maybe there could be some clues down in the pedestal room, but then she remembered there was only the singed sand and the scuffle marks and that was it. She thought about framing one of the hoof prints, but decided against it since they probably didn't have any hair follicles. The only way to find the stallion was to hope that someone would come in and show her a picture or bring a piece of clothing in. But that’s as likely as a baby dragon being raised by the pony folk. It’s not going to happen.
Well, she has read that the miss Twilight Sparkle had a baby dragon as an assistant that she hatched herself as her unicorn qualification test. But it was still unlikely for any pony to bring her anything that the stallion owned even if she revealed herself as a Wizard.
She sighed again and decided to see if there was a herbalist in town that would be willing to deal with her.
-
Spike awoke groggily in the late morning hours as Twilight began to shout out his name. He slowly crawled out from under his light blue blanket and out of the wicker basket he uses to sleep in. He slowly stood up, yawned and stretched, then made his way down the stairway into the library proper while wiping the crust out of his eyes.
“Uh, Twilight? What are you doing?” He asked as he stopped at the last step, looking a bit worried but more annoyed that he was going to have clean the mess up, even though it was his day off.
Books literally covered the ground as the shelves stood bare. Twilight sat in the middle of the entire mess. She sat staring up at large stick that curled around a large gemstone that was clear as any diamond he had ever seen, not to mention, it was huge. Spike eyed it hungrily as he slowly made his way over to Twilight, whose magic held the stick aloft above the scattered books, a few next to it.
“No,” she sighed as she threw a book. “No, no, no,” she threw the rest out onto the floor. “NO! Why can’t I find this stick in any of my books?!” She screamed as she rested her chin against the wooden floor, both front hooves crossed over her head.
“What’s wrong Twilight?” he asked again as his attention snapped back to his friend.
“Yes, what is wrong miss Twilight?” asked a voice in a neutral, yet whimsical manner.
Spike turned towards the unfamiliar voice and he was struck like the first time he ever met Rarity, the gem of his life.
"Oh, hey Sign. I didn't know you were coming. Sorry that the library is a mess. I was trying to figure out this stick here." She answered the mare, this Sign, as she stood up.
"Mind if I take a look at it?" Sign asked as a look came over that Spike had only seen in one other pony, and that was Twilight.
"Sure. I hope you know what it is." Twilight answered back with a sweet smile on her lips, as she passed the long stick towards the new mare.
The mare took ahold the stick at it's bottom with a wrapped leg. She looked at the entire length of it with a critical eye that only Rarity got when she was looking at a dress. The stick was weathered and worn as it curved in the middle, slightly to the right. It had small stumps poking out of it, where smaller branches must have grown.
"A copy, huh? Pretty good craftsmanship, I must say. Though the curve isn't right, the diamond is. It's rare to find a staff like one of these." She spoke aloud while nodding and continually looked at it until she realized what she was saying.
"Um, what?" Twilight asked as started putting away books, twenty at a time.
"Yeah, you weren't supposed to know that. I hate it when I get into something like this. I just don't know what to say anymore. Anyway, you two must forget what I just said about this...stick."
"But you do know what it is, right?" Spike asked, finally finding his voice as he began to pick up books as he tried to steal a glance at the mare.
"Of course I know what it is," She chided at the baby dragon as he put a book back into its place on a low shelf. "However, I cannot tell you under the jurisdiction of Princess Luna."
"But I'm under Princess Celestia's patronage. You have to tell me what it is." Twilight demanded as another twenty books went back to their shelves.
Sign's face grew hard and her eyes became cold, like what Twilight would do when Spike first tried to get rid of Owlowiscious. "I don't have to tell you anything. You may be the Celestia's student, and a wielder of one of the Elements of Harmony, but that doesn't make you an official Head of State." Sign said as she turned to go, but Twilight dropped a stack of another twenty books into a neat little pile, picked up the mare, and separated the stick from her.
"Tell me what that stick is." Twilight demanded, her face growing so hard that she might burst into flames again.
"No! Now unhand me or you won't be using your magic for a week." Sign said in a very threatening tone.
Twilight slowly put the other mare down, but kept the stick in her magic. "I'll be keeping a hold on this and going to see if it works."
"Ha. Good luck with that. That staff will never work, especially to a pure hearted pony like you. I have all the information I need about that staff in here." She tapped her head twice. "So good luck trying to find it elsewhere. Even the Canterlot Library won't have the answers you seek either. No library does, save for mine."
"Fine. A trade then. You give me the information about this staff and I give it to you for said information. Deal?" Twilight asked as she held the staff between her and the gray mare.
"No deal," Sign replied without hesitation. "I cannot trust you with the information about that staff because it is extremely dangerous and protecting your life is worth a bit more than a simple wooden stick. The danger you face with that information would tear you away from your loved ones as you grow mad with the knowledge of that staff. It's best if you let your dragon eat the gem and burn the staff." Spike looked back at the staff and hungrily stared at the gem.
Twilight gulped at what the gray coated mare had said. "Can I at least ask why you are here?"
Sign blinked as her eyes grew wide and slapped herself on the forehead with a hoof. "I completely forgot why I came here in the first place. Do you know of a herbalist that resides in this town?" She asked her eyes returning to that whimsical, carefree stare she had when she first entered the library.
"We do, but she lives in the Everfree Forest," Twilight answered with a hint horror.
"The what forest?" Sign asked while raising an eyebrow.
"The Everfree Forest. The clouds move on their own, plants water themselves and the animals can take care of themselves."
"That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of." Sign stated. "Anyway, can one of you show me the way, please?"
"I'll do it," Spike spoke up quickly as he placed the last book away.
"You're a lifesaver little man." Sign said as she waited for Spike to lead her outside.