//------------------------------// // Chapter 55: Dead Hope // Story: The Life of Penumbra Heartbreak // by Unwhole Hole //------------------------------// Far outside the Capital District, a white pony watched on, staring up at the grand crystal Citadel and the seemingly unbreakable shield standing firm as the last defense of the Crystal Empire. The enemy forces were drawing closer, despite the valiant effort of the imperial forces- -but not in this area. This spot was wide and flat, but of no tactical value. No buildings stood in the Crystal Empire’s largest cemetery. Nekro looked up to the Citadel, and saw the storm clouds overhead beginning to swirl as Al’Hrabnaz’s machine began its operation. A tear of formaldehyde ran down one of her cheeks. “Please be careful, my love.” Something cracked behind her. A hoof breaking a crystal twig cast down by one of the lonely trees that grew in this quiet, lonely grove. “Hold,” ordered the leader of the gold-clad guards. He stepped forward. “Ma’am. My name is Wood Buckler, lieutenant of the Royal Solar Forces. You have nothing to be afraid of.” “And yet I am afraid,” she said, still staring up at the Citadel, away from the soldiers. They had chosen to take this path on the way to the Citadel, choosing one where they could not be ambushed. Nekro felt no hatred for them; she could not blame them for avoiding danger. No doubt they had loved ones at home waiting for them. Yet her soul- -Luciferian’s soul- -felt no pity for them. “We’ve come to help. Please, this isn’t a place for a mare like you. We can get you to safety. Copper Helm will take you to safety.” “No.” “No? Ma’am, please, you don’t understand the danger- -” “This place is beautiful, isn’t it?” The leader of the squad took a step back, not sure why he was so afraid. The others gripped their spears tightly. “Ma’am?” “This is a cemetery.” She gestured outward. “There are no stones, of course. There once were. I never saw them. When Sombra came, they were pulled up. The crystal was cut into cores for weapons and spells. But whoever built this place put it in such a quiet spot. Look, they can see the Citadel from here.” “Ma’am, it’s going to be okay. Please, just come with us.” Nekro turned, and the ponies nearly cried out when they saw that her eyes were not those of a living pony. “They can finally sleep. After a long, hard life, they can finally rest, all together in a single pit. But what do they need names for? They aren’t like me, are they?” Nekro took a step forward. “Get back!” cried one of the guards. “GET BACK!” “What’s the matter? You don’t think I’m pretty? I was once beautiful, as you all are. But I can’t rest. Not now, not ever. I’m not alive anymore, but I can’t sleep. Do you know what that is like?” “She’s a zombie!” cried one of the younger soldiers. “Buckler, go for the head!” “Ma’am, I’m- -I’m warning you- -” “I lost everything,” she said. “And I only know that because I can still think. My daughter doesn’t even recognize me, and the stallion I love will never accept me like this. I will never again be with the ones I love so much. But that doesn’t matter.” She stopped walking. “Because I will fight for them regardless. To protect them. Necrophilo was wrong. It is not a matter of precision, of science.” Her eyes widened suddenly to an extent not achievable by the living. “Necromancy is a matter of LOVE.” Her horn ignited with hideous green light, sending out tendrils of energy into the ground around her. “Flare! FLARE!” The leader charged his horn- -only to cry out as a skeletal hoof burst through the ground, grasping his leg. “SKELETONS!” Nekro smiled as her army rose from the ground. The skeletons of hundreds of crystal ponies, rising from the soil to once again defend the ones they had loved. Their empty eye-sockets burned with green light, and some of them came clinging to fragments of moldering wood or rusted pipes and other trash that had been buried with them. With another spell, Nekro summoned her armor, forged from the bones of those who served her. “I will never again draw breath. Yet still I defend. Now BE GONE.” The horde of the undead charged, and the silence of the cemetery was cut by the screams of the living.