Manus POV
"So I'm assuming you already have a job in mind?" I asked Luna as I followed her to the throne room.
"Yes and no. Originally, I was going to ask for your insight regarding a matter near a couple of the towns near the border. Now you can consider it your first task that depending on what you have to say, one of us will be heading there with you following us." She answered.
"What's it about?" I tried to learn what I might be getting into.
"We'll discuss that soon enough." She responded. "So tell me more about Xelroth- was it? Your home?" She changed the subject.
"That's a question with a lot of answers, you're going to need to be more specific." I told her.
"Tell me about the beast races." She specified.
"Not a lot to be said. They prefer to keep to themselves because of experiences with other races centuries ago and they aren't exactly fond of magic that doesn't heal because of those experiences. Enough so that most would refuse magic assistance of any other kind and instead rely on their own natural advantages which differs greatly between each." I said.
"I see. Would we be included among these races?" She asked, not sure to answer this one without any risk.
"That would be up to either them, the world leaders, or the council of mages. Though since you are humanoid ponies, it's likely you would be included." I answered, cautiously. We continued the rest of the way discussing Xelroth and the other races. We reached the throne room and once we reached about halfway towards the throne, Celestia stood up from her throne.
"Leave us." She ordered the guards in the room, the doors closed behind them shortly after. "Did my sister inform you of what this was about?" She asked me.
"Nothing beyond telling me it had to do with a border town, though for reasons I'm not getting into, you are now one of my employers." She raised a brow as she looked at Luna, questioningly.
"He destroyed one of the enchanted targets on the training grounds beyond it's capability to repair itself." Luna explained. Celestia looked at me, amused.
"I wondering when somepony would do that again. Worry not, your 'employment' won't be long, you'll only be working with us or the guard for a little over a month, maybe a month and a half." She assured me before taking a more serious expression. "On to the matter at hand, we have been getting reports of unusual phenomenon and disturbing scenes near-"
"Point to it on a map, I'll have a few guesses depending on the information after." I interrupted her.
"As you wish." She used her magic to create a projection of Equestria.
"Anyway, in the area between Apploosa and Dodge Junction, there have been reports of strange lights, disturbing sounds in the night, and around the same time it started, graves were being robbed. There are no suspects and the closest we have to witnesses are the civilians who see these lights." She explained.
"My input? Best case scenario, they've got Will-o'-the-Wisps and a grave robber. Worst case scenario, a necromancer that's abusing his gift and was probably insane before he learned to use it." I told them, shocking, then angering both of them.
"You would call magic as vile as necromancy a 'gift'??!!" Luna asked, clearly not pleased with me.
"The original purposes of necromancy back home were to revive the dead and achieve immortality, though both reanimation and lichdom are bastardized versions of these goals. I say 'gift' because only dark mages and Hollows can use it, and even then, not even 10% of the dark mages can learn it because they weren't blessed by Exolvuntur, the God of Life and Death. Even then, not all of them delve into necromancy, some don't even learn magic. If a priest is unavailable, it's true necromancers that give the departed their last rites and they also defend graves and crypts, though they'll usually use the reanimated corpses of condemned criminals or bandits to do so. So yes, if they don't abuse it, necromancy is a gift because not only was it given to us by a God, but THE God of Light, Life, Darkness, and Death!" I explained. This did nothing to calm them down.
"Answer truthfully right now! Do you know necromancy?" Celestia asked.
"So how do you want to go about this? Personally, I'd just-" Celestia made the map disappear.
"Are you a necromancer??!!" She interrupted.
"I'm not going to answer that. Why? Because you won't believe me unless it's confirmed with the use of dark magic like back then, and if I say 'yes', either I die, or my short leash becomes even shorter. And right now, if this is a necromancer abusing his power, you're going to need me, unless you want to take unnecessary risks." I refused to answer.
"Then it's decided. You will go with my sister to investigate these reports." She said, causing me to raise a brow.
"I don't know how dangerous necromancers are in this world, but trust me when I say if this is what I think it is that it would be better if I went alone. Depending on how far they've delved into it, there might already be a small army that can spread a curse of death, Exolvuntur forbid if they attempted to ascend without His divine protection and instruction!"
"We are going to have a long chat about this later! We are leaving now!" Luna ordered as she teleported us outside what I'm assuming to be her room, though there were no guards. Unfortunately, I needed a moment to compose myself, teleportation has that effect if you're not used to it. Once she came out, she was dressed in dark blue, full platemail body armor, and a light blue claymore.
"No! You won't be leaving like that!" I told her.
"Excuse me??!!"
"If this is a necromancer, a princess will either encourage them, or force them into hiding. Take it with you, but hide it! If you're bringing guards, make sure they're hidden too! Alerting them to us is not something we want! Have someone else carry the gear and follow after us." I explained. She thought to herself for a moment before sighing.
"You are right." She went back into her room and changed back before exiting, looking like a completely different person. She shrunk down a little to stand up to my shoulders, she wore casual clothes, her fur turned a light blue, and her mane was turned purple, no longer waving in a nonexistent wind.
"That's better." I commented.
"Call me Moonlight in this form. Now onward!"
We don't have trains in Xelroth, I'm not impressed, nor am I happy right now. I thought teleportation was bad, no, this is MUCH worse! Even with her magic helping me, it's not doing much. I can deal with carriages and boats (had to go to Tilokra for a field trip) for short periods of time, but this is another level! Luna/ Moonlight seems to find this entertaining though.
"Never rode a train before?" She giggled a little.
"Go! Fuck! Yourself!" I said between heaving.
"Oh! I apologize, but I left my toys back in the castle!" Is this a game now? Also, do I even want to know what she means by 'toys'?
"I hope you get me home soon." If for no other reason than to say 'hi' to Zane, that prick!
"My sister's student is currently trying her best to find you a way home, but travel to other worlds hasn't been researched extensively." She told me.
"I'm sure there's something, there's always a way with-with magic." I tried to keep it down.
"So how would you handle this situation?" She asked me. I made sure there were no passengers nearby, the train was mostly empty. No one was near us, but I still kept my voice down.
"Have everyone in different inns if there's more than one. Don't worry about the graveyard, focus on the lights. If no one follows these lights, especially children, then that'll narrow it down. If pe-people are being drawn towards the lights, then they're likely being drained of their life force elsewhere. We'll also want a list of missing people since this started." She became disturbed.
"You're rather knowledgeable on this subject." She commented.
"Because one of Chroma's professors was a necromancer who taught us how to approach the situation. They don't need to be near a body to reani-reanimate it as long as they have the exact location of it, though they do need to be within a certain distance away, and it becomes harder the further away they are. It's possible no one is e-entering the place when it's being robbed. The other reason is because my fam-familiars can deal with the graveyard which will need to be closed off so they don't attack actual visitors." It's becoming harder to keep it down now.
"Your tea-" I put my hand over her mouth to shush her as she nearly shouted that.
"Yes, but no point in teaching necromancy to everyone if it would only apply to one or two at the most." I answered before falling back into my seat, feeling a little dizzy.
"Fair enough, though I would appreciate it if you never did that again." She complained.
"I would appreciate it if you didn't jeopardize the mission I'm basically being forced into, but you don't see me complaining." I told her flat out. She didn't really have a response to that and silence hung between us for a minute as my insides calmed down a little.
"You said before that it would be bad if one became a lich without that God's blessing. What did you mean?"
"If a necromancer tries to ascend without His protection, they'll become a true undead. A powerful enough necromancer could bend the lich to their will. Not only that, but the lich wouldn't be able to feel anything. No emotions, their only senses would be sight and hearing, and to top it off, they'd suffer the natural weaknesses of undead, specifically light and fire. Exolvuntur would basically negate everything and they would be more powerful while still looking like regular mortals, aside from their eyes either glowing different colors or seeping different colored mists or something like that. Also, if they ascended with His blessing, He would basically have the final say in when they die, even Fate will back off on that one."
"Why would your world allow such things to be used? Does it not under-"
"Unless the magic literally corrupts the user, there is no such thing as 'evil' magic. Even healing magic is used as a tool in torture, and even blood magic is used to heal people. Healing magic can't reattach limbs, but blood magic can. I'm going by what a literal God says before I go by what you say about His gift to dark mages. One last thing I should note about Him, just as dark mages can learn necromancy and become liches, so too can He grant light mages the power to call on angelic assistance, and even revive the dead, though doing so will cost their powers as a mage. Let that sink in for a moment." I interrupted her and made no attempt to hide my agitation. I don't know if she responded, I was more focused on my insides acting up again to register her saying anything.
I really hope they get me home soon.