//------------------------------// // Ch. 01; All in All, I Would Have Preferred a Boot to the Head // Story: Bookworm's Bequest // by Dorath //------------------------------// “So, how do you know Erudite Bookworm?” Trixie asked, glancing at the purple unicorn seated beside her on the showmares’s new wagon, “Did it involve books? Trixie bets it was something involving books.” “Actually,’ Twilight said sheepishly, “While I own several of Bookworm’s books, I’ve never actually met the stallion.” “You’ve never …,” Trixie took her eyes off the road to stare at her companion, “Then why in the divines’ names did Erudite Bookworm, one of the greatest scholars of the past century, send you an invitation to the reading of his will?!” “It’s a mystery!” Twilight replied, bouncing happily on the bench, incidentally keeping Trixie’s eyes off the road, “Who invites a complete stranger to the reading of their will? What kind of pony includes a ‘plus one’ in that invitation?” “Trixie is very happy to be your ‘plus one,’ Twilight Sparkle” Trixie murmured, finally dragging her eyes back to the road. The academic leaned over to give Trixie a friendly nuzzle, “Aww, I’m glad you’re here too,” she said, not noticing the illusionist’s blush, “So, how long until we reach Grassmere?” Trixie gave an embarrassed cough, “We should see the village after we top the next hill.” “Good. I hope they have a decent inn,” Twilight sighed, “Not that your wagon isn’t nice, Trixie!” she hastened to add. “Trixie understands,” Trixie reassured her friend, “After a few days on the road, even Trixie begins to long for a larger bed and a hot bath.” Shortly thereafter, they crested the hill and, as Trixie had promised, Grassmere lay spread out before them. As the pair rode into town, exchanging the occasional nod or greeting with passing ponies, Twilight pointed, “I see the inn … the Teeny Timberwolf Tavern, oh, look at the sign! Isn’t it adorable?” “Trixie has seen Timberwolves before, many times, … they should not be that cute.” The next morning, the two unicorns went out to join the gathering crowd in the village square where Bookworm’s will was to be read. Trixie smirked as she listened to the rampant speculations of the crowd, as each pony seemed to be trying to beat their neighbor with ever more far-fetched rumors. Finally, a frail, elderly, unicorn climbed up to the platform that workponies had erected the previous evening. “Good morning, all, I am Brass Rivet, the executor of Mr. Bookworm’s estate,” he unfurled an impressive looking scroll, “The first bequest is a flawless ruby, valued at two thousand bits. This wonderous gem is to be granted to Baroness Twilight Sparkle and her ‘plus one’ for services … yet to be rendered.” The crowd murmured in surprise, and Twilight and Trixie looked at each other in bewilderment, as Rivet continued, “The next item is this small box, which contains –” Rivet’s speech was cut off as the stage exploded into an inferno! A massive equine skull leered down at the stunned onlookers from within the conflagration, while screams drew the two unicorns’ attention to several burning corpses crawling through a sewer grate and lurching towards the now panicking crowd. “Trixie! The undead!” Twilight shouted, pointing at the flaming zombies, “I’ll hold off the demon!” Fighting her way through the herd, Trixie saw two of the zombies fall upon a mare, their clubbed fists beating her to the ground, before tearing the screaming earth pony apart in a shower of gore. “Vilzriquathir Drevab,” the showmare incanted, chocking down her rising gorge, as she hurled a blast of frigid winds and razor-edged ice shards into the undead. Even as her spell tore at the murderous corpses, Trixie desperately looked for a way to keep the remaining two fire zombies away from the crowd, 'How does Trixie end up in these situations?' she thought, her horn flaring as the earth shook and split, leaving a chasm between the fleeing ponies and their unliving pursuers. The undead shuffled aimlessly at the edge of the rift, prompting a triumphant cry from Trixie, 'Yes! Trixie’s mastery of illusions saves the day again!' only for her victory to be dashed as the four zombies all turned to advance on the illusionist, “Oh, horse apples!” Across the square, the demon unleashed a conflagration, only for Twilight to block most of it with a quickly conjured shield, preventing any injury to the fleeing ponies, but leaving several fires scattered about the plaza. The unicorn glared at the demon, her aura surging as she readied a spell to wipe the arrogant sneer from its face, when skeletal arms burst from the blazes around the square and began dragging ponies into the flames! Snarling out one of Rainbow Dash’s favorite obscenities, Twilight redirected her half-formed spell at the village’s water tower. The resulting deluge turned the square, and several adjoining streets, into mud flats, knocked a number of ponies from their hooves, drowned all the secondary fires, and caused the demon on the stage to wail in agony. The crystal atop her staff glowed as Twilight threw a second spell without pause, sending a blast of frigid air, glittering with ice crystals, at the demon. The fiend’s angry shriek stopped abruptly as, with a faint chiming sound, the entire stand – fire included – flash froze. The librarian nodded happily to herself, she had been working on that spell since the Wedding Invasion, and it was always gratifying to see one of her theories bear fruit. Twilight turned away to go help Trixie, only to stop as the shriek of breaking ice filled the air. Mirages dashed among the zombies as Trixie’s horn shone with magenta light -- driven to a frenzy by the darting images the undead lashed out with reckless abandon, frequently hitting each other as they flailed at the harassing phantoms. Pulling a wand from her belt, she fired an orb of magical force at the zombies, striking one in the chest, before it detonated, reducing two of the undead to smoldering chunks. The remaining zombies lunged at the illusionist, one even impaling itself upon her rapier and driving itself up the blade in an attempt to grab Trixie, who dropped her weapon with a squeak and stumbled back from the grasping claws, a barrage of arcane bolts spewing from her hands as she blasted the animated corpse in a desperate, instinctive, attempt to destroy the zombie before it could seize her. Recovering her composure, Trixie pointed her wand at the undead, the explosion shredding the corpse that had stolen her blade and damaging the last zombie even further. Ducking under a clumsy swipe, the showmare snatched up her rapier as she gave a brief incantation and blasted the monster with a bolt of golden energy. Skipping back from the shambling, flame-shrouded zombie, Trixie repeated her invocation twice more, finally sending the last of the murderous corpses tumbling into the dust. Turning triumphantly to aid Twilight, Trixie was rocked back on her heels as the demon’s icy prison exploded. Rearing up in a pillar of flame, “Vevoiiiigh stuiwa dhii, voetzhzhvoii dhuiwazhkhavosh,” it sneered as a wave of ghostly flames raced across the square, passing through Twilight’s shielding spell as if it wasn’t even there, washing over Twilight, Trixie, and those fleeing townsponies who had not escaped the square, but instead, of burning, the spectral fire caused those it touched to erupt in dozens of bleeding, agonizing, wounds. Twilight’s aura flared, interrupting the demon’s laughter as it was transfixed by a bolt of lightning called down from a cloudless sky, while Trixie raised her wand and shot the fiend in its skeletal face. Even as the demon reeled under their assault, the crystal capping Twilight’s staff flared again as the unicorn hurled a lance of magical energy into the Tartarean horror. With a shriek, the blaze upon the stage exploded, scorching the two mares, and reducing the stage, its contents, and a pair of nearby shacks, to ruins. “Trixie is glad that that is over,” Trixie grumbled as she dragged herself out of the mud. “Up here, yes,” Twilight replied, wincing in pain as she tried to wipe the muck from her robes, “But we still need to see what is in the sewers.” Trixie looked up from digging out her supply of healing potions, “Trixie is sorry, did you just say we were going into the sewers?” “Um, yes?” the academic mare answered uncertainly, “I mean, those fire zombies had to come from somewhere … I don’t think I’ve ever read about anything like that before,” she added, “Have you, Trixie? Oh, maybe this is a new development in necromantic applications! Wouldn’t that be fascinating?” Trixie glowered at her friend, “You want Trixie to go into a sewer to chase possible demons and a possible new form of undead, and you think it will be fascinating, hmmm?” “… Yes?” “You’re lucky you’re cute, Twilight Sparkle.”