//------------------------------//
// The Devils of the Plagued City 
// Story: Beyond My Grave: Exhumed 
// by AnnEldest 
//------------------------------//

The night lingered on, and Spike and Discord had found next to nothing. The only information that they could find that was even close to what they were looking for was shreds of information. Things about how tribal ponies once worshiped idols like the phoenix, but no information about the function of such effigies. There were books about certain rituals that ponies performed by using their own blood, but not what those rituals were for, or how they were performed.
“Argh! This is pointless!” Spike said, dropping the book he was holding. “How are we supposed to find what we’re looking for, when we don’t know what we’re looking for!?”
“I’ve done it a couple of times already. Just stick to it and a miracle may happen,” Discord said, as he orbited nine books around himself and skimmed a page of each one as they passed by his line of vision.
“That’s the dumb thing about miracles. You always have to work for them. And when they happen, it’s usually too little, too late.”
“Uh-oh! Debbie Downer’s come a-knockin’. And she sounds pissed,” Discord said.
“I’m not being ‘Debbie Downer.’ We’ve been at this all night, and we don’t have one solid lead on what we’re looking for. The best we have so far is this,” Spike said, holding up his spellbook.
By complete chance, perfectly in line with the ill-defined laws of chaos, one of the books that passed by Discord revealed something on one of its pages to Spike. Something that tied together everything that he had learned so far, if only loosely.
“Wait! What’s that book!?” Spike shouted as he dove across the table toward Discord.
Discord fell over and the books orbiting him fell to the floor. Spike walked across Discord’s body and jumped over his head, where he collected the book off the floor. Thankfully, the page that caught his attention hadn’t flipped, and he looked at it carefully.
“What’s the hubbub, bub?” Discord asked from the floor.
Spike reached behind Discord’s ear and yanked out the monocle that he had been wearing before.
“So, that’s where that went,” Discord said.
There was no answer from Spike as he hovered the monocle over the page, magnifying the image that he spotted. It was almost beyond belief. The picture was of some runes and glyphs on a wall. Among them was something else that very nearly evaded his notice. A relief on that wall in the same shape as the symbol on his spellbook.
“Where’s this symbol from?” Spike asked.
“What symbol?” Discord asked, finally able to get up from the floor.
“The one on this book! It’s in the picture! Where was this picture taken!?”
Discord looked at the picture and tilted his head. The glyphs were nothing that he had ever seen before. Or maybe he had, and forgotten them. He had been out of the loop for quite awhile.
“Man. What would Twilight do?” Spike asked.
“That’s been coming up a lot lately,” Discord muttered to himself. “Twilight would…Look for clues in the picture to try and figure out what part of the world those goofy letters came from!”
“Yes!” Spike said, as he picked up the monocle once more and started scanning the picture.
It didn’t take long for him to figure out where the glyphs came from. Finally, all those geography lessons Twilight made him take were paying off. With that information, he and Discord were able to narrow their search to only a few books pertaining to that particular culture. Still, they were only able to gather certain scraps and shreds of information about what they were really looking for, but it was more than enough. The deeper they went into the subject, the more uneasy they began to feel. Everything that they had seen in the house in Pallin Town was beginning to make a very eerie kind of sense. One that was all too near to bearing horrific fruit.
Spike gasped and opened his spellbook. He rapidly flipped the pages until he found what he was looking for. He and Discord looked at the nearby clock, and saw they had only a few more hours before sunrise.
“We need to find Princess Luna! Now!” he said.
“Do we know where she went?” Discord asked.
“Dammit!!” Spike said. He packed up his spellbook and rushed out the door. “Let’s look for her!”
“Wait!” Discord said. Luna had said something before. About seeing a griffin about a ghost. Ghost? Where to find a ghost? Where had Luna first let him know she had seen such things? “I think I know where she went!”





The way was long for Luna and Misty. The fog that had once swallowed their trail had overtaken them both, leaving not an inch for them to see. The only way that they were able to know where one another was was by Misty keeping her wing placed on Luna’s back.
There was the sound of a tiny splash, and Luna jumped.
“What is it?” Misty asked.
“Nothing. I only stepped in a puddle,” Luna said, hoping that it was only water.
Misty nodded, and the two of them continued onward. As she walked, Misty began to breathe heavily.
“There’s something ahead of us, Princess. I don’t know if it’s something big, or if there’s just a lot of them. But, it’s there. And it feels really, really ugly,” she said.
“I see,” Luna answered, “Misty? If we do find anything there, you must listen to me when I tell you where to run or where to proceed. And, there are also some rules that you must follow.”
“What rules?” Misty asked.
“We must only help those who ask for our help. If there is something that neither of us can see, we must not call for it to show itself. We must never wish them ill, and only bid them the best regards. And if we ever find something evil here, we must never turn our backs to it, or else they will follow us forever.”
Misty nodded, unsure of why she was supposed to follow such rules, but wasn’t about to question them. She placed her wing a little more firmly on Luna’s back and continued onward with her.
The mist slowly faded away. As if some curtain had been pulled aside, the walls of the cave were gone, and the two travelers found themselves in a dirty, dingy alleyway. The windows on either side were boarded up. The metal stairs were rusted beyond repair. Ropes with ratty clothes hung between the walls, and were drawn to one side, where a creature that Luna couldn’t make out was taking them off. In a few short steps, they emerged into the world beyond that narrow passage.
Every city had their bad neighborhoods. This one looked like the worst that any of them had seen. The streets were cracked. The building walls were covered in black mold. Carriages were nothing more than overturned shambles in the streets. There were few creatures on the streets. But the ones who were present looked like the worst kind of derelict that misfortune had become a personal companion to. Luna could see none of their faces. They were all turned away, buried in their hands, or shrouded by dark veils.
Misty kept close to Luna, following her steps carefully through the city. But her eyes were everywhere at once. She could see nothing, but the feeling of sadness and hopelessness pervaded her from all sides. Ignorance, hate and impotence were the strongest vibe that she got from anywhere she looked. Her steps were suddenly stopped by Luna extending her one good wing in front of her.
“Not that way. Over to the other side of the street,” Luna said.
Misty could see nothing. Nor could she feel anything. And that was perhaps why Luna had told her to do as she did. She followed Luna across the street, where they sheltered beneath the marquee of an abandoned theater.
Luna looked across the street where the black mold grew onto the sidewalk and shivered without a breeze. It was the same as the other horrors that had visited her before. Aware. Alive. And she wasn’t the least bit interested in allowing it near herself or Misty. As for Misty, her eyes were drawn down to the end of the street. Something was there that felt different from all the others. The closest thing to any positive emotion that she could perceive. She tried to follow the direction, but was stopped by Luna. After a moment, she was allowed to walk forth with Luna by her side.
As they walked, Luna urged Misty closer to herself. Misty began to feel something that surrounded them. The need for a savior. The desire for relief.
Luna watched as they were surrounded by more of the creatures who wore veils over their faces. Wherever Misty was leading her, they were all going in the same direction. She could see them more closely now. Their skin was badly pocked with hideous boils, and what she could make out of their faces were disfigured and sallow. Whatever had happened, Luna couldn’t help but pity them.
They rounded a corner into what once looked like a plaza, where the creatures all congregated into one group. Before them all was another creature who appeared twice as tall as any of them. It was dressed in a heavy black robe, and wore a mask that looked like a featureless, white wolf’s face. Behind it was a large furnace that glowed with a dull, red light.
“Come. Come closer. No help can come to those who do not approach,” the masked figure said, as he goaded the veiled figures closer to himself.
“Do you think it’s safe to approach?” Luna asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think they want to hurt us,” Misty answered.
Luna watched the spectacle before herself. One of the veiled creatures shuffled forth to the one in the robes, who examined the arm of the wretch.
“This arm is badly infected,” the robe creature said. “We’ve tried everything we can for this. But, it seems my serums and salves have been for naught. I’m afraid we must…”
The veiled creature pulled its veil more tightly over its eyes as the masked doctor raised an arm, at the end of which was a bloody blade where his hand should have been. And with a sudden motion, the arm of the veiled creature was severed.
Luna winced at the sight, and watched in terrified disgust as the severed limb was thrown into the glowing furnace. Black smoke fumed from the furnace’s vent, and seemed to moan with the creature who had just been amputated.
“What’s going on?” Misty asked.
“Nothing. Just walk away and don’t look,” Luna answered.
“You there?”
Before they had taken three steps, the voice of the doctor called out. And a terrible feeling in the back of Luna’s mind knew that it was addressing her and Misty. She cautiously turned around, and saw the featureless mask of the doctor staring directly at her.
“You approach. And yet you do not seek help? Perhaps you think that there is nothing I can do for you?” the doctor said, brandishing his bladed hand.
“No. I simply don’t need the help,” Luna said, keeping her voice steady.
The moment she spoke, the veiled creatures turned toward her and Misty. Their ragged breaths and pained moans choired together, their hidden eyes locked onto the only two living among them.
“What’s happening?” Misty wondered.
Luna said nothing to her, but placed her hoof on Misty’s foreleg.
The doctor walked through the crowd toward the two, his clawed feet peering out from beneath his robe with every step he took. The blade on his wrist caught what little light there was on that street, creating a harsh glare that blinded Luna for a second. In the time it took for her to clear her vision, the doctor towered before her, the blade of his hand facing her with her own reflection. She looked up, and saw the mask of the doctor tilted down, staring hungrily at her.
“Then? What help is it that you seek?” the doctor asked.
“I…I seek answers,” Luna gasped.
Misty shuddered as the many creatures around her moaned and shuffled closer. Her feathers all stood on end as she leaned closer to Luna. Something brushed against the tip of her tail, making her pull it closer to her body.
“Princess…” Misty said.
“There are many ways to seek answers. I can only provide them in but one,” the doctor said, raising his blade.
Luna trembled as she watched the filthy blade rise higher and higher, and caught her reflection once more, looking up in cowardly helplessness. She tried to use her magic, but it was no good once more. The blade turned, and she saw Misty as if she were on the verge of a breakdown. Luna’s voice suddenly released at the sight.
“It’s the truth that we want. Not wellness,” Luna said.
The doctor’s blade flashed with light as it came down. Luna cowered to the ground, hoping by some miracle that the doctor would miss her. There was not even a draft of wind as she heard the moans of the veiled creatures around herself. She dared to look up and saw the doctor towering over her still, his blade rested at his side.
“So? You seek the truth, do you?” the doctor said, with a hint of humor in his voice. “Then, I would advise you to seek the building with the red door.” The doctor’s whole body turned as he pointed further down the road, where the crowd of veiled creatures all parted. “You will find what you are seeking there. If not, then you may be searching forever.”
“Thank you. And best of luck to your patients,” Luna said, before goading Misty down the road alongside herself.
The two living creatures hurried down the open way, with Luna staying ever sure to keep Misty close to her side.
“What happened just now?” Misty asked.
“I believe we’ve just found our way to what we seek,” Luna said.
“I still don’t know what it is that we’re looking for. How is any of this supposed to help stop whatever’s happening in Equestria?”
“I’m not certain what it is, either. All I know is that whatever we find next, it’s our best chance to make things right,” Luna said.
Behind them, there was the sound of slicing flesh and the howl of another creature.