//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14: The Dead Rising 
// Story: Glowing in Everglow 
// by Darkmoon9 
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Diary of Sunset Shimmer

It had been a few days since Twilight showed me Starlight’s call for aid, ever since we have found ourselves in a desperate situation, stuck in another world while our homeland was ruled by the worst of tyrants. I spent some time during those days explaining to Twilight in detail what I knew about Midnight and the Cozy Glow of the other universe. I remembered my previous encounters with Midnight, they have not been pleasant, there were times I had helped the local defenders of a plane resist Midnight’s invading forces, there was also another instance when I found myself in Midnight’s home realm, this was the tale I wanted to tell Twilight. 

That realm was a dark mirror of the Equestria, its people living in fear of the three tyrants that ruled it, the ones known as the Triumvirate, Daybreaker, Nightmare Moon and Midnight, the citizens that hadn’t turned into a statue or been subjected to one of Midnight’s abominable experiments dared not to make a single move against them. The things I had witnessed over in that world would be forever burned into my retina and cement Midnight as amongst the most evil villains I ever had the misfortune to encounter. But while there was darkness in that realm, there was also light, there were some who resisted, an alliance between the Crystal Empire and the changelings, united when King Lumen married Queen Chrysalis of the changelings, her people being able to drink from the power of the Crystal Heart, the love within making the changelings truly beautiful and luminous beings. Then there was also her, the one who would eventually manage to tip the scales of the war, King Lumen’s adopted daughter, Cozy Glow. A young filly who wielded the most powerful weapon of all, friendship. Her first close friend was the daughter of Chrysalis, Ocellus.

It was around this time I had first entered that world, aligning myself with the Crystal Empire. The fight against the Triumvirate was going badly, only the light from the Crystal Heart preventing them from being overrun completely, for its power protected the Crystal Empire, making it difficult for those with a blackened heart to enter. Yet realizing they would need help I was the one who suggested they should seek alliances with other countries who might also oppose the Triumvirate. Cozy Glow, together with Ocellus volunteered as diplomats on that mission. While Cozy, even in this universe was quite self-aggrandizing, she had a gift for persuasion unlike any other, capable of swaying even the most stubborn of hearts, so the king and queen agreed to make Cozy head of this diplomatic mission. I was sent as well to protect her on this journey, King Lumen making me promise to make sure nothing bad happened to his daughter. 

The first stop on this journey was the griffins, Cozy befriending a young Griffin named Gallus, their friendship becoming a catalyst for an alliance to be made with Griffonstone. Gallus then decided to accompany Cozy to the Dragonlands, where Cozy befriended a dragon named Smoulder and convinced Dragonlord Ember to join the alliance against the tyrants ruling Equestria. Smoulder decided to accompany Cozy on the journey. This continued with a visit to Yakyakistan where Cozy befriended a young yak named Yona and secured an alliance with Prince Rutherford. Yona, like the other people Cozy had befriended decided to accompany her on their journey. The last kingdom Cozy and her friends would visit, however, turned out to be quite difficult, for Hippogriffia was found abandoned, initially believed to have already been destroyed by Equestria. Cozy was able to figure out that they were hiding in the nearby waters, having used an artifact to transform themselves into seaponies. Queen Novo turned out to be nearly impossible to convince that it was a good idea to risk her people in an alliance against the Triumvirate, who they were hiding from. Yet after befriending her daughter Princess Skystar as well as another seapony named Silverstream and their brother Terramar, they all performed a song that was able to convince the Queen. Silverstream decided to accompany Cozy back to the Crystal Empire. 

The alliances Cozy had formed turned out to be enough to turn the tides of the war, the Crystal Empire that had been losing this entire time was able to turn the war into a stalemate with the help of their new allies, this new alliance being called the Guardians of Freedom. But they still required another ace up their sleeve to be able to push Equestria back and take the offensive against the tyrants. The years passed and as she got older, Cozy turned her attention to using her brilliant tactical mind to command the troops, and her new friends would help her on the front lines, during one of these battles, they befriended a pony named Sandbar, a soldier who had been forced into service by the monarchs of Equestria, who Cozy was able to convince to desert and join the Guardians of Freedom. With that final friend and years of growing their bonds, Cozy was able to tap into a power never before seen in those lands, drawing power from friendship and harmony in a more wholesome way, the opposite of the Triumvirate’s twisted version of harmony. Her relationship to her friends was enough for Cozy to transform into an alicorn, becoming a demigod as the Princess of Friendship in that world. 

That was the ace the Guardians of Freedom needed, Cozy Glow, her friends and her parents, King Lumen and Queen Chrysalis led an assault against Equestria from the front, Cozy’s enormous power and strategic insight being enough to successfully fight their way into Canterlot and topple Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon. The only thing that remained was to assault Ponyville and invade Midnight’s Black Spire. The dark tower that acted as a beacon to empower the Empress of Order to unfathomable levels. I was there during that final battle, standing on top of the tower, fighting off the legions of demonic entities summoned by Midnight, while Cozy, her friends, Lumen and Chrysalis fought the final remaining member of the Triumvirate, the tyrant Midnight, for the fate of the world. 

At that time, Cozy Glow truly lived up to her name, glowing with the welcoming light of friendship and harmony, a truly transcendent being, a radiant champion of all that is good in the world. On the other hoof, Midnight took the form of a pony surrounded by darkness, radiating the very dark magic she collected from the Spire, she was more horrifying than a demon, something truly dark and twisted. But that day I saw something I didn’t think was possible, the power of friendship and light faltered, the darkness around Midnight proved more powerful and one by one, Midnight struck low Cozy’s friends, with each of them dying horribly, Cozy’s power weakened and when Midnight had struck down the last of them, the light around Cozy had dimmed so much it was barely visible and Midnight was able to overpower her with ease. At this point I knew the battle was lost and I escaped through a portal to another world. Vowing to one day come back and help topple Midnight. That day I was certain that Midnight had killed off Cozy Glow, I only recently found out that what she did was so much worse.

From that day forward, Midnight would turn her attention upon other realms, conquering them one by one with an army of both demonic and angelic beings, hordes of the undead and arcane constructs. In each and every one of those conflicts I had stood at the front lines, but each and every time the resistance had been crushed, Midnight erected one of those Dark Spires in every world she conquered to further increase her power. If only one of those spires was enough for her to conquer the power of friendship, the countless spires she now had erected across the multiverse made her invincible. Yet there had to be some way to defeat her, and somehow, I knew the key was Cozy Glow, who was ultimately the individual who had come the closest to defeating the tyrant. Maybe together with Twilight Sparkle, the other champion of light, if the other Cozy Glow could be redeemed and made to resemble the one from Midnight’s world, maybe with both of them fighting side-by-side, it would be enough to topple Midnight once and for all. Maybe the secret lay in destroying the spires midnight erected across the realms, but each of them were guarded by incomprehensible horrors from beyond the veil. 

I wasn’t yet sure why Cozy Glow in the other reality had turned out to be the greatest hero of that realm while the one in the Equestria I was born in turned out to be one of the greatest villains. But I knew what about her past was different between the two worlds, the one in the dark mirror realm had a pair of loving parents, while the Cozy from my realm was always alone. Maybe it was that simple, that people who grow up knowing the love and affection of others also would show that love to others in return. Yet, while she wasn’t there yet, I had seen sparks of the other Cozy in the one that came with me to Taralos, especially when she united the clans against the gnolls, and when she stood up to Cipher and defended the king. Maybe she could become the hero Equestria needed yet, if not the one they wanted. For alone Twilight couldn’t hope to stand against Midnight. This would hinge on Twilight’s ability to find how to perform a planeswalk spell, but I also knew that when she did succeed, we also needed to be powerful enough to actually defeat Midnight.

After I explained everything to her, Twilight asked why I didn’t want to tell Cozy about her other self, thinking that knowing she was a hero in another realm could help inspire her to be better. I told her that that would be all well and good, but considering how that story ended, it would reveal to Cozy that being good was no guarantee of success and that she put herself more at risk fighting for our side than she did being a villain. For villains would usually be willing to subject the heroes to worse fates if the heroes would end up losing. I feared that Cozy would succumb to fear and refuse to oppose Midnight if she knew what would happen to her if she lost.

While Cozy and Night’s Blessing dealt with the issue in the town of Green Square, me, Twilight and Silverwing were sent to the territory of the Tribe of Bones, located to the south of the city of Vil. Apparently bodies had been going missing and they requested aid from the crown of Taralos in order to get to the bottom of this problem. The journey only took a couple of hours, The Tribe of Bones territory turned out to be a collection of round wooden huts, scattered throughout a valley. The arrangement seemed random at first, but after closer inspection, clear patterns started to emerge as if the layout served some kind of ritualistic purpose. An elderly female zebra came to welcome us to the Tribe of Bones:

“Welcome, my name is Final Whisper, did you come to say farewell to a friend or relative?”

I explained to her that we had come to investigate the missing bodies, Final Whisper sighed and explained that there has been someone disturbing the dead lately, desecrating the graves and doing something to the corpses that is causing them to rise as undead. Fortunately, mostly skeletons and zombies so far. Final Whisper explained that the purpose of the Tribe of Bones was to serve as caretakers of the dead and aid the passing of souls into the afterlife, using necromancy in this manner, without the consent of the person they are raising was an abomination against the goddess Soft Whisper. Final Whisper also told us that tribespeople would go out tonight to check the Barrows, hoping to catch the culprits in the act and they requested we should accompany them. We agreed.

Approaching nighttime, we were asked to check on an ancient burial barrow that hasn’t yet been defiled, making it a likely target for the culprits to strike next. The other tribesponies were sent to guard other barrows in the area. On our way to the barrow, we could hear ominous rustling from the trees and then rotting figures emerged, the zombies shambling towards us, they were the rotting corpses of three ponies and that of a single goat. Silverwing immediately flew towards the zombies and cats down one of them. The goat then started to emit some kind of strange haunting braying, compelling  the need to move towards them, I just barely managed to resist its call, but it hypnotized Twilight who started to brainlessly walking towards the zombies. While I tried to cast a small bolt of fire against the goat zombie and missed, Silverwing hacked down yet another zombie. The goat then cast some kind of spell, summoning a pair of snakes to attack Silverwing, maybe the goat was some kind of spellcaster in life, Silverwing fortunately were able to dodge them. While hypnotized, Twilight unfortunately wandered into another zombie. To help my friends I cast a ball of fire amongst the zombies and snakes that exploded in their midst, killing all of them except for the goat, they definitely seemed to be of a more powerful type of undead, but fortunately between Twilight’s and my spells and Silverwing’s greatsword we were able to make quick work of it now that his minions were gone. 

With the zombies out of the way we continued our journey towards the barrow. Approaching the small hill where the barrow stood, a huge and imposing stone monument to the dead, there were probably a lot of corpses buried within, all of which could be raised by the culprits. I could immediately see that unwelcome visitors had already been here. The door to the barrow was closed, but I noticed marks on the ground that suggested it had been opened and then closed within the last few hours. There was also various undead roaming outside, we took to battling them, most being easily cut down by Silverwing or blasted apart by magic, but one of the more powerful undead seemed to drain the life force of the living, it fed on Silverwing’s life as it is during the battle, weakening him. But we decided to press on regardless. 

We rushed towards the barrow entrance but found that it had been sealed off by magic, fortunately Twilight was able to counteract the spell, allowing us entry. The barrow was dark and gloomy, the only light being from mine and Twilight’s horns and some kind of strange eldritch light coming from up ahead, I could also hear chanting coming from the back of the barrow, it seemed like we were interrupting some kind of necromantic ritual. We went up the long staircase leading to the very top of the barrow, a massive chamber. The two necromancers turned out to be a goat and a zebra, both wearing dark robes, the necromancers stopped their ritual as they saw us, the zebra commanding his partner:

“Intruders, Corpsecaller, kill them all.”

The fight started off with Silverwing engaging the zebra in close combat, Silverwing having the obvious advantage, the goat cast a spell on himself that created multiple illusionary doppelgangers around him, making it difficult to discern which one was real. To circumvent this defense, hitting all of them at once, I threw a ball of fire at him which exploded on impact, wounding both him and his zebra companion. But I needed to be careful with those, they took a lot of my power, and I couldn’t do too many of them in a day. Yet the effectiveness of that fireball could be denied. The zebra then chanted something, and he started to emit a wave of dark energy, sapping our very strength. Twilight’s horns started to crackle with lightning, and she hurled the lighting both at the goat, who dodged to the side, managing to avoid the worst of it, before he rushed forward towards me, his horns glowing with the dark purple color of negative energy, he hit me with those horns, and I could feel the life slowly being drained from me. I channeled a wave of holy healing energy to counteract the dark energy the zebra was emiting, but I felt the wave he produced was much stronger than mine, if this went on for too long, I would lose. I could feel the dark energy coming from the zebra overwhelming us.

Twilight at this point actually managed to hit the goat with a lightning bolt, but the goat still was able to get up and launch another attack towards me, draining more of my energy, but the energy coming from my own horn was able to counteract some of their effects, from both the goat and the zebra. I’m sure the only reason my friends were still standing was because of my efforts. Twilight seemed to switch tactics and fired one of those bolts of force that never seemed to miss at the goat, the bolt seemingly being able to determine which one was a real one among the illusions. Silverwing was able to knock out the zebra before the dark energy they emitted overwhelmed us, leaving only the goat left. But they were aggressive, trying to drain the life from my body with their horns and they were hard to hit because of the illusions around them. I prayed to both Sarenrae and to the Sun Queen, the local equivalent, and fired a bolt of fire at the goat, my prayers were answered as it hit the real one and in combination with Twilight’s both of force, we managed to bring him down. The first thing I did after the fight was to use a lot of my remaining magic to heal the wounds of both myself and my companions. I surely hoped this would be the final fight for today. 

We found a lot of interesting the bodies of the necromancers, including a set of horseshoes enchanted to allowing the user to levitate. They also carried a lot of coins, in addition to a bunch of onyx gems together with some half burned candles. Twilight told me these things were common ingredients needed in rituals to raise the dead. There was another detail I thought kind of strange about the coins, other than the number, over a thousand gold coins, they were coinage from Arcys, the kingdom of earth ponies to the west of Taralos, not to be confused with the clans of the Turves to the east. But the strangest of all was the holy symbol carried by the zebra. I didn’t recognize it at all, despite having spent the last several years familiarizing myself with the different faiths of Taralos and the Turves, I knew the Sun Queen, the most common religion in Taralos whose teachings were similar to those of my own goddess. The Moon Princess, worshipped by Night’s Blessing’s clan, goddess of the night and protector from nightmares. The Night Mare, the opposite of the Moon Princess, goddess of nightmares and the predators that hunted in the dark of the night. Blaze, the brutal goddess of war worshiped by the Taralos military, a prayer to her being said before each battle. Even the Unspoken, the god of chaos. But this symbol looked like the symbol of neither of them. 

When the necromancers woke up, they found themselves bound, I decided to interrogate them, the zebra introduced himself as Deathwatch and his goat friend as Corpsecaller. When questioned about why they were doing this they told me they were paid to, when I asked them by who they told me they never saw them, the only one who interacted with their patron was Darkscythe, a strange creature even they feared, they told me it wasn’t over yet if Darkscythe remained at large. When Deathwatch was questioned about the strange holy symbol found in their possession, they told me it belongs to the Devourer of Nations an Archdemon they were in the service of, but it didn’t seem like this madpony knew much about his deity other than that they were drawn to the service because of her love of inflicting suffering and death. It did kind of bother me that there was one more necromancer at large. We left the necromancers there to rot, telling myself we would send for the Tribe of Bones to take them captive once we got back. 

On the way however we were approached by a cute little bunny carrying a message:

 

Six of our hunting parties have been successful in slaying the desecrators, but one group ran into a fell creature we have been unable to scry clearly. We know the hunters fell in the fight and that the creature is running west, we are sending everypony we can after it, but your group is the only one in position to get ahead of it. Head northwest as fast as you can and try to cut it off, but be careful, it’s clearly very dangerous. When you see a glowing bat, follow.
 
Final Whisper. 
 
While my magic was mostly depleted, I knew this could be this Darkscythe the other two were talking about, despite the risk, we must apprehend the final necromancer, Twilight and Silverwing agreed, and we set off after them. We pushed through the night as hard as we could, until we noticed a faint glow approaching, a bat flew over our heads and turned to lead the way, this must’ve been the bat the note spoke of. Recognizing it as the familiar of Final Whisper, we decided to follow. The bat led us for several hours over rough terrain until our muscles were starting to burn. It led us towards the hill where we could see a single pony in tattered robes, it turned immediately as they saw us, the bat guided us to intercept. With great effort we managed to catch up to it. The pony we were chasing turned out to be some kind of strange abomination of cogs, springs and sinew. Some part of the cogs even appeared to be made of bone. It held the shape of an earth pony dressed in dark rags and wearing a circlet of tarnished silver upon its head while brandishing a blackened scythe in its mouth. This strange pony was also accompanied by a strange scorpion also made from a combination of mechanical and undead parts; it was probably Darkscythe’s familiar. We prepared for the fight of our lives.

Darkscythe leapt at me with incredible speed. It’s choice to use melee might signify it had run out of spells while slaughtering the Tribe of Bones hunting party, nevertheless its scythe managed to cause a massive wound on my back, I could feel it saturated with dark magic, it was a miracle I was standing at all. Silverwing moved to my aid, blocking the path between the creature and me, trying to block its blows, but with the relentless assault Darkscythe gave him he was unable to get go on the offensive, the familiar appeared to try to cast some kind of curse on Silverwing, but what is was wasn’t immediately apparent. I summoned all the holy light they could into a single beam which I fired from my horn against Darkscythe, the holy energy weakening it. Twilight followed suit and hit it with a burst of pure magic from her horn, sending it reeling backwards which allowed Silverwing to land a blow, but its mechanical body seemed very resistant to the weapon he was using. Darkscythe retaliated, wounding Silverwing horribly with that accursed scythe. The second beam of light for my horn also made contact and so did Twilight’s second beam, this thing had to be incredibly powerful if it could stand up to this much magical power being thrown at it all at once. Silverwing fortunately managed to deflect Darkscythe’s next attack, and he threw his weapon on the ground and punched it with his claws folded, which seem to do a lot more damage than his sword ever did on this thing. To finish off the creature, I summoned all the holy energy I had left into a single wave of positive energy, the kind that is lethal to the undead. This wave eradicated this being leaving only their equipment and clothes. The scorpion familiar escaped into the nearby forest. We decided to let it go, not having the strength to pursue it right now.  I used all my remaining energy to heal the wounds on me and Silverwing, he thanked me for my efforts, telling me he would be a goner if it wasn’t for me and Twilight. 

As we got back to the Tribe of Bones, we saw the bodies of the fallen hunting party being carried solemnly into town. I paid my respects to them as well, saying a quick prayer to Sarenrae. Final Whisper approached us and nodded in respect:

“You did well out there, taking care of the desecrators in the barrow and hunting down the fell creature responsible. You have the gratitude of Soft Whisper and the Tribe of Bones. Your names will be sung to the spirits tonight.”

Final Whisper offered for us to stay for a few days to witness the funerals of the slain. We obliged and we spent several days among the solemn company of the tribe’s members. The tribe managed to get a few things out of the necromancers we captured alive. Some of which we already knew, that they were hired by the creature known as Darkscythe, they were paid in Arcys coin from Darkscythe’s mysterious benefactor, no one knew who it benefactor was, but it seemed likely that it was someone with a lot of power and wealth in Arcys.