Dungeons, Dragons, and a Little Friendship

by Lawrence Gander

Chapter 14

Fluttershy heard the collapse of the building, but she could not pay it any heed. There was a more important problem on her mind, and it shambled about slowly getting closer. She dared not move in fear of what it might do if she ran or even dare try to fly for it had wings too, and she knew just how 'great' she was at flying.

The walking corpse shook its head about one last time, and whatever daze impaired it seemed to be dispelled. With a gaze that spawned fear into her core Fluttershy backed down.

“B-back, stay back!” She dared not take her eyes from the thing.

The creature didn't seem fazed by her heartless warning, in fact it seemed to not react in any way at all. Yet there was something else laced deeper in its thoughts, something angry in a different way. A voice that was somewhat resigned and lost in the depths of a sea which she could scarcely fathom. Her curiosity would have to wait, as she noticed more of the things she thought to be dead slowly rising from the ground.

A voice rang out in her mind, Run.

Its source felt strangely close, like a primal sense trying to tell her what to do. Its fear coursed through her in ever fiber of her being, and she wanted it gone.

It called out again, Run!

She didn’t want to, to run meant that the predator would give chase. She was sure who would win such a contest, and didn’t dare try to see if the dice would fall in her favor. Then she felt the feeling welling up again, another shiver ready to try and make her bolt. She wouldn’t listen to it, not again, but it was crippling just to feel such a thing rack her body with inaction, then it hit her.

She reached out with her mind, body firmly planted before the creature. There was a click as she linked into its mind, but something was off. It wasn’t like Cartanis’ mind, or of any she had seen before. It was empty, void of anything. In that she saw her chance. If the mind was empty, why not fill it with something?

RUN!

The feeling that had once bolted her feet to the ground began to surge through the air around her and into the creature. Her power resonated to the others in kind. What was once a predator now raced away from her, its fear sparked out and infected everything it passed, turning the small mob of monsters into a disorganized rabble of paranoid freaks that tore at each other in blind panic.

Fluttershy was amazed at what she had just done, and also somewhat terrified, but she didn’t have time to waste watching the spectacle unfold; as this was the closest thing to an opportunity she would get. Her attention fell to Pinkie Pie, or where she had last seen her. What she found was an unconscious pink lump a ways away across the old square, with no time to lose she galloped over to her old friend.

“Get up.” Her friend groaned at the verbal insistence.

Fluttershy looked back to the mob of undead ponies as a roar overtook the chaos, there was something else there, something larger and with a mind not so primal that started to rally them.

“Pinkie, please, you promised!”

Pinkie suddenly shot upright, giggling and snorting in an endless stream of joy.

I barely even had to try.

“There you are Fluttershy, I just had the funniest dream!”

“Um, Pinkie? Don’t you remember about our little problem?”

She followed her friends hoof that pointed to the assembling mass of undead, “Oh yeah, that.” A bone chilling roar echoed out over them, and a few dozen smaller cries seemed to echo out in kind. “I think it’s time to start running.”

“Wait,” Fluttershy looked down the street they had seen Andur disappear to, a cloud of dust still settling from what she believed to be the explosion she had heard. “What about Andur?” Her worry was interrupted as her friend herded her away from the site.

“I think he wants us looking out for ourselves right now, besides he has his own stuff to worry about.” Pinkie launched herself over a pile of debris, determined to at least get Fluttershy to safety. She didn’t let her confusion over Andur’s action take precedence, there were more important things to concern herself about at the moment.

He coughed, his throat ragged and choked with dust, his skin burned from a myriad of cuts and bruises. He had to blink a few times simply to see clearly, and attempts to move were met with pains in his chest where a broken slab of rock had smashed over his armored plating. It was rent in such a way that he believed his armor was now hurting more than helping.

“Are you alright down there?”

His head snapped up, towards the familiar voice that lay on the top of the crater's wall. He dared not answer the figure which scanned the pit, not while he was in such a state.

“Andur. You realize I’ve set up all kinds of wards down there, don't you? That body of yours won’t hide itself. Or perhaps you just believe a building would detonate and then leave a perfectly square crater all on its own?”

He could only swear to himself, and in mild reluctance answered, “What?” His annoyed question ended on a ragged cough, and a pained wince.

“I was simply worried-”

“Worried!?” He said through pain. “If I hadn't just been nearly killed, I might think you were jesting with me lich.”

Dra'nahb's impatience was lain thick within his voice, “If that is all, then I must really be going, there are other things to take care of today.”

Andur watched, as the centuries worn body trotted along the edges of its trap with little heed to him, “Get down here, and finish this!” He tried to do something, to cast out the wrath he felt, but nothing answered his call.

“Do I honestly have to repeat myself every time?” The lich said while barely missing a step. “You must be killed carefully, and sadly I do not have what I require at this time to do such a thing. So instead, I will see about dealing with the poor things you convinced to go on your little crusade.”

“You won't lay a hair on-” He tried to rise, but soon found himself too injured to even make do with that simple task. “I won't let you empty this world of any more lives!” His whole body shook with anger as he tried to just get off the floor, but his wounded body was unable to answer his mind's silent tantrum.

The lich stopped, and spared a moment for him. “Perhaps Andur, if there were more like you in our world, we wouldn't be where we are today.”

“There were, and don't think this world will be so apathetic to your actions either.”

“Perhaps, but this isn't about them at the moment. Many would've loved to see something good created from the messes I made, to give the broken cycle another meaningless piece of evidence that it was worthy of existing, but would you? No. You are not like those who came before. You did not stay behind and rebuild, instead you lash out and destroy the threat.”

“So it is a crime to defend oneself and home now? There were plenty who hunted who before me, and there will be more after as well.”

“Oh there have been many who shake off their indifference and take a stand to do something about me, but you. You are one of a few who are willing to throw away everything and everyone to see justice accomplished.” He watched the cleric, an angry glare mixed with confusion marked his face. “It does my old rotted heart well to see such action, to break free from the lie and do what must be done to destroy what you can truly see. You make me proud Andur.”

“Don't you dare, I'll have none of your poisonous words!”

“There is no poison in my words, only truth. In time you may realize what it is you truly fight, what truly is good and evil.”

“What is this?” The cleric shouted. “Do you mean to call me to your side? To destroy the lives of countless families in a fevered attempt at what amounts to a childish tantrum! I’ll never have that!”

“Oh haven't you?” He retorted with a cursory laugh, “Don't tell me you couldn't hear them, because even I could feel the fear in their words, and you ignored them. You tore them from their peaceful lives, permanently changed them and treated their gift to you like a tool.”

Andur just gritted his teeth.

“In the name of a greater goal, you threw them away. You cutoff your precious connections and ignored one of the lovely lies life offers.”

“No I didn't, they offered their own help, and they can take care of themselves!”

He continued, unabated, “One part of you knew though, didn’t it? Deep down, that as long as I went living the suffering wouldn't stop. So you took a chance, casting away your precious friends, your ideals, to try and save something greater. While you may have failed Andur you still only leave me impressed.” A smile, long absent from his features, crested upon his face. “Because it’s something I would've done, in fact it is something I have done. Andur, you have to understand that creation is something we cannot accomplish, the only destiny for us is the destruction of everything around us, it is simply a matter of how.”

His anger nearly exploded, his shouts a muddled mess until he managed some control, “I will never be you! You throw lives away like logs on a fire!”

“Like you just did?” He knew he shouldn't be enjoying such baiting, but some part of him enjoyed watching his prisoner squirm. “You can calm yourself Andur, for soon you won't need to worry about them anymore, and all of their suffering that you brought upon them will be at an end.” He moved once again, toward a patch of darkness which grew darker with his approach.

“Dra'nahb!” Not even a glance. “If you even send as much as a bone after them, I'll find you and-”

“Oh I've already done far more than that. Rest assured that I might even find a way to use their bodies for a far greater purpose than you could ever conceive.” Then without another word he left, his form had melded into the shadows that stretched out to greet him and left not a trace of his path.

Just like that, Andur was left alone with his thoughts. For a time he fought his injuries, if only to keep his mind upon other things. Eventually though, after every prayer went unanswered, he could only contemplate one thing. That one thing which made him hurt more than his body could ever hope to, how he had let his word and his principals’ fall to pieces in such a short time. His mind traveled to the amulet that he wore, a symbol to guide him and light his path during its darkest hour. Right now he felt shame to even think that he had somehow earned it in a life before.

“Are you sure that’s working?”

“Pinkie please, I have to concentrate.”

They had ducked inside the shell of what was once a home, old paintings rotted away on the walls as what was once furniture slowly decayed into nothingness. It would be a grand place to hide had one of its walls not been utterly destroyed, even now Fluttershy was staring down pieces of the horde that had followed them. The main body had skipped over them, but a few lingered as though they knew something was wrong. To a passing onlooker there was only a wall, perhaps those with a keen eye might notice the haze of a mirage, but the mind weakened by servitude could barely tell the difference between one or the other.

Pinkie didn’t care which was true, she waited just behind her friend with Girda at the ready. She had seen every one of them walk by but this one, and they had yet to see the big one with the black eyes move by, they had lost track of that one a while back.

“Go on.”

Pinkie looked at her friend, who was whispering orders under her breath.

“Go on, shoo. It was just a trick of your eyes, the master doesn’t like to be left waiting.”

The zompony in front of them grumbled, a wary look off into the distance, and then with a snort it rounded and bolted off into the distance.

“Wow, that was amazing Fluttershy.” Her wonder didn’t last long as her friend began tipping over, “Whoa, hold up there. I got you.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that it takes a lot out of me.”

“Oh don’t worry about it Fluttershy, I’m sure if I was mind warping so many things at once I would get tired too.”

She smiled at her friend’s reassurance, but she held some disbelief that Pinkie could ever be worn out.

“Well… maybe only a little tired.” She looked about, and saw a small room closed off from the rest of the house and the gaping hole in the wall. “Let’s see if we can find a place to rest.”

Both of them recoiled as a sound echoed over their place of sanctuary. They both turned back to the view that the destroyed wall offered them. What they could see astounded them both. Undead which could fly filled the sky, at first only dozens, but the number quickly grew into a few hundred. The two friends looked upon each other, the slight relief of victory torn by the fear that this new event brought upon them.

It had followed them, it was sure of that, but for some reason the trail had vanished. Now it was irritated, when an order went unfulfilled it was always like this. Only a gnawing silence greeted it, no drive to try something beyond what it had been told, the only thing that remained was a hesitation to see its master. It did not know what to expect from him, but the eldest, she was clear in her desire to please him and to make sure they would as well. It had not experienced what would happen when failure was reported, but it had no alternative.

It looked out over the husks, old bodies that had been reanimated to serve and through their service aid the master. They were strange in how they acted, orders were simple enough to convey, but when under duress or if one remained out of contact they had a tendency to… unravel and act strangely. It was a simple enough matter to solve, but it had a feeling this wasn’t how these things were supposed to act, not with how she and the master treated them. Even now one of them was lost staring at something instead of keeping a lookout, its mind was plagued with questions, things that it seemed to have had an answer to at one point but was now gone.

The lost mind was easy enough to bring to heel, they were all connected by something, but it knew that it held the power over them and reinforcing the will of the mind over that of the husk was easy enough. After some struggle the body once again regained that distant look, one of a mind concerned with only one thing and one thing alone. It stood easily at attention, head twisting to and fro in a constant vigilance.

Then it felt something extraordinary, one familiar, the mind’s center had moved again. Rapidly changing its position through a space it couldn’t fathom, and in what seemed an instant its senses were overwhelmed as the core of it felt very near. A moment later it knew where the master was, behind him forming back into reality from the darkness where he had been. It was a strange experience whenever the master was near, the minds of all around him felt better, stronger than they were alone. There was no wandering thoughts, idle minds held no will of their own, they all beckoned to the power that held them together willingly. Their wills were no longer held alone, instead they seemed to flow in a natural current and everything one would know all would soon know.

Enraptured by this awe had left it clueless to the movements of its master. He had already made his way before him, paying all the others no mind as he strolled about them with all the heed a mountain gives to the wind. When he looked him in the eye, there was no need to tell him of the failure, for now he knew it and everything those that were under him knew. Information was something the master was allowed to freely take of those he could see, and without a word he turned back, making his way to the shadows.

It did not need to be told, it simply knew immediately what the master wanted. It alone followed by the master’s side, somewhat pleased that the master allowed it to do so, being so close to the core of their mind filled those nearby with a great sense of purpose. Not only was there the sense of those around linked together, but there was a purpose, something greater than the needs of the body when alone. It knew that no matter what happened the master would be hurt only when this body that served the mind was broken, and it knew that wherever this strange portal within the darkness would take them that the body it used would be destroyed before anything was allowed to go near its master.

“Come on.” Andur tried once more to scale the sides of the pit, or more accurately a pile of debris he had piled up to try and get at a ledge that might let him clamber up the lowest side of his little makeshift prison. Finally at the top of his crude attempt at a step ladder he prepared himself as best he could.

“It’s just a little jump,” He looked up at what distance remained between him and the ledge, and crouched down as best he could with only three good legs. His leap was joined by a deeply pained grunt, despite his better judgment he tried to use both his back legs to propel himself farther, a decision he was already experiencing the downside of. His collision with the ledge’s side was abrupt and fell short from what he wished it to be, Andur barely had his hooves over the side with his chin the only real company they had.

His back legs fought to find purchase, and find some they did, but one good leg was barely enough to support a horse in full barding. So he tried once again to use that crippled limb, and for a time he made progress. Through the pain he told himself that all he had to do was get enough of himself over the ledge so that he could just pull himself the rest of the way, but he wasn’t making nearly enough progress quickly enough for him to believe that. He continued to try anyway as his leg screamed at him. Andur wasn’t sure if it was broken but it had taken the brunt of the fall earlier, and it didn’t enjoy to even be moved.

“Just a little-GAAAH!” Something in his leg finally tore, what his good one had been lifting with support was suddenly left alone, and despite his best at clinging for a purchase his front half tumbled after his back end. If one would call it lucky he landed onto his cobbled together pile of rubble, however in the process he not only reduced it to the mess it once was but also felt the full brunt of the fall across his back, the one area that wasn’t in total pain.

For a time he didn’t even move, just letting everything settle for a while as he tried to forget the burning in his leg and the familiar feeling of bruising across his back. His power still refused to work, and he knew perfectly well why it didn’t. His mind started to wander, what little he had asked himself before still wanted answers, but he didn’t wish to go back to that place; not yet. So he turned his mind again back to the pit, to the one chance he had to get out. He supposed that removing his armor would be the best bet, but it was a task to do so when one wasn’t injured so badly, even then he would only be able to get some of the lighter sections off. Andur had already decided to leave behind what he carried in his bag, as well as a few other items he didn’t wish to keep stashed away in that stuffy little thing.

Then he finally turned back to that part of his mind, as he gazed over at the small pile of trinkets he was going to willingly leave behind to get out of his place. It was only a few keepsakes, memories in the forms of things that might seem unimportant to anyone else, but to him they meant something. He had been used to a life on the move so long that he hadn’t thought to simply keep some of them back at the lodge on the apple family’s farm, even then there were a few he wouldn’t dare leave under anyone else’s watch.

He did his best to get up, ignoring his leg’s protests, and journeyed over to the little forgotten pile. There was a rock that looked little more important than the rubble that surrounded it, but to him it was a piece of an aged and wind worn wall, something to remind him of the home that had to be abandoned to escape an enemy his town couldn’t face. A bauble, something that belonged in a place he could call home, but that life was shut to him the day he turned her down. Duty had called stronger than his heart that day and this little carved bird was all he had to remember her by. He chuckled a bit, for as fond of her as he was, her name was still lost to him.

There was a small multitude of other things, a rivet from some contraption that Ted had tried to make. He wasn’t sure what it was supposed to do, but the elf was convinced that he could make something good that wasn’t a weapon. Had it been true then it wouldn’t have spontaneously exploded.

Another pointless thing was an old seal from a letter to his father from Cartanis. They knew of each other, and it was probably what caused that old wizard to get off his lazy duff and do something. He remembered showing his now ponified friend the letter’s seal, and as astonished as he had been that it had survived the trip through the void the old wizard simply treated it like another oddity he had seen a thousand times before. ‘Some things we become so attached to that they become a part of us’, a strange yet expectable answer in the end. Andur had journeyed with it for nearly a week’s time without ever looking upon its contents.

Amongst the remaining items were a few things he felt like he should lay to rest, if only to honor them, a ring of scales from Rash for when he aided his people and earned a title in their tribe, he was an old friend he wished to see again.

Then there was a locket, something Leria had given him when he saved her life. She had said that until she repaid him that he was to hold onto it, because inside was her heart and soul. All this time had passed and he had yet to look inside it, one part of him wanted to, really wanted to, but it didn’t feel right when his mood was in such a remorseful tone.

A few of them however he was not fond of, they weren’t there as reminders of good times, but of things he had done that he still questioned himself about. The one he always thought about the most was the bell fragment. To anyone else it looked like a slightly violet hued piece of broken pottery, to him though it was a fragment of a weapon so terrible that he still thought about if he should’ve used it at all. Yes the Theocracy was a threat, but what that thing did to them at Grimdig… Andur still felt that he had not done enough to make sure it was never going to be used again.

Whatever the case was with his past he hated to think of himself as a collector of useless things that only had purpose in reliving a memory, but he was for better or worse. One part of him wondered why he bothered, if he was ever found dead and his pockets looted, these things would mean nothing. It served no purpose in keeping his memory alive past his death, and to anyone else save a few close friends none of these things would mean a thing. Besides reminding himself there was no reason to have these things, then it hit him.

So, he thought to himself, that must be why.

That only made him think about what he had done recently, if he had to remember what he had done today, what would he have to say about it to not only to himself but to their friends as well. Would he have to add their names to the book too? Would it read as the fault of the lich or his own? He knew deep down who had caused it. He always tried to hold the world up, to do things on his own or without the help of his friends when he should. He always told himself it was for their own good, it was to keep them out of danger. Now though he asked himself what he would collect, what little trinket would he find to give shape to what he did today? He wasn’t sure how, he wasn’t sure when, but he was going to get out of this pit, and when he did it wasn’t going to be those two who would pay for his mistake.

Pinkie awoke to an itchy nose, after quickly indulging her irritated muzzle the next thought to cross her mind was how she managed to fall asleep when she was supposed to be on watch. She was at a vantage point outside and away from Fluttershy’s room, if that’s what you could call that musty old broom closet. Both needed a good rest but it seemed only one was destined to get any beyond a cat nap. Whatever the case Pinkie took a moment to look out from her vantage point, with some earlier exploring she had found a way to their little hideout’s second floor. From there she could get a pretty good clue as to where they were, and maybe even what was going on.

From her perch Pinkie could see the center of the city, a place that seemed to be so out of place in its state of glossy neatness. It didn’t look like pictures of other pony cities, it seemed so much more alien, yet older and a bit more worn than anything she had seen a city pass for before. She also noticed that the clouds of undead pegasi scuttling about the skies had cleared, it only made her think about how they never set a single feather on the city’s center. Then she did a double take, the skies were clear, the fact they had been filled in the first place had governed their decision to rest for a time longer than a moment or two in the first place. Now they could leave and look for Andur.

Pinkie was a blur of pure energy as she shot down the staircase that had taken her up here in the first place. Her thoughts bounced about as to what would be the step after the rescue party, because she knew that it had to be enough to celebrate an effective rescue, but not so much that it overshadowed the welcome back party when they all got home. Then of course one had to consider how much confetti and noise there was at such impromptu conventions, she didn’t want to accidently set off a surprise encounter, the last thing she wanted was something as boring and dry as that.

Suddenly her nose got irritable again, it seemed today was one of those days where her mind just wasn’t going to get a second alone. So she once again gave her nose a good scratch just as she got to her destination, and as she stood there looking out the gaping hole in the wall her nose got itchy almost immediately after it had just ceased.

“Again!?” She said with mild annoyance.

They continued to watch, at regular intervals the pink one would stop and scratch at her nose, each time she seemed a little more suspicious. There was a worry in its mind that this thing had some strange sense that could tell when they were watching her, but it seemed impossible that its master wouldn’t pick up on such a thing. Its attention shifted to that force which guided them all, they had left that place with no light and had appeared where they stood. Even now it seemed that a fragment of that darkness had left with them and shielded them from the light around, but this boon did not seem to lessen the strange behavior from its master. He was always watching, mumbling under his breath, a strange mixture of anger and confusion.

The master cast a slight gaze toward the ghoul, and in an instant it knew what to do. Once more the darkness cloaked the master and he disappeared into a land that muffled his presence and place. It knew to not move, to wait for another directive, as the master set its plan in motion.

“Are you sure Pinkie?”

“Sure I’m sur-choo!”

Her friend rattled her head about again, that was the third time she had sneezed since they started talking.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine,” she snorted a bit, “but I really think this is our best chance to make a move. As long as those flying ones are gone, we can go just about anywhere.”

“Did they really leave?” She didn’t want to go check, they had appeared so suddenly, and from the relative safety of their little backroom camp they had watched the skies swim with their numbers. It appeared that they were looking for something, they weren’t sure if it was them, but whatever it was they were looking for it wasn’t here if they had moved on.

“Definitely, but I don’t know what kind of party they were off to in such a hurry. We should really think about finding Andur or somepony else before they decide to do a soda run or something.”

“Pinkie.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, anything.”

“What if… what if Andur isn’t there?”

“We’ll just have to go find him somewhere-”

“No… Pinkie, what if we can’t find him, what if he’s…” She didn’t really want to finish that line of thought.

“Gone? For good?” Fluttershy merely nodded back. “Then. I guess we lay low for a while.”

“But, wasn’t that what we were just doing?”

“Yeah, but, you see Fluttershy we’d have to… reconnoiter or something.” She let loose a defeated sigh. “I don’t know what we’d do, I’m more of a party member, I like to make stuff go boom magically.”

For once Fluttershy could see her bouncy pink friend weighed down by something greater than her boundless energy. They had already been through quite a bit together, and it seemed there was a fear even that unbridled optimism couldn’t stand against forever. There was a small pang of guilt in her heart, a feeling that said she might’ve caused her friend to tip over that edge.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call you a bad leader, I was just wondering-”

“No, Fluttershy. I should be better at this, if it really does come down to that I need to be there for us… I just don’t know what we’ll do.”

“Pinkie?” She seemed to have drawn herself into another part of her own mind. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, the thing is. I want to get you out of here, more than anything else that’s what I want.” She spared a quick glance her friend’s way before returning to herself. “And if anything happened to you I’d...”

For a moment Fluttershy thought Pinkie might cry, actually cry, but she seemed to perk up a little.

“I want to get you out of here, you don’t belong down here with all this danger and all these frowns. You belong in Ponyville where you can be happy and feed all your animal friends. So… I don’t know. We came down here to deal with some bad guy, but now we’re all split up, and I don’t even want to guess what’s at the center of this big spooky place. If push comes to shove, I think we might pick up whoever we can and get out of here. It’s all just… too big a hoedown for you and me to handle.”

“Is that what you think is best?”

“Yeah,” she giggled, “Yeah I think I do.”

“Then, maybe that’s what we should do. Because leader’s always do what they think is best, right?”

Now she was smiling again, “I guess they do. Well, if we wanted to do what I thought was best ALL the time, then Ponyville would be a lot less boring.”

“I don’t know Pinkie, I kind of like boring. Boring is safe.”

“Eh, I can’t argue with Flutter-logic. So who’s up for a mission to get us all back to boringville?”

Pinkie sneezed again, but this time it was joined by a tingle down her spine. A new sound then joined them, “I might.”

That voice sent off all kinds of warning buzzers in her brain, and a part of her had woken up just to yell at her for not listening to it earlier. Pinkie turned to its source, and she saw him, barely. Shrouded in shadows with an air of fetid flesh a corpse stood before her, its head held high and alert like any other normal pony, but clothed in strange finery that a dead noble might wear. She recognized him, and by the slightly cautioned look he gave her, he did as well.

“Fluttershy, get behind me.” He was between them and a far wall, their exit seemed wide open, but she didn’t want to bet on it being clear of a trap of some sort.

“There won’t be any need for that, Pinkie was it?”

She was hesitant to even give him a moment of her time. “What if it is?”

“Please, forgive me if our initial greetings consisted of little more than arcane words of war, but that has a tendency of happening when a mind narrowed to the foolish pursuit of my death is near. I simply wish to… entertain you with an idea of a bargain.”

“Well,” she inched herself and Fluttershy a bit closer to their exit, intent on winning over every scrap of a lead she could on this thing. “Depends on the deal I guess.”

“That’s a good answer, tired of dealing with brash people who treat me like a snake. Now I’m not one to meander around the point.” There seemed to be a smirk on his features, what was left of them anyway. “One of you, for the lives of all your other friends.”

She froze, a million senses blaring off at once. “What?”

“I take one of you, right now, and I’ll call off any hostilities being presented upon your other friends.”

Her heart was racing, a million questions sparked through her mind, a thousand voices screamed that she deny him and make a run for it. But it seemed a force within her greater than all those others held fast against the panic. “How do we know you’re telling the truth?”

“Please, Andur didn’t warn you about how my rituals link together minds of my servants? There is barely a square inch of this place and all its underbelly that I don’t know about right now, and I can tell you that your friends have taken up quite a bit of my attention lately. They really know how to get themselves into trouble, and right now I can name about three that are close to getting acquainted with death himself.”

She told herself it was a lie, there was no way one pony knew all of that, not without their heads exploding. Then again she knew quite a bit more than the average pony should. She threw that part from her mind, she had to focus right now. Trap or not she had to get Fluttershy out of here, there was no way she was going to leave her alone, it was all a trick to split them up again; it had to be.

“What is her name,” he said with a casual stroke against his chin. “The orange one, with the… do you call them ponytail’s here as well?”

She tried not to, but her flinch brought a slight reaction on the part of his face that she could read.

“She managed to rough up my Abigail, but she’s on the run right now. Hard to do with a bad leg, she must be tough one, but it wouldn’t be the first stubborn fool that Abigail has dealt with. So it won’t be long now, my little girl is very good at playing the cat in those games.” He waited for a moment, the lack of an answer only bade him to tell a little more. “Maybe you don’t care about that one? Perhaps I should talk about the fool wizard and his apprentices that got themselves lost in that maze of tunnels?”

Pinkie cast a glance back to Fluttershy, she seemed paralyzed in thought, more worried for friends unseen than herself at the moment.

“What’s this?”

They returned their attention to him.

“Oh my, it seems she’s gotten lucky.”

There was a pause in their breath, they couldn’t tell if he had spoken for their friend or not. A slightly sadistic smile however hinted at what it may be.

“Shhh, shhh, it won’t be long now. Soon this world won’t be anything more than a bad memory. Just a little bit farther, I can see the blade dangle by her hair, it’ll only take a twitch-”

“Okay! I’ll go!” The normally timid Pegasus took a step past her friend. “Please just stop.”

Pinkie did her best to get her attention without shouting. “Fluttershy! You can’t be this silly. There’s no way I’m letting him walk off with you.”

“Pinkie, we don’t have time to argue about this. He’s telling the truth-”

“Why would he tell the truth? He’s just some big meanie-pants that wants to tell us all big mean lies and bully us!”

The lich spoke up, “You have some time, your friend got a little lucky, but I doubt she’ll last long in her current condition.”

“Come on Fluttershy.” She began. “You can’t really believe him, even if he does tell all his little nasties to stay away, how do we know he’s telling the truth?”

In a dread filled whisper she replied, “Because I can see it.”

Pinkie felt a plethora of goosebumps at that statement. “W-what?”

“I-I don’t know if he can tell, but I can see into his mind, at least a little bit.” Fluttershy looked terrified. “I can see her Pinkie, she’s not doing well at all.” She looked to be on the verge of tears. “Please we have to make this decision now.”

“But what if… what is he going to do with you?”

“I don’t know, but it’ll buy us time, we really need some right now… Applejack needs some right now.”

Pinkie was caught up in a mental knot, she knew deep down that somehow this deal wasn’t going to pan out like they hoped. The only option she could think of was to try and deal with Dra’nahb here and now, but how was she supposed to do that? Even if she listened to her Pinkie sense she still had no idea how he had managed to sneak up on them so easily, and she had not forgotten about his magic, that would be a greater challenge than simply keeping track of him. The little pink pony resigned herself to the inevitable, unable to say anything to the idea.

There was no elation in the air at her acceptance, no great release as the resistance to the idea crumbled. All that happened was that one worry transferred to another as the lich seemed to be contemplating his next few moves. As her Pegasus friend moved to the bidding of the lich, Pinkie reached out and caught her to say one last thing.

“I’ll find him Fluttershy, I’ll find him then we’ll come get you alright? I don’t care how tough it is, I’m going to get you home, and then we can have the biggest party ever okay?”

“Pinkie, don’t worry about me. Go find our friends and make sure they’re alright.”

“No.” She dawned a face far more serious than Fluttershy had ever seen her wear before. “You listen to Auntie Pinkie Pie and you listen good. You did nothing to deserve this, and our friends can take care of themselves. I’m going to get you out of this silly mess and that’s a pinkie pie swear if there ever was one. All I have to do is find out where this party pooper is taking you and before you know it you’ll be safe and sound again.”

Fluttershy could tell that her friend meant what she said, but her gaze had become slightly lost in worry, it wasn’t like her. “Pinkie, I want you to listen to me. We’ve been friends for a while now, but you and I both know what this might come to. But we’ve also have been friends longer than that, seen and dealt with things that we were sure would be the end of us. So if you believe you’ll find me, if you really think you can, you will.” She smiled as best she could, “Because you’re Pinkie Pie, the greatest friend I could’ve ever hoped for.”

Pinkie looked at her friend’s smiling face, even in this dark moment it was filled with that warmth Fluttershy always held, she would never forget it. She only smiled in return, a simple joy that felt greater this moment than at any other.

“It is done.”

The friends looked back to the lich, who seemed to have finally left his mental stupor.

“Now I understand that it’s painful, but we’ve made a deal and you have to own up to it so,” with a quick gesture he bade Fluttershy over to him once more.

“Wait,” Pinkie interrupted in a hurry. “What… what are you going to do with her?”

The lich looked slightly bored with the question, “Listen, child, I didn’t live nine centuries by making it a habit of telling those who are out for my blood all my plans. You’ll just have to accept the boon received on your end of this bargain and be satisfied that I leave you with that.” He cleared his throat, if only to bring attention to what he said next. “No more dawdling, I have things to do, and preparations to make.”

This was the strangest part for Pinkie, there was no more to say, so they had to simply let it happen. She watched as her friend took to the lich’s side, and together they seemed to fade away into the shadows around them. The whole time she kept her gaze locked on Fluttershy, watching her silhouette disappear into darkness until she wasn’t sure if she was staring into an abyss or if they were still standing there and unable to be seen.

For a time she kept staring at that spot, wondering if Fluttershy might just reappear, but eventually her mind could no longer entertain the idea. She wanted to be able to just know where he had taken her, so that she may be off with a purpose and not be left alone. Yet here she was, solitary, save some broken rocks scattered amongst a forgotten building in the middle of nowhere.

No, she told herself.

She wasn’t going to allow such a silly thing get her down. Fluttershy had done what she had to. She bought them all some time, now Pinkie had to make good use of it. Sitting in this silly old building wasn’t helping anypony, so she did what she always did in the hard times. She dawned a smile, hummed a happy tune in her mind, and didn’t let a single thing bring her down.

Right now she might not have known where Fluttershy was, but she had a sneaking suspicion she knew where at least one of her old buddies might be. Chances were that old friend needed some help more than she did at this moment, and she would be a sour-faced meatball before she gave up on a friend in need.

It knew only patience, a blank slate of consciousness that was bare except that one order. It was to wait, watch, and when she appeared delay her. There were things the master wished to do, and while there was a strange… restriction that it felt, there was no doubt in what the orders were meant to accomplish. Time was what the master wanted, and if that was what this body would give then it would. That was all its thoughts consumed was that notion, that drive, as it watched a familiar prey of pink coloring exit the place it had been set on guard.

Delay…

The voice spoke clear, and with the leash undone it set itself to the shadows. This would be done the way it enjoyed doing so.

He could hear them outside the pit, groaning as they stumbled into each other. It made Andur nervous, more for the fact that they were there than the threat they posed to him in his current condition. The lich was always, peculiar, in his plans. Chances were that whenever he set something in motion it wasn’t for the exact reasons one understood immediately. He remembered Dra’nahb’s words, how he had to be ‘killed carefully’. Andur highly doubted that those words meant he had to be weak first before he would be dealt with, the lich already had a chance to do something like that. This reeked of something else, something a bit out of his ability to comprehend from where he was.

What worried him a bit more was that he wasn’t sure how long they had been there, he had been resting for a while, milling away the time in thought and in pain. It had only been rather recently when he noticed them, or rather heard them. It made him wonder exactly when the lich had made his move, if he had missed something that the others had seen. Even if that was true his book was still a mess of gibberish and utterly useless to him.

How these undead had become his company didn’t seem to matter at the moment. The undead around his little pit had begun to make a bit more noise than usual, they sounded perhaps a bit provoked, or at least that’s what he believed guttural coughs and sputters to mean apart from the usual tide of unpleasant sounds. Andur’s mind could only turn to Pinkie and Fluttershy, the two he had left to fend for themselves returning in some attempt to help him.

A chill ran him through at the thought that it could be what the lich wanted, why his servants had been leaving him be. Perhaps his plan was to instead wait for what he really wanted. A poor rescue that would end in the young adventurers’ deaths. Whatever nightmare of a situation he had dreamed up seemed unable to wait for him to think it through, as the undead began crying out amidst the sounds of battle.

Andur immediately lost his focus and returned to the present, despite the protest in his body he tried to lift himself as high as he could. He had to figure out what was going on, to know who or what was fighting the undead.

CLANG!

That was metal, not armor but hard and solid like that of a hammer. His mind couldn’t place it to any face that he knew, none of the six that traveled with them was wearing anything that heavy or wielding something like that for the matter. Perhaps they had found something of use, or Ted was up to another harebrained plan of his; if he was with them. If it was more than just the two of them they may have a shot. The thought struck him that he had no real clue where Ted and the others had gone, or any reason to believe that this was him now, it was a foolish hope on his part.

CRACK-tss, CRACK-tss

“Magic?” It was the only explanation that made sense to Andur. He had heard lightning crackle with such anger before, but this seemed far more subdued from the great spectacle that a wizard would usually produce. Pinkie may have been capable of such a thing, but it would not be so straight forward or without the sound of music. The idea of Cartanis being up there fighting among them made less sense. If he was among them then why not just make one of them sneak their way in with magic and ferry him out without a show at all? It all made less and less sense the more he thought about it, and only brought about a new worry.

There was something else down here, something else besides the unburied dead.

Pinkie had to hurry to Andur. The path was already beginning to look familiar, and much to her surprise it was far easier going than she cared to believe. Perhaps the lich wasn’t a complete liar, maybe he was something closer to a sixty-percent liar, although she wasn’t really willing to go any lower than believing he was seventy-percent liar material. Pinkie didn’t want to believe he had lied, the deal was the only way they had a chance, but she had to wonder what that strange lich would gain from leaving them be. Whatever the case she focused on what was in front of her, she had to be close now, all that was left was a few turns and-

Her nose wrinkled followed by a tummy rumble, either she was hungry and about to sneeze or…

She quickly dodged back, narrowly avoiding a rush of wind where her head had once been. ‘Somepony is going to lose their head’ is what that sense combo meant, although usually it meant the angry kind of head losing, not the physical kind. Whether she was sure she had read herself correctly it didn’t remove the sense of danger from the air. She looked at where her head had just been, no sign of movement other than the blur she had seen a moment ago. Her eyes hunted, trying to find a sign of some projectile that she hadn’t seen.

The alert rattled her senses again, and she felt a rush of wind make a pass for her noggin that she did her best to dodge a force she couldn’t see, except this time there was clearly a smell. Her nose burned with the intensity of decay, her eyes watered slightly at the comprehension of the sensation. Through the crippling smell she noticed it, the movement of the air as though there was something where there was nothing.

Pinkie just smiled, “Gotcha!”

In one smooth motion she wielded Girda in her hooves, arcane energy crackled between the strings as she plucked a quick chord or two which roared to life a small surge of fire before her. She saw the flames bend around a shape as they seared something with their painful kiss, a shriek was elicited from whatever it touched and she could see the strange invisible silhouette move for a moment before she lost it to distance and darkness. Whatever it was she could only guess that Dra’nahb really was a liar, at least eighty-percent at this point. Only one of those ghoul things would smell like that and be able to cloak itself from sight. At least she was pretty sure that ghoul’s could do such magic, maybe if it was a unicorn.

She stopped herself from wandering into her thoughts too deeply, now she had to pay attention, she had to find it again. What she couldn’t understand was why the flames didn’t reveal it beyond touch, she had hoped to cause burns that made it easier to see. The fire seemed to do little more than hurt the beast, which was still a nice positive. Pinkie took the moment of respite to place herself in a better position, eyes scanning up and down the street she did her best to watch corners and alleyways within the narrow place.

Something breathed against the nape of her neck, apparently her senses were a bit overloaded at the moment to notice her Pinkie Sense and she cursed herself for not getting her back towards a wall. She immediately swiped one of her legs out behind her, only to make contact with the air. When pain shot up through one her leg she realized what happened, only to find herself on her back as the ghoul began dragging her down the street. The pain only grew worse as she felt teeth sinking in deeper while the world around her spun from the sudden loss of balance.

She finally got a hold of her bearings, and looked toward her attacker. Her tolerance managed to hold up as she watched blood seemingly float in the air a few inches from where deep gashes had appeared on the bottom half of one of her legs. She tried to use her other limb to buck at the ghostly visage, but every time she tried to it just seemed to move itself unnaturally and avoid her; making the wound worse all the while.

She had to try something else, with Girda in her hooves she prepared herself. Pinkie didn’t dare try fire again, not when it was so close. Anything but the most precise attack would render herself out of action, and she had to think of something fast, the pain in her leg was slowly being replaced by a growing numbness that she doubted was from just shock; the beast had to be doing something else to her. Pinkie tried bucking the apparent mouth of the creature again, only succeeded in creating a red smear across what could be its cheek, and then the idea sprang to life in her mind.

With Girda at the ready she began to play. Arcane energy arced about her instrument, taking shape into a carefully crafted spell form before her. She did her best to strum the few chords necessary, but the beast attempted to rattle her concentration by thrashing her leg about. Thankfully whatever it had done to dull her senses seemed to also dull her to its efforts. Yet her vision was beginning to cloud, but one thing she could definitely see was red. The redness of her blood, of her friend’s fate, and as she closed the final loop in the spell’s construction she bared her teeth; adrenaline surged through her body as its brilliance broke through the fog of her own mind.

The air exploded with color, a wave of the lights spectrum washing over all before the little pink menace. However it was more than just light, it had been given a form, and the beast that had her by the leg was blown back by a substance thick with color. The sensation of fire danced across its body and into its lungs that had become clogged with the goop she had created. It could only cough and sputter as it tried to wipe away the colorful material from its eyes. When it could finally see once again the beast only beheld a pink pony sitting carefully to not prod her wounded limb, with a triumphant smirk on her face she said aloud.

“Rainbow’s are spicy.”

A single spark leapt to life in the air before her, and upon touching the liquid sprang to multi-colored life as a trail of rainbows ignited their way toward the beast. It had no time to react as the air around it was throttled with heat and fire. The world exploded as the liquefied rainbow was violently combusted into a show of force and light, and only the terrified cries of a dying monster pierced the void of darkness all around as the cavern was treated to a lightshow the likes of which it had never seen before.

When the show had finally died down and she saw the baked husk of what had tried to kill her did she let herself relax. Pinkie carefully rested herself and looked upon her leg, it was bad. She searched her pack for a potion, the first one to get in her reach was gone before the thought of checking how many she had left crossed her mind. Two, she looked back at her leg, the wound had closed but there seemed to be something wrong with it; almost like it refused to heal itself fully. A part of her wondered if she dared drink another potion. She could move as is and she didn’t want to waste one in case one of her friends…

She picked herself up, her mind still slightly hazed from whatever the beast had done, and set off once again away from the burnt out remains of the ancient street toward a pony that might be her friend’s only chance, if he was still alive.