Nine years earlier,
Nuage hated the jungle.
It was the first time she walked through one and couldn’t get out too soon, hopefully never to return. The heat was terrible but even then, it wouldn't be so bad if the air wasn’t so damp. It was like trudging through a hot and steamy fog bank. Or pea soup. She was sweating all the water from her body and didn't feel any cooler from it, only more sticky, wet and grimy with every passing minute. The short feathers on her chest were nothing more than a spongy mass of fluff, itching her so much that she couldn't help but scratch it every two steps. Fanning herself with her wings had no effect, only stirring the desperately hot and moist air a little.
Nuage looked up and frowned. She knew that up there, high in the sky was some cool, chilly wind, but she couldn't even see the blue expanse above, only green. Leaves, branches, vines... The canopy was dense, tight like a net designed specifically to keep her grounded.
And most humiliating of all, Papyrus seemed completely fine in front of her. The unicorn walked calmly, enjoying the sights and humming a little tune to himself. He had stopped only to pick some exotic fruits on low hanging branches, munching happily on them while exploring the green hell.
"How are you holding up back there ?" he asked without looking back.
Nuage turned into a miniature fountain of sweat when she shook her head. Some of the salty liquid rolled into her eyes and she had to use a talon to wipe it away. She groaned and kept rubbing as it stung her. "Wonderful," she said glumly.
"I've always wanted to see the zebra homelands. It's even more interesting than I expected."
Nuage paused to look around. Green and brown everywhere. Thousands of noises from as many animals hidden all around them, insects, birds, rodents, reptiles... Predators and prey alike. The smell was overpowered by rot : rotting wood, rotting carcasses, rotting fruits. And that unbearable heat... And the small army of flies trying to use her as a landing strip... In a vain effort to swat one, she only hit her own face .
"Saloperie !"
"What was that ?"
"Nothing," she said with a sigh. "Are we going to be here for long ?"
"Don’t you enjoy the trip ?" Papyrus turned around and was treated to the most desperate face Nuage had ever made. "Heh. I guess not. Well, we'll be out of here as soon as we find the Ssakinsha tribe."
Nuage grunted and shook herself like a wet dog when she felt something crawling on one of her wings, making a big centipede fall off. After taking a few deep breaths to stop herself from shuddering in disgust, the gryphoness followed her master again.
They had been trudging through that revolting jungle for days and had yet to see any trace of the reclusive zebras. Supposedly they had some powerful and unique magic that Papyrus wanted to observe, but so far all the two adventurers had done was wander through the trees and get stung or bitten by things she prefered not to know.
"We'll never find anything here, master. I don't think there are any..." Something came rushing through the jungle towards them. "... zebras ?"
Out of nowhere, two striped figures appeared. They immediately blurted out a torrent of words in their native language that neither her or Papyrus were able to understand. A few awkward stares later, one of the two zebras managed to mix some pony and gryphon words into something mostly comprehensible. Apparently, some sort of creature was attacking their village.
Nuage turned to look at Papyrus. "What do we do, master ?"
"They look like they need help and we're the only intelligent creatures for miles around... What do you think ?"
"We save them."
“Obviously," he said with a confident grin. "We're the heroes, aren't we ?"
Nuage giggled a little and followed the two zebras deeper into the forest. Nothing like heroism to make a gryphon forget the heat.
It took only a few minutes before she heard some disturbing noises. Shouts and yells mostly covered by sounds of skittering and crunching. Soon enough, the two saviors of the day erupted into a small clearing that was mostly filled by a... thing.
Nuage had faced monsters more impressive than this one, but none were as disgusting. Some strange mix between a spider and a slug and three times the size of a pony, it had many pairs of legs near the front of its black, slimy and spongy-looking body. The main part of said body was covered by an impromptu shell made of whatever the creature had found : branches, stones, leaves and bones from all sorts of creatures, big and small. Anything that could be picked up had been stuck on its back into a protective cocoon that it was simply dragging along. A large maw occupied most of the head that was sticking out in the middle of all these legs.
A few zebras were lying about, either dead or dying after trying to face the monster. Nuage suppressed a shiver at the sight of the creepy crawler. Meanwhile, Papyrus kept calm and simply got ready to blast the thing with his magic. They both expected the fight to be over instantly, but quickly discovered that the beast was immune to his spells. That explained why Zebras famous for their magic were having trouble...
Nuage took to the air, the clearing giving her some room to maneuver and landed on the thing's back. The clutter-made shell wasn't as stable as it looked, rippling under her paws as the creature underneath moved and breathed, but it was easy to get a decent grip on the many objects sticking out everywhere. Ironically, the back of the beast may have been the safest place during the fight, since it's legs couldn't reach up there : whatever the thing was, it was confident that its shell was impenetrable.
It may have been right in a way, since rocks and bones were pretty hard to break, but it hadn't been counting on a gryphon using its talons to simply dismantle the flimsy construct. Nuage pulled on the loosest pieces, tugging and heaving until a large plank came off and revealed the body behind.
Translucent skin covering pulsing and throbbing organs... She could see blood and other alien-looking humours flow inside. The sight alone was bad enough, but the stink that came with it was another thing and it took everything Nuage had to not throw up right then. That shell apparently kept inside a foul mixture of bodily secretions and random bits of rotten materials.
On the ground, Papyrus was doing his best to fight with his magic indirectly, throwing what he could grab in the beast's direction. Bracing herself, Nuage held her breath and widened the gap in the armor, then pulled her knife out and plunged it deep inside the exposed flesh. A reeking stream of lukewarm sticky fluid squirted out of the wound and painted her face. She screamed as a little made its way into her beak, letting her experience the most revolting taste she had ever encountered. Nuage barely had enough time to secure her grip on the creature's back before emptying her stomach.
It took almost a minute before she had a chance to catch her breath, her stomach still clenching but thankfully empty by then. She got closer to the unprotected part of the monster and stabbed again. And again and again... It barely did anything except make it shake and turn in an attempt to dislodge her. Nuage did not lose her grip, but the beast decided to roll on itself. She had just enough time to jump before being squashed and found herself tumbling in the dirt.
A huge, black and spindly leg rose above her.
The gryphoness was pulled back, suddenly wrapped in a greenish glow while the monster dug a hole by striking the ground right where she had been. Papyrus and her exchanged a wordless glance as she got back to her feet. They both knew that flying meant she was the one with the best chance to kill the thing. Steeling herself, she grabbed a spear lying on the ground and jumped back in the air.
The knife hadn’t done much, but her new weapon was different : Nuage buried it deep in the soft flesh, then twisted and churned without mercy. The creature shook, bucked, flailed, trying to get her off its back, but she stood strong, holding onto the spear's shaft like a sailor grabbing the mast of his ship in a storm.
The monster lurched one last time and collapsed... rolling on her at the same time. Nuage came very close to being squished like an insect and survived only through sheer luck. One of her wings still ended up under its body and it took several zebras to get her out. She couldn't tell if it was broken, but in any case, she couldn't fly for a good while.
That didn't matter, though : they had won. Nuage and Papyrus smiled at each other while the survivors cheered.
Then came the realization that many of their brethren had perished.
Then came the discussions with Papyrus. The zebras claimed that their secrets were not meant to be shared. The unicorn argued that the tribe owed its survival to their intervention...
Nuage didn't know how it happened. Maybe a misunderstanding, maybe the zebras decided that they couldn't trust Papyrus... What she knew was that one of them pointed a blowgun at him. The zebra didn't have time to understand why he could not shoot his dart. He never realized that a knife was stuck through his windpipe before he fell lifeless to the ground.
The rest of the tribe rushed at them, but the exhausted zebras didn't last long against the powerful unicorn and well-trained gryphoness. A zebra managed to strike Papyrus in the leg with a spear, but that was all the few survivors could do.
Soon, only one remained, a young mare that Nuage was trying to catch. She retreated into what was left into the camp and gathered some components, then stood to face her pursuer. Nuage was a few dozen meters away and saw the zebra mix some powders, then throw them in the air.
Fire.
Fire spread all around the camp. All around the zebra.
Nuage screamed as she saw the mare's body being engulfed in flames.
She saw the charred body. She could feel the heat, smell the smoke, hear the roars. Her eyes saw only one thing : a corpse consuming itself.
The feathers burning like fuses, curling and falling as the fire left only little hollow roots behind it. Wings twitching desperately as the last throes of agony still shook the body. One talon reaching for her... Did he want help ? Was he trying to protect her ? What could she do ? It was so hot she felt her hairs roasting already, she couldn't get closer and-
"Nuage !" Papyrus yanked her head around.
She saw her master frowning and yelling at her. "Pull yourself together. We have to run !"
She nodded dumbly and followed like a puppet the hobbling unicorn. They ran away very slowly.
---
As Nuage remembered the complete fiasco of their trip inside the zebras' jungles, she had to wonder if that had been when Papyrus started to change. She remembered that his injury had gotten infected, nearly killing him from the fever. Nuage was ready amputate the leg, but he refused categorically and only survived through sheer luck and stubbornness... Comparatively, she was fortunate to have ended up with a sprained wing that only kept her grounded for about a week.
Did he give up after that expedition ? She couldn't tell. Looking back to it, Papyrus didn't change completely after that day. It was a slow process, that she didn't even see happening. Year after year, he became less and less enthusiastic when he had a chance to play the hero. Nuage never realized it then, but it seemed that he only did it from habit, because it was “expected” from him... until he had had enough.
That time was well in the past now.
Nuage sighed and landed on the branch leading inside the tower-tree. At least she still had something to do. She still had her code to believe in and her master to serve. Maybe she could still influence him...
Papyrus was not in his study, as a confused Nuage soon found out. It had always seemed that he spent all of his time inside the cluttered room and this was the first time that she didn't find him here after being summoned. With a frown, the gryphoness called out. A weak response came from another room.
His room was pretty much the opposite of his study. Probably because he spent so little time in it, it was as summarily furnished as it could be : a bed, a nightstand to hold a candle and that was it. Papyrus himself was on the mattres, lying on his side. Nuage could have believed he was sleeping if his eyes hadn't been opened, but it was also hard to think of him as awake : the old unicorn was completely still, only his sides rising and falling as he breathed. Even that was faint. His breathing was barely audible, his eyes were struggling to stay opened and every tiny movement looked like a struggle. She noticed that his horn was bare, the magical strengthening device nowhere to be seen.
"Master ?"
He turned his head slowly to watch her. "Nuage... You're... here." Each word was punctuated by a weak, raspy breath.
"Yes. I-" her voice died down. Nuage swallowed, her throat feeling too tight for even her saliva, then started again. "What can I do for you, master ?"
After a few labored breaths, he answered. "Listen... Time's... running out."
"A- Are you..."
"Listen," he managed to say a little more forcefully. Nuage shut her beak and waited patiently. "I prepared... a spell... All or nothing... If it... works... I live... If it... doesn't... I die..."
Nuage gulped again. She wanted to talk, but her beak opened and closed a few times, doing nothing more than a few clicking sounds.
"If that... happens... You can... take everything... my home... is yours... Do what... you want… with it..." He smiled weakly at her. "Also... I wanted to... say goodbye... just... in case..."
Nuage blinked a few times, frozen in place.
"Come... closer..." The weary unicorn lifted his head a little, grunting from the effort.
Nuage walked the few steps separating them. Only three meters, but it felt like the longest walk she had ever made. "Thank you... For everything... you did... We made... quite the... team..."
"Yes," she answered in a whisper. "We did. I... I-" she paused to sniffle once, then shook her head. "Thank you, too, master. It was an honor and a pleasure to serve you."
Papyrus smiled warmly. "Let's hope... this isn't... the end... Hand me... that flask... on... the table..."
She nodded and turned around. On the nightstand was a small, clear glass bottle containing a blood red liquid. It could have passed for wine, but she was quite sure it was something else. With a mental shrug, she picked it up and gave it to her master. The flask was wrapped up in a greenish haze of magic and floated to his lips. Papyrus downed it in one go and Nuage took the bottle again, placing it back on the table.
"What happens now ?" she asked quietly.
"Don't know... The grimoire... didn't say..."
Nuage nodded a bit stiffly, wondering what to do. She settled on helping him get comfortable, helping him lie down on the bed and adjusting the pillow under his head. Papyrus sunk a little in the mattress, sighing as even that was an effort for him. Once he was still, Nuage took a few steps back and sat down on the floor. A few minutes passed in a silence only punctuated by the old pony’s labored breathing.
It seemed that every inspiration drew less air than the previous one, until he gasped, his eyes opened wide. One of his hooves lifted weakly, his lips moved but all that came out was a weak mumble. It only lasted a fleeting moment, just long enough for Nuage to blink twice before Papyrus went limp, his lungs emptying in one last, raspy sigh.
“M- master ?”
The pony remained still, his eyes staring at the ceiling.
“Master !”
Nuage shook him, only making his head roll to the side. She approached an ear to his muzzle and only confirmed what she suspected as she heard nothing. She tried to prod and shake him a few more times, but didn’t get any reaction. A minute or two later, Nuage stopped and slumped a little.
Carefully, she placed his forehooves on his chest. Then, with a gentleness that seemed out of place in her dangerously sharp talons, she arranged his head on the pillow and combed his mane back into an orderly shape. Finally, she closed his eyes and took a couple of steps back.
Nuage bowed down to her master for the last time.
It was over. After two decades, she could consider herself successful : not once had she failed her master.
That thought did not put a smile on her face. Instead, she let her head fall on the plush bed and weeped.
---
The well of tears eventually dried out, like it always did. Nuage stood up and wiped her eyes. With her shoulders slumping and her head low, she turned around. There were still a few things to do, like take care of the burial and decide what to do with Papyrus’s belongings.
Simple things. Yes, she could take care of the simple things. Those, she knew how to deal with...
Nuage walked out of the room, dragging her feet on the wooden floor. With slow steps, she walked into Papyrus’s study. The same incredible mess was still reigning, turning what was the largest space in the tower into the most cramped one. But behind the clutter, Nuage could still see the traces of the past.
On the corner of a desk, she saw a stack of brand new quills ready for use.
“Damn it,” Papyrus cursed as the ink-covered feather snapped on the paper. He watched it with a frown. “Nuage !”
She sighed and reached under one of her wings, pinched a feather in her beak and plucked it out. “Please be careful, master,” she said as he took it in his magic. “I need these to fly… Also, that hurts.”
“Bah. You’ve got plenty to spare. Actually, that’s why I keep you around... Which reminds me, I need a new pillow, too.”
Nuage gave him a pitiful look, until he snickered. “Just kidding, featherhead. I’ll take good care of this one,” he said while waving his newest quill.
Every object in the room had its own set of memories attached to it, from the weirdest looking apparatus to the most mundane book. Twenty years of adventures piled up in one place. In a corner, abandoned on the ground were a few bits of metal and gems.
Nuage heard a detonation coming from Papyrus’s laboratory and rushed in. The unicorn was splayed out on the floor in the middle of a bunch of papers and broken furniture, his mane singed but with a wide smile on his face.
“Master ?”
He angled his head to look at her from the ground. “Oh. Nuage. Just in time !”
“What happened ?”
“It works !” he exclaimed while waving a hoof at a bright golden disc of light shimmering in front of them. Nuage walked up to it carefully and, with great care, prodded it with the tip of a talon. Nothing happened. She pushed it with her hand and found it to be seemingly solid.
“It’s a shield spell,” Papyrus explained. “The same that I usually cast around myself. I managed to enchant a set of gemstones to reproduce it.” He walked up to the shield and gave it a strong punch. His hoof only made the surface ripple a little. “I concentrated my magic into the strongest version I could make, it’s basically indestructible !”
“This is impressive,” Nuage said as he walked behind it. “I’m sure that will be a great protection for you.” The shield disappeared into thin air.
“Not for me,” Papyrus said.
He levitated a jewel-encrusted gauntlet to her. “For you.”
“Me ?”
“I already have you to keep me safe” he told her with a smile. “Now, you can keep yourself safe, too.”
Nuage smiled sadly as she watched the enchanted gauntlet still on her left talon. It had indeed kept her safe many more times than she cared to count. Squeezing her hand let the shield appear again, still as strong as on the first day.
A shrill hum pulled Nuage out of her thoughts. The sound came from Papyrus’s room and kept turning louder and louder, almost making the walls vibrate and suddenly stopped as abruptly as it had started. Nuage hurried back into the room and froze in the doorway.
Papyrus’s corpse was glowing. A pale green light seemed to come from inside of his flesh, first appearing through cracks in his skin but progressing quickly until it engulfed his entire body. The light seemed to take shape into some sort of cloud, wrapped around Papyrus and his flesh started to disappear, progressively vaporizing and joining the green mist.
When nothing was left except for his skeleton, the cloud lifted into the air and compacted into a small sphere. It pulsed a few times, then suddenly rushed down, pouring itself into Papyrus’s horn.
Everything remained calm for a moment. Nuage released a breath she hadn’t realized had been kept in.
She yelled when the skeleton suddenly sat up, as if it was mounted on a spring.
The skull turned towards her and she saw the two empty orbits locking on her. Green light shone from inside, the only hint that there was any kind of life into the dead bones.
“Nuage ?”
The breathy voice made her hair stand on end, but it was still unmistakable… “M- Master ?”
His expression didn’t change, though she got the feeling that the skeleton was trying to smile. She gulped when she heard his disturbing chuckling.
“It worked ! It-” He brought one of his hooves in front of him and hummed in thought. After a quick inspection of the rest of his body, he shrugged. “Not exactly what I expected, but I suppose that makes sense. Stone Mane was a genius !”
“I- Is that really you ?”
“Of course,” he said, snapping his skull back to watch her.
“But… You- you were dead. I saw you dying… That was at least an hour ago !”
“Really ? Well, my body might be dead, but that’s not the important part.” Papyrus stood up in a clink of bones and jumped down from his bed. He took a few steps towards Nuage, who recoiled instinctively. “My body was nothing more than a physical shell, long past its time. It was nothing more than a weakness. A weakness that I am now finally rid of.” The undead unicorn laughed a few times. “The first of many I will remove from myself. Nuage, for ordinary ponies, death might be the end, but for me ? This is only the beginning !”
He walked past her and headed into his study. “Follow me.”
Nuage stood dumbly for a moment, then shook her head and blinked a few times. More from reflex than anything else, she obeyed.
“Master ? W- What… What are you ? This- This is… insane !”
“Don’t get put off by my appearance, Nuage. What am I ? I am simply an improved version of my former self.”
He picked up Stone Mane’s leather-bound tome in his magic and brought it front of his empty eye-sockets. “Immortality… I did it, Nuage. No... We did it. This is your victory as much as mine.”
“This ? A… victory ?”
“Of course !” he said making a grand gesture with a bony foreleg. “We defeated death itself ! From now on, nothing can stop the two of us.”
Nuage shuddered as she watched him chuckle while scanning the grimoire.
“Don’t worry, my faithful Nuage. I will not keep the spoils of our victory to myself.”
“W- What ?”
“I have given this some thought before and I finally figured out how to reward you for everything you’ve done in my service.” He spun around and faced her, the green fire in his eye sockets seeming ready to consume her. Papyrus’s horn lit up in its familiar haze.
“Let me rid you, too, of your mortality.”
Nuage gasped, but it was already too late. With her wide opened eyes, she saw nothing except for green. His magic became the whole universe, all she could see, touch, smell… The last thing she could perceive was her heartbeats echoing in her ears.
Thum-thump. Thum-thump. Thum-thump.
Thump...
Néant.