Raindrops almost wanted to cry in frustration. She had been completely unable to budge the steamer trunk that she was locked in. She had no idea how long she had been floating down the river, but the trunk was still taking on water.
She knew that if she didn't somehow find a way to beach it, then it would just continue to take on water until it sunk beneath the surface and she drowned. She began to shift her weight back and forth, rocking the trunk slowly to the right.
It was an agonizingly slow process, with only the sound of her own breath and the lapping of water keeping her company. Doubts played through her mind as she worked. What if a boat in the river hit her? What if she flipped it over by accident?
No! I'm not going to give up!
She continued to slowly and carefully rock the trunk to the side. A sudden bump and the feeling of a lack of forward movement signaled to Raindrops that she had hit up against something.
It's a start, at least...
She took a calming breath, carefully resting her hoof on the lid of the trunk. She studied Iron Hoof martial arts, and there was one trick from those studies that might help her here. The one inch hoof strike, supposedly capable of putting the full force of a hoof punch without needing the full room to strike.
She pulled back required inch and struck. The wood splintered slightly from the blow, Raindrops smiling at the sound. She hit again, a small hole appearing in the lid. One more punch made the hole large enough to fit her whole hoof through.
Feeling around for the lock, she swore under her breath when she couldn't find it within reaching distance. Pulling her leg back into the trunk, she stuck her muzzle close to the hole.
“Help! Can anypony hear me! HELP!”
She fell into a hacking cough as her stunted body betrayed her again. She'd have to rest and then try some more strikes. At least the trunk wasn't moving anymore. A sad sigh escaped her lips, the thought of her her family loosing her, or never being able to be a part of the weather patrol playing through her head.
No. Not gonna give up.
“HELP!” She yelled, even as she lined up another hoof strike. “IS ANYPONY OUT THERE!”
The trunk suddenly shifted as it was dragged out of the river, the water leaking out of its seams as it was pulled completely clear. A moment later the lid flew back as it was kicked open and Raindops was greeted by the smiling face of Cheerilee.
“Friend!” She beamed, scooping Raindrops up in a hug.
Raindrops blinked, confused at her simple speech and childlike actions, until she saw the wicked looking scar that crossed her forehead.
“Oh, Cheerilee. They got you too?”
Cheerilee frowned, apparently confused by the question.
“Find friends?” She asked, gently putting Raindrops down.
Raindrops nodded. “Yeah. Let's go back to the inn and see if they're there.”
The two friends began to walk back north, happy that they were back together again at least.
- - - -
Twilight frowned slightly as she levitated another collection of shredded paper in front of her beginning to spread the pieces out, rotating them this way and that as she began to reassemble the destroyed document.
After Trixie left, she, Sunset Shimmer and Hooflock had decided that the best way to solve all of their needs was just to put the destroyed documents back together. Hooflock could then take a proper accounting of what might have been stolen, Shimmer would have her research and Twilight would be able to find out if anything here would be relevant to Trixie's situation.
A few half assembled pages were spread out in front of her, like particularly difficult puzzles. But Twilight knew arcane formulae and bit-by-bit the pages came back together. Sliding the last piece into one of the documents, Twlight gave it a quick scan.
“Okay Hooflock. Item number twenty-two. Formula for a divination based spell. Entitled “Find the Pony”.
Hooflock grunted as he scribbled the name down on his list. He glanced at Sunset Shimmer, who checked her own master list. The idea was that comparing the two lists would allow then show what was stolen by process of elimination.
“That's one of Crystal Gazer's creations. Check.” She said. “So far, it's all where it should be.”
Twilight frowned as she glanced at the shrinking piles of destroyed parchment. She was starting to have her doubts that what they had taken from here was kept in Sunset Shimmer's research.
She returned to assembling pieces, while Hooflock and Shimmer began to chat.
“So, Hooflock, why didn't you just let me do this in the first place?”
“Maybe because you had been bossing me around from the minute I got here? You got a chip on your flank a mile wide, lady.”
“Well, your department certainly dragged their hooves coming here.”
He rolled his eyes. “What are you going to accuse me of next, being a tribalist?”
“Well, don't think that I haven't noticed how you've been glaring at my cutie-mark. Afraid that I'm going to go all Corona on you?”
“Don't start that with me. I don't care what your cutie-mark is!”
“A likely story.”
“Luna's night, how did an egotist like you get in charge of a place like this!”
“Because I'm the only evoker with my level of specialized knowledge in this half of Equestria!”
Twilight sighed, focusing on her assembly some more. Maybe she should have stayed with Trixie.
- - - -
Trixie glowered at the old and elegant looking manor house, it's distinctive white columned appearance so common among the nobility of the city. The well manicured grounds were quiet, but Trixie could see light barely peeking around the edge of the building.
“Your employer like to work outside?” She asked Crystal Gazer.
She nodded.
“Oh, yes. We're far from the city and surrounded by the swamp. It allows him to work uninterrupted.”
Trixie frowned, straightening her hat. “Then let's go interrupt.”
Quickly trotting around the side of the building, Trixie skidded to a halt at the sight that greeted her. The bones of her mother and grandpappa were laid out on the ground, next to a coffin lid, before an open grave. Cheerilee sat in the grave, fear writ on her features as a white coated unicorn stallion with a pony skull painted over his features stood behind the grave, channeling.
Trixie charged forward, her anger overwhelming her better judgment. Besides she had her friends backing her up.
“Leave my family's bodies alone!”
The unicorn stopped channeling, looking at her with a twisted smirk.
“Ahh. Miss Lulamoon. How nice of you to join us.”
“I said, leave my family's bodies alone!” Trixie growled. “Or we're going to make you stop! And don't call me Lulamoon!”
“Ahh. Miss Lulamoon. I knew that your emotions would undermine you in the end.”
Trixie felt a sudden stab of pain on her back. Spinning around she saw Crystal Gazer tilting her head back, magically charged dagger in her mouth. Trixie's friends were all standing by, impassive and unconcerned that she had just been attacked.
The realization of what was happening hit Trixie a moment before the horrendous sensation of pain did. Her legs buckled as she tried to stay upright. Trixie's skill of being able to recognize spells on the fly told her that whatever this was, it was pulling at her very spirit.
Trixie could only bite back the tears and pain as she watched herself appear out of Crystal Gazer's features. Her broken horn mended, her advanced age faded away all while a wide smile played across her muzzle.
Trixie felt another stab of agony dance right down the middle of her horn as it split and then broke in half, leaving her writhing in agony, the nerves in her head throbbing like somepony had taken a hammer and chisel to her.
She felt her cape and hat get yanked away, the imposter securing them on her body, as Trixie glared up at her, wincing through the pain.
“W-where are my friends. What d-did you do with them?” She gasped.
The white coated unicorn shrugged, walking over to the group of her friends replacements as “Cheerilee” clambered out of the grave. “Dead or scattered and on their way to being dead.”
Trixie's heart dropped in her chest. She didn't want to believe him, but all of her friends were standing behind him, each one apparently replaced, just like she had been. And she hadn't even noticed.
“My friends are not dead!”
“Oh, but I think they are. After all, if they were still alive, you wouldn't be here alone.”
Trixie winced at the words, the pain and fear at the thought of her friends all being gone squirming in her stomach all the more. But she wasn't just going to take these ponies word on that...or roll over and die.
The unicorn that had stolen her appearance was still somewhat preoccupied with her once again youthful body. She had taken Trixie's cloak and cape, but Trixie was pretty sure she didn't have a clue about all the tricks she kept hidden in it.
Moving as fast as she could, she rushed past her twin, and then lashed out with a buck, her hooves slamming into the hidden pocket she kept sewn into the inner lining. With a loud snap-bag, her collection of trick smoke bombs went off at once from the impact, obscuring the whole group in a billowing cloud of pink and gray smoke.
Trixie didn't wait to see how effective her strike had been, plowing onwards and towards the edge of the property. She headed right into the swamp, the mud squelching under her hooves as she rushed into the darkness.
She ran onwards, the darkness making the trees look all the more oppressive and intimidating. She paused for a moment to get her bearings, trying to ignore the pain in what was left of her horn and from the cut on her back. Her ears were slicked back in anger.
Stupid, stupid! My friends were getting replaced around me and I didn't even notice. I failed them and now they might be dead.
She shook her head.
My friends aren't dead! They're stronger than that. They're better than that! I'm going to find them and we will deal with that necromancy using bastard.
Those thoughts were keeping her moving, as she mentally worked out which direction was north and began to trot that way. As she walked, she tried channeling magic a few times. Simple light spells snapped and arced off her horn, all power and no control. Casting anything more powerful could be very dangerous.
“Took my form, passed on her disability. Has to be some kind of curse in nature. I wonder if Twilight found anything...”
As she continued along, a soft glow began to fill the part of the swamp she was in. Blinking, she glanced around only for a chill to run down her spine when she saw a pair of ghostly forms floating her direction. Her grandpapa and mother were swiftly gliding across the swamp, forelegs stretched towards her.
Gasping, Trixie began to run at top speed again. But the mud pulled at her hooves, the water slowing her stride as the ghosts of her family closed in on her. She glanced back again, yelping as she saw that they were almost right on top of her. One of her hooves caught a tree root and she tumbled forward. Scrambling in the mud, she flipped over and backpedaled, as she pressed up against one of the large swamp trees.
They were a foot away from her now, their ethereal hooves outstretched eyes still vacant and unfocused even as they moved to kill her. Trixie could feel tears leaking from her eyes, fueled by a mix of sadness and fear.
“Please...just remember me.” She croaked, channeling one last spell in a desperation move.
An out of control surge of magic sprung from the tip of her broken horn, wrapping around Trixie and her ghostly relatives; a flood of images flowing from the living to the dead in a torrent of magic.
Trixie was performing for her grandpapa, when a trip caused a bedpan to land on her head...
She was stepping off the train in Ponyville, Lyra by her side. “So, where to first? The Apples? The weather team? Introducing yourself to the mayor?”
She and her friends were staring down Corona, the magic of the Elements of Harmony arcing towards the tyrant...
The magic continued to howl through the swamp, lifting Trixie into the air slightly; light pooring from the eyes of both her and the ghosts. A lifetime of memories was transferred in a moment before the spell ended with a mighty thunder crack and Trixie dropped back into the swamp. She looked up at the ghosts of her family members just as they swooped down and wrapped their arms around her.
Trixie froze.
This is it! I'm going to wither away to nothing before I finally die. I've let everypony down. I'm a failure...
But instead of death came the soft and comforting voice of her mother.
“My brave, brave little girl.”
“Momma?” Trixie asked, a smile crossing her muzzle as hope welled up in her again.
Crescent Starshine smiled as she held her daughter close.
“Yes, Trixie. Let me get a good look at you.”
The ghosts floated back, Starshine's face full of pride, while Quartermoon's expression was more appraising, but still full of approval. Then a wide smile crossed his muzzle.
“My little girl. Element of Magic, savior of the world and a fantastic magician.”
“We are so proud of you!” Crescent beamed, before frowning slightly. “I was so afraid of what was going to happen after your father and then my sudden death...”
“Mom...it's okay. I'm just glad that you're not under the control of that necromancer anymore.” She paused for a moment. “Well, and being able to talk with you...”
“I didn't mean to leave you alone Trixie.”
“It's okay! Aunt Moonsinger was a great caregiver. And grandpapa helped me learn all my slight of hoof. I turned out fine, really.”
“Better than fine!” Quartermoon commented, nodding. “And she's going to stop this madman!”
Trixie's eyes went wide. “My friends! I-I got to find them!
Quartermoon held up a ghostly hoof. “Panicking won't help. Keep your stage cool.”
Trixie took a deep breath and nodded. “Right. Never let them see you sweat. I still need to get to them though.”
Quartermoon and Crescent looked at each other and nodded.
“Crescent will lead you out of the swamp, I'll fly ahead to where you left Twilight Sparkle and let her know what's happening, since I don't think she's been compromised yet. Where should I tell them to meet?”
Trixie thought for a moment. “The Stacks themselves seem like a good idea. We can regroup there and try to work out what this pony is trying to accomplish.”
Quartermoon nodded. “I shall meet you there then.”
Without another word, he turned and flew off into the night, leaving Trixie with the ghost of her mother. She smiled at Trixie and began to float slowly ahead of her, illuminating the way for her daughter.
“Now Trixie, we should really talk about this whole aversion to sex you seem to have.”
“...Couldn't you have just killed me instead?”
- - - -
Twilight was beginning to get a headache.
“Just because I have a sun cutie-mark doesn't mean that I'm a minion of Corona!”
“And for the tenth time, you are the only one who's hung up on this!”
“ENOUGH!” Twilight snapped, rolling her eyes. “How did you get your cutie-mark anyway Sunset?” Anything to change the focus away from the argument.
Sunset sighed. “The long and the short of it is that I got lost in some of the drainage pipes that run under parts of the city. They're mostly there to help protect the city from flooding, but sometimes want to be necromancers practice down there and loose control of their undead.”
“And you got chased by some of those?” Twilight asked.
Sunset nodded. “Found a crack in the ceiling and it was right at noon. So there was a perfect stream of sunlight right in the corner of the path. And since shadows- they were shadows by the way- don't deal with sunlight well, I was safe there. And then I was able to climb up by bracing myself against the wall. Got my cutie-mark as I clambered out.”
Sunset Shimmer grinned. “See, that's the thing I like about the sun. It can be a little harsh at times, but it drives away shadows and lies and burns the undead.”
Twilight couldn't really argue with that as she looked down at the last document on both the lists, a half completed spell. She shook her head, getting to her hooves.
“Sunset, where did you put the forbidden collection?”
Sunset's expression immediately turned dour as she glared back at Twilight.
“Are you serious?”
“I'm not trying to steal them! Let's make sure they're all there. Because whatever was stolen, it wasn't in these notes. And if it wasn't in these notes, then your research was destroyed as a distraction.”
Sunset Shimmer sighed, trotting out of her lab and towards her office.
“After you broke in, I ended up locking up the tomes in my office. Only myself and Crystal Gazer have access to it.”
“And she's trustworthy?” Hooflock asked.
“She was in charge of The Stacks before she lost her ability to reliably cast and I took over. I kept her on as an assistant.”
“Wow, she does have a heart.” Hooflock smirked.
Sunset Shimmer just glared back at him before lighting up her horn and moving a painting, revealing a sturdy looking wall safe. She spun the dial a few times, before yanking it open, revealing two thick tomes.
“See? Right where they should be.”
Twlight frowned, picking one up and beginning to rapidly flick through the pages.
“H-hey! She's doing it again!” Sunset growled.
Twilight's response was to flip the book around. Three blank pages had been pasted back into it, obviously intended to hide the fact that anything had been removed when one looked at it from the side. Sunset Shimmer's jaw dropped open, Twilight unable to resist a triumphant smirk.
“What...how?”
Twilight flipped the book back over, running through the book again and comparing each page to her own memories, to work out which spell had been stolen while Hooflock turned his attention to Sunset Shimmer again.
“So, you said that you and Crystal Gazer are the only ones who have access?"
"Well...we're the only two who know the combination.”
Hooflock frowned. “And she's the one not here.”
Sunset shook her head.
“It can't have been her. She was dedicated to this place for decades! I even kept her on when other ponies suggest that I let her go to save bits. She...she wouldn't betray me like that.”
“Oh no...” Twilight gasped, dropping the book to the floor. “Oh no, no, no.”
“What?”
“I..I got to go! Trixie's in horrible danger!”
“Twilight?” Sunset asked, her own expression growing ashen. “Which spell did they take?”
“The Curse of Skins.”
Sunset Shimmer fell back on her haunches.
“My career is over. I've been in charge for two thefts, and this time it's a forbidden curse? They'll run my sun-sporting flank out of the city for this!”
“Sunset! They could be in trouble!”
“What, because of that curse?” Sunset Shimmer scoffed. “Come on Twilight. That spell is uncastable. The ramblings of a mad pony who was convinced he could steal a pony's cutie-mark.”
Hooflock frowned. “What do you mean? Spell-casters do all sorts of crazy stuff.”
“Look. I'm not going to go into a full explanation of magical theory to you. The long and the short of it is that you would need to be a master of necromancy, and who can also cast spells from up to all the other schools depending on how you wanted to layer the curse.”
Hooflock's expression was completely lost, eliciting another groan from Sunset Shimmer and an explanation from Twilight.
“Well, according to the legends the curse was created by a pony who was stuck with a blank flank deep into his adulthood. The drive to find his special talent drove him insane and he began to search for means to get it.”
“He supposedly found a diamond, black as the deepest night. And that diamond supposedly let him craft the curse.” Sunset Shimmer added before Twilight continued.
“The nature of that curse is that you take what you want from the target, and pass off what you hate about yourself to them. So, depending on what it is about yourself and your life that you hate, you could need anything from transmutation to illusion to do it.”
“Plus there's the question of controlling the magical power.” Sunset added. “You'd need a truly vast reservoir of magical power to avoid over channeling. Hence the supposed diamond that appears in the legends. But no one has ever found the thing. I don't think it exists.”
“Oh, I assure you. It certainly does.” Came a calm, male voice that none of the ponies in the room recognized.
Exchanging glances, they all turned their heads towards the voice at once, seeing the ghostly form of Quartermoon floating in the middle of the upper floor. Sunset Shimmer jumped to her hooves, crouching down into a defensive stance horn already glowing as she prepared a spell.
Quartermoon held up his hooves.
“Hold! I owe you no ill will and only seek to aid my granddaughter, Trixie.”
Sunset Shimmer glowered, but the glow around her horn faded away. Straightening up, she glared at the ghost.
“What is Trixie doing summoning ghosts?”
Quartermoon snorted. “My grand daughter did not summon me. The pony behind your theft is the one who dragged my daughter and I back to the waking world.”
“Is Trixie okay?” Twilight asked.
“Considering the circumstances, she is doing much better than she could have been. I came ahead to elicit your assistance in finding the rest of her friends, while my daughter leads her back here. Trixie believes that it is wise to regroup here.”
“Are they...” Twilight trailed off.
“I do not know their end fate right now, but I do know that they were attacked.”
Twilight thought for a moment before grinning. “The Find the Pony spell! That must have been why they destroyed the notes!”
She ran back over to the re-assembled spell, her eyes running over the spell a few times as she committed it to memory, Quartermoon gliding across the room, ignoring the continued glare of Sunset Shimmer.
“Can you cast it?”
“I think so.”
Closing her eyes, Twilight reached out with her magic picturing Carrot Top in her mind. In her mind's eye it was like a sea of fog was slowly parting, a location becoming more and more clear to her. A building became visible. Short and squat, the symbol of the Neigh Orleans guard was emblazoned on it's facade, station house number twelve clearly carved underneath it.
The view point swooped into the station, banking around corners and swooping into a cell, where Carrot Top, Lyra and Ditzy were all currently locked away. Twilight blinked as she snapped back to reality.
“Lyra, Carrot Top and Ditzy are all in a jail cell in station house number twelve.”
She began to gallop for the stairs for the first floor, Sunset Shimmer running right behind her. Hooflock shook his head as he ran to catch up.
“Wait for me! You won't be able to get anypony out of there without someone vouching for this insane story!”
Quartermoon shook his head slightly, but was unable to keep the smile off his muzzle as he floated through the wall to see if any of his other granddaughter's friends had made their way back to the inn he had seen in his daughter's memories.
- - - -
Carrot Top groaned as she sunk back onto the cell bench, her head pounding from the hours of interrogation that she had been dragged through. Whatever the pony had done to her, none of the guard saw her for anything but Fall Fields; though she was glad that the effect didn't seem to be spilling over to her friends.
She glanced at Ditzy, who was still trembling in the corner of the cell, her eyes darting about as she looked for a way to escape, presumably so that she could go and find a way to “kill Corona with her bare hooves”.
Lyra was by the bars likewise looking for a way out of the cell, but kept getting distracted by the way her wings refused to stay under control, randomly flaring out at inopportune moments. Tucking them away again, she shot a questioning glance at Ditzy.
“How do you deal with them?”
Ditzy swung her good eye Lyra's direction, giving a sad smile.
“Sorry Lyra. We just kind of learn to control our wings while growing up. It's part of being a pegasus.”
Her good eye drifted to the missing foreleg.
“Does it hurt?”
Lyra shook her head.
“Not anymore. Though it still feels like it's there sometimes. Phantom sensations I suppose...” She glanced over at Carrot Top. “I'm more worried about you though.”
Carrot Top gulped as she shifted in her seat, casting her gaze towards a mote of dust. The pony who's face she now wore, at least to guard members, was wanted for multiple murders. And during the interrogations, they hadn't been afraid to use the fact that she was facing down a possible death penalty to try and force a confession.
“It...it'll be okay. We've faced worse than this. We'll think of something.”
A startled gasp from Lyra and Ditzy brought her attention away from the floor, as their hooves yanked her off the bed and away from the the little window that sat in the wall above it. Twisting her head around, she gasped as well.
Three shadowy figures were flowing into the room through the window, creeping down the walls and across the floor towards them; they shifted into more pony shaped forms. Carrot Top joined Lyra and Ditzy as they pressed up against the bars, the shadow creatures creeping closer.
Lyra rapidly banged her other forehoof against the bars.
“GUARD! GUARD!”
The shadows pulled back themselves flat and coiled under the bench as a member of the guard came running in.
“What? What is it?”
Lyra pointed at the bench. “S-shadow monsters!”
“Really? That's what you come up with?” He sighed, shaking her head as he turned to leave.
“Wait!” Lyra said. “We want to confess!”
“To?”
“All of the murders.” Carrot Top followed up. “I've been a very bad pony, and I need to confess to get it off my back...plus to take that deal.”
The guard gave her a sideways glance.
“All right...how did you kill your family, Fall Fields?”
Carrot Top blinked before smiling.
“I stabbed them.”
“...Going to narrow that down at all?”
“I stabbed them in the...flank.”
“The flank?” The guard asked, the disbelief evident in his voice.
“Yeah! The flank!”
“And we totally helped!” Lyra nodded.
“Look, when you're ready to be serious, we can try this again.” He growled, turning and trotting back down the hallway.
Carrot Top gulped again as the shadows emerged from their hiding place and began to creep towards them again. Lyra shoved her way to the front, wings spread wide in an attempt to defend her friends. Ditzy pounded on the bars, shouting.
“HELP! There are real shadow monsters in here!”
The shadows drew even closer, tendrils of darkness outstretched as the sound of hooves in the hallway grew louder. Twilight and a light amber coated unicorn ran into view the latter already charging a spell.
“DOWN!” She shouted.
Carrot Top, Lyra and Ditzy threw themselves to the ground as a beam of sunlight jumped from her horn and lanced into the shadows. The light sliced through their forms, dispelling them in a puff of smokey black energy.
The three imprisoned ponies looked up into the wide smile of Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh, thank Luna you three are all right! The ghost of Trixie's grandfather told us that you were in trouble and I used a spell to find you...”
“Twilight!” Lyra interrupted. “Where's Trixie?”
“Being lead back to the library by the ghost of her mother. We're supposed to get everypony back there.”
Hooflock came down the hallway with a ring of keys, quickly unlocking the door for the three ponies contained inside. They all filed out, Hooflock eying Carrot Top suspiciously.
“You really do look like her...it's surreal. If these two hadn't explained the curse to me...”
“Let's just get back to The Stacks.” Sunset growled. “We can fill everypony in there.”
- - - -
An hour later they had all come back together in The Stacks. Trixie looked around at her assembled friends. They were a sorry bunch at the moment, a dejected collection of hung heads and slicked back ears, all sitting in one of the large reading rooms of the library.
The scene was heart breaking to Trixie. Raindrops looked liked a stiff breeze might break her in half. Ditzy's expression devoid of her usual kindness. And she couldn't help but visibly wince at Cheerilee's fate.
I'll fix this. I have to. They're all here because of me.
The ghosts Crescent Starshine and Quartermoon were floating near some of book stacks, while Twilight and Sunset shimmer were sitting with the Trixie and her friends. Hooflock was still with them. In his own words, he fully intended to help track down the pony behind all of this.
Trixie banged her hoof on the table to gather everypony's attention.
“All right. Let's review what we know...which isn't much, admittedly. But the pony behind this seemed to be a white coated unicorn with a fluffy purple mane and tail. Most likely a noble based on how impressive his manor house looked.”
“Night Shade.” Quartermoon interrupted. “While he was having Crescent and I attack one of the smugglers that stole our bodies, the pony addressed him by name.”
“Okay.” Trixie nodded. “But the question is what he's trying to accomplish.”
“Luna!” Cheerilee shouted suddenly, a wide grin on her muzzle.
Raindrops blinked as she turned her gaze towards her friend.
“What about Luna?”
Cheerilee scrunched up her muzzle in concentration, sitting in silence for a few moments before another burst of realization crossed her mind.
“Hurt! Bad ponies want to hurt Luna.”
Trixie frowned. “They're going to be in for a rude awakening if they think that having our bodies would somehow make them enough of a match to kill Princess Luna.”
“Not kill,” Twilight said, her face contemplative, “She said “hurt” and the trigger for the spell is the enchanted daggers. He could be trying to take her place.”
Carrot Top blinked. “It's a coup?”
Sunset Shimmer shook her head.
“It has to be more than that. This is such a round about way to try and pull off a coup. Even The Stairs Coup was simpler than this one.”
Quartermoon stroked his ghostly beard with a hoof.
“When Starshine and I were summoned, there was another ghost there. Unicorn mare. There was a family resemblance. Night Shade also didn't bother to seize full control of her.”
“Oh!” Ditzy blinked. “He's a necromancer and if he's lost somepony...could a boost of power from being an alicorn bring somepony back?”
Trixie shook her head.
“I asked Luna that a long time ago. The answer is no, she can't.”
Her eyes flicked to her ghostly family members for the briefest of moments as she continued to speak.
“But if he's delusional to do this stuff all ready, he might try anyway.” She licked her lips. “And the last necromancer we've tangled with killed a whole city with his spells.”
She frowned deeply tapping a hoof on the table.
“If there's a place in the city where doing a big necromancy ritual would be the most effective, it would have to be in the big central graveyard of the Quarter.”
Lyra blinked.
“Graveyards in the city?”
“We're in the middle of the swamp. Burying your dead really isn't an option. So that's why the above ground crypts were started. And the one in the quarter is the oldest and largest in the city. It's a good enough place to start as any.”
“What are we going to do once we get there?” Raindrops asked. “How do we fix this?”
“I can dispel it.” Twilight said. “But since the spell exists on both you and them at the same time, you'll need to be close to each other when I do it.”
Trixie nodded as she looked at, Sunset Shimmer and Hooflock.
“This is going to be dangerous. So if any of you want to sit this one out...”
“The hay I will!” Snapped Sunset. “These ponies stole from me, and got into the head of someone I looked up to. I'm in.”
“It's my city and I swore an oath to protect it. Do you really need to ask that question?”
A confident smirk crossed Trixie's face as she slammed a hoof down on the table.
“Then let's show that smug pain in the flank just what we can do!”