//------------------------------// // And Bonbon is a Paladin // Story: The Necromantic Adventures of Lyra Heartstrings // by SaintAbsol //------------------------------// The term 'Necromancer' evokes a few constant images: A dark tower, a desolate wasteland, a cursed swamp and legions of half-decayed creatures that barely resembled what they once were. It was a term that spoke of fear and death and shadows. It was almost as though they had a rulebook on how to be the most cliched villain possible. Lyra had never been good at following rules. Though, she could definitely see the appeal of a dark tower. The sunlight streaming in through the window was doing nothing to help her hangover, and it was too much of an effort to get out of bed and shut the curtains. Instead, she shifted her pillow so it lay atop her head. “Dammit, Celestia, go away. Come back in a few more hours.” However, since Lyra didn't possess some phenomenal power to make the deities bow to her whims, the sun stayed put. She groaned, trying to get a handle on her migraine and the nauseousness that accompanied it. While she was no stranger to cider, or the hangovers that tended to follow, it had been a long time since she'd gotten that drunk. A stab of pain that had nothing to do with her headache shot through her as she remembered a promise she'd made to Bonbon several weeks ago.“Dammit,” she muttered, managing to raise her head from the bed without losing what little still remained in her stomach. “Bonbon? You there?” Only silence met her words and she frowned. “Bonbon, I'm sorry. I know I wasn't supposed to get drunk like that again.” Still nothing. “Come on, Bonny. The silent treatment isn't helping either of us.” When even that didn't illicit a response from her marefriend, Lyra groaned aloud. She was in trouble, and she knew it. She slowly extracted herself from the bed sheets, every movement deliberate and exact so as not to upset her already angry stomach. There was no relief even as she found her hooves, and the transition from bed to floor almost ended with her laying on the latter in a pool of her own vomit. She actually felt it welling up inside her. It was only a moment of extreme willpower that kept her from ruining the floor Bonbon had worked so hard to clean earlier that week. She finally managed to take a few steps out into the hall, her head spinning as her body protested every movement. “Ugh, Bonbon? I'm sorry. I was stupid, I got drunk when I promised I wouldn't and I broke your trust. I get that you're mad at me, and I prob –” She shook her head slightly. “I do deserve it. I'll make it up to you, I promise, just name it.” Lyra finally made it into the living room, where she was expecting Bonbon had been listening to her pour her heart out. Only, she wasn't. The room was entirely empty, though the couch had a blanket draped over it from somepony sleeping there the previous night. “Bonbon?” Lyra's hooves slowly shuffled toward the kitchen, seeing if Bonbon was sitting at the table or something, but that was empty too. Lyra closed her eyes, feeling her headache just getting worse. “Okay, what gives?” As she turned to leave, her eyes popped open just in time to spot a piece of paper taped to a nearby wall. With her curiosity piqued, she shuffled over to the note. It was still something of an effort to read it, given her current state, but she had a penchant for stubbornness when she wanted something. 'Something came up, had to leave early. Talk about last night later. –Bonbon' Lyra blinked a few times, staring at the note in disbelief. “What the hay came up? I haven't heard about any dangers the last few weeks.” The town of Whinnistrad had always been unassuming. It was the sort of quaint town that was only listed on some maps, held next to no political or military advantage and was generally self-contained save for a few semi-regular visits from traveling salesponies. Which was why the sudden construction of a massive tower in the center of the town was so odd. That was where Bonbon came in. She’d been contacted by another mare, a very high ranking one outside of Shining’s branch of the order, to investigate the tower. Whom it had been built for and why. Why the town seemed to be working nearly around the clock to complete it. Why a town that used to be nearly self-sufficient was suddenly buying up more and more materials. It was such massive shift in attitude that there were questions as to whether it was natural or not, and first impressions weren’t exactly encouraging in that regard. Ponies most would have called too old to be working pulled carts that – while less loaded than some of the others – were still heavily burdened with materials. Foals with hardhats clamored around rickety structures to get to places that adults couldn't, moving with far more coordination than most children were capable of. Then, there was the fact everypony just seemed to ignore her entire existence. Bonbon had tried to get the attention of five separate ponies, all of whom had not even so much as glanced her. It finally just got to the point where she stopped a passing colt with a hoof just to see what would happen. He just continued to walk in place, his hooves sliding loosely over the ground and his expression unchanged. Yep, something was definitely wrong here. She let the colt go, blinking a bit as she looked around at all the ponies still moving about with blank expressions on their face. She wasn't stupid; she could see the signs of mind control, but there was a catch to the whole mess. While she was legally able to act on her instincts, she couldn't just go around kicking ponies in an effort to find the one pulling the strings. So, for the moment at least, her hooves were tied. She knew how these things worked, though, so she simply walked around, knowing she'd know her opening when she spotted it. Like the young stallion that made a covert glance toward her just as she turned in that particular direction. Bonbon smiled to herself. Celestia often worked in mysterious ways, but those in her service were smiled upon most often. She followed the stallion from a distance, waiting until they were relatively alone (after he had taken to an alley between two streets) to confront him. “Can we just skip to the part where you tell me what's going on? I'd really like to get back home to my marefriend.” The stallion stopped short, looking back at the paladin with a rather confused expression. “They let fillyfoolers be paladins? I thought Celestia was big on the whole 'no gays' thing.” Bonbon rolled her eyes. “No, that's just a bunch of horseapples some of the zealots like to say to get backing. And it's also not the point. Are you going to tell me what's happening or aren't you?” The stallion only scoffed at her. “You can't tell?” Bonbon narrowed her eyes and him. “That's not what I mean and you know it. Who's behind this, and how do I stop them?” “You can't,” the stallion said. “Nopony can; she's too powerful for that. Now let me get back to work before she catches on.” He turned to walk away, only for Bonbon to pin his tail to the ground with a hoof. “I'll take my chances.” The two of them stared at each other for a minute, each waiting for the other to back down. The stallion had a stubborn air about him, as though he was used to standing up and getting his way, but Bonbon had a lot of experience dealing with stubborn ponies, she just had to wait a little while longer. Finally, he said out in mental defeat. “Her name is Shoeshine, or Linky on occasion...” The entire story hadn't taken all that long. Shoeshine was a generally shy mare, mostly kept to herself and was pretty well liked by most ponies. The usual stuff, really; ponies never really expect the nice ones to have the worst secrets, after all. He was likely leaving out some of the details that would paint things in a less black and white manner, but that was to be expected. What he had mentioned was that she was good with magic, and had been known to hold conversations with ponies in the privacy of their own minds. Telepathy wasn't really a dark art, though ponies had a healthy amount of apprehension regarding it. It was in a very gray area of magic that often involved domination and the implanting of thoughts. Both things that, again, weren't inherently evil but still dangerous. Planting a suggestion to help an alcoholic not slide back wasn't much different than planting the suggestion to kill somepony after all. And mental domination was only legal in extreme circumstances. The worst part was, that only gave Bonbon a partial picture of what the mare could be capable of. If she had reached the point of mass enslavement, she had probably added several more traditionally destructive spells to her repertoire as well. Things were likely going to go badly, but there was no helping it. Since everypony continued to ignore her, she simply walked up to the tower door and walked right on in. The stallion's words, coupled with the general state of the town, was more than enough for probable cause after all. However, as much as she would have liked to believe ot would be a simple case of going in and apprehending somepony quietly, the job had gone far too smoothly so far. She just knew something would go wrong, and very soon too. She had just gotten to the tower's second floor when her cynicism was proved right. “Hey! You're not supposed to be here.” Bonbon sighed, shaking her head as she turned to face the speaker. He was a unicorn, a large one at that, with a plain brown coat, a gray mane and tail and a Cutie Mark of a hammer. His brown eyes were slightly more focused than most of the other ponies' around him, so he was probably something of their 'boss' under some sort of hypnotism by Shoeshine. He was aware of what he was doing, but not why, meaning that he was as much a victim as any of the others. Not that it stopped him from swinging a hoof at Bonbon's face. However, someone under a mesmer – even a minor one – could hardly fight with any sort of strategy. Bonbon barely had to shift her head to dodge the blow; she grabbed the stallion's leg between her forelegs, let his momentum continue as she leaned forward, and let go just in time to right herself as he was slammed into a nearby wall. He groaned, dazed from the impact, but wasn't really hurt. “Might want to stay down. It would put the job behind schedule if you got injured.” It was a gamble, but if Shoeshine had set his mind to treat his orders like a job, maybe she could appeal to that. The unicorn blinked a few times, then nodded. “Yeah, you're right. Gotta keep the job going.” He righted himself and started walking off, presumably to delegate something. Bonbon gave a sigh of relief and started up the stairs again. That was quick and easy, and likely the only bit of good luck she was going to have. The third floor had a lot more ponies in it, and they were just standing around. All it took was one glance at their eyes for Bonbon to know they weren't like the forepony. They weren't under some minor mesmer to do something vague like run a build site, they were made to do one specific thing and that was all. And, given how these usually worked, Bonbon had a safe guess as to what. “I don't suppose attempting to use some feminine charm would let me pass?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she was already popping a few joints. The ponies all rushed at her at once, and Bonbon moved into a more solid stance. The first pony, a red pegasus mare that had started moving just before her fellows, swung a hoof at Bonbon. She simply ducked under the swing, then headbutted her in the exposed stomach. The mare was winded and staggered back, Bonbon quickly spun around and kicked her away. She winced as the pegasus hit the wall a lot harder than she thought, but the mare would live, and Bonbon had other things to worry about. She turned to strike a green unicorn in the face, breaking his nose in the process, then physically picked him up and hurled him at another pegasus. The two ponies crashed to the floor and left Bonbon with only one pony still a major threat. Another unicorn stallion, and one seemed to have the mental prowess to start casing some sort of spell. So Bonbon reached down to a thread hanging out of her hammer's sheath. A small pouch was pulled out, then flung at the unicorn; the pouch burst over his head and water spilled out to fizzle his magic before anything could be cast. She quickly closed the distance between him and her, then turned around to slam her rear hooves into his barrel. She heard ribs crack from the force of her kick just as he went flying. “Sorry,” she called, “it's nothing personal.” He didn't respond, just lay on the ground groaning as the other two ponies had finally managed to get to their hooves. The one with the broken nose was bleeding rather badly, but both of them seemed perfectly capable of fighting. Bonbon doubted they could give her much trouble, even together, but she was rapidly growing sick of all these delays and decided not to chance it. “Constrixi,” she simply said, stomping one of her hooves. Suddenly, the two stallions found themselves assaulted by conjured ropes, each losing their balance as their forehooves slammed together and their rear ones were bound to the floor itself. Bonbon only smirked at the two of them. “Hope you enjoy that, boys, it's one of my marefriend's favorite spells.” Since they lacked the mental faculties to respond, her remark was only met with incoherent grunts from either of them. She hadn't really expected much banter from the two, most thralls weren't all that good for interesting conversation. The third floor seemed to be the last completed, and the one that the warlock called Shoeshine currently called home. There were tables of bottles and reagents, some bubbling and frothing over open flames, and piles of books that spoke of various forbidden and cursed arts. All very interesting and clichéd, but not what she was looking for. Something glimmered out of the corner of her eye, and that was all the warning she had. Bonbon took a diving slide, just barely avoiding a massive fireball as it crashed into the nearby wall of the tower and blasted out a hole in the stone. “Stay still, damn you!” The earth pony warlock that had launched the fireball stamped her hooves in frustration, her eye twitching as she tracked the paladin over to one of her alchemy tables. “You only have yourself to blame for this, you stupid paladin!” Bonbon uttered a short prayer to Celestia as she pulled out a necklace. It was in the shape of the solar goddess's Cutie Mark and was given to all who joined the order. It identified them to each other and their allies when secrecy was need, and it had a certain other benefit. She finished the prayer, then waited until she heard the warlock start casting her spell again. Shouting out a single word of power, she surged upward and held her necklace up. White light, blinding bright, burst from the talisman. It was as if the sun itself had come down and was blazing in the mare's hoof. Only for a moment, but it was enough; though Bonbon was protected from light-based blindness by her goddess, the warlock mare had no such luck. She screamed in pain and the spell failed to cast, giving Bonbon room to breathe. And to finally get a good look at the mare. She was an earth pony and, like all who favored the mystic arts, she wore a cloak that was likely heavily enchanted. It made the casting of spells easier, and – from what she'd been told – it held the necessary enchantments better than armor. Her coat was a very light blue, with a mane that fell somewhere between gray and white. She was blinking her dark pink eyes to deal with the sudden influx of light and was momentarily disoriented. Perfect. Bonbon dropped the necklace back behind her armor, and jumped over the table. Several beakers holding things she'd rather not think about were knocked off in the process, but she managed to cross the room and slam into the warlock hard enough to throw her into the wall. As an earth pony, the mare wouldn't be seriously hurt by the impact, but it would keep her off balance for the moment. Long enough for Bonbon to rear up and pin the mare to the wall with the handle of her war hammer. “Shoeshine.” She glared at the mare. “You are charged with overriding the free will of multiple ponies, and the assault of one in service of Celestia. Turn yourself in without further incident and I will –” “Oh shut up!” Shoeshine spat out another word, and Bonbon was blasted away from her by an invisible force, tumbling tail over tea kettle until she hit a wall. Imaginary pieces of candy spun around her head as she tried to focus once she heard shoeshine talking again. “You think I give a flying feather about your laws? About anypony's laws? “That was the old Shoeshine, the one who was so afraid of what she could do she acted like the perfect little 'daddy's filly' her dad wanted! Who never talked to a colt until she was in her 30s! The stupid little mare who always took 'No' for an answer! I am so sick of hearing 'No'!” Though dazed, Bonbon wasn't all that hurt. Her armor had taken the brunt of the blow and had been deformed slightly, though it still shifted awkwardly as she rose. It hadn't been made to take blows like that, but it would last a while longer. “That doesn't give you the right to force other ponies to do what you want!” “Why not?” Shoeshine stomped her hooves angrily and started to pace around, apparently forgetting they were in the middle of a battle. “I have all this power, and I'm supposed to just not use it? What's the point of having it then?” The mare started to grumble to herself, her mind wandering elsewhere, and Bonbon – not one to question an advantage – started to sneak forward. If she could get Shoeshine restrained, she might be able to end the fight relatively peacefully. “– not his type,” Shoeshine muttered, pacing a bit as she talked. “Only pony I ever like and he says that to me. Of all the things to –” Bonbon was nearly on top of her when she turned to face the paladin and shouted the same word of power. The spell caught Bonbon almost full in the face. There was no tumbling after that attack, she was lifted entirely off the floor and slammed into the far wall. She felt several pieces of her armor deform to the point it started to hurt and she was left struggling to think for several moments. She was aware Shoeshine was talking, but it took her a few sentences to figure out what she was saying. “So I used it! I finally managed to get them to take me seriously.” Shoeshine giggled madly, rubbing her hooves together. “Now they don't tell me 'no' anymore, now I get what I want whenever I want it. They don't refuse the new Shoeshine anything anymore!” It took a bit longer for Bonbon to find her hooves following the second attack. Armor or not, those were strong blows. “Shoeshine,” she said, then used the nickname one of the few ponies still free of her control had mentioned. “Linky... stop this madness. It's not too late for you, you can still – ” “Still do what?” she shouted, “go back to being the useless little mare nopony gave a second glance to? Give up all this power for my old, pathetic life? You can shove that offer right up your rump, Paladin! I'm not going back to that life, ever!” Shoeshine reared up on her hind legs, then stomped her hooves down with an enraged cry. “Forzare!” Bonbon barely had time to move, much less dodge the attack. A nearly solid wall of force slammed down on her, almost crushing her armor like a tin can and popping her like a bug. The only thing that saved her from certain death was the wooden panels of the floor splintering before her bones. Apparently, some of the bottles she'd knocked over had contained a weak acid, which had eaten through the floorboards just enough to make it survivable. The paladin found herself silently praising her goddess for the intervention, but still struggled to free herself as Shoeshine began pacing around the hole. “I have to admit, Paladin, you're a bigger pain in my rear than I would have thought possible.” She paused to glance down at the – still mostly trapped – Bonbon. “You lot really need to learn to take a hint, especially from something with a lot more power than you.” She stomped her hoof again, not even bothering with the incantation, and Bonbon was slammed downward by another wall of force. “You might have lived if you'd listened, or weren't stubborn enough to refuse the inevitability of this outcome. I was always going to win, you were always going to lose, and now you will –” The floor suddenly shook beneath Shoeshine's hooves and she staggered in shock. Her eyes glanced back into the hole, only to find the rubble pile missing one paladin. She nearly lost her balance as the floor rocked again and part of it collapsed, revealing the cause of the localized earthquake. Bonbon had worked herself free while Shoeshine had monologued and was kicking at the support beam on the lower floor. The warlock's eyes widened as she watched the beam crack under the other pony's kicks and she readied another one of her force blasts. “Forz–” She never got the chance to finish, the beam splintered from one final kick by Bonbon and Shoeshine screamed as the floor gave out. She would live, being an earth pony and tough enough to take several hits before she goes down, but it still left her dazed. Long enough to the paladin to get close enough to strike out with her hooves. Every spell was interrupted by a blow from Bonbon, and Shoeshine was too used to fighting with her magic to adequately keep up. Finally, Bonbon managed to slam her against the wall, pinning her with her forehooves. “Surrender, Shoeshine, and face your judgment!” “How about you surrender?” she countered, narrowing her eyes at Bonbon. “And see things my way.” Their eyes locked, and Bonbon's vision swam almost immediately. Paladins were granted some protection from mental domination, most of them citing it as a divine gift, but it was not without limits. Powerful casters could still exert their will over them, and Shoeshine had power enough to enslave nearly an entire village and still throw around high level spells. And her control was getting a good hold on Bonbon already. She shook her head, trying to focus, but only managing the clear her vision for the moment. “Shoeshine, stop this!” “Never!” the mare shouted. “Not after everything else! I'm the master of my life, not you! ME!” Bonbon felt her vision waver once more, the mare's will pressing down hard on her own. She couldn't keep resisting, not for very long at the least, and Shoeshine simply wouldn't listen to her. “Please, stop this!” “Shut up! Shut up!” Shoeshine still pushed her will down on Bonbon, the paladin's word not even registering. Bonbon gritted her teeth, struggling to keep a hold on her own mind and body. Shoeshine wasn't listening, and she couldn't take her by force, not with how much willpower she was battling against. She needed to end the fight, quickly. Bonbon's hooves found their way to the mare's head, struggling every moment. “Shoeshine, don't do this, please! I'm begging you, don't force my hoof!” “SHUT UP!” Bonbon's vision was almost gone as her mind started to slip away. She could feel the darkness of unthinking servitude closing in on her, she was only still aware of anything happening due to her Goddess's favor, but she could feel Shoeshine's will hammering down on her own with yet more force. There was no reasoning with the mare; she didn't want redemption, she didn't want to let go of the power she wielded, she didn't want to be saved. There was nothing more Bonbon could do for her. She forced her eyes shut, weakening the connection to Shoeshine's will just long enough for her hooves the find the other mare's head. “May Celestia have mercy on your soul.” She twisted her hooves violently, wincing at the sharp crack that followed. The pressure of will on her mind was gone, but she didn't open her eyes, not even as Shoeshine's deathly still form slumped against her. Instead, she sat down and started to to shiver and shake. A few choked sounds escaped her, though it would have been hard to say what they actually were given the circumstances. However, eventually, she lowered Shoeshine's corpse to the floor and started to pray. Bonbon hadn't stuck around long, not after her... not after Shoeshine had died. She had contacted others, letting them know of the town's state of confusion and several in various states of pain thanks to the warlock's actions, but she couldn't face them herself. It was part of her captain's personal philosophy, one he always preached, that everypony could be saved if you tried hard enough. Bonbon had tried, she had tried as hard as she felt she could, but it hadn't been enough. Shoeshine was dead, because she hadn't been able to save her. All that was left was the long road home. The sun was starting to get low as she traveled, only occasionally reacting as a bug buzzed by one of her ears. On most of her journeys, she usually had Lyra, or somepony else if her marefriend was busy, around to talk to. The Whinnistrad job had been such short notice, however, that she only had the silence of a dying fall day for company. Bonbon's instincts, honed from having served her Goddess for years, suddenly bristled as another mare started walking next to her. She glanced toward the stranger, and immediately knew that things had taken a turn for the worse when she saw a pure white coat and blond mane. “You're late.” The other mare's voice was quiet, so as not to draw undue attention to them, but had an edge sharper than any blade to it. “You were supposed to have reported in last week.” Bonbon kept her gaze forward, as she knew the other mare was, and tried to focus on making sure her face remained blank. “This is not the place to be having this conversation.” “If you had actually reported in on time, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all,” the mare next to her shot back, more anger slipping into her voice. “And it's the only way to be sure your mind is still your own, Sweetie Drops.” “My name,” she growled, “is Bonbon.” “You still insist on that name?” The other mare gave a quiet scoff, her tone becoming one of unmasked contempt. “Fine then, Bonbon, my point remains unaddressed. You only have yourself to blame for this, or, perhaps, your charge has –” It took everything in her to not round on the other mare and strike her in the face. She tried to put some distance between her and the other mare, not in the mood to deal with her, but she found her pace matched without much difficulty. The other mare was saying something, but Bonbon's mind was too angry to decipher what. Finally, she rounded on the mare as her patience reached its limit. To her credit, though, she managed to restrain herself to only jabbing a hoof into the mare's chest, but it didn't do much to quell the rage in her voice. “I told you to stay out of my life, Righteous!” Righteous Fury, an earth pony herself, narrowed her pale blue eyes at Bonbon and matched her glare for glare. “You call the little facade you've built up a life? You're a warrior in the service of Celestia, Bonbon, not some useless little homemaker. You're living in that backwater town because you have a job to do, never forget that!” “You think I have?” Bonbon turned away to slam a hoof into the ground, better that than the other pony's face. “I would love to forget my damned responsibilities, for one day, one hour, one moment! Just so I could know what it feels like to actually be in a normal relationship for once!” Righteous narrowed her eyes, looking down her nose at the other mare with nothing less than the utmost disdain. “You never should have been assigned this task. You're too close to it. Your emotions are starting to affect your judgment.” “My judgment is sound,” Bonbon spat. Righteous's glare turned into a piercing glower. “Is it? How many times have you looked the other way because your ward –” Bonbon suddenly found herself nose to nose with the other pony, her eyes burning in anger. “Her name is Lyra!” Righteous remained maddeningly composed, even if she managed to squeeze more disdain into her voice. “Your ward,” she said, “is not supposed to have a name. You are not supposed to be so emotionally invested into them, you're just supposed to observe them and make sure they don't start sliding back into their evil ways.” “And how do you expect ponies to do that without giving a buck about their wards?” Bonbon tore herself away from the mare, scowling and grumbling to herself. “You can't help them change if you're indifferent to them.” “It's not your job to change them!” Righteous finally showed an emotion other than disdain as she gritted her teeth in anger. “Ponies don't change, ever! It's your job to make sure they don't harm others ever again. No matter the cost!” Bonbon whirled back. “If you're implying what I think you're implying, then you need to leave, now!” “Or what?” she challenged Bonbon, her composure back to it's original level. “I am a paladin, the same as yourself, the slaying of evil and chaos is my job. By preventing me from doing so, you are going against the oath you took!” “By threatening to end an innocent pony's life, you are breaking your own oaths!” “THEY!” Righteous bellowed, “ARE NOT! INNOCENT!” Her mask of calm was finally shattered, and her face had taken on a red tinge as she shouted. “They are monsters and criminals that flaunt the law and abuse the bleeding-heart kindness of that idiot of a captain you follow, and you are becoming as bad as him!” “And you are a prejudiced sociopath that abuses your power to hurt everypony that doesn't fit your view of how the world works!” Bonbon was angry, no question, but she wasn't lost to it like Righteous seemed close to being. “You would sooner kill somepony than you would help them!” The other mare's only response was an inarticulate cry of rage as she reared back and raised a hoof to strike at Bonbon. Suddenly, out of the sky, cream pies started raining down. Bonbon, already jumping back to avoid the attack, managed to avoid the falling pies. Righteous Fury, on the other hoof, was right in the midst of the strange downpour and ended up covered with whipped cream and a few pie tins. Bonbon stared at Righteous for a long moment, the other mare stock-still in shock, before she put on a smirk. “That's a good look for you, Righteous. You should keep it.” She wiped a hoof across her face to remove some of the cream, her expression colder than the frozen north. “Your obsession with that necromancer will be the death of you, and I will be there to do the job you should have done.” With that, Righteous Fury stomped away, ignoring her current state as best she could. Bonbon took several moments, and several deep breaths, to calm herself. Righteous was a bitch, everypony who knew her tended to agree on that, but there was a certain amount of truth in what she said. Bonbon was emotionally invested in what happened to Lyra, and she was lenient when it came to her slip-ups. Dark magic wasn't inherently evil like most ponies thought it was, but it was a power that was very easy to abuse and could lead to a rather dangerous slippery slope. Shoeshine was proof enough of that. She lost her train of thought as somepony started calling out from above. “My bad! My bad! Everypony okay?” A gray pegasus with a blond mane was fluttering down, a cart floating along behind her with a few cream pies still inside. “Nopony got hurt, right?” Nopony was around to answer her, but that proved rather pointless as one of her wings clipped a tree beside the road. She flailed about in the air, trying to reorient herself, but it was a lost cause. She crashed into the ground, the cart following a moment later. Bonbon only sighed and started toward the crash site. “I'm okay!” The pegasus shifted the pile on her about, slowly pulling herself free. “Sorry, sorry, I'll clean it up!” She was finally free, and chuckling nervously as she stood up. “My bad.” She didn't seem to mind that there was a large splinter of wood impaling her just below the neck. She looked down, blinking at the wooden stake sticking out of her. “Oh, oops. Uh... hold on.” She grabbed the offending splinter between her hooves and jerked it out. The tip was stained with dark brown blood, but the mare's wound didn't bleed a drop. She just tossed the piece of wood into the pile, then started to push and pull lightly at her flesh. The skin and fur molded like clay, the hole slowly worked closed by her hooves. Finally, she finished and gave a sheepish smile. “Um... sorry about that, thought that tree was further away from me than it was.” Bonbon just chuckled at the mare as she walked up. “Hi, Ditzy. Great timing there.” Ditzy, working on getting the pile of wood that had been her wagon cleaned up, turned the Bonbon with a slight smile. “Yeah.” She glanced around, then leaned closer to Bonbon. “Did I get her?” she whispered. Bonbon smirked slightly, giving a light chuckle. “Yeah, right on the money.” She reached a hoof up, placing it on Ditzy's shoulder just above the wing joint. “Thanks for that. It was going to turn into a fight at the rate it was going.” “Don't mention it,” she said brightly, then looked down. “I've had some trouble with paladins myself... no offense.” Bonbon brushed off her friend's concern. “None taken; I know how some of them can be. I can't imagine them pausing long enough for you to explain you're a good lich.” “Yeah...” Ditzy made a strange sound as she made the motions of a sigh, then gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Sorry, forgot to breathe again.” Bonbon just smiled and chuckled to herself. Ditzy was a good friend to have around, lack of a pulse or not. She was as prone to fits of depression over her own situation as the next pony, but she still helped others whenever she could. It was just who she was, and being a super zombie couldn't change that. “Won't they dock your pay for this?” She jabbed a hoof at the utterly demolished cart and ruined pies. Ditzy actually did remember to breathe in before sighing the second time. “Yeah, probably. But I don't need to eat, so I'll just skip a few meals this week and only worry about keeping the girls fed.” Bonbon nodded, then hesitated a moment. “Sparkler could probably help you make the other payments, if you –” “I'm not asking my own daughter for money, Bonbon. It's just not right.” Though she wanted to argue the point, the paladin just quietly sighed. Ditzy's daughters, both adopted due to her state, meant the world to the lich. She had based her second life around providing and caring for them, so she wouldn't take anything from them, even if Sparkler would likely not mind. Asking Ditzy to do so would just upset her unduly. “Okay, Ditzy. But I'll help you clean this thing up at least.” Not taking 'No' for an answer again, Bonbon set to work. Even if there was nothing they could do to repair the cart, they could at least get it out of the way. The wild places of the world were generally avoided by most sane ponies. They were the places where their magic to affect things was at its weakest and even unicorn magic could be driven screwy. Pegasi often found the clouds that formed in these places to be wild and unruly, and earth ponies swore up and down that there was just something wrong with the land in them. Druids, however, were not most ponies, and generally weren’t all that sane either. Roseluck, or just Rose to her friends, enjoyed eating far too many mushrooms to be considered sober most of the time. She wasn't completely out of it, like some druids could be, but she was still only mostly lucid the majority of the time. Which was why she was currently slouching against a tree, watching imaginary colors dance about in the light during her latest trip. Suddenly, a ferret scurried out of a nearby shrub and chittered wildly at her. Roseluck blinked, watching the – to her – rainbow colored ferret scurry up onto her stomach and jump around wildly. “Whoa, little dude,” she finally slurred out, “I can't listen that fast. Slow down a bit.” The ferret turned to her, then started chittering again, slightly slower. Roseluck tilted her head, trying to use her connection to the natural world to decipher what the ferret was saying. “Timmy's in the well?” The ferret stood stock still, staring at the druid for several moments, then slammed one of it's paws into its face. It jumped off her belly, then started chittering again as it scurried off again. Roseluck blinked a few times, then sighed and rolled to her hooves. Her first steps weren't her steadiest, but she found her footing through the constant shifting of shapes and colors, then found the ferret's trail. Which was easy enough for a druid, even one as high as she was, but following it got a bit more difficult as she went. The druid frowned, nearly tripping over a root for the third time. That shouldn't have been happening. To other ponies, sure, but not to her. She knew the forest like the back of her hoof, even while she was stoned; and the empathic bond she had with the general area should have meant most of her hoof placement should have been reflexive anyway. The only way it could be screwed up was if there was something wrong with her, which she was reasonably sure she'd know, or something wrong... She stopped short, her eyes wide and actually focused again. ...something wrong with the land! The trees around her suddenly lost their vibrant feel, turning blackened and dead. The bark of one was so brittle it crumbled under her touch. The ground was hard and dry as stone beneath her hooves, and just touching it sent both her druid and earth pony senses screaming. The mushroom induced high suddenly faded into the background as she looked for the ferret; neither of them should have been there, and she didn't want to leave it behind. The critter popped up suddenly, still chittering before scurrying further into the area. “Come on, little dude,” Roseluck muttered, hesitantly following after it. “This place has bad vibes everywhere.” That was putting it mildly, really; the further she got into the strange area of rot and decay, the more uncomfortable she felt. It had only been general weirdness at the start, then it was foreboding as she lost sight of the healthy trees behind her. Here, there was active hate coming from the ground beneath her hooves. Not dislike, not anger, frigid and biting hatred, for her! Roseluck stopped dead, the colors finally fading from her vision as the drugs finally fell to her adrenaline. That wasn't natural, it wasn't even close to natural. Nature should never hate a druid. They were the ones that spoke for it when nopony else would, who cared for the wild places because nopony else could. Nature was the druids' ally and always had been. “Whoa, this is getting too heavy.” Roseluck started to turn away, wanting to put as much distance between here and herself as possible. But that ferret popped up again, jumping and chittering wildly on a rock not far from her. The druid bit her lip for a moment, then hurried over to the ferret. “This had better be good, little dude. We need to get out of here.” The ferret just pointed a claw toward a gap in the dead trees, no longer chittering. Roseluck turned toward the gap, not seeing much of anything at first. She glanced at the ferret, but it just pointed again. Finally, she gulped and started forward. The whole thing was screaming 'bad idea' in her head, but she couldn't deny a certain amount of morbid curiosity as to what the ferret wanted her to see. Her hoof touched the gap, and all Tartarus broke loose. Roots broke out of the ground and wrapped around her legs, tight and painful, but she was barely feeling any of it. There was a different sort of pain coursing through her body. As a druid, she had a sort of sixth sense about nature and all things in it, and touch just made it more pronounced. Touching these roots... it was so completely and utterly wrong that she almost felt like something was being torn out of her. These things weren't alive, not naturally... but they weren't dead either, to move like they did. They were... but that wasn't possible! The ground beneath her hooves cracked, then turned sandy as the roots started to draw her down. “Whoa there!” She struggled and flailed about in the roots' grasp. “I only do this with a safe word, dudes!” Of course, her words did little to slow the roots pulling her into an early grave, but she hadn't expected them to. She had just wanted to test and see how loosely she was being held. With a shouted word in the druidic language, and an audible click of her forehooves, a small ball of flame was suddenly conjured in her grasp. The roots withdrew with a whiplash as the flames burned them, and Roseluck hurled the flame into one of the trees. It smoldered for a bit, but the wood refused to burn even as dry as it was. That wasn't the point, though. She was free to gallop away, and she wasted no time in doing so, snagging the ferret as she ran just before more roots burst from the ground. “We're outta here, little dude!” She didn't stop, even as she finally reached the normal forest, she just kept on running. She couldn't help the forest, but she was pretty sure she knew at least one who could. Hopefully, she could get the ‘friends and family’ discount.