Twilight and Zecora appeared with a flash in a rolling meadow; Dodge Junction’s low outline was visible to the west.
Zecora stumbled sideways a few steps and shook her head: “This type of travel I detest / my stomach heaves into my chest!”
Twilight nodded: “Sorry! I know some ponies just never take to teleportation. I actually had an instructor who was really good at it, but hated to do it because of the nausea!”
“Death’s Agent has another way / Might that my stomach’s pain defray?”
“You mean the ability to simply phase through space almost instantly?”
Zecora nodded.
Twilight sighed: “Sadly no. I can’t bring anypony along using that ability. It only works for me.”
Zecora shrugged: “That is a pity to be sure / So teleports I must endure.”
“Sorry.”
Twilight walked to the east toward a craggy outcropping of granite. Several gnarled pine and scrub oak trees grew in and among the various rocks and boulders.
“Here’s where I finally located the old mare’s spirit. Her name was Amber Blush, and her spirit was, I almost want to say hidden, beneath the roots of one of these pines.”
She pointed at a ripped-up patch of earth and a toppled tree, framed tightly by a pair of scorched and scored boulders.
“It’s clear your search was tough and deep / Did Amber fight or did she sleep?”
“Sleep? Oh, you mean was the spirit conscious and aware? Did it resist?”
Zecora nodded and stepped in between the boulder for a closer look. She opened her saddle bag and took out a small pouch.
Twilight walked around to the other side of the boulders to get a better view of Zecora’s actions: “No, she wasn’t conscious. And when I finally got her to the Waiting Room, she had no recollection of anything after she died.”
Zecora put her muzzle down deep in the hole Twilight’s magic had gouged out. She sniffed for a moment, straightened up, and sprinkled a bit of glittering blue powder from the small pouch.
“What is that stuff?”
“From time to time I seek the dead / This dust may point the path ahead.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow: “Why would you need to seek the dead?”
Zecora squinted at the now faintly-glowing residue: “Some are lost in the woods’ deep gloom / This can reveal their tragic doom.”
“The powder detects death? Fascinating! I’ve never heard of anything like that! There are some old, complex unicorn spells that do something similar, but they’re notoriously unreliable!”
Zecora gestured at the powder, which was now sinking through the soil like hot sand through snow: “The trail leads neither right nor left / It points beneath this stony cleft!”
Twilight hovered above the outcropping and pointed her head down at the hole: “Stand back--I’m going to see if I can dig up a few answers!”
She focused a bright beam of magenta energy on the hole, scouring away several more feet of soil until she hit bedrock. Zecora waited a few moments for the smoke and dust to clear, then stepped gingerly down to the bottom of the pit.
She sprinkled a bit more blue dust long the various cracks and fissures evident in the rock: “Observe if you will the grooves and cracks / The dust runs to them like flowing wax!”
Twilight furrowed her brow: “Yeah, it sure looks that way. I don’t think blasting at the rock is the way to go”
She folded her wings and dropped to the ground: “Give me a minute--if there’s nothing magical blocking me down there I should be able to phase through the rock and take a look below.”
Twilight closed her eyes, folded her wings in tightly and faded out as she began to sink through the rock’s surface.
Zecora took a step back and shuddered: “Your wraith-like form, it chills my soul / How do you bear this fearsome role?”
Twilight’s voice rose from the ground, muffled but discernible: “I touched the sword--I kind of don’t have a choice anymore. Besides, I think last night made it pretty clear that I’m not bearing it very well!”
She sank down several feet through the rock, emerging a minute later in a root-and-gravel-filled gap, shot through with fissures and small tunnels.
“It looks like a series of old animal dens or something. And there are a lot of bones down here!”
Zecora put her ear to the rock: “Your voice grows faint, but the words were clear / My dust has found the death that’s near.”
Twilight stared intently at the floor of what was clearly an old animal warren, and noted Zecora’s blue powder continuing to sift down through the stones and sediment and bones.
“I’m not so sure about that. Your death dust is still on the move. It seems to be drifting deeper and a little bit...sideways?”
Zecora raised an eyebrow: “My dust runs true in its death quest / Can you discern if east or west?”
Twilight phased a few more feet into the earth in an attempt to get a bead on the powder, but lost the trail after a minute.
“Damn! It’s too faint, now, and I can’t follow through all this rock and soil anyway!”
She chewed her lip for a moment, then retraced her steps toward the surface until she could reestablish the path. She then slowly sunk back into the earth, orienting herself along the glimmering blue line.
When she again reached the point where the trail petered-out, she squared her shoulders and let herself drift slowly through the rock and soil, back to the surface.
Zecora felt a chill and turned around to see Twilight standing nearby: “Could you read aright the signs / while buried in the earth’s confines?”
Twilight unfurled her wings, and with shoulders still squared and eyes fixed on the horizon, slowly rose into the air until she could make out the mountains far to the northwest.
“Canterlot. The path leads toward Canterlot.”
“That would seem to clear Everfree / Though this alone is no guarantee.”
Twilight dropped back to the ground: “Agreed. We obviously need more than just one point. It would be best to get two more so we can properly triangulate.”
Zecora sighed: “And so we jump with flash and pop / Again to make my stomach drop!”
Twilight smiled sadly: “Sorry. This is going to be kind of a long one--Vanhoover.”
Zecora shuddered and closed her eyes as Twilight’s horn glowed a brilliant violet.
The two ponies appeared moments later in front of the row of houses that had recently been home to Concord.
Zecora stumbled forward and retched into a bush, then reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a small bottle. She unstoppered it with her teeth and took a sip of its dark-red contents.
“Hopefully that stuff’s not as potent as the elixir you gave me!”
Zecora smiled weakly as she re-stoppered the bottle and dropped it back in her bag: “Give this tonic to a sick foal / And it will hardly take a toll!”
Twilight grinned: “Yeah, the other stuff? Not so much!”
“The little ones, you have to think / Rarely overdo strong drink!”
Twilight laughed and turned toward the house where Concord had died: “That’s the house--let’s start there.”
They walked to the top of the steps and stopped: “I don’t see any reason to actually go in; I just need to get my bearings.”
Zecora nodded and pulled the pouch from her bag as Twilight slowly walked back down the steps and retraced her path to the aspen grove where she had found Concord’s spirit.
Again she slowly rose high into the air, keeping her back and head aligned with the line she had walked: “Canterlot, again. I’m definitely sensing a pattern here.”
She dropped to the ground next to Zecora, who was investigating the burned-out stump left when Twilight had cleansed the grove. She sprinkled a pinch of blue powder on and around the stump.
“Not sure what you’ll find this time--I did a pretty thorough job blasting out that haunted tree.”
Zecora nodded, then pointed to the blue dust, working its way through the layer of ash around the stump: “Your cleanse of evil was complete / But its unseen path you can’t delete.”
Twilight peered at the pale blue line and sighed: “Back underground I go…”
She faded as she phased and settled through the ground, passing through several bands of loose stones and sediment.
Zecora was examining several trees adjacent to the burned-out stump when Twilight phased back, and stepped toward the zebra: “Same result from a different vantage point: the trail seems to slope down and slightly to the southeast.”
Zecora nodded: “So Canterlot’s again the aim / But what’s the point of this dark game?”
“I don’t know. But we need one more data point before I can officially declare Canterlot the target. I had a nasty time running down a spirit on the west side of Baltimare the other night. I hate to do this, but we need to teleport another time!”
“And technically there’ll be one more / to Canterlot to end our chore!”
Twilight winced: “Oh, sorry! Of course we have to return to Canterlot!”
Zecora pulled out her bottle of tonic, took a sip and sighed: “If it must be, then it must be / But promise there’s no number three!”
Twilight grinned, stepped next to Zecora and tipped her head down. The two ponies disappeared in a dazzling flash.
The setting sun was low on the horizon as Zecora and Twilight appeared on the western side of Baltimare, next to a duck pond, surrounded with cattails and marsh grass.
Zecora set down heavily on the damp grass and moaned softly for a few moments, while Twilight stepped into the shallow water at the edge of the pond.
“It was down there--the spirit of an old mare named Foggy Meadow. It took forever down in the muck and grass. Each time I’d get close I’d swear her spirit would sink deeper and slide out of range.”
Zecora belched, thumped her chest with a hoof, and stood up: “That story would seem to fit the scheme / of dust drawn forth by things unseen.”
Twilight nodded: “Yeah, now that you mention it, it was kind of like your powder migrating along some invisible pathway.”
She stepped out into the lake and formed a protective bubble, pushing aside the water: “Come on down here with me. I’ll hold this bubble in place while you administer a bit of your powder.”
Zecora joined Twilight in the pale violet bubble and they walked further into the lake until the water closed over their heads. The alicorn illuminated her horn and pointed into a patch of singed and stunted marsh grass.
“That’s where I finally tracked it down. Had to chase it for some time before I could reap it. Follow me.”
They walked another hundred yards along the pond bottom: “Here was where I finally corralled her.”
Zecora opened her pouch and sprinkled a patch of blue powder into the dark, churned mud. It began trickling away, heading forward along the path the two ponies were taking.
Twilight nodded: “That’s fits. I already scoped-out the path before we walked into the lake. We’re heading almost due west--straight toward Canterlot.”
The two ponies turned around and began to head back toward shore, leaving the blue powder in their wake, swirling in the onrushing pond water. It began to disperse rapidly, darting about like sprites, disappearing into the murky depths with faint flashes.
“To Canterlot now, I assume / In order to--”
Zecora was cut short as a black tentacle-like shape shot out of the water and hooked her hind leg just as she started to step ashore.
She went down with a shout and rolled on her back in an attempt to kick free before the dark ribbon pulled her into the churning water.
Twilight jumped back in alarm and swept her sword out of its scabbard: “What in Tartarus is going on?!”
She brought her blade down across the sinuous black shape, allowing Zecora to break loose and scramble toward shore, moments before the pond erupted with multiple forms and shapes.
Zecora pointed at the dark, rotting figures converging on Twilight: “These shades are pony-like in their form / What could cause them thus to swarm?”
Twilight spread her wings and dove at the pond’s surface, sweeping her sword from side to side in glittering red-gold arcs: “I don’t know! I can’t tell if they’re really reanimated corpses or just dark energy of some sort taking pony form!”
A half-dozen dark ribbons shot out of the water and ensnared Twilight, tangling her wings and dragging her roughly under the surface.
Zecora quickly opened her saddlebag and pulled out a gourd-shaped bottle, which glowed a pale pink. A crumbling pony shape lurched out of the pond and barreled straight for the zebra.
She waited until the fetid husk was nearly on top of her, then splashed its face with bright, effervescent liquid: “Not so fast my shambling friend / with my craft you must contend!”
The dark form was instantly ensnared in glossy magenta threads and bands, spreading rapidly, until it was entirely encased, and collapsed on the ground, immobilized.
Zecora turned back to the pond in time to see a huge plume of dirty water fringed with shimmering violet foam explode upwards, filled with dark fragments and shattered remnants.
Twilight spiraled upward at the top of the plume, and dropped to the ground with a heavy “boom” directly in front of Zecora. The startled zebra jumped back.
Twilight closed her eyes, arched her back, flared her wings and shook: “Gross! I’m going to need two baths after that! Rotting corpses, mud, duck crap, you name it!”
Zecora nodded: “This has been a shock to us both! / What could have caused this evil growth?”
Twilight stepped over to the magenta-wrapped figure twitching on the grass: “I don’t know. None of those bodies were possessed by any sort of sentience or essence, but they didn’t seem like traditionally animated corpses either.”
“And what of those bands that lashed me first? / They seemed to move with focused thirst!”
“Yeah, I noticed that, too. Those things appeared to have sentience and purpose. And they seemed to control the corpses, like pulling on puppet strings.”
Zecora furrowed her brow and gestured to the bound shape by Twilight’s feet: “But this fellow here is now detached / How can he struggle if unattached?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow: “An excellent question!”
She knelt next to the pink mass, closed her eyes, charged her horn with dark magic, and touched it to the corpse.
“It--it’s suffused with whatever dark energy spawned those tentacles or ribbons or whatever they were. It was given a bit of...of…”
Her eyes flew open and she bolted to her hooves: “‘Something going on under the earth!’ ‘Controlled chaos!’ Oh, sweet Celestia, I know what’s causing this!”
Zecora furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to speak.
“I’ll explain when we get back to Canterlot! Hang on to your guts!”
The two ponies and their grim prize disappeared with a flash as the moon peeked over the eastern horizon.