Lighting Dust could hear the distraction working as she and her Shadowbolt squad flew high in the cloud covered night. Besides the sounds of battle, the flashes of spells and explosions from cannons could be seen below. Not since she first heard of this mission did she have the chance to wonder how the heck intelligence managed to miss this location after all this time against the cult. The mountains weren’t far away from the remains of Starlight’s former village (one of her first victims upon her rise as a cult leader) and she knew this area well. It would make sense that they would have another base here.
Not just any base though. Starlight’s Second-In-Command’s base.
While Starlight was a highly infamous figure by this point, her Second-In-Command was more mysterious. She was always cloaked in dark blue clothing decorated with black stars and swirls of magic. The only known data about her was that she was female, a unicorn, and had a silver mane, but she was just as responsible for the horrors of the Equalist Cult. She was a fierce magic user and was rumored to be insane by the way she talked.
Princess Luna’s orders were to assassinate her at all costs. While she and Princess Twilight lead a battle to the front of their castle in the mountains, distracting most of the armed forces, she and her team were to infiltrate the castle and take out their target. It was very high risk. The Second-In-Command was rumored to be paranoid about anything and getting in would be difficult.
However, she and her team would not fail. They had so far been able to do their jobs without any loss of life since it’s founding and Lighting Dust had no intention of any of them becoming the first casualty.
Shade, her boyfriend and leader, landed on a nearby cloud below and held his wing up, signally the others to hold. Lighting obeyed and crouched down to see what was below. They were getting closer to the castle that could be seen in the distance, but were still close enough to the battle that they could hear the screams of the fallen on both sides.
“What’s the holdup?” asked Red Storm one of the two Shadowbolts that volunteered to join her and Shade. While the uniform covered most of his body, you could see the red wings he had that reminded Lighting of her father.
“Those cultists, they seem to be doing something down below,” said Shade as he narrowed his eyes. Despite the suit’s visors giving the bonus of night vision with magic lens, they weren’t binoculars. “Lighting, check it out. Don’t engage.”
“Roger,” said Lighting Dust with a nod. Even if they were in a relationship for over eight months now, he was still her captain and on the job they were soldiers, not lovers, when on duty. That was after a successful mission.
Lighting glided down as silently as possible, her suit giving her an edge in camouflage thanks to the cloudy night Luna had made for their mission. She slowly began to descend into the mountain-like region where she landed on her hooves and dived for a rock to hide behind. After holding her breath for a few minutes, she peeked out the corner and saw that none of the sentries had seen her. The uniforms of the cult were so weird to her. They wore purple capes with hoods, the equal sign that came to be known as the Equalist Cult’s symbol on their back. Yet they wore no other armor, even in the battles against the Equestrian Forces. She had taken down a few to know that they had no fear of death, as if they were brainwashed upon joining.
Lighting didn’t have time to think about it further as she saw an opening in their patrols and made a quick dash for it. Her hooves were like feathers as she rushed through the open area without making a sound and hid behind another boulder. Luna made sure to put them all through training that allowed them to move as silent as shadows both in the air and on the ground. Too bad I’m not allowed to remember it... thought Lighting.
She was able to finally get a clearer view on what some of the cultists were doing. They were piling bodies, both cultist and Equestrian soldier, onto a cart. This made Lighting Dust suspicious. The battle isn’t even over and they’re collecting their dead? Not to mention our side’s dead too. Why?
Lighting Dust figured she had enough to report back to and waited for a chance fly up. Thankfully, none of the ponies around her were pegasi patrolling the skies as she managed to fly back up without being spotted.
Arriving back to her comrades, Shade nodded and welcomed her back. “Did you see what they were doing?”
“Yeah, collecting dead bodies. Not just theirs mind you, but our own as well. The way those bodies looked it must be one hay of a battle,” she answered.
“Why would they be collecting their own dead, not to mention our own, so early in the battle?” asked their fourth comrade, a female bat pony named Whisper Daze.
“No idea, but it can’t be good,” said Shade as he rubbed his chin before giving a smile that Lighting knew very well. He had a plan. A crazy plan, but a plan nonetheless.
“Here’s what we’re going to do...”
***
I’m going to kill him when this is all done… thought Lighting as she did her best to remain still and “dead”. Her fellow Shadowbolts were playing dead along with her inside the cart of bodies that were stinking up the place with their gore and decay. I’m going to need a six hour shower when I get home.
Finding the cult’s cloaks was easy, they just had to kill a few stragglers to get them. It was appearing to be dead that was the hard part. They lay down and waited near the location where the cart was, hoping those nearby would see them and add them to the collection of bodies. After a long weight they were picked up and dragged across the mountain’s rocky terrain before being thrown into the cart like a piece of trash. It didn’t help that Lighting landed with some dead pony’s butt in her face.
Oh yeah, Shade owed her big time for this or else no sex until repercussions were made.
***
“Phhht! You had a dead pony’s butt in your face! Hahahaha!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she pounded the bar table with her hoof, catching the attention of some other drinkers before they went back to their booze. “Oh, man. That’s even funnier than the time Fleetfloot took an arrow to the rear and had to fight with it in her flank! We called her “Two-Tailed Fleety”.”
Lighting Dust blushed as she took a long sip of her beer to deal with the emarseement. The bar Dash had taken them too wasn’t anything special, just your typical hangout place with not too many patrons at the moment due to the time. “Look, you wanna hear the story or not?”
After a few more snickers, Rainbow Dash calmed down and nodded. “S-sorry, though you have to admit it’s a little funny.”
“I guess, but it’s not a feeling I want to remember,” said Lighting Dust, shivering at the thought.
“So what did they want to do with the dead bodies and who was the Second-In-Command?” asked Rainbow Dash, leaning forward eagerly.
Lighting Dust raised an eyebrow. “They didn’t tell you who it was?”
“All I know is her body made it unrecognizable for indefictication,” answered Rainbow Dash. “We even stormed the castle with Twilight but we didn’t find her. We didn’t learn she had been killed until after the battle when Luna informed us.”
“Y-yeah, well,” Lighting Dust rubbed the back of her neck. “There is a reason for that.”
***
The cart eventually came to a stop as Lighting Dust wondered if they were in the castle or still out in the mountain region. From the smell of the altitude I’d say we’re still outside.
“Is this all you can bring?” asked a new voice, one that spoke of arrogance and power.
“Yes, Lady Trixie, this was all we could bring at the moment. Do you require more?”
“No, Trixie can do well with these. Bring a few out so that I can test the staff’s power,” ordered the one called Trixie.
Lighting waited until she felt that the guards weren’t looking before opening one of her eyes. She could see some of the cultists carrying a few bodies-thankfully not her comrades-out of the cart and lay them on the ground in a row. A new pony appeared and walked over towards them. She was wearing the same clothing as their target and Lighting realized that this was the Second-In-Command.
Pulling back her hood, the new pony revealed her blue furred face and silver mane while levitating a staff with her magic. Lighting felt her spine shiver at the sight of the staff she was carrying. It was black with a glowing pony skull on top of it and snake figures pointing upwards before twisting together.
Lady Trixie’s eyes began to glow as she waved the staff which began to pulse with dark magical aura, similar to the example of Dark Magic that Princess Luna had showed them to let them know of it’s properties. The energy from the staff began to wash over the five dead bodies that had been taken from the cart before they began to shake uncontrollably. Wisps of smoke began to emanate from the skull, appearing like faces screaming in horror.
Lighting now opened both her eyes as she continued to watch whatever dark ritual was being done. The screaming wisps soon entered the bodies of the deceased who seized up even more before going silent.
Nothing happened for a few seconds until a few moan came from the mouths of the dead. Slowly, they began to rise. Their wounds still remained as did the smell of their rotten flesh, but their eyes were pupiless and lifeless. Lighting Dust let out a small gasp of horror at the sight, even some of the other cultist were scared of what just happened.
Lady Trixie just laughed. “Starlight was right! The Staff of Reanimation can bring ponies back to life under Trixie’s control! The Great and Powerful Trixie shall use this staff to turn our dead and the dead of Princess Twilight’s ponies against her! Soon, Trixie shall have her revenge by seeing her own subjects eat that pathetic Twilight to the bone!”