The grass around Contradiction trembled under unseen force.
Finger after finger, Anvil's grip was forcibly removed from her weapon. Rope-like muscles bulged in the attempt to fight the invisible pressure, and failed with each inch of the involuntary movement of Anvil's limbs. Connie licked the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
Anvil rose from the ground, her arms and legs bending against her will behind her back. The minotaur fought through each passing second, but the livid unicorn had none of it. In a series of cracks, Anvil screamed. Not with rage this time, but with pure agony of joints being torn in half.
Then it all stopped right before crippling Anvil for life and the limp minotaur fell on the grass, breathing heavily and twitching. Connie walked over, unsteady herself after such exhausting use of power, and rolled Anvil on her back. She groaned as her bodyweight fell again on her abused limbs, but still glared at Connie with defiance.
"Unicorns and their magic," Anvil hissed, "Fight me like a real-"
She shut up as she felt the skin of her throat tearing. Squinting to her neck, she saw nothing but Connie's hoof, but something had clearly cut her like a razor. Anvil was quick to guess, though. The unicorn was able to use her mind to create a grasp and pressure. Who was to say she couldn't make it form a blade?
"I will say this only once, so listen carefully, you oversized milk tank," Connie put her full weight on her other front leg crushing Anvil's breast. The minotaur could easily, if her arms didn't feel numb and yet filled with hot needles, raise Connie in one hand and likely throw her over the Order proper wall. She was well aware, though, that just under Connie's hoof, through the soft flesh of her mound, some muscle, and ribs, was her heart, something easy enough to reach with a thin and sharp object. In defeat, although possibly only a temporary one, Anvil nodded. Connie's hoof left her thick neck, "Everypony, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. My gift and curse at the same time is telekinesis, you may have thighs strong enough to crush Astray's skull, and he might even enjoy it," the satyr looked at Anvil's loincloth partially dislodged by the fall, blushed, and looked away, "but strength and skill can be trained. What is here," Connie gave Anvil's head a soft kick, "and here," her warm underhoof brushed over the minotaur's nipple. She DID mean the heart, but as her rage was fading she was feeling a little experimental with her submitted foe, "is more important. We will have to work as a team. We are all 'weaklings' in comparison to what we are to stand against, but together we just might be strong enough."
Connie walked off of Anvil, then turned around and kicked her hard in the ribs.
"And teammates should help each other, so if you ever attack me again after I'm done with you because you clearly lost, I will really tie your hands behind your back. Understood?"
Gritting her teeth, Anvil sat up, feeling up her hands and legs for any serious injuries. Connie could have pressured her, but she decided to give the minotaur time. Hesitating, Anvil finished her self check-up and looked straight at Connie.
"I will learn," she begrudgingly admitted. The minotaur turned her head to Astray and Bubbles, "but I expect others to keep up with me."
"Well said," Connie nodded, took a deep breath, and levitated her practice greatsword again, "Bubbles, you're next."
"Umm, mom always said I'm supposed to be nice to ponies so they aren't scared and don't try to set fire to me or bring a priest," Bubbles was unsure what to do.
"You are here to learn to protect ponies, sometimes from other ponies. I get you don't want to harm anypony, but you at least need to disarm the bad guys or save your friends from a dangerous blow."
"Oooh!" Bubbles grinned, sending shiver down Connie's spine. It was adorable, it really was, until one remembered that a platemail was not enough protection against a bite from that muzzle, "I can take a hit! Mom had a friend who had this big bat and a room with cages. We used to play for hours. I like bouncing."
"Uhh, what?" Connie tilted her head. That sounded like some weird kind of abuse. Perhaps Bubbles just had no idea what was going on at the time?
"Hit me, hit me!" Bubbles jumped up and down excitedly.
"Alright, I'm an evil whatsowhat and you're trying to stop me... or play baseball with me. I'm not really sure at this point."
"Wheeee!" the rusty pony-like thing jumped at Connie like a bullet.
The unicorn was ready, batting her away with the flat of the blade. Bubbles bounced off of the nearby wall, rolled a little, jumped back on all fours and ran at Connie one more time.
"Again! Again! Again!"
After few practice swings, some even with the 'edge' of the dull blade, Connie had to admit the half-demon in pony form had some enviable resistance to normal weapons. A final smack where Connie let herself go sent Bubbles away in a straight line at Astray. The demon was snatched mid-air by Anvil, sending them both rolling with the strength of the impact.
"Hee hee hee," Bubbles licked Anvil's face when they got untangled from a rolling ball, and stood back up.
The 'Oh shit I goofed!' expression of Contradiction gave way to relief when it was clear Anvil's muzzle was neither melting not disintegrating. Connie tried to restore some kind of order to the training.
"So, yes, you can take some serious punishment, I get it. You still need to learn to fight. Now, try and take away my weapon at least."
Bubbles pulled a practice sword out of the weapon crate and raised it up uncertainly in her front legs- taloned arms. Trying to imitate Anvil and Astray, she stood on her hind legs, made few wobbly steps, and then keeled over backwards under the sword's weight.
"Sorry," Bubbles mumbled, trying to hold the sword again.
"You know what? Try to hold the handle with your mouth, some ponies do that when they decide to use a sword," Connie gave her a tip.
"Okay!" was Bubbles' much happier answer.
"Now block my swing."
"Oophay!"
The practice blades met, Bubbles gripped the handle tightly, the impact shook her entire body, and something broke.
"Aw crap!" Connie facehoofed, trying with all her might to ignore Astray's chuckling and Anvil's open laughter.
Bubbles had bitten down so hard she was left with only a piece of the sword handle in her mouth after Connie's strike. The rest of the handle, the hilt and the blade lay on the grass next to her in pieces.
"Mom always made me sweep the lab whenever I broke something," Bubbles spat the handle out and gave Connie a helpful smile of a dragon mouth overdosed on Colgate. The toothpaste, not the pony. She looked down at the shiny remains of her sword, "This is going to be a lot of sweeping."
"Fine, one final time," Connie flourished her blade again, "This time try to take away my weapon using any way you think would work. If I hit you and you lose balance, I win. If you take my weapon, you win... and sir Cromach won't make you sweep the whole mansion."
Connie swung, and her blade suddenly became a lot heavier. Bubbles was holding the levitating weapon in her mouth while dangling from it like a ragdoll. Waving the blade around curiously, Connie made a mental note never to be on the recieving end of Bubbles' bite, because no matter how hard she tried, Bubbles held the blade in the way of a rabid pitbull.
"Ffuud Ah wet go?" Bubbles mumbled when Connie just let the blade hover in the air, watching it with disbelief and confusion.
"I'm still not disarmed."
Bubbles bit down and landed on all fours among a shower of metal shards.
"Phoo!" she spat out bits of steel.
"Hmmm, I think Cross might know something about diamond dog combat techniques," Connie shrugged, "If not, I'll think of something. Astray?"
"Yes, miss?" the satyr stood to attention.
"Help Anvil put the weapon crate back. Bubbles, pick all the mess up and put it in a trash bin in the tool shed. When you're done, ask the receptionist in the mansion lobby about where you'll be staying."
"Do I get my own closet?" Bubbles asked hopefully, "I mean, a cage is fine too. Just not the pet carrier, I didn't like the pet carrier," she ended with much less enthusiasm.
Connie and Astray looked at her in shock, and even Anvil grit her teeth. Bubbles was little below the size of an adult mare. Pet carriers... weren't.
"Ehm," Connie coughed when she recovered from the mental image, "Our rooms are usually meant for two or four ponies and at this time of the year the Order is pretty full. The Royal Guard starts recruiting during autumn so the guys training here want to be ready over summer. I think I can do some arrangements so you get one of the larger rooms. Anvil counts for two ponies anyway."
"So... no cage?" Bubbles clearly didn't understand.
"You get a bed in a shared room with those two and you can walk around the compound as much as you like, just don't bother other recruits during training."
Bubbles stared at her, paralyzed but with eyes wide, smile even wider, and tail whipping the ground so hard it made dirt fly.
"Clean up first," Connie couldn't stop a quiet laugh in the presence of such pure joy.
The rusty and gold blur rushing around with muzzle in the grass not to miss the tiniest piece of shattered metal was too precious to ignore.
"Oh, and you two," Connie winked at Anvil holding the weapon crate at chest height and Astray trying to help by propping it with his shoulder, "The shower schedule is up to you to figure out, but I would advise that Anvil takes the bottom bunk. Our beds are made for ponies, and if something happened to one you might end up having to share. But that wouldn't be a problem for such good teammates, would it?"
Astray looked up. Anvil looked down, eyes narrowing.
Connie left, she didn't want to cause even more mayhem. After all, there was always tomorrow.
She groaned under the assault of a splitting headache. She was lying on something cold and hard. No, everything was ice-cold. Her vision was swimming and her breath escaped her more like a long, shivering gasp. Everything was dark, but even without any visible light source she could make out blurry lines in her waking world.
She remembered only flickering images, each disappearing when she focused on it. Galloping, grass, building, darkness, shock, pain.
Forcing herself to calm down, she stopped her legs from twitching and concentrated just on breathing. It helped. The searing pain surging through her skull remained, but became manageable while she was distracted by moving her legs with better and better coordination. After several minutes, she was sure she could at least sit up without passing out again. As she did so, a strange sensation spread through her chest, something she had never felt before, and as she lowered her muzzle to have a look, she saw a barely-healed scar not covered by her brown coat.
A click.
Light blinded her merely for a fraction of a second before her eyes adjusted perfectly. She was in an enclosed room full of flasks, beakers, and other accessories normally associated with chemistry. Open books lay spread all over desks, depicting simple pentagrams and much more complicated magical symbols. She could easily make out even the smallest letters and pictures from where she sat, no detail escaped her. The room had to be some wizard's laboratory. Muscle memory returning like a rumbling river, she vaulted from the steel operating table she was on into the pose of a trained Royal Guard ready for anything.
"That took a lot less time than I expected."
She knew the voice. She had heard it only once before, but your murderer's voice is something to remember.
Black Shield's muscles tensed in preparation to lunge at the unicorn entering the lab...
... and she failed to move an inch.
"Now," the dark purple unicorn with rusty red mane smiled, "I am sure you will have plenty of time to explore your new body, slave."
The word slave sent jolts of pleasure throughout Shield's body, making her eyes roll to the back of her head. The unicorn noticed and his smile twisted into a sadistic grin.
"Carrot and a stick, always works except for the undead where the rule is a carrot and, well, you don't have any free will and can't feel much pain anyway. With that little show out of the way, let us begin. What is your name?"
Shield wanted to charge at the unicorn, trample him under her hooves, bring him to custody for questioning, or at least scream at him, but her body didn't react to anything other than when she finally gave up and said:
"Black Shield, and who are you?"
He had some sort of control over her, that was clear, and right now she had no way of countering it, earthpony or not. She had to think and observe.
The unicorn was skinny, just like any one of those sitting endlessly while studying arcane secrets. He was well-groomed, which told Shield he wasn't just some insane loner gone mad with power. This unicorn was a normal member of society, aside from attacking Royal Guards. A quick peek at his cutie mark depicting a glowing question mark sadly didn't give anything important away.
He might not have been a murderer either. After all, Shield was here and still standing. She felt better than ever - stronger, faster, senses flaring and taking in every little detail. Her muscles were warming up after what had to be a long sleep...
...no, they weren't. She was just getting more and more used to the eternal cold.
"You can call me 'master' or 'owner'. That is what I am to you," he said.
Shield panicked for a second, reports and newspaper articles about crimes associated with the dead, graverobbers, and dark magic spreading through Equestria racing through her mind. She forgot to breathe in shock.
Literally.
It didn't bother her. However, no words came out when she tried to speak so she had no choice but to do it again, this time consciously.
"You killed and raised me, you cr-" her mouth stopped the words 'crazy bastard'.
The unicorn raised an eyebrow and gave her a smug grin.
"Told you you'd have enough time to grow to understand your body."
Black Shield growled:
"Master..."
The perfect feeling of 'rightness', 'true purpose', and 'fulfillment of her destiny' coursing through her was better than any physical contact she'd ever had. The final part sent chill down her spine and she turned her head to look back at her flank. Her cutie mark, an obsidian shield, was well and truly gone.
Her master noticed the panicked look.
"Can't expect a mudpony to understand the intricacies of complex magic, so I'll tell you the basics."
"NO, WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" was all Black Shield's body allowed her to do. She was trying to avoid it, but the reality was beating at the walls of her mind without stopping.
"Are you familiar with skeletons? The necromantic constructs, not the definition of pony bone structure."
Shield closed her eyes, shaking, and nodded. Communicating was better than sorting out the consequences of her... death.
"Well, under normal circumstances they are just mindless dolls with limited use. On top of that, they need a lot of magic to keep going. You are a zombie."
Curiosity winning over blind horror, Shield forced herself to ask a question. Mostly because she felt zero desire for brains, grains, or to shuffle around like she remembered from the movies.
"Aren't... aren't those the same thing? Only infectious and with rotting flesh? Braaaaaains?" her body allowed her to raise her front legs and moan in a good likeness of a walking corpse. It did come naturally, Shield had to admit.
"Stories of commoners," the unicorn waved his hoof and started fiddling with chemical stuff on one of the workbenches. Shield wasn't good at 'chemical stuff'. To her the hissing concoctions might as well have been herbal tea mixes, "The infection part, that is. Zombies, of course, can be made into dolls just like skeletons but those smell, drop bits all the time, and the brains they crave don't help with their own stupidity. Maybe that's why they want more all the time. No, you are a different sort."
The master pointed to the operating table on which a magical symbol was drawn.
"Through a rather complicated ritual and several rare ingredients, a pony can be reconstructed just like a zombie but without the degenerative side effects. Plus, if the ritual is done right, it allows the summoner to harness the power of the original pony's mind to perform tasks without the need for direct control, but with the option. Let's say I need you to fight for me," master's voice took on a lecturing tone he seemed to be good at, "I have little to no experience with scrapping, but your mind would draw your best experience to fulfill my command. There are lots of rules and orders inside you which will prevent you from harming me or my plan, but you still remain, at least partially, yourself. Of course, as I'm sure you noticed, your obedience can feel very rewarding."
"So I'm not going to rot over time?"
"No, there is a power core inside your chest keeping the spell going. It just needs occasional recharging which is something only I can do."
Carefully taking few exploratory steps, Black Shield walked around the laboratory. Of course, when she set her mind to grabbing a glass vial and ramming it through the unicorn's eyesocket the thought didn't even reach her legs. Her mind denied any attempt to leave the room as well.
Still, she could move in a way. She had no idea how much time passed from her death and whether her family got the news, but her guard instincts took over. Magic of the level required to raise her into this state must have been something unusual. She needed to find out more about this unicorn and use what little freedom she had to think of a way to, if not stop, then at least hinder his plan... whatever it was.
"Why did you waste all this time and magic on me?" Shield asked. It seemed the spell didn't inhibit her thoughts, only actions. Rule one, discovered.
"You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, that is simply it. A pegasus, thestral, or a unicorn would be better, but we couldn't afford too much attention."
"A disappeared guard isn't too much attention?"
"Crimes caused by magic leave little trace if done correctly. You went into the workshop, there was a fight, you disappeared. Just another crime commited by just another necromancer for just another crazy reason," his tone clearly said he considered himself different which didn't go unnoticed by Shield. Guards were trained in methods of questioning ponies without seeming conspicuous.
While Shield pondered her situation again, her owner turned from his chemistry project and levitated a vial of bubbling blue goo towards her.
"Drink!"
She didn't even bother resisting and just snatched the hovering tube and emptied it. It tasted faintly of apples for some reason.
"Meh, you could use a bartending course," Shield muttered, partially in disbelief that she was allowed to say it, "What was it?"
"Just something to improve your body's functions. Strength, stamina, less reliance on oxygen for muscle use, and other things. I'll be pumping a lot of these into you over our time together. Now, we have two final things to take care of. First, a definite test of whether my control spell is working," the unicorn's horn flashed red, and a bound and gagged middle-aged mare wearing some sort of cleaning apron appeared on the operating table. She thrashed around, but the ropes binding her didn't budge.
"Open the box next to the table, my little pet, you'll know what to do next," he ordered.
Shield sighed, quickly realizing what somepony who didn't hesitate to murder a Guard would want her to do. The carboard box contained two things Shield knew painfully well - horseshoes with complex locks allowing two curved blades to slide out and be used as a melee weapon.
You'll know what to do next...
She decided to do another test. Next... next she should, quite obviously, put them on.
The locks clicked around the fetlocks of her front legs, and she looked at her master. Her body made no moves to hurt the mare staring at her with wide, terrified eyes.
I am sorry. I'm not going to be able to stop it when it comes, miss. I swear to you, though, that I will make this bastard pay for it if it is the last thing I do. It will be the last thing I do.
"Oh for stars' sake, slit her throat!" the unicorn scowled when he realized his command hadn't worked as he dramatically planned.
"MMMMMHM!" the mare resumed her thrashing and wiggling.
Shield's hoof pressed her firmly against the steel table. She was terrified at her own new strength. The blades slid out as she raised her hoof and flicked her fetlock in a way she'd done hundreds of times before. Slitting the mare's throat would make noise, cause mess, and possibly lead somepony here, wherever this place was, or at least leave a trace.
On the other hoof, the mare would die in agony. As a Royal Guard, no matter the circumstances, Shield couldn't allow that. He only wanted her dead, that's all. Shield aimed lower and drove the blade between the mare's ribs right to her heart. The violent movements stopped in mere seconds.
So there was a way to trick the spell, and it was connected to her perception of events.
"Done," Shield withdrew the hoof blades and turned to her master, raw hatred etched on her face.
The master raised his hoof, red glow enveloped the mare's body which dissipated into a shower of painfully familiar red sparks absorbed by the unicorn.
"You are quite the troublesome one," the unicorn didn't look displeased, "but I like the fire in you. It will be so much sweeter when I stomp it out!"
"This ends only in your death, mage," Black Shield spat out. Her owner just laughed.
"No, that's where it only begins, slave," the words distorted Shield's world again with pure need spreading from her loins, "Now, present yourself to your master."
Shield turned her back to him, pressed her muzzle to the floor and raised her backside.
"Yes, a unicorn or a pegasus would serve me better skill-wise, but an earthpony flank is something to be admired. As they say, all work and no play..."
The unicorn mounted her. Shield bit down on her steel horseshoe as he plowed her. It didn't take long, he was obviously not used to it, but it would have been easier for her if her body didn't force her to feel his every touch as distilled heaven.
"Those earthpony 'assets' might just grow on me," the master huffed, stepping away from the drooling mess Black Shield was after his ministrations, "Get up and stop panting. You'll get a lot more soon enough."
Rising on trembling legs, Shield couldn't speak. She could barely think, and most of her movement was just her body working on its own.
The unicorn pushed a shelf in the corner of the room to the side, making a panel on the wall behind it slide away and reveal a dark tunnel.
"Let's go, we have things to do."