//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: welcome back // Story: Undead Knights // by Kaliann25 //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Welcome back to Ponyville Ponyville, as beautiful and colorful as they remembered it, maybe more; it was just so gorgeous and full of life as it was before Starlight Glimmer turned into the capital of her ‘Equality Utopia’ so long ago. Of course, once they killed her for the first time tried to restore the town’s former glory but Ponyville would never get back to normal. What Glimmer did during those ten years left a scar that time wouldn’t erase. They were marching on Night Terror’s back for a while when Midnight turned to he dragon: “Night Terror, you better keep hidden until the right time comes, I have the hideous feeling that we shouldn’t show them our full strength yet” Night Terror didn’t seem happy about it but he never questioned his beloved mare. “As you wish, there’s a place where I can hide?” Fleshy-Smile aimed to a near mountain with her hoof. “There, climb that mountain and stay there until we call you. A dragon lived there once… oh, wait we got back in time… a dragon LIVES in there but I don’t think he’ll cause you too much trouble. Anyway if he does, send me a message, I’ll love to face him again in my new form. If I could intimidate him in life it would be funnier now that I’m undead” Night Terror glared at the Pegasus. “Fuck you, I’ll be away from the fun, if he causes trouble I’ll destroy him” Midnight rolled her dead eyes. “Enough already, you do as you please in that mountain Night Terror. The rest of us, to Ponyville!!” Night Terror extended his wings and flew to the mountain with a creepy smile on his lips while the rest of the monsters kept walking to their hometown, barely waiting for their second match with Starlight Glimmer. “And what shall we do once we arrive?” Asked Undash. Midnight relished her fangs imagining the pleasure. “Obviously terrify the population until Glimmer arrives, but be careful with your past selves. Remember they’re not as tough as we are; I know our bloodthirst is under control but still be careful, alright? Now, according to my calculations Celestia sent us two days before that idiot came back looking for revenge so we need to restrain ourselves until the right time comes” They kept walking, with the deliberately slow march of the invincibles. Their black hoods moved with the wind; giving them at even more creepy and dark look. And like anticipating the incoming massacre the weather got colder at their step. Finally they arrived to Ponyville where everything started and ended as well. Midnight smiled. “Gothic, would you mind?” “My pleasure darling” The undead unicorn concentrated her dark power levitating enormous rocks forming a strong but still beautiful goth-style wall; every five meters she added horrible gargoyles who smiled menacingly to the terrified ponies of the town, who couldn’t believe what they were seeing. A wall that was growing and growing isolating the town. Gothic even took her time to design a stylish wooden door carved to look like demons from the underworld. “As always a masterpiece!” Smiled Gothic very proud of herself. “You made a wonderful work” congratulated Pin-Kill-Die. “Well thank you dear, but I haven’t finished. Still needs something” With her powers she levitated several jewels from the ground to place them as the gargoyles’ eyes, giving them a scarier look. That was too much for the villagers who screamed in fear and ran to hide in their homes. In the meantime Midnight knew it was her turn and with her magic excavated a deep pit around the wall and filled with magical flames that didn’t need coal nor firewood or anything. Eternal and very powerful that kept the ponies from escaping. Jack the Reaper clapped her friends’ efforts but she was growing impatient. “That’s enough showoffs, it’s time” They entered to Ponyville where everypony but a group of six friends were waiting for them. Like them they were an alicorn, a unicorn, two pegasi and two earth ponies; and they were ready for battle. Midnight greeted them with a small nod and just spoke uninterested: “Hi, I don’t like long speeches so straight to the point: this town is under new administration, ours. Do not resist and only one pony will get hurt” The leader of the ponies who confronted the Undead Knights, Twilight Sparkle, just glared at Midnight. “This town is under our protection, you should be the ones who surrender” Undash laughed happily. “Under your protection? We knew already your Majesty, and you don’t represent any threat for us. You’re literally centuries beneath us!” Midnight sent an advertency glare to the Pegasus, who sighed but nodded to her leader. “However, there’s an opponent for each. Tell me Elements of Harmony, have you ever face an Undead? No, right? Undeads: you know what to do” Applejack gulped. “Twilight…” “Don’t worry girls, we have the magic of Friendship at our side” And they attacked. Suddenly Twilight saw how she underestimated the strangers when the leader extended her own wings (an alicorn!) and shot a magic beam that Twiligth barely eluded. With a sadistic smile Midnight made levitate several rocks and began to threw them to Twilight with all her power. Twilight created a magic shield to stop the rock and sent a magic beam to the Midnight as well. An attack that strangely enough Midnight received fully. The undead alicorn just shrugged. “Pathetic” Then the monster caught Twilight with her magic. Of course Twilight tried to escape but Midnight not only was stronger, she also seemed like after the damage received and the power she used to fight Twilight she still had her full strength. “Who are you?!” Cried Twilidght. Midnight ignored her with another shrug. “You know? I’ve always lamented your overconfidence whenever you fight other ponies. Discord, Tirek and Nightmare Moon had your full attention, you tried to study your enemies before you attacked and succeeded. But with Sombra you lowered your guard and Spike had to save you; not to say Glimmer. She took your Cutie Mark because she was stronger that you thought. How can you be so naïve?” “I’ll never hurt another pony and…” “That’s why you are so easy to defeat. Even Luna and Celestia had to fight against their own people from time to time. Look at this situation, since you thought I was just another unicorn, you underestimated me and now you’re under my power. But ey, I’m not even a living being; I’m an Undead! You could do whatever you wanted, but no. Even that beam you shot me was only at ten percent of your true potential” Twilight glared at Midnight defiantly. “Do you really think you can scare me pretending you’re one of the scariest monsters of this world? I’ve seen the Undead, they’re nothing but empty shells who just wander through the world killing, killing and killing. Celestia showed me one of them and you may look like one but you’re still able to think, so invent something else” The dark pony revealed her fangs. “Believe what you want, is not my problem; but I assure you: I am no pony, I was one but not anymore” Then the stranger smashed Twilight to the ground making the poor alicorn get dizzy, but she wasn’t defeated yet. Before Midnight could react Twilight shot her again, this time with her full power. Still Midnight received the attack fully and nothing happened. “That’s what I’m talking about” Twilight couldn’t believe it, why this thing was still standing like nothing. “Why aren’t you hurt, it has something to be with that hood?” As a response Midnight only revealed her flank to Twilight, showing her a Cutie Mark that looked like hers but this one was entirely black. Even the fur was like hers but… grayish and lifeless. Twilight gulped, something was telling her that this wasn’t a normal opponent. Midnight simply chuckled. “Like you see, this hood is only to hide my identity. No, the problem is that you’re not strong enough” “Who are you?” “Midnight, leader of the monsters who protect Equestria no matter what. The Undead Knights” Twilight stood, she was beaten and weak after the attack but still she had to do something. “You can’t fool me, I told you I’ve seen a true Undead and they cannot think” “I don’t care if you believe me or not, now I’m in a hurry so I’ll finish you now” Then Twilight felt another attack coming from Midnight, but this time she couldn’t do anything about it. Several black crystals grew in her horn preventing her to do magic. “A little spell I made Sombra teach me… right before I made him eat his own eyes and horn. It was kind of fun” Finally she punched Twilight on the jaw defeating her for good. Damn, the alicorn was not only powerful but also very strong. Now Twilight’s only hope were her friends but they had their own problems with the visitors. Fluttershy and Rarity weren’t rivals for their oponents who simply knocked them with a branch, the two mares were not used to violence so it was too easy. Even Fluttershy’s rival (Fleshy-Smile) decided to re-finish her by smashing a rock against her head even if the poor yellow pegasus was unconscious already. Rarity tried to fight more by using a jewel-collector spell to send the sharply projectiles to Gothic, but like Midnight she received them fully as she felt no pain and then kicked Rarity on the gut making her fall totally defeated. Even Dash was having troubles fighting the other Pegasus, who was even faster than her and even more reckless. Moving at those speeds in the air could be very dangerous. A little mistake could cause serious injury but the monster crashed several times and still got back to the air without a scratch. What was her? Finally Undash got tired and stopped the nonsense. “You’re good but talent is not enough. Like I said you’re centuries beneath me” Then she tackled Rainbow to the ground smashing the cyan Pegasus so hard that she fainted instantly. Everywhere around Ponyville the residents gasped when they saw their heroes being beaten up that easily. Scootaloo was especially shocked by the sight of Rainbow lying on the ground with a small trace of blood coming from her mouth. Another thing that wasn’t nice was to see Pinkie suddenly stripped from her party canon and then her head forced into it right before Pin-Kill-Die shot. It wasn’t lethal but it hurt as hell, Pinkie was still dizzy when Pin-Kill-Die began to choke her until she fainted. “Too easy” Applejack just faced Jack the Reaper and tried to tie her with a her rope but the other mare simply jumped like guessing which maneuver her opponent was going to use and then tackled Applejack to take the rope and tie her instead. Once immobilized, the Reaper smashed Applejack’s head to a wall and made her faint as well. “It’s over” At the end Twilight looked to the dark alicorn, who shrugged again. “As you see we’re stronger than you, by a mile. Now that you’ve lost Princess, this time is under our administration, alright?” And with her magic she casted a new flag over the town hall: their own flag, the symbol that represented them as the dark saviors of Equestria. “And what shall we do with them?” Asked Jack the Reaper looking at the beaten Mane 6. Midnight glared at Twilight’s castle, oh the nostalgia… “Domiciliary arrest in their Palace of course. Now Princess: leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. Understood? Don’t try anything funny or we’ll show you what are we really capable of. Now you already know your tasks Undeads, let’s move” The Undead Knights nodded and moved around the town just pretending to be the new tyrants even if they were only waiting for Glimmer to come. “You won’t get away with this fake undeads” said Twilight to the Reaper when she was forced into her Castle. “We will. And we don’t care if you believe us or not” Said that she slammed the door on Twilight’s face. Twilight patiently waited to her friends to wake up while Spike sent an urgent letter to Princess Celestia. This hasn’t over. Not yet, this couldn’t end like this. … Night Terror was sitting on a rock in the mountain when he felt something agitating in his stomach. Took a while to remember it was his messenger breath, so long since he last used. With a grin he intercepted a letter from his young self and read it. “So they think they can stop with this. Sure, how many times we hadn’t had to fight Celestia and Luna. Nice try” He just rested on a rock humming boringly when a red dragon came behind him. “Can I help you?” “This is my territory and there’s only space for one dragon” Night Terror glanced at his enemy, a red dragon as big as him with black horns and orange eyes. Then he smiled, making the other dragon shiver, again his instincts were warning him this was no normal dragon but something very dangerous instead. “I’m just passing by, I think you can tolerate me a couple of nights, right?” And something in his eyes made the red dragon just nod and put a bunch of rubies in front of Night Terror. “Here, isn’t common to see other dragons migrating around this area” “I’m not like the others as you can see” The red dragon shivered again at the sight of this creature and better ran back to his cave hoping that as long as he didn’t disturb the creature he would leave him alone as well. In the meantime in Twilight’s palace, the girls have recovered with some help from Spike and looked to Twilight hoping for ideas, but she seemed as worried as them. “Come on Twi, there must be something you can think of!” “Girls I swear I’m trying but I just can’t. As you I got beaten badly… but what bothers me the most is that thing about the Undeads they kept insisting” Applejack face-hoofed. “Seriously? They come to town, lock us inside and then defeat us saying that they’re undeads and you’re worried only about the last part” Twilight shook her head. “You don’t understand, the Undead are a very dark race very dangerous. So much hideous and monstrous that the Princesses kept their existence as a secret to not worry the other ponies. In fact, I didn’t knew nothing of them until I became a Princess and Celestia showed me one. And it’s something I would never forget” Spike nodded. “Okay, why are them so dangerous and most important, why you’re saying our enemies can’t be undeads too?” Twilight took a book Celestia gave her right after that lesson. “As I say, this is kept as a secret to everypony so please don’t tell anyone. An Undead is created by a pact with the Devil, the darkest magic of all. When a pony is drove by desperation to the point of suicide, he can choose instead of just dying call the Devil himself by a dark ritual where you kill yourself but right at your last moments you can speak with Him to transform you into an Undead” Fluttershy trembled. “Sounds… terrifying” “I know, but is not as terrifying as the result. When you do the ritual your soul descends directly to hell but your body stays as something else: a hideous and mindless monster who only exist to exterminate life. Undeads are sensitive to life and they cannot stop until they exterminate it all. You can’t destroy an undead. Cut their head off? Burn them to ashes? Stab them in the heart? No matter what you do they’ll regenerate and keep their carnage. The only way to stop them is to lock them under powerful seal spells” “But if they have no mind how they feel life?” “Is like a sixth sense. But we’re missing the point here. Somehow those ponies know about the Undeads, how much I don’t know but I’m scared. Spike, have you received an answer yet?” “Sorry Twi… but not yet. I have a bad feeling about this” In the meantime the Undeads got separated in groups and were patrolling the town waiting for glimmer. They scared the hell out of the villagers but as long as they do not disturb the monsters nothing would happen to them. There were no incidents yet, until the two pegasi of the group run into a group of three fillies. “You! YOU’LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO RAINBOW DASH!!” And Scootaloo charged against them tackling the creatures at once. The orange filly was too furious to think clearly… but as soon as she tackled the creatures the hoods wore off revealing their true faces and that scared Scoots even more. “Wait… Ra, Ra… Rainbow Dash? F-f-f-Luttershy? What’s going on here?” Fleshy Smile quickly took her by the throat and began to choke her with cruelty. “Don’t dare you to call us by that names. Our forms corrupt by darkness cannot use them anymore. My name is Fleshy Smile, understood? Fleshy Smile” “And you can call me Undash” Scootaloo tried to fight the powerful hoof that held her but the monster who once were Fluttershy was too strong. So finally a string of pee came out of the filly and Fleshy Smile finally released her. “See? The pony you thought I was would never do something like this to a filly” Said that she put the hood again and along with Undash they left the scene. “Midnight will kill you for lowering your guard, you know?” “She can’t, we’re undeads” … Twilight was still walking in circles. “Still no answer Spike?” “Sorry Twi, is like they haven’t got my message” Twilight moaned in desperation, this couldn’t be worse. But then she had an epiphany, of course it was so obvious now. “How fool from us! Girls let’s use the Rainbow Power, if we summon it now we can end this for once, free the town from the strangers!” “Now we’re talking!” Shouted Rainbow Dash excited. They all closed their eyes feeling the wave of pure power that also freed Twilight’s horn and transformed ready to face their enemies. The sudden change in the environment took Midnight by surprise but couldn’t help but smile when she felt the Rainbow Power approaching to her. “Why didn’t I prevented this to happen? Oh right, I don’t have that power anymore, I forgot about its existence. Ha-ha” The Wave of Harmony freed Ponyville, the strangers were defeated. From his mountain Night Terror witnessed that but preferred not to say anything and wait for the result. His flame channel agitated again but he didn’t care this time. Perhaps Princess Celestia needed to see what was about to happen. Then a few minutes later Night Terror saw the Royal carriage that landed on Ponyville. “It’s done, now I’ll wait for your instructions, Midnight my beloved” In Ponyville, Princess Celestia stared at the six sleeping black-hooded ponies along with Shining Armor. Twilight just approached gently: “Princess Celestia, is not that I don’t appreciate to see my brother, but why did you brought him?” “When I read about the Undeads in your letter I knew we’ll need somepony to cast the sealing spell and that’s your brother’s specialty” Twilight shook her head. “But they’re not Undeads, they can think and…” Celestia looked at them and shivered. “Sorry to disappoint you Twilight, but they are Undeads. I would recognize that dark aura anywhere. I have no idea why this six are still capable to think… but I’m afraid that their story is true, they’re Undeads” “WHAT?” Fluttershy was also very frightened and hide behind Rainbow. “But why are they here? What they want from us? What should we do?” Shining Armor grinded his teeth. “I have no idea, but for now the best we can do is to lock them somewhere we can interrogate them. Twilight, do you have dungeons in your Palace?” “Yes. I don’t like to use them but…” “We’ll seal them there… for now. Like you this is the first time I see one of those things who can still think. What’s the meaning of all this?” And in CVhathe shadows, their old enemy Starlight Glimmer was waiting, it was now or never. She had planned her revenge for too long now, it didn’t matter if the other Princess and the Crystal General were in there, and she would take the Mane 6’s Cutie Marks again and destroy them forever. “You just wait Twilight Sparkle”