Chapter 2: Hymn
It had been some time since the undead hulk had found himself separated from the orchestra. His initial confusion had by then diffused. The magic that he attempted to use was one of the basic ones given to the Herald - it was more than alien for the simple energies not to conduct properly. When it exploded into rays of needless colors, it become all too obvious that he was wrong to assume that merely time had passed. The mana streams flowed differently, they had a different texture, a different taste. Space had moved as well, it became obvious. He was no longer there where he came from.
This world was very unlike the realms any Dead God’s follower had ever been in. Its mana tasted… sweet. It was not the sour stream that composed magic and other energies elsewhere. How far away was he taken?
Which plane did the conundrum of gravity send him to? Where were the other four? How would he reunite with his Dead God’s crusade?
These were not the questions Undying cared about long. His long deceased mind formed a very simple equation.
This realm’s mana was sweet beyond belief. That could only signify that it had sentient life. It was full of it, in fact. Life, festering and bulging in tumors over landscapes that belonged to his kind - so much life that not even the biggest kingdoms could he ravaged could compare. It was present in quality and quantity both - innumerable sour sparks, each of them radiating with such putrescence that even the most soulful lives devoured by his God paled. They transcended life - they were magic. Pure arcane energy.
And the Undying knew full well how to operate it. He was no longer sidetracked. Now, he was dedicated. A symphony to plan out, a dirge to sound for a world to put in his wake on the way back. Enough for him, enough for the army, and enough for any of the other dealers of death that he would find among the new landscapes. If he did.
The link once established between them had been rendered. All he could feel from it was fragments of scratches and faint, maddened chattering - nothing like the spastic, yet melodic staccato of varying thoughts. It distantly resembled the air that the floating creature of nightmares had around it - dark enough for even his mind to feel pressures of anxiety when it was around.
They were on the same side back then, the Dead God having brought them to fight the war together. Undying could not recall whether it was even present in the fight that rended space apart - it was a safe assumption that in order for anything like him, anything that could pierce dreams and create those of its own, a similar kind of force would need to be applied. It was the one question that kept him in doubt.
It was also far from being the priority.
“Rise!” His vocal chords vibrated by near instinct, and his arms twisted upwards, channeling the streams of magic rebalanced. A simple test of proper strength, something he would need to conduct the orchestra. Vile green streams aimed at a nearby pillar, one that had a large ursine’s pierced skull on the top, as if it impaled itself with prejudice on top of the deceased structure.
A field Tombstone. A transistor for the Dead God to communicate and command those who belong in his realm. It was a vastly inferior emergency type of it that Undying had made out of the abandoned building. The kind that he would use in the heat of battle, when there was no time for better composed pieces. These formed themselves of dirt, stone and bone - the dead that followed them fell apart in mere minutes, and so did the structures. Sometimes - like then - existing buildings would well be fit for conversion, only to crumble and fall into disrepair within little time of reanimation.
This one emitted so much power that not even specifically designed Tombstones, those that he created to lead full armies, could compare.
“Death sings!” he roared, watching the building cover itself with notes for the music, letting out so much power that even the fully dismantled skull on the top attempted to move in its place.
This was merely a sliver of his power, and it had already given him more than he once had.
Rattles and screeches had begun to creep in from various angles. The large skeletons of creatures that had taken the dead city for their graveyard rose, and immediately bowed, for they had no command issued to them just yet. Bony limbs of various kinds shot up from the soil. A large, once-blooming plant, dead upon the Undying’s approach, rose up straight and whirled its long leaves around as if trying to reach for prey. So many gathered so quickly.
He had absolute control over them. It was better than that of all but his most perfect creations back in the Dead God’s realm. A miniscule bit of magic had created warriors from incomplete skeletons. The thoughts of what he could do once enough strength had been regained through souls of the living - the sparkling, shining souls…
The undead General smacked his mostly missing lips, and turned to the wooden wreck. That which he took for the Admiral’s materialized vessel was, in fact, one of the air - something that reminded him of tall tales of the Keen that made himself a flying machine, far away in the land he was now distanced from. It must have crashed, like most dreams of the living - the wreck and the corpses were a lot fresher than the rest of the graveyard city. However, it was not what interested him. The blank gaze aimed specifically at the corpses near it.
There was something about them.
“My will.” A vile finger stretched towards the now sitting arrangement of small husks. They turned their heads towards him, and, without another word, ran up as quickly and safely as they could, taking positions near him. Sitting, standing, lying - giving him better access to their bodies. The small pieces of their souls, remaining a dusky shine within the frames, were… brighter than those he was used to seeing in the living.
He was right.
These were the creatures that had to have been the majority of this world’s population. The size must have allowed to spread thick, and the sheer taste of the unripped souls hinted exactly at what the mana streams were powered by.
Small, equine-looking quadrupeds. They resembled the one atop the towering pillar, standing by the Tombstone - only nowhere near as big, and lacking parts.
A confused gurgle emerged from his throat. They looked like… horses. In essentiality, that was what they were - mere animals in his world. Their body structure differed rather drastically, with some features much more commonly found in humanoids, but for the most part, they were very much equine.
Of course. No world with souls as sweet as this could ever be inhabited by predators.
The obedient servants laid, sat and stood as long as they needed to, allowing the Undying to study their physiology. Unfortunately, all they could afford was the skeleton - and even that was broken for some. Parts of interest, such as the horn-like extensions some had protruding from the skull, or pairs of wings that others had, would need to be present in flesh to be studied better. Ideally, he would need a living specimen - a delicious soul to rip and restore some of the power, but also a burden of memory which to read and decode.
The Dead God’s Herald needed information to work off. A simple horde could take down a city or two - a whole realm would take strategy. He needed to know locations, specifics… he needed a living one.
“Hello? Is anypony there? Hello?”
His neck twisted at the source of the shrill voice. Close, in the forest.
“I’m lost!”
He made a step in that direction, crushing a winged skeleton - the new encounter had purged the need for the crumbling skeletons from the Undying’s mind.
The forest that devoured the city was full of life, yes, but it was plants and animals. Most of them predators, or at the very least venomous - a dreadful jungle for anything that was not already dead. A monster’s paradise, of a sort. The sheer smell told him that much. Non-sentient life was easy to decode.
But this… this was exactly what he needed. Sentient.
“I… will…” he growled to himself, making fists of his rigid palms and readying the notes of decay. The equines may have seemed puny, but they did inhabit a large part of the realm. It was only proper to assume that they possessed some sort of powerful weapon in their possession - and only reasonable to think that one that made its way so deep into the danger-filled forest had access to one.
“Hello? Anypony? He- AAAAH!”
It peeked from the trees, right behind where the large skeletons sat in obedience, sometimes moving around via instinct, attempting to breathe. Its eyes shot first at them, then the green, runed Tombstone, and then at the towering, undead hulk that was Undying.
All it emitted was mindless dread and nothing more.
He waited for more, standing in place, ready to decay its body and rip its soul as soon as it showed its plan. Only it seemed to have none.
The puny, grey, yellow-maned equine shuddered in place, a bag filled with white sheets on its side. Some laid scattered around it, thrown out as it jumped upon sight of the death-consumed opening. Its jaw hung open, its oddly mismatched eyes had their irises take up most of the space within. It was doing absolutely nothing but standing in place and twitching.
He grumbled, having become frustrated with waiting for its show of power. It was not a necessity, but it would be of major assistance if he knew their secret right from the start. But all it did was stand in place and twitch.
The Undying tilted his elongated head, taking a better look of the equine. The bag obscured something of importance - it was a winged one. For a moment, the General contemplated his course of action. Whatever he did, he would have knowledge of the winged equines’ structure.
Then, he finally deemed the specimen defective, and unleashed decay upon its miniscule body.
“W— whhh—”
Its convulsions would soon end. His arms stretched to the sides, and then clapped together.
“Ah. Fresh soul…”
However Twilight tried, she could not rest her head. What she had seen tried to make itself seem like a coincidence, but superstitions within her rang loud. Something was wrong.
Something was very, very wrong.
The tired unicorn tried to get it out of her head in many ways, spending a few hours reading through a novel she had taken with herself, so as to purge the anxiety. It all seemed like such a silly thing to assume. A premonition within a dream.
She very well may have encountered more than a few supernatural elements over the course of the two years she had spent in Ponyville, and even more about them she knew from books, but this seemed out of the question. Not in an age when Princess Luna had returned and established control over their dreamland’s safety.
Something as potent and as vile as this would have had to go through her first - that, or it would require a loophole. Their Princess guarded them from any threat within the limits of this world.
Twilight Sparkle knew full well that Princess Luna was in good health, even at the moment, and that she would never have left any sort of loophole - and if she did, she would find out immediately. Especially considering that, whether she liked it or not, she was important - and so were her friends. They bore the Elements. They would be the first targets should any planned invasion happen, and so there was much more security based around them.
In the worst case scenario, Twilight would already have been contacted. She was not. It was all just a silly dream, and the structure was merely something that remained of the old ruins within Everfree, something she had never paid any attention to.
“This is ridiculous,” she said to herself, flipping the book over, “It’s just a nightmare. Get yourself together, Twilight.”
Some self-reassurement was in order, but it made for little payoff. Whatever the case, there was no more time for that. A familiar line of trees and hills emerged - soon enough, it was announced that they were approaching Ponyville Station. Her things were in place, and Twilight sincerely hoped that so would be her mind.
Trotting out of the train, barely inconvenienced by the few who were leaving at the small town, the unicorn already knew to put her worries to rest for at least a minute, and surround herself with a force field. That was customary for every time she returned via train.
The first three times her pink earth pony friend almost choked her to death, claiming that she missed her so much after two days, one week, and six hours respectively, were indicator enough that Twilight’s throat was in great danger each time she returned. The rest of her closest friends would sometimes meet her, depending on how busy they were, but she was a constant. A very pleasant, but overly asphyxiation-happy constant. Who refused to listen to Twilight’s pleas not to choke her whenever she returned.
So it was all the more strange that when she arrived, there was noone waiting for her. The faint purple barrier held on for a minute more, but then it was discarded.
Something was wrong.
It had been three hours since she had arrived. Enough time to settle back in, greet Spike, feed him a diamond she bought specfically for his pleasure, leave to get food, and then send Spike to check in on the archive - something he was supposed to have done over the time she was out.
And still noone had time to greet her. In fact, noone was around. The most she had seen of the townsfolk was a few silhouettes behind the windows of their houses.
Twilight sat by the table, sorting the books on the shelf behind her for relaxation, and wondered. It was reasonable to assume that each of them had their own commitments - it was not like she was jealous over how they had jobs of their own and things to go through. That would have been ridiculous. But something… something was wrong. Something in the air.
The unicorn yawned and went into a sudden coughing fit just as there was a knocking on the door.
“Come in,” she answered once her lungs went back to normal, “How may I—”
Visitors to the library would normally just come in and go about their book business. It was very rare that anyone would knock. Only now Twilight realized that - far too deep in her thoughts to give it more consideration before it was too late.
What awaited her, however, was not an unwanted visitor of any kind.
It was something that made her heart skip a beat.
She had only seen her in a state anywhere near this once. The time when a big unfortunate misunderstanding resulted in her thinking that she had been abandoned by her best friends. Just a silly mistake, but it had her turn pale, weak, straight-maned, and a lot less stable.
Compared to how she looked now, that was her at the peak of health.
“T… Twilight? Twilight, is everything... is everything okay?” the pink earth pony barely mumbled out, staring aimlessly into space, even after the door had been telekinetically pulled open for her.
“What’s wrong? Has something happened?!” the unicorn asked in abstract horror, watching at what had so suddenly become of her friend. Her mind had not even caught up to it yet - she was merely struck.
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
“It’s… Twilight, it’s… are you okay?” she would not even step into the library. Her body, usually just a bit plump, now shook frail at the doorstep. It had only been two days since Twilight had departed.
“I’m fine, I’m alright, just... Please, tell me what’s wrong!” Twilight had made her way closer to her friend, wary and getting more and more concerned with each second.
“It’s… Twilight…” The bright teal eyes stared at her like if they had just seen something absolutely terrifying, “I… I’ve had… Twilight, I know you know, please, I’ve…”
This was getting too much. The strange dusk over the town, the empty streets, the weird sensation in the air, the absent expressions on the faces of so many, the feeling of pressure over her head, the lack of presence of her friends, and, finally, the nightmare she had seen. Something was wrong.
And Pinkie Pie knew it, too. For her, it was much worse. She had always been a lot more… sensitive than others, when it came to the supernatural.
She was dragged into the library, sat in a comfortable chair, given tea and a consoling hug. That was what it took to get her to speak coherently. Twilight brought Spike in too, and he sat nearby, watching them talk.
Like if there was not enough things off with the situation. Normally, he would be more active. This time, he would just sit there and look at them, as if he had very much the same feeling the whole day. Even when he greeted her, something was off.
“I’ve seen it too,” Pinkie had finally managed to say.
“You’ve seen… what?” Twilight had a good enough idea to be horrified, but tried to look staunch in her expression.
It took the earth pony some time to gather herself and speak up. She said one word.
“Bane.”
“Uh… What?” the unicorn was taken aback by what she had heard.
“B-bane.”
Bane of your existence…
Twilight’s breath went rapid and spastic. She heard Spike shift in his seat with a definite lack of comfort. Something was very, very wrong.
She looked at her friend with an inkling of terror in her eyes.
“Pinkie… why did you only come find me now? Did you go see a doctor? Did—”
“I’ve… I’m… I’m just out of bed.”
Twilight did not want to know… but she was starting to. It was all very, very unpleasant. The things she was coming to did not please her.
“It’s eight in the evening. Don’t the Cakes wake you up when you oversleep?”
“W-what? It’s… Twilight, I… I went to sleep when I saw you off, and I’ve been… I... You just left, and now you’re back, and I don’t know… I don’t know anything anymore.”
They did not please her at all.
“Twilight, I’m scared.”
Twilight coughed profusely, her vision blacking out for a second.
“Pinkie… I’ve been away for two days.”
They stared at each other in the awkward moments that followed.
“Did you just sleep for two days? How did noone notice?” Spike added his voice into the confusion.
“I… I don’t know. I haven’t seen the Cakes yet… or… or any of our friends…”
“Twilight, um… I haven’t seen them either. They didn’t even come by in the past couple of days,” Spike spoke up weakly, stifling a cough.
The gears in her head turned and turned, and the conclusion had formed itself.
She wished it was all just a nightmare all over again.
“And who is this Bane you are talking about? Did I miss something again? Twilight? Twilight?!”
“That all depends,” the high-pitched hacksaw voice sounded in her ear, and she collapsed, “on what you call a nightmare, little one.”
The blanket of dreams before her shifted and sung a stable, quiet note. Her consciousness had separated into thousands of little pieces, pouring into the dreaming minds, and helping untangle their slumber knots. She was one, but her eyes were many, and she kept watchful vigil over the safety of her subjects.
Princess Luna - or, at least, her prime consciousness - floated in a carefully constructed subsection of her mind, dreaming internally, all while controlling the dreams of thousands.
Everything was fine. Nothing from her realm of existence was going to harm her little ponies.
“I dreamed a world of prey… and woke to find myself upon it.”
Nothing from her realm of existence.
The screeching, sly, demented voice emitted from all around her, and pierced all of her minds. With a stricken gasp, she was thrown to the floor of her chambers… only it was not them.
This was a nightmare. She had not had a nightmare in over a thousand years.
The last one she had was a Nightmare.
She was not losing to one again.
“Avaunt!” the dream realm around her crashed right apart. The sleeping chambers, perverted wrongly in a way that only a dreamwalker right her could imagine, exploded in a fountain of deep blue light.
Perhaps, some would have called Luna paranoid for being perpetually prepared for any kind of intrusion. After all, there had been no intrusions ever commited to her own dreams.
Being paranoid paid off.
“You cannot hide!” her voice boomed through the abstract nocturnal plane, amplified through the power she had within. It was her realm.
“Oh-hoh-hoh… Fear what you cannot see, hmmm?”
The Princess growled and unleashed a scouring wave of black fire on everything around her. It may have been a metaphorical attack, something to hurt that which existed in dreams, but it was a burning hot storm nonetheless.
Whatever it was, it was going away. Not again.
All questions could wait. It had to be burned, to be scourged, to be removed. It was nothing good. Not at all. Perhaps, she was too radical - her sister would surely have told her that - but Luna knew best when it came to creatures of the dreams.
This was nothing good.
“Go back to where you came from!” her consciousness snapped into a myriad little pieces, and they filled the nocturnal field of battle. Whatever vile creation that came to bring evil would have done well to consider who it was trying to go up against.
This was her world, and she was ready to fight.
“Nnnyyuuagurharghh…” A twitchy, spastic sound emitted from right beside all of her, and existence went dark, jagged, and painful. The myriads of shards her consciousness had broken into were gone, lost by their target, navigating so effortlessly through her kingdom of dreams.
A disgusting knot of needly spines came into being over her, and her nonexistent legs failed her. Her incorporeal gut went cold, and her head was stung with weakening pain.
She was not ready to fall.
“Don’t think you’re done with me,” her voice screamed from all around yet again, a deafening manifestation of the resolve she bore.
“I… must be dreaming,” the voice slurped, “You fought better than some gods did…”
Luna tried to move, to shift out of place and reestablish territorial control, but she could not. Her body was all enfeebled. And she did not even have a body on this plane of existence.
“What… are you…” the Princess of the Night choked on her own words when maggots filled her throat, and she could breathe no longer.
“Me?” the sly, incoherent voice perked up, “Oh, Princess…”
It knew what she was. It twisted the word like if it was comedic.
“...I am the Bane of your existence.”
Deafening laughter emitted from all around, and with each blasted sound, Luna changed shape, and the land near her switched form. She could not move one bit. It had her in a grip. The horrible fiend simply came to her and destroyed all her defenses, left her exposed, and filled her realm with nightmares. Where it came from or what it was, she did not know. She could barely think.
The maggots had disappeared. A first try, she understood - the dreamwalker logic read in that creature’s movements. Luna would too first assume wrongly… only she fought those nightmares. She did not create them.
This thing, however, did. The Princess took much longer to horrify than so many of these that died in their sleep thanks to his efforts. She never knew that. To her, it was mere seconds until the basic frights, from maggots to spiders to rats to worms and to perversions, were exhausted, and it had found that with which to paralyze her mind. Her projection was already paralyzed, and now she could no longer wake up until it wanted her to.
She sat static on a dusty throne, her pitch black coat adorned with enchanted armor, and her stifled gasps coming out with such familiar distortion.
“Something… unites us,” it spoke, floating right in front of her, “Our worlds… Princess… Luna.”
Her eyes, with a change in irises, could not distinguish it from the desecrated throne chamber and the corpses of all whom she loved. But it was there.
“Yours is… so succulent. So efficient. So bright. So many souls to dream and take under my pall.”
Princess Luna, trapped within Nightmare Moon’s body yet again, did not know why she was still able to think. Her whole being screamed. She did not.
“I feel… left out. I am not from here, you see. But… I do not feel homesick, Princess. I suppose I have you to thank, hmm?”
It had begun to become visible. A terribly twisted, contorted, purple mockery of an equine with facial shapes that would instill horror in a lesser heart all by themselves. Disproportionate limbs, a ghastly ichor dripping from its extremities, and a constant twitch in its movements. It was an elemental of nightmares if there ever was one.
It already had Equestria’s only defender against such things under its sickly, dangling hoof.
“You all shine so bright. So sweet, so—” the creature slurped, “—nutritious.”
Why was it telling her all this? It could merely tear her soul apart and conquer her realm. And Luna knew it knew.
Something was even more rotten than it already was.
“Oho-hoh-hoh, you are smart. I underestimated you. It is… unusual for creatures of your… disposition to be so savvy,” it read her mind, “I applaud you. I truly do. You… call out to my heart.”
It floated right up to her and stuck its eyeless mouth right in her much hated face.
“Nightmare Moon.”
It already knew. It did not just pull the visage from her subconscious, it gathered information. It knew why she feared it so much.
“Something unites us. Nightmare Moon… Mad Moon… a twist of discord… a pull of gravity. I am so very glad to be here.”
Luna was merely a listener. This was the Bane of her existence.
“But not all of us share that standpoint, Princess.”
And it wanted something from her.
“I am… not the only one who came from those sour, nasty lands. Tchah! I can’t believe I’ve feasted on these withering minds for so long and thought it delicious! It will never be the same after I tasted your subjects,” Luna nearly fell from her seat, the rage so hot within that the creature had to reestablish its control, now so much more tight, “They were the sweetest I’ve had in such a long time. How they scream… is unimaginable. There was a pink one… her I kept screaming for two days. She was the main dish.”
Her feelings could no longer decide between horror, agony, and rage.
“And that was merely a sip! Oh, she and her friends alone can last me for months. Such finely groomed foods. The first ones I ever lay my grip upon, and already there is such delight. To think that you have a whole nation full of those,” the Bane chuckled, “Oh, I thank you again.”
Luna breathed. It was the only thing she could do.
“But… that is beside my point. Enough of my thanks to you,” the elemental floated away, over the mangled corpses of Celestia, Twilight, her friends, and so many more, “I did mention that I was not the only one, didn’t I?”
A string of horror went off in her heart. What else could come from the wretched world this abomination originated from?
“Oh, yes, there is one more. I can feel his stench even now. His mind is so… terrifyingly… SOUR!” it contorted in such a spasm that for a split second, Luna thought it was giving birth, “His terrors are hard to come across, and he is very… hard to work with. He is loose, Princess. And, unlike me… he will not want to stay.”
She was starting to understand.
This was even worse than being devoured.
“The Undying and his Almighty Dirge will want a way to find their Dead God. And your succulent souls will power its trek with ease, believe me. Drown you in corpses, alive in death. The sun shall weep, and the moon shall bleed. Your souls will be sundered, and none left for ME.”
This horrible, vile creature, this Bane, wanted her help. It was the only thing that stopped her from being devoured, and her kingdom from being its plaything once and for all. Celestia could never muster enough strength to defeat it in its realm - Luna could not do it herself.
But it knew that in the real world, she was necessary. It did not want to gulp and choke and feast. It wanted to savor every bite, and it could never do that without her.
It held her hostage.
And it had an enemy.
“So watch, Princess. Watch and see. He has to be stopped. Do call me again. You will know how. I will come aid you...”
Her mind had begun to black out. An enormous, towering, primate-like shape had begun to enlarge, and then such visions came that catharsis was reached.
“...or there’s none left for me.”
The Undying vomited profusely, hour after hour, after devouring the soul of the grey winged equine. A necessity. His stomach had to get used to the new food.
It was all so disappointing. So much unnecessary thought, so… off-center in its obliviousness. This one was defective, it very much was.
But even a defective soul told him of the nearest surroundings, the “pony” anatomy, the layout of the world, and of many other things that sickened the undead General.
The hum of the Song of Death emitted steadily from the single Tombstone - it gave off new melodies. He could tell the wind of sickness already. Should he find more suitable Tombstones, the plan would have been fit to be set in motion.
There was a town just ahead, and there his reaping would be large.
More importantly, he knew that a community figure lived there. She would know so much more than all the others. Her soul would lead him on ahead, and push the Dirge to completion.
“Hunger…” he growled, his undead skeletal minions rushing to meet him and follow. The undead hulk made step after step, into the forest that threatened all life, apart from that which was too stupid to realize its threat. Unlife, however… had no issue getting through.
He would find the one they called Twilight Sparkle. He would rip her soul to shreds, and from then, he would know all that could be necessary for invasion.
But first, the General needed an army. The skeletons and the crawling fleshy grey-coated corpse were only the start.
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Wait wait wait, Atropos the Bane Elemental got over too? Damn it Enigma, what have you done? Wonder if anyone else got through? Sniper and Huskar maybe?
I do find it kind of hard to believe that Atropos would be able to beat Luna in a dream-fight, after all. He's the god of Nightmares, while Luna controls Dreams as a whole. Though I suppose I can understand it if Bane needed to use his Ultimate to disable Luna.
Kinda hoping this doesn't become a story of the uber-powerful dota characters coming to Equestria, and the wittle ponies can't defend themselves at all without their aid. They do have the Elements, don't they? If Luna were smart - which she is - then the moment she awoke she'd bring the Bearers to Canterlot and have them fire the Orbital Friendship Cannon.
Also, Bane vs Undying? That's a very lopsided battle. After all, for all of Undying's strength and the power of him clapping, he's still just a glorified zombie, while Atropos is a deity in his own right, he who brings nightmares to Zeus himself. You're gonna need to give Undying some real strength if you don't want both the Elements and the Fear God to just WTFBBQ him.
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Yeah. He was there in the first chapter, too - Twilight saw Bane in her nightmare. He was in the jungle, and then... solo blackhole for the win. Enigma wanted to try the Aghs upgrade out.
For minor spoilers, these two (Undy and Bane) are going to be pretty much the only ones. Equestria's on its own now. Enigma has farmed his Aghanim's Scepter up and the Dire ancient is probably falling soon. Who knows what happens afterwards.
But I'm definitely keeping the focus on these two. And things are going to get a little unusual with time. A change of diet can do various things. In any case, Equestria isn't having fun. But, well, it's got means to protect itself.
Well, magic got amplified big time for the Heroes we know - Undying already has abilities he did not have before (old-school veterans can look forward to some references to his previous version).
Also, Bane ATE the GODDESS of DREAMS. ATE HER. SHE'S STILL BLEEDING. Luna is just a pony who controls them the best she can. Personally, I find it admirable that she fought at all. Sure, Bane has his... issues, being now present in this world, but yyyyeah he's a problem.
Hmmm, yes, they can. They can charge the Elements and all will be fine. The Elements that require the Bearers to be operational and ready. All the coughing, vomiting, being missing and other minor inconveniences the M6 are experiencing are certainly not going to be a factor, hmmm?
Oh, and little PP, who had spent two days having HOLY DICKENS WHO KNOWS WHAT done to her, is probably not going to laugh in a very long time. The original version of this chapter had her describe what exactly Bane did to her.
I did not want to admit that I was writing Mature-Sex-Gore, and decided to omit it.
Well, Undying also more or less has no brain. Or, well, he does, but it's nothing Bane wants to have much to do with.
Also, it's very heavily implied (and since I'm the author, well...) that the already overly powerful Tombstone is what his in-game Tombstone is like here. This thing, that gives him permanent zombies, and does more than that, too (that's to be unveiled), is an EMERGENCY TOMBSTONE FOR QUICK SKIRMISH USE. And normally he uses much more sophisticated models. It is not going to end well, that much is for sure. He is more than a glorified zombie by this point. This thing is going to withstand multiple blasts from the aforementioned cannon— oh wait.
Besides, things aren't all sunshine and rainbows for Atropos himself, either. Not only is he going to have to somehow instill fear into a vastly overpowered zombie army (autoattacks are unlikely to work that well), but... you'll see. Poor thing may have... indigestion, of a sort. If he eats too fast.
Didn't expect to see Atropos here as well nor him actually helpingthem in his own way and it seems that Undying got his first meal. Poor Ditzy(At least I think its Ditzy)
You do bring a good point about Undying and his overpowered army, not to mention the whole spell immunity they have going on.
I eagerly await the next chapter.
5113681
Yep, it's her. She's even referred to (later on) by that name, because Derpy makes me throw up.
I hope to deliver.
5113246 Ah, I see. I'd argue that Bane's attack on Nyala... however the hell you pronounce her name was a sneak attack while she was unawares, but it's never established so meh, it becomes my headcanon vs yours.
In any case, I'd love to see something from Bane's PoV.
5113884 Nyctasha. And, well, my estimation was based primarily on how she was a GODEDESS. Lulu is a few pegs down. Besides, it's... assumed, that Bane took on her mantle after that.
So yeah, he's some help.
And... maybe. See next week.
5113899 Hmm, it would be interesting to see how Atropos's power would team up with the ponies. The potential for that, I believe ponies would see a lot of Sombra in him for his fear magic, and a lot of windigo and changeling for feeding off fear.
Yeah, he doesn't have many AoE, does he? If he wants to end the Dirge, he's gonna have to go straight to the source, which brings to mind if he even knows where Undying is. That... could be a problem.
Plus on a more humourous, totally want to see Undying meet up with Twilight and mistake her for 'Carl' ala his Invoker-Ally response. "Carl? Is that you?"