The Lullaby of the Lich

by Gearhorn

Hello, who is this?

“So, just getting it out there, I’m taking over this town.” I said casually.

“Wait, what!?!” Captain yells, causing pain to himself.

“Think about it, this is in your best interest.” I say sincerely.

“How is a filly, who just beat up the better part of the town, being put in charge of said town, in anyone's best interest?”

“Simple, I act high and mighty, boss ponies around, and do what I want... Oh, I guess I should tell you how it’s helpful to you.” I take a deep breath. “So, here is the deal, you have been stuck here for, I’m not sure how long, suffering Luna knows what, and still you managed to survive, which is great. The thing is though, this place is dying, the wall is falling apart, your buildings are rotting, Tartarus your soldiers were willing to fight a filly, without holding back, you’re losing this war dude.”

“So, what do you suggest?”

“Simple, Captain. I rule, I make changes, I do” I pause for dramatic effect. ”what you tell me to.”

“What?” he asked genuinely confused.

“Come on Cap. it’s simple. I act as you tell me to, and we get things done. I do all the things that you” I said pointing my non-injured hoof at him. “can’t. I do all the things that regulations prohibit, I do all the things that if you, did would cause a mutiny of your troops. In short we” I said pointing back and forth between us. “get these silly, impressionable ponies out of this mess, using whatever means necessary.”

“You do realize that everyone will probably hate you once this is all done right?”

“And you realize that if ponies find out that you are the one telling me to do stuff against regulation you will be in deep trouble?” A smile spreads across his face.

“Then, I suppose we should start to plan.” He says, and yes, he is one of those silly impressionable ponies.

“I suppose we should.”

------

Basically, all we decided was that I needed to hurry up, and declare my rule, while he went home and got some bed rest. I also found out that the villagers hated new people in general, and they still didn’t like the troops even though they had been there for years. I found this strange, but I mean I am in a different reality than my own, who am I to judge the norm. We also talked a bit about drakes, how they hunted, weaknesses, and stuff along those lines. The conversation wandered a bit before Fluffy left, I mean we had hours to waste.

So, there I was at a podium, in front of town hall, with a small crowd gathered before me, courtesy of the guards, it really is amazing how willing to help you ponies are, once you beat their face in a bit. “Ponies of Pony Worth, I came here in peace,” I hear some whispers in the audience. “but you went, and screwed that up. So, I am forcefully, ceasing your town, effective immediately, I will be your sole ruler, what I say will be law, and you will obey, or be forced to fend for yourselves out in the wilderness. Oh, anyone found trying to escape to the wilderness will be imprisoned. I will be posting a list of new laws, that you have to follow, on the message board. Non-compliance to any new law will result in imprisonment, with little food. On the other hoof, if you all comply to what I say, I promise to get us all out of this Tartarus, that this town has become, I will get you all out this forsaken forest, I will lead you all to freedom!” I proclaimed, while slamming my hoof on the podium, which elected, a booming noise from the solid wood podium. There was no reaction at all from the audience, one of them even had the audacity to yawn, he went on the list. “I offer you freedom, but it will not be easy, it is up to each of you. Do you want to cooperate, and be liberated, or rebel, and doom us all?” I ended dramatically, and stepped off the podium, avoiding the crowd. Seeing the sun dipping toward the horizon, I decided to head over to Mad’s place, or at least try to find out where it was.

Reaching the graveyard I saw earlier, I made a line in my head, between the smithy and the graveyard. Following said line I came across a shallow ramp leading into the ground, and on one side of the ramp was a thick steel door, with a rope beside it, that was obviously some kind of doorbell, I pulled the rope. Bells started to chime from the other side of the door, some of them sounding quite far off, after a while, a slate in the door opens, allowing the pony inside to see who was at the door.

“Who is it?” I hear a voice ask. He couldn’t see me, considering I was a little under half the height of a normal pony.

“It’s me, Red Tide” I said, jumping up to be at eye level with him for a sec, this apparently scared him, because I hear him back pedal quickly, followed by crashing noises. I wait patiently for a bit, before I hear him walk back over to the door, close the slate, and open the door.

“Welcome to my house, slash emergency bunker.”

“Oh, thanks.” I said while stepping inside, the place was about what you would expect from a stone bunker, except nicer. Were the rest of the town was rundown, his place was surprisingly well kept, there weren’t any cobwebs, there wasn’t any dust, hell the furniture was all in one piece, and even looked nice. Not including the glass in the corner that he had just broken.

“So, what you think, nice, right?”

“It’s so clean!!!” I squealed, jumping into the air. Just for future reference, I don’t mind dirt, but I LOVE clean things, especially clean houses. My sudden outburst seemed to catch him off guard, judging by his expression of pure shock.

“Well, glad you like it, let me show you around the house, so that you don’t get lost.” He said while turning, and walking through a door in the back of the room. “That was the living room, this is the game room, this is the kitchen, the bathroom, a hallway of bedrooms is that way, another hallway of bedrooms that way, and yet another that way, another bathroom.” At this point we go down a few flights of stairs. “This is the maze, in case something manages to break through to this point, there are archer holes in the ceiling, and places for burning oil to fall through, there.” He points at a holes in the roof, while walking through the maze. “and now we are leaving the maze area, to your right is another bathroom, and to the left is your is your bedroom.”

“Wow, it’s pretty far down here....”

“This way you don’t have to worry, even if the drakes attack, you will be safe.”

“So, where will you be sleeping?” I asked, I mean sleeping this far down seemed mighty suspicious to me.

“My bedroom is right here.” He said opening a door caddy corner to mine.

“Oh, well I’ll go ahead and go to sleep.” I said, as I went inside my room. Getting inside I realized that these rooms were designed to house a dozen or so ponies, luckily I was the only one in my room. Seeing all these empty beds gave me a idea. I started pulling mattresses off of the box springs, I pulled a pair of beds closer to each other, stacked exactly the same amount of mattresses on each bed, then suspended a few mattresses between them, as I laid some on the ground, and one behind me, I called it good. “Fort Bed, is now complete.” I said happily. “No wait I forgot!” I get up and drape some sheets in front of the entrance, then go turn out the light. “NOW, Fort Bed is complete.” I settle down, making a nest out of the pillows, and go to sleep.

---------

I found myself once again in a dark ally, in the middle of the night, the man who killed my sister is in front of me again. “Fuck, this dream again!” I whisper to myself, before realizing that I know it’s a dream, which means I can control what happens. This time instead of begging for mercy I bit my hoof, and walk forward as the blood tendrel starts to form around my leg.

“Stay back!” The man says pointing his gun, at me, instead of my sister. I just smile, I know I have won, there is no way that I could lose, I mean a gun, really, what does he even expect to do with that. “Stay back I say!” His hands start shaking, I start giggling, I was going to enjoy this, I would finally get to kill the man who ruined my life, so what if it was a dream. I walk forward some more, he shoots me in the chest, I unleash a blood tendrel from the wound, plunging it into his right eye, and through the back of his skull, he falls over dead, releasing my sister from his grasp. I scoop her up in my blood tendrel, stopping her fall.

“Jen wake up, hey wake up Jen.” I said softly.

Her eyes slowly open, she sees me, but she doesn’t. She sees the creature that I have become, with my draconic eyes, a blood tendrel sticking out of my chest, holding her up, she sees the way I am glowing with a unnatural red light. She screams, terror clear in her voice, and I wake up.

-------

“FUCK YOU BRAIN!!!! WHY DO YOU TORMENT YOURSELF!!!! ….Why do I torment myself....” I finished in a whisper, I just stared blankly at nothing for a long while, not wanting to even think. Hours passed, or maybe only minutes, it could even have been seconds, and I finally let my brain start back up. Once it’s reboot was complete, I decided to go outside, it was actually rather easy to get back through the maze, Mad had worn a slight trail through the maze because of his continual travel along the same route. I left the house, and found it was day. “Did I actually manage to sleep through a whole night?” I ask the air, the answer was no. No, I hadn’t slept through the night, what I saw wasn’t the light of the sun, but the light of the nearby grass, that had caught fire.

Running over I quickly put out the fire, by rolling in it, once that was out, I looked around, trying to spot what caused the fire. It didn’t take long to find the cause, as it swooped down at me, trying to catch me in it’s claws. I just stood there slightly crouched, as it got closer I let me fangs extend to full. It was ten feet away from me, when I pounced, aiming straight for its throat with my fangs. I bit clean the throat and spine, and slurped up a lot of the blood, still wasn’t as good as Fluffy’s blood, but it helped replenish some of the energy I had used to fight off the villagers.

Realizing that there was danger, I looked around frantically. “Where are they, where are the rest of them.” I said remembering what Fluffy had said about the drakes attacks in small groups. I found what I was looking for, there was another one a few hundred yards away swooping down toward a pony. I started running toward it. Running, I had never ran that fast before, it was the kind of run that if you were to trip you would land on your face, if you were a human. My vision started to blur at the edges, I had a target, and nothing was getting in my way. Approaching at a speed I had seen few things achieve, I hit it straight in the back sending it flying over the pony it was about to attack. When it hit the ground, it slowly started to get back up, obviously hurting from the surprise attack. Walking to it’s side, I slapped the back of its head, knocking its jaw against the ground, then stood at full height on my back legs, bringing down both my fore hoofs into its skull, a sickening crack was heard, then it’s muscles went slack. I walked over to it, bit through its spine, and started looking for the next target. While all this was going on, my mind was clear, I didn’t have stray thoughts, I only had targets, and things to protect, I was a machine, a machine with a anger problem.

Finding yet another target, I jumped onto a cart, used it as a springboard, landed on top of a nearby building, and ran across the rooftops, running, I felt the speed come back to me, and my body lowered to the buildings, my stride lengthening, as I moved from one building to the next, till the drake was back in sight. I jumped from the building, biting through the drakes wing. Both, he and I, fall to the ground, I hit, and roll to my hoofs, he gets up, with his left wing dragging. As he was getting up, I started charge at him, planning on crushing his ribs in with a flying kick, he sees me coming, and swings a clawed hand at me, I open my mouth, catch his wrist in my mouth, and crush his wrist with in my jaw, letting go of his wrist and flipping around, I land a round house to his face, sending it stumbling, before he regains his balance, I sweep his feet, jump on his back, and sever his spine in a single bite.

Heat was coursing through my entire body, I felt like I was on top of the world, my muscles felt ready to move at a thought. I climbed back on top of a nearby building, looking for something, anything. I see light in the distance, I start running at it, easily slipping into a full sprint while moving once more along the streets. When I finally get to the light I see what it is, it's the guards holding most of the drakes at bay, the soldiers on the wall are shooting the wings of any that try to fly, while giving support to the rest of the troops. I stop sprinting and casually walk up to Captain Fluffy, who is giving orders to his troops. “Captain Fluffy, what can I kill?” I said, between ragged breaths, my mind feeling like it’s on fire. Looking over at the wall, I see soldiers and drakes fighting viciously, but strangely the only fire is that from the torches the guards are using as lights.

“Did you kill a drake by yourself?” He asked, surprise clear in his voice, and if you're wondering how he knew that, well, I was still covered in blood.

“Three, though in all fairness, I did sneak attack two of them.” I said, still breathing hard, this standing still thing was a pain.

“We have this covered.” He said pointing a hoof at the wall. “Can you search the area, and kill any drakes you find in the town?”

“Sure!” I said, hopping off toward the hotel, Pinkie Pie style. The hotel was the biggest building in town at three stories high, making it perfect for seeing everything around.

Arriving the hotel, I ran inside, up two flights of stairs, seeing how fast I could get up them, and then realized I had no way to get on the roof, the stairs stopped there. So, I ran into the hallway, broke out a window, being careful, to make sure I got cut. I then, unleashed a blood tendrel, looped it out the window, and onto the roof. Pulled myself up... and came face to face with a drake.

“Why, hello there!” I said putting on my best pleasent and overly happy voice. The drake seems taken back. ‘If these were mindless creatures that shouldn’t happen, unless I am getting a reaction from the queen’

“Can you talk?” I ask it, laying down, I know protecting ponies from stray drakes was what I was supposed to do, but this was more important.The drake shakes its head. ‘Okay, I am limited to yes and no questions.’ I thought.

“Am I speaking to the drake queen?”

Comments

[Liqwidice]

Oh.... this is gonna be good.

[AppleTank]

1013027
Use ctrl + f, type in the phrase, and it should get you there. I copied-pastaed it, it should work.

[Gearhorn]

1013820 and fixed. Thanks for the help.