Sage of Harmony (Season 2)

by Eon Seb

We're Off to See the Fluffs

Author's Note:

Red-necromorphs talking.

Midnight checked her list for the third time, map, supplies, and compass packed. Check.

Letter from Cadence agreeing to come and watch Spectrum while continuing the girls' lessons. Check.

Finally written assurance from both Rainbow and AJ that they would physically stop Pinkie from following Midnight when the latter left town.

Despite Midnight's best efforts, Pinkie found out about the seapony party and was determined to not miss the chance to participate in something of that magnitude. Midnight was a practical mare, and she was also the walking spirit of a forest of monsters, but these creatures she was going to visit, the fluffy ponies, were more deadly than any monster in her forest bar none!

These creatures; while hiding behind a veneer of cute naivety and innocence, were a literal horror story brought to life. Thus, they would not be exposed to Pinkie until safety could be insured for all parties.

The necromorphs were not native to Equestria the country or even the planet Equis. These beings came through a dimensional rift and the ship they were on promptly crashed in part of the Badlands. The impact shattered a strange artifact called the red marker to bits and killed all the occupants. However, the marker was still trying to send out a signal, which gained the attention of the Tree. Granted, all it could hear was a garbled message about wanting to be whole, and united. But it was able to establish proper communication, use its power to rebuild the marker, and extract the personality creating Marksaline. This, in turn, caused the necromorphs to go from the living dead to something more along the lines of changelings, albeit with a parasitic reproductive habit. They even had the same emotovoric feeding habits for negative emotions. This causing prevention of conflict by temporarily undercutting the rage of those involved.

This fact, combined with their friendly demeanor, vacant eyes, and strange language, made them an instant hit with other ponies. They were not, as their behavior suggested, any less intelligent than other ponies. But they had to cobble together their language to avoid panic due to their voices sounding like they gargled glass. Plus, their normal appearance resembled Ponyville's resident ghouls. Combine this with ponies' normal prey instincts, and the general tendency to panic, and well, you had a very bad time. These facts combined were the reason that Midnight, as a fellow monster, was going to be the first pony in generations to actually gain access to the necromorph home and meet the Queen. The ghouls had agreed to act as her guards for this journey.

After Nightmare found out about the Kraken, she LITERALLY hit the roof. In fact, they had just patched up the hole shaped like her head in the throne room. After extracting herself, she had tried to order a squad to protect Midnight and Spectrum around the clock. This led to the two of them having a private discussion which had required silencing spells. The end result of this was Midnight agreeing to take a squad of her choice with her on the next diplomatic mission, and she could think of no better group for this mission than the ghouls. After all, who in the world wants to fight a squad of smart undead?

Now, with all the preparations made and every spot on the list checked three times, Midnight was finally ready to go.

The trip to the badlands was surprisingly serene, especially compared to Ponyville. Once the group could see the Badlands, they wished they never had, but could definitely see why they were called The Badlands. It was like a wound in the landscape, lush grass ending abruptly at the border as if some force was stopping life itself from taking root. The land was dissolute and empty. No birdsongs or trees. Even the clouds in the sky ended, leaving the land exposed to the blistering sun, or the freezing night. the land before them was described in many old tales as hell before ponies discovered Tartarus.

"Forward we ride where many have died and evil hides, but ride we shall with heads held high for those who are dead fear not to die." After his verse, Clamper noticed the others staring at him with their jaws hanging off.

"Where did that come from?"

"I've been studying poetry. It just came to me."

Midnight started clapping at that moment, "Beautiful. I think we found what your talent would have been, Clamper. And I think you came up with a good squad motto. Now, let's get going, we have new monsters to meet."

They continued on, reinvigorated; "I thought our motto was going to be Quando Ominus Plumbus Moritati?"

"We can vote later, Scrap. Let's just get through this with everypony in one piece." The party progressed at a steady pace. However, the ghouls eventually started feeling dried out. For them this was but a minor inconvenience, however, For Midnight (the literal walking plant) on the other hoof, it was not fun to be in the Land of No Growth, (as the Everfree Forest itself rather aptly called it). While this area was not as hot or as dry as the Saddle Arabian desert, for instance, it felt worse for her because it seemed like the very air was trying to make her wither away. This combination of problems made them want to get to the hive sooner rather than later.

Their journey had one unexpected problem - as they were going through yet another canyon, the ground shook and with a horrendous roar, they came face to face with some of the few creatures strong enough to live out here, Maulwurfs. Maulwurfs, while preferring to eat plants, were still dangerous being a half bear, half mole creature. It was large and aggressive enough to be a threat to most pony-sized creatures. For ghouls, on the other hoof… "Well looks like lunch is served... CHARGE!"

The battle was short, brutal and one-sided. After a pleasant meal, the party camped to wait out the midday heat, they packed up as the sun was just sinking below the mountains, creating one of the most stunning sunsets any of them had ever seen. They continued through the night using the hotter parts of the day to rest. It took them 2 more days to reach the hive.

Cresting the hill to see a pony made of fuzz standing in front of a twisted mass of metal and flesh was an almost comical contradiction. With a long raspberry for a greeting, the pony turned around and bounced inside. As they entered the structure, the air instantly changed to a comfortable temperature, and the magic that they used to hide their forms burned off as they crossed the threshold. The pony who welcomed them had morphed from a cute furball to a hairless creature with thin bat-like wings and a twisted horn. "Welcome guests, my name is Puff, I will be your guide for the duration of your visit. Please follow me."

They continued deeper, hearing the creek of old metal and the sounds of hundreds of necros scurrying about. All the while, Puff answered any questions they had.

Soon they could hear the tune of a haunting song filling the air, reminding the ghouls of happier times, and Midnight of when she used to find Spectrum cuddling up with her in the early morning afraid of the light.

The final destination was a large room which held a helix-shaped object of the deepest red. Sitting at the base was a pony of the same color; an alicorn with 2 horns matching the shape of the aforementioned object. She was surrounded by a large number of small larvae-like creatures, and foal sized necromorphs. After finishing her song she noticed the visitors "Welcome, everypony. Please make yourselves comfortable. I should be done shortly. Just let Puff know if you would like anything while you wait."

The group quickly found some nice spots to sit and watch. The Necromorphs may have looked different from other ponies. They may have been carnivorous and even parasitic in nature, but in the song of the queen, the voice of Puff, and the eyes of the young, they could see the love and harmony shining through. The journey was long, the road hard, and the destination was as alien as they came but where there was harmony, there was hope for peace and friendship

Comments

[Comickook]

Thanks greatly for getting these next couple of chapters up. I really appreciate you allowing me to help you with the edits again. Anyway, very good job on the exchanges, action, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places, once more.

Now, I'm on to the next chapter.

[Dragon Silverlight]

The final destination was a large room which held a helix-shaped object of the deepest red. Sitting at the base was a pony of the same color; an alicorn with 2 horns matching the shape of the aforementioned object. She was surrounded by a large number of small larvae-like creatures, and foal sized necromorphs. After finishing her song she noticed the visitors " Welcome, everypony. Please make yourselves comfortable. I should be done shortly. Just let Puff know if you would like anything while you wait. "

CUT OFF THE FUCKING LIMBS!!! CUT THEM OFF!!!