17 - Paying Your Dues
It was a long walk to the Crystal Empire, still, but the miles passed quickly. Out of the Crystal Mountains, a vast snowy plain spread out before Bitterroot and Amanita, the only thing between them and the Empire. With every step they took, the green border grew just a little bit closer. Circe had given up straining against her fetters and seemed resigned to her fate. She didn’t even struggle. Perhaps because of her lichdom, her coat grew back at a far faster rate than was ordinary. Bitterroot carried her through the snow without complaint — she was tireless, after all.
But there was one thing Bitterroot did complain about.
“Hold still,” growled Amanita, her horn glowing.
“I’m just walking,” said Bitterroot, continuing to do so. Circe was draped over her back, conscious but limp. She nudged Amanita’s horn out of her face again. “Can’t you-”
Amanita forced her horn back at Bitterroot. “Hold still. I’m trying to heal you.”
“From what? I’m dead, nothing’s bothering me.”
“No, but when you come back to life, you’re going to be dead again in five minutes if I don’t do anything. Do you have any idea how much smoke you inhaled? Seriously, I bet your esophagus is scorched.”
Bitterroot picked up her pace. “You did a healing ritual for Catskill, right? Can’t you just do that again? Do you need to get all horn-in-facey?”
Amanita picked up her pace. “I don’t have enough ingredients for the ritual. I used them all up semi-resurrecting you and Circe didn’t have the right ones.”
Bitterroot sped up even more. “Can it wait until tomorrow? I-”
Amanita’s horn sparked; something tangled around Bitterroot’s hooves and she tripped. A broad, flat shield pinned her down as Amanita got all horn-in-facey. Bitterroot gave up trying to escape and let it happen. A tingle ran up her nose, down her nostrils, down her throat, up to the ends of her hairs. Something clotted in her windpipe, but her lack of reflexes meant she didn’t start coughing. When she finally managed to force herself to cough and get it out, she hacked up small chunks of blackened meat.
“The insides of your throat, given second-degree burns,” said Amanita once she released Bitterroot. “And I also fixed a bunch of little wounds you didn’t know you had.”
“Great,” mumbled Bitterroot.
“You’ll probably want some more healing tomorrow, once the resurrective spell finally runs its course and you’re alive again.”
“I’m good, thanks.” Bitterroot adjusted Circe’s position on her back and started walking again.
“We’ll see.”
When night fell, Bitterroot didn’t bother putting up her tent. “I’ll just stay up and watch her-” She lurched a little, tossing Circe as roughly as possible onto the ground. “-okay? I’ll be fine. Bored, but fine.” She paused. “Right?”
“Right,” said Amanita. “And I… don’t think it’ll be bad for you when you come back to life tomorrow, so go ahead.” She squinted at Bitterroot. “Don’t faint on me with ten miles to go.”
Bitterroot chuckled. “Sure. Sure.”
Sure enough, Bitterroot didn’t feel tired the whole night. She alternated between making sure Circe hadn’t moved and stargazing. Between uncontrollable clouds and the light from the Crystal Empire, the view of the stars wasn’t the greatest, but it was calm in a way she’d been missing for the past few days.
She turned an ear towards Circe, still fettered and muzzled. It sounded like she was sleeping. By now, Circe had healed enough that it looked like she’d barely been burned at all. Bitterroot considered waking her up just to annoy her.
Morning dawned, and Bitterroot still didn’t feel tired. Circe made some muffled complaint about stiffness during packing up. Neither Bitterroot nor Amanita listened to her and they were soon on their way again.
It was around mid-morning when Bitterroot felt like she’d been hit with a sledgehammer, a fire extinguisher stuffed down her lungs and fired, a lit match jammed up her nose, and a balloon popped inside her eardrums. The suddenness of it all made her stumble to a stop. She screamed raspily, doubled over, and hacked until she thought her lungs were coming out. And considering her spit looked blackened, she didn’t think that was as out-there as she wanted it to be. Her legs ached and her heart pounded in her ears and she was hungry. She figured she was alive again, and being alive stunk.
“Healing?” asked Amanita, raising an eyebrow.
Bitterroot gagged, feeling like she’d inhaled steel wool. “Healing,” she croaked. “Please.”
“Told you so.”
After over fifteen minutes of horn-poking, Bitterroot felt well enough to get back on her feet, although Amanita took up her Circe-carrying duties. She spat out a hunk of something she wasn’t sure she wanted to identify. “Why can’t I just stay undead,” she mumbled, “and not have to worry about… anything?”
“The magic powering you isn’t infinite and can start eating your soul if you don’t watch it,” said Amanita, adjusting Circe’s position. “You need extra magic to keep your body from rotting. You can only eat certain things that are metaphysically tied to death, like unleavened black bread or unfermented wine. Damage to your body can only repaired with magic. You can’t feel the damage you’re doing to yourself since you can’t feel pain. If somepony ever dispels the magic around you, you stop being undead instantly and go back to being plain old dead. You slowly grow more aware of just how disgusting your body is. Your will can easily be subverted by necromancers. You become a transmission vector for deadly diseases.” She raised an eyebrow at Bitterroot. “Would you like me to continue?”
Bitterroot blinked, then coughed again. “…No, I’m good, thanks.”
They were only a few miles from the Empire when Bitterroot asked, “You’re really going to just turn yourself in?”
“Why not?” said Amanita. She shrugged. “I had a bounty posted on my head, so I can’t just hide out in the North. If I try to make a new identity and it ever comes out that I engaged in necromancy, I’ll be locked up anyway. Might as well get it over with now.”
“But you’ve changed. You’re not a bad pony anymore.”
“So? I did wrong. I deserve to be punished. I-” Amanita looked at the Crystal Palace, but something in her eyes said to Bitterroot that she was looking past it. “All the ponies of Grayvale… I see them whenever I sleep. They need justice. And if I go to jail-”
“Grayvale wasn’t your fault!” yelled Bitterroot, flaring her wings. “It was Circe’s.” She stopped walking for a moment to smack Circe in the head. “Circe’s going to jail, probably executed, and good riddance. But you-”
“I sat by and let it happen,” said Amanita. “I could’ve stolen Circe’s phylactery earlier. I could’ve-” She sighed
“But prison sounds pretty lousy.”
“That’s the point,” said Amanita, lightly jabbing at Bitterroot. “It’s a punishment. Do you think I’d be going there if it was a spa and resort?”
“It’s a punishment you don’t deserve.”
“You might think so, but I don’t.”
“Why do you think-”
Amanita adjusted Circe’s position on her back. “We’ve been over this,” she growled. “I don’t care what you think of my past, but I think I need to do something to… I don’t know, atone for it, I guess. So, please, just- shut up about it, okay? You sound like my mother, trying to teach me some lesson about proper responsibility or something.”
“What’s so bad about that?” mumbled Bitterroot under her breath. “More ponies should’ve listened to their mothers.”
But Amanita didn’t respond. The rest of the trip passed by in an uncomfortable silence, all the way to the city limits.
Bitterroot knew the Crystal Empire well, and once she and Amanita had stepped over its boundaries, it didn’t take them long to find the nearest guard station, although carrying Circe meant they attracted quite a few stares. Bitterroot shoved the door open and walked up to the front desk, Circe over her back. “I’d like to claim a bounty,” she said to the bored clerk. “Circe. She’s a necromancer and a lich.”
The clerk blinked at Circe, but he was quick enough. It took less than thirty seconds for him to find the relevant bounty files. “Yes,” he said, looking back and forth between Circe and her picture on his clipboard. “I’m pretty sure that’s her. Bounty of six…” The clerk coughed and rubbed his eyes. “Dang, six hundred thousand?”
“Right.”
“Hoo. You’re lucky. That’s the largest bounty I’ve ever seen. If you sit tight and keep a hold of your… captive, we can have ponies be right with you for confirmation and processing.”
“Great. Thanks.” Bitterroot stepped aside and waved Amanita forward. “And my partner has a separate issue to take care of.”
Amanita looked like she’d prefer drinking drain cleaner to what she was about to do. But she swallowed, took a deep breath and stepped up to the desk. “My name is Amanita,” she said. “I’m also a necromancer. And I’d like to turn myself in. Please.” She smiled.
The clipboard fell to the ground. The clerk blinked again. He turned around and yelled, “Uh, sir?”
Circe had been taken away to somewhere secure, while Amanita and Bitterroot had been thrown in a holding cell; the former for necromancy, the latter for involvement, considering she’d said she’d been Amanita’s travelling partner. Amanita paced back and forth the same ten feet over and over and over. “You could’ve gone,” she said to Bitterroot. “Just left me alone. You didn’t need to associate yourself with me and put yourself through this.”
Bitterroot wasn’t restless at all and simply lounged on one of the cots. “If it makes things easier for you,” she said, “you bet I’m staying. I’ll be a character witness. I’m not just going to throw you to the wolves.”
“I deserve to be thrown to the wolves.”
Bitterroot shrugged. “A lot of ponies deserve a lot of things they don’t get, good and bad both. Life isn’t fair.”
“It really shouldn’t be unfair in my favor,” mumbled Amanita.
“Do you want to be miserable?” Bitterroot pushed herself into a sitting position.
“Kinda!”
“Then just feel guilty. A little guilt goes a long way. Maybe you’ll get lucky and have trouble sleeping tonight.”
“Joy,” said Amanita darkly.
“You said you wanted to be miserable!” Bitterroot protested, flaring her wings. “And then I suggested a way for you to be miserable, and-”
“I want to feel miserable as in emotionally tormented, not miserable as in sleep-deprived!”
“So now you’re saying only you get to decide how you’re miserable?”
“Don’t make me kill you again.”
“Oh, please. We both know you’d bring me right back the second you could.”
“That’s beside the point!”
The guard sitting in the cell block stared at the two of them. “This is the second-weirdest argument I’ve heard this week,” she said.
Eventually, the pair was hauled to an interrogation room. Bitterroot and Amanita sat on one side, both their hooves cuffed to the table and Amanita’s magic suppressed. Across from them sat Prince-Captain Shining Armor himself. Once Amanita had admitted to being a necromancer, his presence had been fast-tracked.
Amanita told him everything, from start to finish. Bitterroot interjected every now and then, but Amanita kept shushing her, even asking Shining to cast a silencing spell over her. She’d shut up after that. Shining’s face remained impassive throughout the whole talk and his ears were stiff. One hoof rested on the table and he didn’t even drum it. Bitterroot wondered if he’d seen worse when he was still Captain of the Guard. Either way, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
“…and once we’d put out the fire,” Amanita said, “we took Circe and… came here.” She swallowed.
Shining sighed. “A village, an anti-necromancy squad, two bounty hunters, and a ranger dead. A large patch of land burned down. A lich captured, her phylactery with her. Possibly. And a necromancer turning herself in for all that.” He grinned crookedly. “Mondays, right?”
“Heh heh…” Amanita forced out.
Shining’s grin slipped away. He tapped the table once. “On the one hoof, I want to believe you… and I know it’s possible for even the worst people to change…”
“But I still did a lot of black magic,” said Amanita glumly.
“Yeah.” Shining nodded. “We’re going to let the arson on the scru-”
“That was my idea,” Bitterroot said quickly. “She had nothing to do with it.”
“Either way, we’re letting that slide,” Shining continued, waving a hoof dismissively, “because it was contained quick enough and ultimately isn’t important in the grand scheme of things. Not next to a lich and her soul jar.”
Somepony knocked at the door and a guard leaned in. “Captain? The captive is definitely Circe, and that crystal is indeed her phylactery. We’re working on unraveling the enchantments on it now. Until we can destroy it, Circe has been imprisoned in one of Sombra’s old oubliettes.”
“She deserves no better,” muttered Shining. “And her guards-”
“No less than four at all times, sir.”
“Good. Keep me posted.”
The guard saluted and left.
Silence. Shining said, “I’ve looked through her files. Circe’s one of the longer-lived liches we know of, and we can’t even be sure we know when her life began. Celestia’s been trying to catch her for centuries. And suddenly, a necromancer and a bounty hunter walk through our door and drop her and her phylactery almost literally gift-wrapped on our counter.” He started tapping his hoof on the tabletop. “And that’s part of the problem. Somepony who does something like that probably isn’t the kind of pony who should go to jail. But if a necromancer gets off scot-free, the public will cry bloody murder.” He sighed and ruffled his mane. “Thank Celestia I’m not a judge.”
Bitterroot took a chance and raised a hoof as much as the cuffs would allow. “Um, excuse me, but if I can make a suggestion… All those things she did as a necromancer, she did them outside Equestria. Doesn’t that mean she’s not subject to Equestria’s laws?”
“Only if she’s also not an Equestrian citizen,” said Shining.
Amanita coughed quietly. “I am.”
“Then-”
“Listen,” said Bitterroot, “I know she’s done some bad things, but she’s not like that anymore! She-”
Amanita tried lunging for Bitterroot, but her fetters stopped her. She pulled halfheartedly at them and growled, “Stop whitewashing me. Yes, I hate that I did those things. But I still did them! Don’t act like that didn’t happen!”
“Look, I’m just trying to point out that you’ve changed!” protested Bitterroot, shying away and flaring her wings. “Why are you so touchy about all this?”
“Because as long as I remember how terrible what I did was, then Celestia forbid, it’ll never happen again! By Luna, I got pulled into black magic the first time because my marefriend died. Do you have any idea how- how- how pathetic that is? And you keep on going, ‘oh, she’s good now, it’s not so bad’, like I just went through a bad phase as a teenager.”
“Hey, don’t put words in my mouth, I’m-”
“Ma’ams, please,” said Shining stolidly. They both shut up. “We’re not going to discuss what you think is right and wrong. We’re just trying to figure out the nature of the crime.”
Bitterroot jumped off her seat as best she could. “It wasn’t a-!”
Shining glared at her. Bitterroot folded her ears back and sat down again.
“And based on Amanita’s testimony,” Shining said eventually, “you’re free to leave-” He nodded at Bitterroot. “-but you need to go back to holding. Sorry.”
“ ’S alright,” muttered Amanita, hanging her head.
Amanita and Bitterroot had their fetters unlocked. Bitterroot was nudged back to the lobby of the guard post, watching after Amanita as she was led back to the holding cells.
Although Bitterroot didn’t have to stick around the guard post as the particulars involving Circe’s bounty were sorted out, she hung out in the lobby for a few minutes. It kind of made her feel like she was supporting Amanita. Somehow.
Then a guard walked up to her. “Do you want to talk to Amanita?”
Bitterroot’s ears twitched. “Well, I-”
“You’ve been glancing at the doors to the cells every thirty seconds,” said the guard, “and I’ve heard some of the story. Look, visiting prisoners is completely legal. C’mon.”
He led Bitterroot back into the cell block. Most of them were empty, with the exception of Amanita’s. She was resting on her cot, but got up when she saw Bitterroot. She walked up to the bars. “Hey.”
“Hey,” said Bitterroot. “You… You’re really going through with this, aren’t you?”
“For the tenth time, yes,” Amanita said, sighing and rolling her eyes.
“So…” Bitterroot swallowed. “Is there… anything I can do to… I don’t know, make this easier?” She wasn’t sure why she said it; it just seemed like the right thing to say.
One of Amanita’s ears flopped down. “Really? Like how?” Her voice was half-skeptical, half-serious.
Bitterroot had a few ideas, but only a few. “I can visit you every few days.”
“I don’t know how long it’ll be until I’m prosecuted. You could be here for moons.”
“I can pay for your bail once it’s posted. I’m rich now.”
“Where would I go, even in the Crystal Empire? Tomorrow morning, it’ll be all over the papers that I’m a necromancer, which… yeah.” Amanita tapped the bars. “I think I’ll stay in here, thanks.”
“I’ll… support you at your trial?” tried Bitterroot.
“There isn’t going to be one,” said Amanita. “I’m just pleading guilty anyway.”
“Really? But-”
“I’d still be found guilty!” yelled Amanita. “There’s enough evidence-” She groaned and rubbed her head. “Please, please, stop trying to stop me. We’ve been over this, what, ten times in the past few hours? At least? This is my decision. Maybe it’ll help me get over my guilt.”
Bitterroot sighed and leaned against the bars. “Prisons ought to be more about rehabilitation than punishment, you know,” she mused, “and you’re rehabilitated already.”
“And if the law agrees, I’ll be out soon. But-” Amanita reached through the bars and lightly touched Bitterroot’s hoof. “Listen. It’s not like I… don’t appreciate the sentiment or anything, don’t get me wrong. I’m really happy that you think I’m a good pony. It’s just… I don’t.” Her hoof slipped away. “And I don’t think I should be out there until I think I am.”
“This can’t be healthy,” said Bitterroot. “You’re obsessing over what you did wrong, and I’m worried that-”
“It’s probably not healthy,” Amanita said, “but… three weeks ago, I learned that I’d been violating my dead marefriend’s mind every time I called her up. The only other pony in my life was unsympathetic. Since then, I’ve seen a village killed, raced across the Frozen North, killed several ponies, and saved somepony’s life only to have them turned into a necromantic thrall and need to be put down. It’s not like I had time to stop and go to a therapist.” She giggled shrilly. “I barely had time to stop at all. Maybe now that I can stop worrying about Circe, I can get my head back in order.”
“Do you really think that?” asked Bitterroot, looking at Amanita. “Or are you just trying to get me off your back?”
But Amanita said, “No, I really think that. I… I’m just so tired, and now I get a chance to sleep.” She smiled. For the first time since Bitterroot had met her, it wasn’t forced or nervous. “You know?”
Bitterroot smiled weakly back. “Yeah. I know.”
“But if you’d like to… I don’t know, be pen pals or something, I think I’d like that.” Amanita’s voice had grown much quieter.
“…Sure. I’ll leave you my address.” At least Amanita would have some connection to the outside world.
When Bitterroot left the cell block, most of the bureaucracy regarding Circe had already been handled. After double-checking with the clerk about some last-minute facts, the clerk said, “You know, I gotta say, not one but two necromancers? Ha. Not bad.”
“I had a lot of help,” said Bitterroot. It felt strange, saying that Amanita had helped her turn her in.
“Still. So that’s one million, two hundred thousand bits, pre-taxes, which means…”
The clerk laid out the totals after taxes, but Bitterroot wasn’t paying attention, only nodding and giving vague “uh-huh”s or “right”s. There had to be something she could do to help Amanita. Maybe not now, but after she got out of jail. If her new brand of necromancy — raising the recently dead solely to keep them alive — was legal, then she’d be a big help to Bitterroot. Or hospitals or… a huge number of places. But what if she didn’t have anywhere to go? What then? Did she have family? Would that family even want to see her? It didn’t seem fair that, in Equestria of all places, somepony could leave jail and not have anywhere to go. But Bitterroot had no idea when Amanita was going to get out, so she couldn’t really plan ahead. And bounty hunting was an unpredictable job, so it wasn’t like she could just take a vacation, even with her new wealth.
Then the clerk brought out a check and Bitterroot knew what she could do.
“Wait a minute,” said Bitterroot. The clerk’s pen stopped over the check. “I’d like to set up a bank account in Amanita’s name and put half of those bits in there. When she’s granted parole for good behavior — which will happen — she’ll need some money, and a million bits is more than I know what to do with.”
Bitterroot held her breath. There had to be plenty of reasons for this to be denied, even if she couldn’t think of any. External circumstances. She couldn’t make an account for somepony who was incarcerated. Heck, maybe she just couldn’t make an account for somepony else.
But the clerk just shrugged. “It’s your money,” he said. “I’ll see what I can do about it. If I can’t get an account set up, I’ll put some bearer bonds in her possessions so she can retrieve them when she’s released. Good?”
“Good,” said Bitterroot. She made a note to double-check it later, just in case. Paranoia told her it wouldn’t get done.
After some recalculations, the clerk scribbled down the relevant number on the check and handed it over to Bitterroot. “Interesting story, somepony getting paid for their own bounty,” he said.
“Believe me,” replied Bitterroot, “you don’t know the half of it.”
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This was a near perfect note to leave on, though I can't help but feel like Shining should have shipped Amanita off to Twilight for remedial friendship lessons instead. If Starlight and Tempest can both avoid prison time, so can she.
Well that was a wild ride! A lot of interesting twists and turns with some pretty good anti-climaxes, which you really don’t see very much. The ending begs for a sequel, but with the way the story was laid out, I feel like this could also be its own contained thing and still be fine.
I think now that its over, my favorite thing about the story was how focused it was. No grand narrative about a billion different distracting things and blah blah, just a few focused character perspectives. Speaking of perspectives, I really liked how the same actions were viewed entirely differently from different angles. You don’t see that too much either, for some reason.
My only complaint would have to be that all of the characters were crazy defensive about almost everything all the time. It made the character interactions lose a lot of nuance I think they could have had, though I do understand why some of them acted that way.
As a last note, I’ve never seen a country edgelord lich before. It was darkly comical... until it got less comical.
I'm not sure what I love more, the argument in the cell or imagining what topped it as weirdest.
In any case, a very nice ending for one heck of an adventure. I love how basically every moment of this chapter is spitting in the face of Circe's philosophy. Thank you for the story and a very fulfilling sense of closure.
Oi! This isn't over, and we're not finished here! You still need to write an epilogue, and I'm not un-Tracking this story until you do!
...
Please...
Wow, dude. What an incredible story. You had me hooked from beginning to end. Now I'm just sorry it's over.
I'd love to see what happens to Bitterroot and Amanita in the long-run, but I guess that's up to you. Either way, this is going in a special shelf along with the Tantabus.
It’s pretty good.
"Welcome to Amanita's hospital for the recently dead." I can't wait to see that printed on a sign somewhere. It may not cure aging, but major injures wouldn't be a thing after that. What would pony OSHA say?
This was a really good story.
The characters were interesting and each has their own style that made them stand out against each other.
Their trip through the wood to the valleys of Mystic to the plains of the final showdown was so well done I still have a rough mental map of how it looks envisioned in my head. Good attention to detail with that.
The story's action scenes were also quite well done and were spaced out quite nicely with downtime that allowed us to get to know the characters better without us having to slog through exposition which is always a plus. The nice part about it is that I still got to learn the lore and other little tidbits of world building from what exposition there was and I greatly appreciate that.
All in all I would give your story a 8.5/10. If it where a bit longer or had some more locations visited, it would definitely be a 10. Thanks for the entertaining read.
really enjoyed the story
Ohh that was amazing!
Old west Equestrian style.
Great read.
Given how thoroughly I have enjoyed your stories of the Tantabus, I figured I ought to look at some of your other works. This one seemed like it might have some potential.
Boy, was that a misjudgement.
This may, in fact, be the best fiction I have ever read.
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I think the real tragedy here is that all along, Circe really just wanted a friend.
Spending eternity surrounded by yes-men undead must get quite lonely, and I think she realized this on some unconscious level. So, what does she do? She finds Amanita. Someone living who, like her, was scarred by death. Someone with enough curiosity to take the road less travelled instead of just shrugging and accepting the cruel way of the world. After so many years of teaching Amanita, Circe does what no lich does lightly, and took Amanita right to her phylactery with the intent of sharing her immortality... only to be stabbed in the back.
I think by the end of it, Circe stopped fighting not because she thought the situation was hopeless, but because she no longer wanted to live in a world where she couldn't even trust the only real friend she ever had.
A good end to a good story. Thank you.
Well that was awesome! Interesting concepts and a fun read! Thank you for writing it!
Huh.
This was a good story. A really good story. I think I will want to come back to this one someday, for sure. I hope that Amanita manages to forgive herself -- she deserves good things in her future.
(I also really want to know what happened to these two going forward -- which, given the nature of this story, I take to mean that it's done its job.)
Very, very good. The world-building here is awesome, and the story hits every bit of humor and tension with practically perfect accuracy.
Excellent story, but I think I'll be passing on future stories in this setting. The notion that the Pony afterlife is so insecure that the dead, good, bad, and indifferent, are at constant risk of being dragged back to the living world to be enslaved, mind controlled, and tortured is just a little too Grimderp for my tastes.
Great story!
You done good here, kid. You done good.
The storyline, the way it progressed, how it progressed; all was excellent. The characters are each fun and interesting in their own ways, and unique to themselves. You did a very good job of engaging us, making us care, and then strumming those heartstrings at key moments. Like... all I want to do is chat about this story right now, because there's so much I want to gush about, but after blitzing this whole thing in less than a day, it's too much at once.
Also, Amanita's core concept - the bad guy who isn't - is a favorite of mine. Her being a necromancer hits close to one of my main character ideas, so... yeah.
Love the girl. Can't wait to see where she goes from here.
P.S. I do not trust Circe just walking right into there with so little comparable fuss.
This was a really good story, I am quite impressed with your writing and storytelling and I will be passing it along to some friends. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how the sequel plays out.
I've been looking for a new OC-centric adventure for some time now, and I'm really glad I stumbled across this one. Definitely gonna work my way through the sequel.
This was utterly brilliant! And for some reason my mind kept thinking of "Rosa Maledicta" (qt necromancer from Equestria at War) whenever I read "Amanita", which wasn't distracting AT ALL (or maybe it just made it better?) but yeah, this was a great fic!
An absolutely excellent story. Bit sad about Catskills in the end, but at least she was able to get some sort of closure despite everything.
Not much else to say that hasn't been covered better by everybody else. This is really one of the stronger fics I've read though--compelling characters, gripping action sequences, and both horrifying ideas and humorous character interactions that helped keep the tone grounded in that of MLPs, despite the dark fantasy elements. I'm looking forward to hopping onto the sequel!
I'm only half way through and I'm totally into this. Take a fav and a like.
currently on my 2nd reading of this story (11 chapters in as of this comment). knowing the truth about circe/"artemis" and why amanita is really on the run adds a whole other layer to this story, it recontextualises everything. i can tell the whole story was written with the twist in mind from the start too. i love this story so much.
11518475
aw nice
even four years on and you're maintaining this wonderful story
This was a great story! I have to wonder what the stangest argument was that the guard heard if the one between Bitterroot and Amanita was only the second strangest.
Absolutely fantastic story, and it's criminally underrated!
That argument in the cell was peak comedy.
Fuckin epic
Great story. I loved the characters, they really felt alive
You can has review!
So. Necromancy, huh?
This story shows a trend I've seen in a few of yours: Very strong characterization for your entire cast. For one, each character stands out from the others, so none blend into each other as the party travels. Circe especially is appropriately harsh in her disguise, without giving away the twist from the very start of the story. Though I'll concede, once the twist started being hinted at, it became easily guessable - in particular, Gale never eating or sleeping is a fairly easy giveaway, and it is a modest weakness that none of the other cast were ever remotely suspicious of this.
Overall, however, this story kept its pace going briskly and effectively; not a chapter is wasted, nor do things seem overly hurried. The twists, when they come, are nearly all neither overly telegraphed nor come entirely from nowhere, and so the story flows effectively.
One thing I have to say I really like about this story? Not everyone survives. It'd be so easy to have Amancita pull some necromantic trick from her sleeve to restore the others after Circe is first defeated, but there's no such luck. They're dead, that's it, and it lends the story a weight it wouldn't have if things were more neatly and happily tied together.
Great story. Great characters. I like a bit of action/mystery and there were no dull moments here. It was fun trying to piece things together and having expectations subverted. Great read.
And thus the reading begins!