Just as the Commander, Areelu Vorlesh, and the Commander's companions were about to use the nahyndrian crystals to ascend to become demigods, the gods intervened and banished them far beyond even the Maelstrom, whereupon they end up in Equestria.
The Commander of the 5th Crusade against the demonic forces invading Golarion from the malignant World Wound, turned to necromancy in his desperation to defeat the Demonic menace. Eventually he. with the help of Master Zacharias, turned himself into a lich.
Having collected six nahyndrian crystals, he planned to ascend and become a demigod with his followers and Areelu Vorlesh who was both the architect of the World Wound and apparently his mother. However, knowing what he would do with such power several of the gods intervened and shattered the crystals before the process was complete. The gods then banished him and Areelu Vorlesh far beyond the maelstrom to an entirely different multiverse, where they could never again be a threat. However, before they were banished several of the Commander's companions decided to come with him and Areelu.
How will an evil lich adjust to a peaceful land of friendship and happiness?
The deaths of Baphomet and Deskari shook the world around Commander Mors, his companions, and Areelu Vorlesh. A surge of power caused the ground to quake and the World Wound, the chasm leading to their Abyssal realm, to creak and groan.
Areelu did not seem particularly surprised. Rather, she was entirely focused on the task at hand. “It is done. The road to greatness lies ahead. All that remains is for you to use a crystal.”
“I authorized some studies to be conducted on Nahyndrian Crystals. The search showed that newly created crystals can interact with one another. If you have five of them, you can merge them together into one immensely powerful crystal. What do you think would happen if I used a crystal like this?” The skeletal form of the commander asked, his boney jaw hanging open but not moving as he spoke. No longer having vocal chords or any flesh for that matter, he no longer needed to move his mouth to speak as he spoke solely through necromantic magic. He didn’t even need to open his jaws but he did so out of force of habit left over from when he was still living flesh and blood.
“I can only guess. The regular crystals allowed you to impart some of your power to your followers — those whose souls were closely tied to yours. It is likely that an improved crystal would let you endow your companions with a small amount of the demigod-like power you are about to receive.”
“If I attain demigod-like power and heal myself of the wound, what will happen to you?” The lich inquired. Two skeletal bat-like wings shifted creakily on his back, the once living wings that emerged from his demonic heritage as the son of Areelu Vorlesh.
“The wound will eventually destroy my soul. I will never be truly healed. But I have no regrets. I have achieved everything I wanted and more.”
“I’ve managed to acquire six crystals. I will share them with my companions and give the sixth to you, Areelu. All of us will venture into eternity together.” The lich told her.
Astonishment bloomed in Areelu’s eyes. “Ascend… together? And live without fear of gods or demons, exploring the infinite world? You truly want this? I can’t believe it!” She said happily. Calming down a bit she continued, “But I will grant you your wish.”
With a wave of her hand Areelu made a string of nahyndrian crystals levitate before her. Another gesture — and several of them burst into a swirling whirlwind of pure power. Their essences merged into a single vortex that flowed towards him, into him, infusing him with power.
And then there was a loud crack and the crystals fell to the ground, having been shattered and everything stopped. Iomedae herself now stood there, sword in hand, glaring at the Lich and Areelu Vorlesh. With her were two other goddesses Pharasma and, quite surprisingly, Urgathoa.
“What?!” Areelu hissed, taking a step back away from the gods.
Pharasma proceeded to rip the Commander’s phylactery away from him before he could react. Terror would have gripped him in that moment were he still capable of such intense emotion. As it stood he could only feel annoyed and unsettled by this inconvenience.
Pharasma casually tossed the phylactery into the world wound and with a flash the rift was sealed shut.
Iomedae picked up a shard of the crystal she had just broken and examined it. “Hm… It seems we were but a moment too late. He’s already received the vast majority of the power of the crystals.”
“That hardly matters. Even if he had absorbed the power of the crystals in its entirety it would not be enough to stop this.” Pharasma stated.
Everyone in the room, except for Mors and Areelu Vorlesh, quickly knelt before Iomeda and Pharasma, casting wary glances towards Urgathoa who looked quite annoyed.
“Hello, goddesses! Excuse me but what are you two doing here and why did you break the Commander’s crystals?” Ember asked curiously.
“I’m afraid we’re here to stop the Commander. Please stand back and do not try to interfere.” Iomedae responded.
“You as well, Urgathoa? This is quite the unexpected betrayal. If any of the gods were to have sided with me, I would have thought it would be you. Or perhaps Asmodeus as, were I living, my soul would most certainly be bound for Hell.” Mors stated, eerily calm despite the circumstances.
She laughed and gave him a wicked smile. “I was actually thinking of taking you as a lover after your ascension. Sadly, one lich, even a demigod or near demigod such as yourself, is hardly worth going to war with the Boneyard, Heaven, Elysium, Nirvana, Axis, and both Hell and the Abyss. Yes, you’ve made quite a few enemies on your little crusade. Even Asmodeus wants you gone despite the fact your soul aligns closer to Hell than with Abbadon. I believe he thinks you would seek to attain full divinity and then try to overthrow him and attempt to conquer Hell with the army you build in the Abyss. The Axiomites believe after claiming Baphomet and Deskari’s realms for yourself you will go on to conquer the rest of the Abyss and turn it into a second Hell, thus disrupting the cosmic balance and Lamashtu and the other Demon Lords think similarly. Heaven, Elysium, and Nirvana all believe you will attempt to conquer the mortal realm if left unchecked. Pharasma detests you because you would prevent souls from going to her boneyard. You’re simply far too dangerous for your own good Commander.”
Everyone looked at Mors who flexed his skeletal wings a bit but otherwise remained impassive. “I see… That is quite the list of enemies I was entirely unaware I had made. How unfortunate. So you all see me as the second coming of Tar Baphon, it would seem. A powerful lich seeking to conquer everything… Well, I can’t say I haven’t considered it. Only considered it, mind you. Everything else I have done up until this point, including becoming a lich, has been for the crusade. To drive the demons back to the Abyss. I turned to necromancy and lichdom as a last resort. Even with Mendev and the Hellknights on my side and the mythic power I unlocked within myself in Kenabris, the demons seemed insurmountable. I lacked the forces and power to drive back the Abyss on my own and I very nearly died numerous times before becoming a lich while my mythic power was still in its infancy. I was scared and desperate, to say the least. Terrified that the meager power I had wouldn't be enough to force back the armies of the Abyss let alone to defeat Baphomet and Deskari. And now this is my reward for all the sacrifices I have made for the good of Golarian and my hard fought victory…”
“But you were planning on leaving the World Wound open and using it to achieve semi-divinity were you not?” Iomedae inquired.
“Well, yes. But I’m quite confident my undead would have been able to hold back any future incursions even without the Wardstones. I’m not entirely sure it’s possible but I’ve also been researching ways to turn demons into undead completely enslaved to my will so their own forces would simply strengthen my defenses. I’ve already managed to temporarily bring back part of the essence of a demon lord in the Abyss to question it about its death so I see no reason why other demons could not be raised similarly. So your angels would have been able to return to your realm and the wound would have been contained regardless of it still being open. And I’m quite confident I can make my own artifacts similar to the Wardstones to keep the wound from expanding. Regardless, even as dulled as my emotions are, I can’t help but feel a faint sting of betrayal.”
“How convenient for you. A near endless supply of demonic corpses and essence for you to build a nigh unstoppable army. An army you could then use to conquer all of Golarion. And with your power why stop there? Why not conquer the other planets in this solar system too? And why not other solar systems? Or the entire universe? Why not other abyssal realms if not the entirety of the Abyss? Why not use all the souls and essences you gather to strengthen yourself further and become a god? Then why stop at the Abyss or the Material Plane? Why not conquer Abaddon too? Or Hell? Why not all the planes? After all if you can raise demons from the dead it would stand to reason you could do the same with the inhabitants of the other planes as well. And given how your lichdom has affected you, you would never be content with just the Worldwound. Nothing could ever satisfy you. You would be constantly trying to fill the hole in your soul left when the Lich Zacharias ripped out your emotions with ever more power and control. Regardless of your original intentions." Pharasma said in a disapproving tone. “As Urgathoa said, you are far too ambitious and too much of a risk to be allowed to roam free.”
She then shook her head in disgust. “Unfortunately, given the power you and Areelu have absorbed from the crystals it would be nigh impossible to erase your memories from your soul. You are too close to being a divine being. So just killing you and sending you to the Abyss, Hell, or even Abaddon would not eliminate the issue. It would merely postpone it a few months or years at best. Besides which, Urgathoa has not abandoned you entirely and refuses to let us simply destroy you. And for the miniscule amount of good you've done, Iomadae and Desna both have seen fit to vouch for you. Thus we came to an agreement, much to my disdain. So Commander Mors and Areelu Vorlesh, you are both to be banished to the furthest reaches of existence. Far beyond the Maelstrom, beyond where even we can reach, to planes known only to the Outer Gods. Perhaps there will be other worlds and other gods wherever you end up, but you will never be able to return to plague our existence.”
“Wait! If you’re going to banish the Commander, send me too!” Ember said getting up, rushing over to the commander and clinging to his decaying armored robes. “Mors may be undead now but he was a good person when I first met him. He was just forced into a difficult position and wanted to do whatever it took to make sure we won. And I think deep down he still is a good person. He can still be redeemed. So wherever you’re sending him, I want to go with him…”
“Ember, this is most unwise. We are being sent beyond even the primordial chaos that predates the multiverse. Wherever we end up, it is very likely we will be destroyed. Our deaths would be just punishment, but yours would be pointless. You should stay. One of our companions can help you get to Kyonin to find your mother.” The commander said, looking down at the young elf girl clinging to him.
“It’s not pointless. There’s a chance we’ll survive. And if I come with you and we survive you won’t be completely alone! And I'm sure my mama would understand. Besides, she probably thinks I’m dead anyway so not much would change.” Ember told him with a smile.
Arueshalae stood up and walked over to the commander as well. “Lady Desna, if you are watching please forgive me, but… I’m going with them as well… The Commander helped me discover my dream. He was there for me every step of the way, even after he became a lich. He’s the reason I was able to redeem myself… And he’s so much stronger than I am… I would be a hypocrite if I thought he couldn’t do what I have. So if you’re going to banish him, I’m going with him.”
Lann stood up next and stretched his arms a bit before going to stand next to the commander. “Well… I don’t know about these fancy ideas of redemption. But he’s definitely my best friend and while he may be an evil monster, he’s had my back from the day I met him. It’s only fair I have his back too. Besides, I’m gonna die soon anyway so what the heck? What difference does it make if I die here or beyond the Maelstrom? So I’ll come too.”
Nenio also stood up and joined the group more eagerly than pretty much anyone else. “An excursion beyond the Maelstrom? I didn’t even know there was anything beyond the maelstrom! I’ll be coming too, of course. I don’t know if there will be any way back but this could be the biggest scientific expedition in the history of the multiverse! Someone is going to need to record it. I wonder what sorts of experiments I’ll be able to conduct… hm… A shame I didn’t have time to procure more equipment to bring on this trip. A full lab set up would be the most optimal. But I suppose I’ll just have to make do with whatever we have in our bags of holding.”
Woljif looked around at the gods nervously before standing up hesitantly, as if he was worried the gods would strike him down on the spot. “Uh… The commander’s probably the first real friend I ever had. And he saved me from being a meat puppet for my gramps, sooo, uh… I’ll be coming too… Hey chief? Be honest with me. Do you think we’re gonna survive this?”
“You want honesty? Very well. Then I’m not sure. I have no idea what to expect. Even the gods don’t know what to expect, do you?” Mors asked, looking at the goddesses.
“We do not.” Iomedae stated.
"Sadly, no." Urgathoa shrugged uncaringly.
“Oh… Great…” Woljif said nervously, clearly terrified.
Sosiel looked up at the group and was about to stand up but stopped when the commander raised a hand. “Stop. Before you get up and jump to hasty conclusions like everyone else seems to be doing. Think. You are a near demigod now so you likely no longer need to rely on Shelyn. However, you will be beyond Pharasma’s reach as well, so your soul will be lost should we all die, especially considering my Phylactery has been destroyed. You will never receive your ultimate reward of going to Nirvana, and perhaps meeting your goddess. There is much you can still do here in Golarion. The same could be said for all of you. If any of you wish to back out now, I will not hold it against any of you. In fact I would encourage all of you to stay. This is a punishment. A death sentence. I might be able to raise you all as undead should we die, assuming I don’t die myself now that my phylactery has been so rudely destroyed…” He glared at Pharasma who returned the glare. “However, I would assume not all of you are eager to meet such a fate.”
“This is one thing I will agree with the Lich on. You and your brother should both stay, Cleric. Your talents would be best served in Golarion. And since we’re here Shelyn has requested I pass on a message to you two for her. Trevor, she does not blame you for your fall from grace. Many have done so over the course of this war. It’s an unfortunate reality of dealing with the Abyss. So if you are willing to put in the effort to redeem yourself, then she is willing to forgive you and give you a second chance. A second chance you will not have should you follow the Commander. It will take time. Perhaps even years or even centuries depending on you. But you need only to let your brother guide you back to the right path.” Iomedae told them.
Trevor tried and failed to stifle the tears that welled in his eyes and Sosiel wrapped a comforting arm around his distressed brother. “Commander, I’m going to be honest. You’re evil. One of the most evil creatures I’ve ever encountered. That includes Nocticula, Deskari, and Baphomet. Killing Drezen and raising almost everyone as undead proved that. But even when you were already deep into necromancy and your soul was fully corrupted by evil, you still went out of your way to help save my brother from the Abyss. So despite all the atrocities you committed, I am grateful to you and I do still consider you a friend. I want to come too, but… I suppose I’ll listen to you and the goddess and stay… Thank you for everything you have done for me and Trevor. For what it’s worth, I truly wish I could have saved your soul before it was too late… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry that I didn’t see how scared and desperate you were sooner. That I didn’t try to reach out and help you back when you first started on this dark path you’ve chosen. Back when you still could have been saved… I’ve failed you, commander. Both as a cleric of Shelyn and as your friend.”
The lich merely nodded in response.
“Commander, I commend you for accepting your punishment so readily. You were a respectable leader. I will be staying here, of course.” Regill stated, not rising from his kneeling position before the gods.
“I suppose what I do will depend on you Commander.” Greybor said.
“I am terminating our contract, Greybor. You need not accompany us. I told you in the Abyss, I will not stop you from claiming the fruits of your labor. That still holds true even now. Enjoy your partial divinity.” Mors told the assassin.
Greybor nodded. “Good luck wherever you end up, Commander.”
Daraen looked around for a moment, clearly mentally debating his next course of action. “Commander, I’ll thank you one final time for saving me from that horrid entity, The Other. However, I’m afraid this is where we part ways.”
Commander Mors nodded at the pompous noble.
“And what of you, little one? Your place is here in this world. Your destiny is to lead the dragons to greatness, Jharsygax Aghamornalyandre. I’m sure we can find you a new guardian. One much better suited to the task of raising you. The cleric and his brother, perhaps.” Pharasma asked the little dragon that was currently wrapped around the Lich’s shoulders. Its scales changed occasionally as if it had not yet fully decided what it wanted to be, and currently its scales were golden in color. Pharasma then glanced at Sosiel and Trevor.
“We would be honored.” Sosiel stated.
Pharasma nodded then looked back at the little dragon. “Or should they not suffice, we could even return you to your previous guardian if you wish.”
The little dragon squeaked and clung a bit tighter to the commander, nuzzling his skeletal face.
“I see. How disappointing. Though with your power I’m sure you will eventually find your way back to us one day. I just hope it is for better rather than worse. Though being raised by such a vile lich, I fully expect the worst. I pray you don’t end up becoming a lich yourself… Such a thing would be a travesty of the highest order… You, succubus of Desna, and you, Elven grand daughter of Andoletta. I am giving the two of you a task. A task more important than even these petty crusades. Ensure that does not happen. The dragon can not be allowed to be tempted by necromancy.” Pharasma ordered.
“Okay.” Ember stated calmly.
“I suppose I can try to teach him what I know of Desna and Elysium…” Arueshalae said, looking over at the freshly hatched dragon.
“That’s fine. I care not if he becomes like the havoc dragons of Elysium or anything else so long as he is not corrupted by the lich.” Pharasma stated.
“Hmph… If I had eyes, I would roll them.” Mors commented in as sarcastic a tone as his near emotionless deadpan would allow.
"Not to worry, Commander. I do have eyes and have already rolled them for you." Urgathoa stated. "Jharsygax would make for a lovely dracolich, I'm sure."
“It is time. Commander, Areelu Vorlesh, and those individuals who have decided to join them, you are banished. Never return.” Pharasma stated.
“Grandma, if you’re watching, good bye! I’ll miss you!” Ember called out just before the group vanished in a flash of light.
All that were left were the goddesses, Regill, Sosiel, Trevor, Daraen, Greybor and the two grave guards the Commander had brought with him rose.
Pharasma looked at Delemere and Staunton Vhane. “It is past time for both of you. I am sending both of your souls, and the souls of the Lich’s other grave guards, to my court to receive judgment.”
Suddenly the two undead collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut. Their souls sent directly to Pharasma's boneyard to await judgement.
Then Pharasma, turned and glared at Urgathoa who was chuckling to herself. "Aw... Too bad. I was just a bit too slow. But so were you, Pharasma. You managed to get those two, but I already took the other two myself. Such a shame, I would have loved to have Delemere as a toy to taunt Erastil with. It's just as much of a shame that the Commander didn't cut Galfrey's pretty little head from her shoulders or just let the demons finish her off for him and make her one of his grave guards when he had the chance. Wouldn't you agree Iomedae? At least then she could have actually done something useful."
Neither Iomadae nor Pharasma dignified Urgathoa's taunting with a response.
A moment later and the goddesses also vanished in flashes of light leaving behind the five mortals.
All of them stood up.
“I will be returning to the Hellknights. They will need to be informed of the gods’ decision regarding the commander.” Regill stated.
“I… With the World Wound closed, I suppose my brother and I will return home. Tevor has a long path ahead of him to redeem himself. And I promise I’ll be there every step of the way to help you along that path, brother. I promise, I won't fail you like I failed the commander.” Sosiel told Trevor with a smile and a pat on the back.
“Th… Thank you, Sosiel…” Trevor muttered.
“Ugh… Well… This has certainly been a journey. From the crusade, to going to the depths of the Abyss, to freeing myself from that malignant entity, I will have stories for years to come! And yet I feel… somewhat numb. Did I make the right choice by staying? Perhaps I should have gone? Hm… Well whatever. It’s too late to second guess my decision now. It’s not like I can call on the gods to return after all. So I’m sure a bottle of wine will help the feeling pass. Oh I can’t wait to return to my luxuries and to exploit my new powers to their fullest.” Daraen said.
Elsewhere, like an arrow loosed from a divine bow, the group streaked through the infinite cosmos into the maelstrom. And through the maelstrom they traveled for what to them felt like an eternity before exiting past even the maelstrom and entering something else entirely. An entirely different multiverse separate from their original multiverse.
And through this new multiverse they traveled before landing in its equivalent to the material plane where they fell from the sky onto a particular planet like a meteorite in a brilliant streak of light.
The streak of light hit the ground with a hard crash that made a bit of a crater and knocked them all to the ground.
Mors was the first to recover, using the bottom of his scythe to push himself back up onto his feet. Jharsygax was still wrapped around his shoulders, having suffered by far the least out of any of them. Looking around, the lich saw they had ended up in a forest of sorts. It was currently night, judging by the moon in the sky and how dark it was. “Fascinating… It would seem we won’t be dying any time soon after all.”
The others started getting up as well. Woljif groaned. “Ow… That feels like it’s going to leave a bruise… Oh. A forest? Huh. I guess we got lucky after all, eh? Or maybe the gods decided to take pity on us and send us somewhere nice?”
“I would not be so quick to jump to conclusions. We have no idea where we are or what sort of creatures live here. We could still very easily be prey for some god-like extra-planar entity.” Areelu stated.
“Man you’re just a ray of sunshine aren’t you?” Woljif commented sarcastically.
“Ooh, so many new un-recorded forms of flora! I’ll need to collect samples and record them all in my encyclopedia! Actually, speaking of my encyclopedia, I can’t exactly call it the Encyclopedia Golarianica since we aren’t on Golarion any more now can I? Hm… Oh! I know! I’ll just call what I wrote while we were on Golarion the Encyclopedia Golarianica and start an entirely new encyclopedia for this world!”
“Just… Try not to go as overboard this time as you did with your original book.” Lann said, grabbing his bow and holding it at the ready just in case as he looked around warily.
“Miss Areelu, I have a question. The gods said Mors absorbed a lot of the energy of the crystals before they interrupted. So what does that mean?” Ember asked curiously.
“Hm… Given the point at which they interrupted, I assume all of us absorbed maybe seventy to eighty percent of the power. Ninety if I was being very generous in my estimates, as the process was not complete. So we are all likely at least partially divine. Near demigods, if you will, rather than true demigods. Those of us who were not already immortal originally are very likely immortal now, and of course we are more powerful than we once were.” Areelu stated.
“I shall need to build a stronger Ziggurat to remake my phylactery. Hm…” Mors muttered to himself, considering the necessary design details in his mind. He was a sorcerer not a wizard so magic came naturally to him, but he had still put in as much time studying the arcane as any wizard and a significant amount of time learning everything Zacharias had to teach him. So he was very well aware of all the equations and geometry he needed to calculate for the creation of a ziggurat to aid in creating a phylactery for his newly empowered soul.
“Yeah, about that. When you mentioned considering becoming like Tar-Baphon you didn’t actually mean it, did you? Once the necromancy stuff started, I heard some crusaders talking about him and… Let’s just say what they said wasn’t very good.” Lann asked.
“Hm? Oh, that. As I said, I considered it. I was not fully committed to the idea by the time we were dealing with the World Wound and on the verge of ascension. I am quite certain I would have been a better ruler of Mendev than Queen Galfrey who has proven herself to be completely incompetent, and I had already proven myself to be the vastly superior military leader. And perhaps after a few centuries of consolidating my power and growing a sizable army of undead, I may have eventually thought to start expanding my borders. So, yes, I did indeed consider it. I will not lie. However, that hardly matters now. I’m not even fully certain if there is sentient life on this planet or not.” Mors said in an almost bored tone as if he were discussing the weather or some paperwork.
“Huh… Guess the gods had a good reason to intervene after all…” Lann muttered under his breath. “Well, we can either set up a camp here or try to find a temporary shelter. A cave would be nice. But we can always break out the tents if we have to.”
“I think we should start with the tents. We can look for better shelter tomorrow. I’m sure all of us are a bit exhausted by everything that happened today. And it is night time here, so I think we could all do with sleep.” Arueshalae said.
“Very well. I suppose I shall take watch after the tents are set up as I no longer require sleep. There is no need to take shifts.” Mors stated before reaching into his large bag of holding and retrieving the tents for everyone other than himself. He even helped them set up the tents and start the camp fire since he didn’t exactly have anything better to do at the moment.
That night they had a stew consisting of what rations they had in their bags of holding. It wasn’t much but it was enough to feed all the living members of the group.
As they were eating there was some rustling in the forest so Mors stood up from the fallen log he was using as a chair, casually using his scythe much like a walking stick, and approached the source of the noise. Suddenly a large lion-like creature with bat-like wings and a scorpion-like tail leapt from the bushes and roared at the lich.
“Die.” Mors said, causing the creature to immediately fall over dead. “It would appear I have taken care of tomorrow’s hunting for you, Lann.” The Lich stated.
Lann sighed. “Great… Guess I gotta gut and skin this thing before going to bed now.”
“I can do so myself, if you are opposed. Or I can freeze it with Ice Prison and you can wait until morning to deal with it.” Mors offered.
“Oh no. No, no, no. I’ve seen you in a fight. Everything you touch immediately starts to rot, and a lot of your magic rots things too or just saps the life from things. Even your magic that should burn, freeze, or electrocute things instead. Heck some of the plants are withering and dying around you right now! So if you do it there won’t be any edible meat left by the time you’re done. Same thing if you froze it. Besides, no offense Mors but you’re not good at this sort of thing. You were bad at skinning things when we hunted together when you were alive and I doubt that’s changed now that you’re dead. Just let me finish my stew and I’ll get to it.” Lann said.
“As you wish.” The lich stated before returning to his seat.
Nenio quickly finished off her own food and walked over to the corpse of the creature and began taking blood, tissue, spinal fluid, and tail venom before scribbling a bunch of notes down in a fresh book. “Fascinating… This creature closely resembles a manticore to the untrained eye but there are numerous differences from the body structure to the tail and how it functions! Even the shape of the claws and teeth are different!”
“Hey! That’s good meat! Don’t ruin it with… whatever you’re doing!” Lann demanded, on the verge of standing up to chase her away from the body.
“Don’t worry, nothing I’m doing will in any way make this creature less edible. I am just taking samples for study and comparison to manticores back on Golarion. Also the tail is venomous and the tip is the means of injection, so you should be aware of this before you attempt to skin and dress this creature as we do not yet know just how dangerous this venom is… Hm… Maybe I should—” Nenio stated as she continued her examinations.
“No. You are not going to drink or inject that venom into yourself. I don’t care if we are demigods now.” Lann said sternly.
“But—”
“No buts! Don’t make me take that venom and stinger away from you! I’ll do it!”
Nenio pouted but put the vial of venom away.
Arueshalae smiled and chuckled a bit. “This is a lot like my dream. The only thing that’s missing is a nice house, a table, and our friends who stayed behind and it would be nearly perfect.”
“That sounds like a nice dream… I’m just happy the crusades are over! People don’t have to get hurt fighting the demons anymore.” Ember stated.
“No, they’ll just get hurt fighting each other instead.” Areelu commented. “Wars were waged long before I opened the World Wound and they’ll be waged long after it is gone.”
“I know. And it's sad. But at least it won’t be as bad as it was with the demons.” Ember said, looking at Areelu.
“A shame I won’t be there to collect the corpses and souls. The bodies will just go to waste being buried in the ground or cremated and the souls will go to waste being sorted into particular planes for their ultimate reward or punishment by Pharasma.” Mors commented as he checked the edge of his scythe. The battle with Deskari and Baphomet had dulled it. Unsatisfied with the fact his best physical weapon was dull, he took out a whetstone and started sharpening the blade. He desperately needed a better weapon, more befitting his new power.
“Yeeeaaah… A real cryin’ shame, that. I guess they’re just gonna have to go on with their deaths without you, Chief.” Woljif stated.
“Indeed. Truly a pity.” Mors stated as he continued to sharpen his scythe. After what Zacharias had done to turn him into a lich, his emotions were dulled significantly. He could barely feel anything, let alone humor. However, this was indeed his attempt at a joke despite not finding it funny himself. Unfortunately it didn’t seem like the joke landed, judging by how uncomfortable several of them looked. “That was a joke. I don’t actually care. The wars in Golarion are no longer our concern. Let alone what happens to the dead from said wars. The gods made that very clear when they banished us here.”
“Oh. Haha… Right… Sorry, Chief, your deadpan tone makes it a bit hard to tell.” Woljif said, relaxing a bit.
“I see… Unfortunately the ritual Zacharias conducted to make me a lich rendered me very close to emotionless, as you all know. So I apologize if my intonation was a bit off for the joke to land properly.” Mors said, as he continued to sharpen his scythe.
“Hey, don’t sweat it, buddy. We all understand.” Woljif said, smiling at him.
Lann finally finished his food and got up. “Alright. Guess I better finish this quickly if I wanna get some sleep. Hey, Woljif, help me tie this thing's hind legs up and get it hanging in a tree.”
“Oh, sure.” Woljif said, getting up and walking over to go help Lann.
The two of them tied up the lion-esque monster and hoisted it up with a sturdy tree branch. Once that was done Lann took out a knife and slit the monster’s throat. “Hey, Commander, I gotta bleed this thing before I can start. Think you can help speed that up a bit?”
“I can. You might want to take a step back. This will make a mess.” Mors said before standing up and casting exsanguinate on the manticore’s corpse, causing blood to come gushing out of its slit throat until it was completely drained of blood down to the last drop. With that done, Mors sat back down and returned to sharpening his scythe.
Meanwhile, in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle who had been stargazing with her telescope in her library watched as a strange white and green light emerged from the light and crashed into the Everfree Forest resulting in a bright flash that lit up the night sky for a few moments before the light dissipated. She could immediately tell that had been no normal meteor. She had never seen anything quite like it before! Sure she had seen falling stars and such in the past but none of them had ever looked like that before and they never emitted such a large flash upon crashing.
She needed to investigate. She had seen it land in the Everfree. So calculating the velocity and trajectory she was able to determine a rough estimate of where in the forest it should have landed. She was going to have to get some of her friends and head into the forest tomorrow to go investigate. Maybe Zecora would be able to help them find their way to the spot? She knew the Everfree pretty well so she should be able to act as a guide. And if nothing else, she would be able to help them avoid dangerous plants and animals, and it would be fun to go for a small adventure with their new friend.
So, the next morning that’s exactly what she did.
She, Zecora, Fluttershy, and Applejack were all walking through the Everfree towards the location of the crash site.
“So, what are we lookin’ for exactly?” Applejack inquired as they walked through the forest.
“A meteorite, I think. I told you, I watched a strange light crash into the forest last night, and I assume it was a meteor. Though admittedly it was very unlike any meteor I’ve ever seen or heard of. But that’s exactly why I want to find it! It has to have a unique chemical composition or maybe a magical charge and I want to study it. Something like this could be the biggest astronomical discovery of the century!” Twilight explained.
“Hm… I also saw this meteorite in the night. It was quite the brilliant sight. However, I would be leery as the forest has become quite eerie. It is just a theory, but I do not believe this is anything cheery.” Zecora said in a wary tone.
“The animals have all fled and the plants are full of dread. Even the winds speak only of the dead. So we should be cautious where we tread lest the ground run red.” Zecora answered ominously.
Fluttershy squeaked in terror and even Applejack stiffened up a bit at the warning. “T-Twilight, I don’t like this… L-let’s just go home…” Fluttershy pleaded, trembling in terror.
“What? No way! Maybe the noise of the meteor hitting scared the animals or something. I’m sure it’s fine.” Twilight said dismissively.
“I don’t know, Twi. It is pretty quiet… Way too quiet if yah ask me. There ain’t even any birds. If they were just scared by the noise, they shoulda come on back by now, right Zecora?” Applejack asked.
Zecora nodded, looking up at the trees in concern.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Just relax… If it does actually get dangerous, I can just teleport us back to Ponyville. It’ll be fine.”
Applejack frowned and sighed. Shaking her head she said, “If yah say so… I trust you.”
As they continued to walk they started to smell something. Sniffing, Applejack looked around. “Hey, do any of y'all smell somethin’ cookin’ or is it just me?”
“No… I smell it too… Weird. It doesn’t smell quite like any food I’ve ever smelled before.” Twilight commented.
“It’s… It’s meat…” Fluttershy squeaked.
“What?” Twilight asked.
“I’ve… I’ve cooked meals for a bear before with an animal that died of old age who agreed to let me feed its body to a predator after they passed… I’ve only done it once and never tried it again since it makes me nauseous and really sad to cut up an innocent creature, even if the creature is already dead and it's to feed another creature. So now I give the bodies to predators raw… but the smell… I will always remember that smell… that smell is cooking meat…” Fluttershy explained, looking more terrified than ever.
Zecora’s expression became very grim.
“Oh… Uh… Wow… Okay… Well, if it’s being cooked then that means something intelligent has to be doing the cooking… That or some poor animal got trapped under a burning tree or in a bush or something after the meteor hit and was burned alive. If it’s the former then I assume whoever it is, is smart enough to be reasoned with. If it’s the latter, then it’s just an unfortunate accident and while sad it should be harmless save for the chance of a forest fire.” Twilight said, now becoming a lot more wary.
“You sure we should keep going, Twi? It ain’t too late to turn back.” Applejack said, her expression having become quite stoic and her stance making it clear she was getting ready for a fight.
“I’m sure. If it’s something too dangerous, we’re going to need to report it to Princess Celestia so it can be dealt with. If it’s not dangerous, then it could be an important scientific discovery. Either way, we need to at least see what it is.” Twilight said.
Applejack nodded. “Alright, but you get ready to teleport us away if it’s dangerous, yah hear? I’ll fight if I gotta, but I’d rather not have to.”
“Got it…” Twilight stated.
As they got even closer another smell joined the smell of cooking. A sharp metallic smell.
“B-blood… Th-that’s blood…” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Everyone try to be quiet. We’ll sneak closer and see what it is.” Twilight whispered so only Zecora, Applejack, and Fluttershy could hear her.
Zecora and Applejack nodded, while Fluttershy just trembled in fear.
As they snuck closer they started to hear something. Talking, they realized. Somepony was having a conversation up ahead. “Definitely intelligent…” Twilight muttered quietly under her breath.
Sneaking even closer, they saw a camp full of bipedal creatures unlike anything any of them had ever seen before, all of whom were as tall as minotaurs. No two bipedal creatures looked fully alike. However, two creatures caught their eye in particular. One was the skeleton of a manticore which had two green glowing lights in its eye sockets and was moving around on its own. The other was another skeletal creature, however this one looked like the bipedal creatures, was wearing armored robes, had two skeletal bat-like wings, and was carrying a large and scary looking scythe. This creature also had what looked like a tiny dragon-like creature with silver scales curled up on its lap.
Scooping up the tiny dragon-like creature, the scythe wielding skeleton handed it to the creature in blue clothes with bat-like wings and two horns on its head. It then stood up and said something before vanishing in a flash of light.
“Did it just use magic? Where did it go?” Twilight whispered.
After skinning and collecting all of the meat from the manticore, Lann went to sleep leaving Mors and Areelu Vorlesh as the only ones awake as everyone else had already gone to bed and being a demon Areelu didn’t sleep. As they had no other use for the bones, Mors raised the manticore’s now completely fleshless skeleton. Fortunately Lann had left the stinger on the end of the tail so its now undead skeleton could still inject its victims with venom. Once the stinger was eventually empty, Mors planned on having Nenio make a potent poison for him so he could fill the stinger with that instead. Though, he supposed he could fill it with a magical disease instead. Either one would suit his purposes. The poison would kill individual targets and would be much faster acting, but the magical disease could spread and kill far more people or animals leaving him with even more corpses to raise. Decisions, decisions…
For now he had the skeleton sit and help him keep watch. If it noticed anything, it would warn him and he could send it to deal with it for him or he could go check it out for himself.
“So… What will we do now?” Areelu asked as they sat around the campfire.
“A good question. I am unsure. Without access to the Abyss and the World Wound, we can no longer complete our ascension… My first goal shall be to build a new Ziggurat so I can create a new phylactery. And I have learned from my mistakes. After I have made a new phylactery I shall keep it hidden so it can not be taken away from me and destroyed again so easily. After that, however…” Mors said.
“I wouldn’t be so quick to give up on ascension. It may very well still be possible. It will just require time and research. And if there is one thing we have in abundance now that the World Wound has been closed and we have partially ascended, it is time. Who knows, perhaps we may even find a way to ascend further than what even the Nahyndrian crystals would allow and become true gods rather than mere demigods.” Areelu suggested.
“Then research we shall. I do hope this world has sapient life. It will make the construction of my ziggurat so much faster. Then we can conduct our research in my Ziggurat rather than having to base ourselves in mere tents and hand built wood cabins.” Mors stated.
Areelu nodded. “Agreed. We are all far above such crude accommodations… Did that irritating fox truly have to accompany us? Could you not have ordered her to stay on Golarion?”
“Nenio is useful. Often near suicidally reckless, but useful all the same. She could be of assistance in our research, if you can tolerate her reckless curiosity and in your case, her constant questions. Besides, I did encourage all of my allies to stay but I did not wish to order them to do so as I was concerned about what we might encounter so far beyond the maelstrom. In fact I’m still not sure what we may encounter, though this manticore seems to be a good sign that this world may not be so different from Golarion which would be most fortunate.” Mors explained.
Areelu sighed. “Very well… I suppose I’ll simply have to put up with it, much to my frustration.”
The two of them continued to talk and discuss their plans as the night dragged on.
Eventually the night gave way to the dawn and dawn gave way to the morning. Nenio was the first one to wake up, much to Areelu’s frustration. Fortunately for Areelu, instead of badgering her with questions, Nenio started examining and recording a bunch of plants in her new book. Arueshalae was the last to wake up and by the time she did, breakfast was already in the process of being cooked. A good portion of breakfast being the meat from the manticore.
As they were eating, Mors heard a bit of rustling and noticed something in the distance. Four equine creatures peeking out at their camp from behind some bushes. One of them was wearing a strange looking hat. A sign of not just intelligent life but of civilization. Scooping up Jharsygax he passed the dragon to Arueshalae. Then before anyone could question what he was doing, he stood up and cast “walk through space”, teleporting himself directly behind the equines.
“Did it just use magic? Where did it go?” The small purple unicorn-esque creature asked.
“Behind you.” Mors answered.
The purple unicorn and yellow pegasus both screamed in terror while the orange one with the strange hat and the zebra whirled around to face him, dropping into what looked like fighting stances.
“I was wondering if there was intelligent life in this world. Might I ask what you are doing sneaking up to our camp?” Mors asked, resting the butt of his scythe on the ground. Unperturbed by their current hostility.
“Hey, what was that screaming? What’s going on over there?” Lann asked as he and several of the others started to approach.
“I found some creatures spying on us. They’re intelligent.” Mors responded emotionlessly.
“P-pl-please, don’t eat us!” The yellow pegasus squealed in fear, laying on her stomach and covering her head with her forehooves. Her entire body was trembling in abject terror.
“No, no! We aren’t going to hurt you, I promise! Well, unless you attack us first but then it would only be self defense. I’m sorry if we scared you.” Ember said in a kind calming tone.
“Yeah. As long as you aren’t here to hurt us, we won’t hurt you either. Even the Commander here wouldn't hurt you without a reason, despite his, uh... Creepy appearance." Lann said, motioning to the lich.
“You… You aren’t…?” The yellow pegasus asked timidly.
“Of course not. Why would we? You haven’t done anything to us.” Arueshalae answered. “Let’s introduce ourselves. I’m Arueshalae and this adorable little creature in my arms is Jharsygax Aghamornalyandre.” Jharsygax squeaked in greeting.
“I’m Nenio. Excuse me, strange equine creatures, would you mind if I conducted a few experiments on you? I promise to make them as painless as possible!” Nenio requested eagerly.
“Ugh, she’s always like this. Just ignore her. She won’t do anything to you if you don’t agree to it. Anyway, I’m Lann.”
“Hey. I’m Woljif Jefto, nice to meet you! That’s Commander Mors though I usually just call him ‘Chief’, over there by the fire is Areelu Vorlesh, and this is Ember.” Woljif introduced them.
“Hello!” Ember greeted them with a smile.
“Uh… I’m Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends, Zecora, Applejack, and Fluttershy… Um… I don’t mean to be rude, but what exactly are all of you, and do you have something to do with that meteor we saw crash here last night?” The purple unicorn inquired.
“This seems like it’ll be a long conversation… Come sit with us by the fire and we’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have for us!” Arueshalae offered, petting Jharsygax affectionately.
“Uh… What do you think, girls?” Twilight asked.
“Well, most of y’all seem nice enough… And while Commander Mors there is scarier than Nightmare Moon at her worst, we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Ain’t that right, Zecora?” Applejack said, looking at Zecora with a smile.
Zecora smiled back. “One should not be judged at a glance. I agree we should give them a chance.” Though she glanced at Mors warily.
“U-um… W-what happened to that poor manticore…?” Fluttershy asked timidly, looking at the manticore skeleton.
“It attacked us last night. I killed it. Lann harvested the pelt and meat. Then I raised its skeleton from the dead rather than letting it go to waste. Its death was instant and painless, if that is a concern to you.” Mors explained in his emotionless monotone.
Fluttershy cowered in fear of Mors as he spoke. “O-oh…”
“I can just send you home if you’re too uncomfortable, Fluttershy.” Twilight offered.
“Uh… I…” Fluttershy looked at Mors’ companions and Jharsygax. Swallowing hard, she said, “I… I’ll, um… I’ll stay…”
“Okay. Just remember, if you start feeling too scared or uncomfortable, just let me know and I’ll teleport you back home.” Twilight said, patting Fluttershy on the back comfortingly.
All of them moved to sit back down around the fire. Twilight sat next to Applejack and Nenio who was trying to measure her horn with a tape measure, Applejack was between Twilight and Woljif, Zecora sat down between Lann and Areelu, and Fluttershy sat down between Ember and Arueshalae and was currently petting Jharsygax who had wiggled free from Arueshalae and was currently sitting in front of Fluttershy happily letting her pet him.
“We have some of our breakfast leftover. Any of you want some?” Lann offered.
“I think I already know the answer, but, is there meat in it?” Twilight asked hesitantly.
“Yeah. It’s from that manticore over there. It’s pretty good, if you ask me. Why? Oh, wait… Horses… You’re herbivores, right? Sorry, I didn’t think of that. I hope I didn’t offend you.” Lann said apologetically.
“It’s no problem, but uh… I’ll pass…”
“Hm… For me there is no need to cajole. I am willing to at least try a bowl.” Zecora stated.
“Really? Alright then. It's a stew so it has other things in it too. Potatoes, carrots, and some edible mushrooms.” Lann said as he scooped some out of the cooking cauldron with a ladle and poured it into a wooden bowl. “I’d offer you a fork but… uh…”
Zecora chuckled and held out both of her forehooves.
Lann hesitantly gave her the bowl, which she took gratefully.
Taking a bit of the meat from the bowl she chewed it up and ate it. “Mmm… What an interesting taste. I shan’t let it go to waste. Thank you.”
“Sure. Anyway, you wanted to know what we are and if we had something to do with that ‘meteor’ you saw. I’m what’s known as a Mongrel. A descendant of some of the first crusaders who were tricked into killing and eating an angel out of starvation by a demon and ended up being corrupted by it. Before you ask, no I’m not evil and I’m not a cannibal like my ancestors. I actively resisted the influence of the same demon who corrupted my ancestors and the rest of my people. In fact, I’m pretty much the only one of my people who managed to resist Savamelekh. Just trying to resist nearly killed me but I did it. Unfortunately the rest of my people weren’t so lucky, or strong willed I guess…”
“I must apologize that we were unable to find and get revenge upon Savamelekh before the end of the crusade, Lann. I had every intention of assisting you in that, but no leads as to his or your tribe’s location presented themselves.” Mors stated.
“It’s fine. I don’t blame you. If anything I blame that gods damned demon for deceiving my ancestors… Oh well… Too late now.” Lann sighed.
“I’m so sorry to hear that… What happened to your people, exactly?” Twilight inquired.
“Didn’t you hear me? They were all corrupted by the demon Savamelekh. All of them. Every last one. They’re all his slaves in the Abyss now, I’m sure… Anyway, enough of that. Ember, why don’t you go next.” Lann said.
“Okay. I’m an Elf. We’re just a normal race of mortals except we live a really long time. Our country is Kyonin, that’s where my mama lives, I think. I haven’t seen her for almost a hundred years, so I don’t know. Maybe she moved?” Ember stated.
“Almost a hundred years? How old are yah? No offense but yah sound like a foal.” Applejack asked.
“Oh, I’m one hundred and ten! I guess I’m almost a full grown adult, by elf standards.” Ember explained.
“How long do elves normally live?” Twilight asked.
“Around seven hundred years, I think?” Ember said uncertainly. “At least that’s what I’ve heard.”
“I’m a Kitsune. A race of fox-like humanoid shapechangers native to the continent Tian Xia on Golarion.” Nenio explained.
“I was a human. The same race as Lann’s ancestors before they were corrupted. Though thanks to my mother, Areelu, I was born of demonic blood and was thus born with the ability to use magic and later grew demonic wings. Later still, I learned a method to grant myself a second bloodline and I infused my blood with the power of the grave through necromancy. Now, I have transcended mortality all together and have become a lich. A process that granted me great power, but cost me my emotions and all forms of attachment. A worthy trade, in my opinion. I no longer need to or even have the capability to eat, sleep, or even breathe. Nor will I ever die of old age, disease, or poison.” Mors explained.
“Necromancy… I, um… I thought that was fantasy… Something made up for horror novels involving zombies and stuff…” Twilight said uncertainly.
“Look at me and this manticore. Do we appear as a fantasy to you?” Mors inquired, motioning to the manticore skeleton which was sitting there off to the side with its tail twitching.
“No… You’re real… This is a huge magical breakthrough but… I’m not quite sure how everypony will react to it if it becomes public knowledge.” Twilight muttered.
“Who said I would share my secrets? No. I have no intention of spreading the knowledge of necromancy, save perhaps to a few select apprentices hand picked by me.” Mors stated.
“Sorry to burst yer bubble Mr. Mors but you look like a walkin’ skeleton. It’ll be kinda difficult to keep that secret wont it?” Applejack asked.
Mors stood up and cast a spell. Suddenly he looked like an old human with a short white beard and short white hair. He looked exactly like he did when he was still alive. “Will it, now? I’m not so sure.” He said, still sounding as cold and emotionless as ever.
“Fine, fine. I get it, you can hide it… I just got one question fer yah. Why’d yah do it? Was it just fer power and immortality or was there more to it?”
“That is a long story and I would rather not spend all day here discussing it. For now all I shall say is, the Fifth Crusade, the war I led., was hard. I was against odds that seemed insurmountable and I was desperate. We could not afford to lose the crusade. So, at my wit's end, when I met Master Zacharias and he offered me the power I needed to win, of course I agreed. I had no choice. It was necessary to win. Woljif, it is your turn.”
“Me? But… Oh alright… I’m a tiefling. My granddad was one of the Demon Lord Baphomet’s children. So I guess that makes Baphomet my great granddad or something, which makes me demonic royalty! A genuine prince of the Abyss! I’m not evil like them though. The commander actually helped stop me from being possessed by my grandpa and becoming essentially just a meat suit for him. And I helped kill Baphomet and end the war. Really I’m just a poor orphan who grew up on the streets, running with gangs just to get by.” Woljif explained.
“Wait, you said your mother was a demon but you said you’re human and it just made you able to use magic. But your grandfather was a demon and you’re a tiefling? How does that work?” Twilight asked.
“Two things. I was not born naturally, rather my mother made my body this way on purpose.”
“Indeed I did. If you had to suffer the stigma of being a tiefling, it would have been highly inconvenient. This was a far better option.” Areelu stated.
Mors nodded and continued, “Furthermore, demons are metaphysical entities formed from the souls of sinners sent to the Abyss for their ultimate punishment after their death and judgment in the Boneyard by the Goddess Pharasma, and their blood does not always manifest itself in any form nor manifest itself in the same ways when it does manifest itself. For example, Woljif’s mother was born human despite having been sired by a demon. There was a chance he could have been born similar to myself, or he could have been born as a normal human, or he could have been born as a tiefling but he could have been a sorcerer like me, but he was not.”
“Yeah, I really got the short end of the stick there. My life would have been waaay better if I had been born a human sorcerer or even just a normal human rather than a tiefling. Oh well though. Everything turned out well enough for me after you took me off the streets and brought me into the crusades, huh chief?” Woljif said, smiling at the lich.
Twilight sighed and shook her head. “This entire conversation is just giving me so many more questions than answers… So, Miss Areelu, you are Mors’ mother? So you’re a demon?”
“A succubus to be specific and yes. I became a half demon by tying my soul to the Abyss. A very different process than how demons are usually made. I retained all of my memories from when I was simply a human trying to look after her son.” Areelu stated.
“And you’re an evil witch. I still think we should have just thrown you into the World Wound and have been done with you forever. It would be poetic justice since you opened it.” Lann stated.
“Don’t be like that, Lann. Arueshalae redeemed herself, so I’m sure she can be redeemed too!” Ember stated.
“Excuse me, but what is this ‘world wound’?” Twilight asked.
“A complex topic for another time. It would require a lengthy explanation and lessons in history to explain in full.” Mors stated.
“Uh… I guess it’s my turn. I’m also a succubus like Lady Areelu, but because of the Goddess Desna and with the help of Commander Mors, I was able to find redemption and fully overcome my demonic nature. I’m not fully certain I can even be called a succubus anymore since my very nature was altered after I achieved redemption…” Arueshalae stated. “Oh and little Jharsygax here is a freshly hatched dragon! Technically he’s several centuries old since he’s been in his egg all this time and he’s been able to communicate with his original guardian through dreams but he only hatched recently. So he understands language perfectly. He’s just not big enough to speak yet. At least not outside of dreams. Maybe in a year or so he’ll be able to talk.”
“It is your turn. What are you four?” Mors inquired.
“It will be difficult to put this to rhyme so I shall speak plainly. I am a Zebra. My kind are quite similar to ponies like these three but we are not quite the same. My kind’s magic resides in the creation of potions, elixirs, and powders rather than natural ability. We also commune with the spirits of nature from plants to the wind.” Zecora explained.
“So you're a race of alchemists? Or shamans perhaps?” Mors inquired.
Zecora nodded with a smile.
“I’m a unicorn. One of the three main races of ponies. Unicorns can use our horns to cast spells.” Twilight explained. Suddenly a lavender aura appeared around her horn and a nearby rock as she started levitating said rock towards her. “See?”
“Hm… Fascinating. An entire race of sorcerers…” Mors stated, staring at Twilight’s horn.
“Welp, I’m an Earth Pony. Our magic is tied to the earth. Growin’ plants, helpin’ trees lose their leaves in the fall, and we’re strong as all get out, that sorta thing. And Fluttershy there’s a pegasus. They can fly and control the weather and seasons.” Applejack explained.
“A race of druids with enhanced strength and a race with magic completely unknown to me. Interesting. This world is very different from ours… Tell me, do all of your kind possess those particular forms of magic?” Mors inquired.
“Yes. Every unicorn can cast spells, every earth pony can control the growth of plants, and every pegasus can fly and control the weather… Well technically some pegasi can be born with wings that are too small to fly, but they can still walk on clouds if they manage to get up there somehow.” Twilight stated.
“How fascinating! It is so much different from our world! This will absolutely require further study and experimentation!” Nenio said excitedly.
“Excuse me, your ‘world’? What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked.
“I would prefer to keep most of our past to ourselves until we learn more about you and this land. After all, we are strangers. Only a fool would explain all their secrets to a stranger on their first meeting. All I will say on the matter is this. What you saw last night was no meteor. It was us.” Mors stated.
“So… You’re aliens?” Twilight asked.
“If that is what you wish to call us. We are indeed from another world so I suppose the term fits us.” Mors stated.
“And I suppose you aren’t going to tell us what sort of magic you used to get here?” Twilight asked in disappointment.
“No.” Mors stated.
“You said the Abyss was something like an afterlife and that you’ve been there. Are you willing to elaborate on that?” Twilight asked.
“No.”
“The crusades?”
“No.”
“What about this ‘Pharasma’? You said she was a goddess. Can you at least explain your religion?” Twilight pleaded.
“No, but only because I know little about religion. I never took an interest in it, personally. My focus was always on the arcane. I’m sure Arueshalae would be able to explain Desna and her religion to you if you asked.”
“Is there anything else you are willing to tell us?” Twilight asked.
“Perhaps. But there is much we know and you have not asked questions we are willing to answer at this time. Think of something relatively benign and unimportant, or at the very least unrelated to us specifically, and there is a slim chance I will be willing to answer you.” Mors responded.
Twilight sighed in disappointment.
“I assume you four live in a city or village. If you could lead us to the nearest settlement, I would be willing to tell you some history of our world. Though this history will be unrelated to us, specifically.” Areelu offered
Twilight immediately brightened up. “Really?”
“Yes. I would rather not have to spend another night sitting on a log in these woods. If I need only tell a bit of history for directions to the nearest settlement, I will do so.” Areelu stated.
“Okay! Deal! In fact I can do better and teleport all of us there right now!” Twilight offered.
“Hold on, hold on! Before you do that, at least let us pack up our camp, okay? I don’t want to have to leave our stuff behind, just in case we need to camp out again.” Lann said.
“Oh, right… Sorry, I guess I got a bit ahead of myself.” Twilight said apologetically.
“It’s fine. Just give us a few minutes. We’ll be all packed up and ready to go soon.” Lann said.
As everyone was packing up the camp, Mors reached into his personal bag of holding and took out the amulet he took from Camellia’s corpse after executing her for murder in that basement in Drezen. He had gotten lucky that the equines, specifically the unicorn sorcerer and zebra shaman, had not thought to check his alignment. He had been complacent in his uncertainty of there being intelligent life on this planet and had foregone this in favor of an amulet of natural armor, in case they encountered anything truly dangerous and he needed the extra defense. However, now that he was aware intelligent life existed here, this amulet became a necessity.
The undeniable fact was that he was evil. He was very well aware of it and he accepted it. After all, in a war with monsters sometimes one had to become a monster themself to fight back, as was the case with him. Regardless, he had no idea how these creatures would react if they discovered he was evil. They might try to execute him for all he knew. Not that they could, but he would rather not start another war so soon. At least not until he had time to learn as much about this world and these equines as possible. He wasn’t a fool. Information was key to any war and information was the one thing he had a serious lack of at the moment. Though his potential enemies had a similar lack of information.
Troops and resources he could acquire easily enough by killing the Equine forces and conquering territory. Undead slaves made for excellent laborers as well as soldiers after all. He also knew how to manipulate the masses and convince the living to side with him as well, if need be. And he could even turn some of the most educated and well-spoken of the living into vampires through profane necromantic rituals to serve as diplomats and nobility to help him with political affairs and managing his armies. He could build an entire kingdom of the dead with ease if he so desired, becoming the next lord of the undead as Tar Baphon was.
However, all of that was completely meaningless if he lacked the information necessary to carry it out as his potential enemies could have weapons, strategies, or powerful entities at their disposal or on their side that he might not be prepared to deal with. So until he could learn what he was dealing with, his alignment needed to stay hidden.
Back on Golarion most would immediately realize that all undead are inherently evil, but here… Here they thought of undead as a mere fantasy, if the equines’ words were to be believed, and that meant they had no idea what to expect. So they would not know he is evil just by the fact he was undead. So the longer he could keep the fact he was evil hidden the better as he would be able to gather more information and the longer he would have to be able to prepare.
Besides, he needed the equines to be willing to cooperate so he could pay them to build his new ziggurat for him. That was merely a matter of convenience. He could have undead laborers build the ziggurat for him instead but acquiring the resources on his own would make the process slower and he didn’t want to start raising more undead and risk inciting a panic and a subsequent crusade against him until he was ready. Plus he still had several hundred thousand gold available to spend. He would most likely have to exchange said gold for whatever currency they used in this land but that hardly mattered to him.
Or if worse came to worst and he couldn’t exchange his currency, he could always just have Woljif help him plot a massive heist to acquire the necessary funds. He was sure the tiefling would be willing to do so if he asked. After all, Mors had worked very hard to guarantee the loyalty of all of his followers. Besides which, Woljif was a thief to his core so he would likely be elated to have the chance to put his skills to the test again.
He did wish he had a second amulet like this, however, as Areelu was also evil. It would be inconvenient if that was discovered as it could impact him and his group’s ability to gather information. He could easily come up with lies such as the fact he was constantly keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn’t do anything evil and Ember and Arueshalae were working with her to make her good again.
That was the truth, to an extent. Ember and Arueshalae would likely try to work with him and Areelu to redeem them. It wouldn’t work, at least not on him, but they would certainly try. However, he didn’t know if the equines would accept this. So while it was inconvenient after he went to so much trouble to have Areelu ascend with him and the others, he was prepared to sacrifice her to keep up a neutral image if he had to. After all, he could always just resurrect her after her execution using what he learned about resurrecting demonic essences in the Abyss. It wouldn’t be as easy as resurrecting a mortal, especially not after absorbing the power of Nahyndrian crystals, but he should be able to do it. At least in theory.
“Commander? Or can I just call you, Mors?” Twilight asked.
“Either works. What is it?” He inquired, looking down at the tiny equine.
“I just wanted to ask about that amulet… It’s uh… a bit intimidating looking. And I think I can feel some traces of magic coming from it. What is it?” She asked.
“Ah, this? It’s nothing. A mere trinket really.” But a useful one, he didn’t add. “Its original owner used to be a part of my group here. Then she turned out to be a crazed murderer so I killed her and took this from her corpse.”
Twilight’s eyes widened in horror and surprise as did the eyes of Applejack and Fluttershy. Zecora just had a grim look on her face but didn’t look surprised.
“You’re judging me, I can see it in all of your eyes, but what would you have done in my position? I couldn’t have her murdering my troops and citizens after all, despite the fact I could just raise them as undead later if I so chose, and worse yet I caught her in the middle of the act. There was no need for a trial when it was clear she was guilty, and had she been given a trial she would have been executed regardless. And as the Knight Commander of the Fifth Crusade it was well within my authority to put her down. In fact I would go so far as to say it was my responsibility to the people I lead.” Mors explained.
Continuing he said, “But you’re probably wondering why I kept this after that. After all, its previous owner was a murderer. I could give you a dozen reasons and all would be true. But instead I’ll just give you just one. At the time I still had my emotions and I was quite sentimental. Before learning what she was, I considered her a friend despite her personality which was as abrasive as a wood rasp. So at the time I took it as a memento to remember the one I used to consider a friend, the sentimental fool that I was. Of course she was never truly my friend, it was merely a deception so she could have more opportunity to continue her murderous behavior right under my nose. Though I didn’t want to accept it was a deception at the time.”
Twilight’s expression softened. “O-oh… I… I’m so sorry…”
“Don’t be. You had nothing to do with it. Now, as for why I just put it on despite no longer having any such sentimental attachment to it, I fear my illusion to change my appearance may not be enough to blend in fully. I merely do not wish to risk causing a panic by allowing my true nature to be discovered so soon. This amulet should help with that. That is all.” Mors told them. And it was the truth. There wasn’t a single lie in any of his words. It simply didn’t give them all of the information. Not a lie, technically, but a half truth shrouded by the ponies’ sympathy from the “tragic” story of betrayal.
“Speakin’ of causin’ a panic. I don’t think y’all should bring that manticore skeleton with ya into town. Even if ya could make an illusion to make it look alive too, most folks are scared of manticores. They sure as sugar wouldn’t appreciate ya bringin’ one into town.” Applejack said.
“Hm… How unfortunate. Very well. I shall send it to stalk the edge of the forest closest to this settlement, while remaining hidden. That way I can call upon it at any time I require it, but there will be no panic over an undead creature. Is that more acceptable?” Mors inquired.
“Uh… What are the chances it might be seen?” Twilight asked.
“How stealthy are living manticores?”
“Well, they’re typically ambush predators so I guess they can be pretty stealthy when they want to be…” Twilight said.
“And that is despite not having a pelt color suited to blending in with this forest, which I presume they are native to, unless they are an invasive species. So natural camouflage does not factor into it. That means it will have no trouble remaining unseen now that it is dead either. Though it’s not used to its eyes being two glowing green orbs of necromantic light, so its eyes might be seen in the shadows from time to time but that's it. At most you’ll start hearing ghost stories of glowing green eyes in the dark, which should be dismissed as just that, ghost stories, by the majority of the local population.” Mors stated.
“Or a timberwolf.” Applejack commented.
“A what?”
“A timberwolf! They’re basically piles of wood animated through some unknown magic that resemble wolves and are native to the Everfree. All of them have green glowing eyes so it’s possible everypony would just think your manticore was one of them that strayed a bit close to the edge of the Everfree. They actually seem pretty similar to your manticore, now that I think about it. Except they’re made of wood instead of bones.” Twilight explained.
“I see. I will have to investigate these creatures at some point. However, there is one thing I must disagree with you upon. There is no resemblance to necromancy in these creatures whatsoever. If anything these creatures are likely animated through some sort of druidic magic, closer to what ‘earth ponies’ use. I can not take a random pile of wood and animate it like I could a skeleton nor could a druid take a corpse and animate it in the same way as these ‘timberwolves’.” Mors told her.
“So there’s no translating abilities from one form of magic to the other? There’s no overlap whatsoever?”
“Essentially.” Mors stated.
“Strange… Usually there’s at least some overlap between different forms of magic, even if they’re polar opposites…” Twilight said.
“Hm… Well admittedly, I know very little about druidic magic as I have never had a need for it. I specialize in necromancy and arcane magic. From what very little I understand, druidic magic is primal magic derived from communing with nature, similar to how the divine magic of clerics and paladins is derived from prayer and communing with their gods and is thus fundamentally different from arcane magic. So perhaps I lack the knowledge to see an overlap. However, I doubt there is an overlap to begin with, as they are completely different on the most basic levels.”
“Wait, wait, wait… You listed three different kinds of magic. Arcane, primal, and divine. Could you explain the difference in more detail?” Twilight requested.
“Later, perhaps, when we have a bit more time. I don’t mind speaking of magic. It’s simply a complex and detailed subject.”
“Oh… Alright then. I’ll ask again later.” Twilight stated, sounding disappointed once more. “Are you at least willing to tell me a bit about the undead? Like, how did you turn yourself into a ‘lich’?”
“That’s quite personal, and I didn’t do it by myself. My teacher, Master Zacharias, helped me ascend to true lichdom. The methods we used are a secret only to be discussed between master and apprentice. I will not disrespect my teacher by divulging his secrets and explaining it to someone entirely uninitiated in the arts. I will only divulge this information to one I take as an apprentice, and only once they’ve achieved true mastery of necromancy and I deem them worthy of ascension. In this case, you can think of it as a sort of ‘trade secret’. That said, I am open to a discussion in regards to the many different types of undead. For example, in our world, there’s even an entire kingdom where the undead and the living coexist. It’s called Geb.”
Twilight perked up a bit, taking his bait. He needed to give her something to seem less suspicious considering how much critical information he refused to divulge. Telling her about Geb, without discussing the “chattel” and other such unsavory issues within Geb would lead her to incorrect assumptions about the undead, painting them in a far better light. That was exactly what he wanted. During the crusade, Geb and Ustalav had both been a thorn in his side so he had low opinions of the two kingdoms. But Geb, in particular, was a tool he could use to deceive and manipulate these equines. An advantage he was not going to let go to waste.
“Really?” She asked. “Is that where you and Master Zacharias are from?! What’s it like?!”
“Neither Master Zacharias nor I are from Geb. Nor have I had the pleasure of visiting in person. My mother and I are from Sarkoris. And if I’m not mistaken, I believe Master Zacharias was from Mendev. Though during the 5th crusade Geb sent ambassadors to Drezen, the city I governed. So I do know a bit about it from sources who lived there, but I am only able to tell you what I’ve heard and what I’ve read in history books. It’s ruled by the ghost of the necromancer who founded it, Geb. Rather arrogantly Geb named the Kingdom after himself, but there’s no accounting for individual eccentricities. That said, as far as I’m aware, most of the day to day affairs are managed by Queen Arazni, who is a lich. She has ruled in his stead for around eight hundred years or so.”
Mors continued to tell her a bit about Geb, never lying but leaving out key details that would reveal the true nature of the kingdom. He did tell her some of the flaws and faults of the kingdom, telling her just enough to make it seem like he was trying to remain unbiased without embellishment. That it was simply a normal kingdom like any other, just with the living and undead coexisting as equals.
“Alright. Everything’s packed up. We’re ready to head to this village of yours anytime now.” Lann stated.
“Oh, okay. I’m going to teleport us to the very edge of town, where most ponies won’t see us. That way we won’t immediately start a panic. Then I’ll go and make an announcement in the town square and tell everypony about you before introducing you. That way they should know what to expect and thus shouldn’t panic. Sound good?” Twilight asked.
“I can cast a mass invisibility and mass see invisibility spell on us so we will be able to follow you effectively. Just tell me and I will dispel it, revealing ourselves.” Mors offered.
“You can? That would make things a lot easier so please do.” Twilight said.
“As you wish.” Mors said. “Woljif, before we go I would like a quick word with you. Sincerest apologies, my equine acquaintances. This shouldn’t take but a moment.”
“Oh, no problem.” Twilight said.
Mors lead Woljif off to the side, well out of earshot, before turning to him.
“What’s up, chief?” Woljif asked.
“Two things. First, while I know you may be tempted to do so during the time we are invisible, I’m going to need you to not steal anything whilst we are in this settlement. As of right now we are guests and I don’t want to risk getting on our hosts’ bad sides until we know more about them and this world. Is that clear?” Mors asked.
Woljif frowned at him and rolled his eyes. “Come on, Chief, do you really think so little of me…? I mean, I was thinking I might swipe a couple things if anything really caught my eye but come on. It’s not like I steal all the time and even when I do it’s not like I let myself get caught.”
“No. In fact I hold your skills in very high regard. You are a true master of your craft after all. And under normal circumstances I would even have complete faith you wouldn’t get caught even if you did steal something due to your impressive skills. However, it would be unwise to risk anything at the moment given how little information we have about this world. We are on the other side of the maelstrom. For all we know, wards and enchantments to protect money and products from thieves could be extremely common in this world, or any number of other magics, so trying it may get you caught and have guards bearing down on us immediately. So please, just give me a few days to verify it is truly safe for you to do so. A few days to check for magic, that’s all I ask.” Mors requested.
Woljif tried to hide a smile at the complement. “Aw, come on Chief, I’m not that impressive…” He then sighed in mock exasperation. “Fine. I’ll keep my hands to myself for a while if you’re that worried about it, I promise. So what was the second thing you wanted to talk about?”
“I can’t discuss it in much detail as the ponies may be listening, and it may not even come to this, but should they be unwilling or unable to exchange Mendevian currency for the currency of this kingdom, we may need to find other methods of earning money, if you catch my meaning. I’ll want to talk to you about that when there are less ears to hear us.” Mors stated.
Woljif’s eyes widened and he smiled gleefully. “Oh! Hahaha! Yeah, I think I get what you’re saying. We can definitely work something out if we need to. But like you said, not really the best time or place to talk about that right now. So, should we head back?”
“Indeed. Thank you for your cooperation, Woljif.” Mors said before turning and heading back.
“Of course, Chief. Any time.” Woljif said, patting Mors on the shoulder as he walked alongside the lich.
“You two done?” Applejack asked.
“Yes.” Mors responded simply.
“Alright then. Is everypony else ready?” Twilight asked.
“I believe we are. Yes.” Areelu Vorlesh told the pony.
Twilight nodded and her horn started glowing with purple light. Suddenly there was a flash of equally purple light and the group found themselves on the very edge of the forest overlooking a small village.
“Before we start all this, I noticed how you were able to fit all your camping supplies in those little bags you carry. Some spatial warping enchantment on the inside, maybe? So if there’s still space inside them, would you all mind putting your weapons away? Ponyville is a pretty peaceful village so I promise you won’t need them and carrying them might scare some ponies.” Twilight requested.
“Hm… Fine. We can put away our more obvious weapons, but we will continue to hold less obvious side arms. Daggers and the like for self defense. I’m placing some trust in you by agreeing to this at all, but we are strangers. You can not expect us to take you entirely at your word.” Mors said.
Twilight looked a little uncomfortable but nodded. “Okay, I guess… You won’t need them, but alright.”
“Very well then. Weapons away, everyone. Grab a side arm instead.” Mors said, putting his scythe back in one of the party’s bags of holding and pulling out his Decaying Dagger. He vastly preferred his scythe since it could cut the souls of his victims even if he missed hitting them directly. However, his decaying dagger could still kill and leave rotting necrotic wounds on a person’s body if anyone got close enough to force him to use it. Mainly through his own power as a lich. And it had a built in curse that would slowly turn any living enemies around him undead, should he decide to use the curse. He could cast similar curses, of course, but using the dagger was quite convenient if anything got close to him.
Everyone else replaced their weapons as well, except for Woljif who was already carrying a pair of daggers anyway.
When they were done Mors said, “I shall be turning everyone invisible now.” Right before he started casting the spell. Suddenly everyone in his party turned invisible, except for the ponies. He then cast a second spell so everyone, including the ponies, could see each other in spite of the invisibility.
“Done. We are ready to get this over with whenever.” Mors stated.
“Alright. Zecora, Fluttershy, Applejack, do any of you want to come or do you want to just return home? You don’t need to stay if you don’t want to. I can handle introducing them to Ponyville.” Twilight said.
“I need to go home and check on the animals… Sorry, Twilight. Um… Miss Arueshalae, Miss Ember, would it be okay if one of you could bring little Jharsy and Soot to visit some time? Um… If that’s not too much of a bother… They’re both just really cute, and Jharsy is so different from dragons here… I would love to learn more about him, if you have the time…” Fluttershy requested.
“Of course! Soot likes you so she definitely wouldn’t mind visiting you some time, would you Soot?” Ember asked the currently invisible raven on her shoulder. Said raven cawed happily.
“Well, technically Commander Mors is who Jharsygax chose as his guardian, even if we were assigned to help with that, so you should be asking him. But we would be more than willing to visit with Jharsy, if he’s okay with it.” Arueshalae responded.
“I care not, so long as my charge is returned to me by the end of the day and is unharmed. I will not tolerate my future apprentice being kidnapped or injured under my watch. But I trust you and Ember to not let that happen, despite what certain powerful entities may have ordered.” Mors told them
Arueshalae smiled at Mors. “Thank you, Commander. I promise we won’t betray your faith in us.”
“I did not expect you would.” Mors stated. And it was true. He didn’t expect they would betray him. At least not so soon. Their loyalty to him was just too strong, despite the orders of Pharasma and Iomedae. He had made sure of it. But in the future… It was uncertain. He would trust them for now, but once his ziggurat was fully constructed and he had finally remade his phylactery he would have to keep a much closer eye on Ember and Arueshalae in particular.
He had not originally planned on raising Jharsygax Aghamornalyandre to be a lich like him when the dragon first hatched. He had only planned on raising the ultimate dragon to be his loyal companion and training it as a powerful weapon against any who may oppose him, but that was the extent of his plans. However, since the goddesses mentioned him following in Mors’ footsteps to lichdom and very specifically didn’t want that to happen, that’s exactly what he planned to do, just to spite them. In a few centuries, after Jharsygax was fully grown, the ultimate dragon who was meant to lead the entire dragon species to greatness would become the ultimate dracolich and would instead lead them all to undeath or drag them all to the grave. Mors would make absolutely sure of it.
He had no interest in killing Ember or Arushalae but should they try to follow the orders of the Goddesses, he would have no choice but to kill them and bring them back as undead. Though some almost infinitesimally small part of his former self rebelled at the idea of harming let alone killing either of them. A small dying ember of care for his ‘friends’ left over from when he was still mortal. He suppressed the feeling and crushed the small flickering remnants of his humanity under the weight of his nigh limitless apathy towards all life. They didn’t matter to him. None of them did. They were just useful tools to be used, manipulated, and disposed of as he saw fit. And when they broke or outlived their usefulness as living beings, he would kill them and raise them as undead. And depending on how loyal they were to him at the time of their demise, he may even reward them by letting them keep their free will to varying degrees or even completely.
“I’m afraid I must adjourn as to home I yearn to return.” Zecora stated.
“Alright then. I’ll talk to you two later, Fluttershy, Zecora. Applejack, what about you?” Twilight asked.
Applejack shook her head and glanced at what she saw as the translucent form of Mors. “Nah, I’m stayin’. I got somethin’ I wanna talk to ya about later. So I may as well stick around fer the moment. It ain’t like my chores are goin’ nowhere, they can wait a bit longer.”
“Okay then! Come on, everypony. Applejack and I will lead you all to the town square. Just try not to bump into anypony while you’re invisible.” Twilight said before turning and walking towards a bridge across the river between them and the village. Applejack walked right alongside her.
Mors and the others followed invisibly behind them. All of their weapons remained sheathed on their hips, except in the case of Ember who wasn’t carrying a weapon at all.
Entering the village proper, they saw ponies going about their daily business unable to see the strange newcomers. Men, women, even a few children. All in all, it was a quaint peaceful little village.
All Mors saw, however, was resources. Useful tools he could pay to build his ziggurat for him and potential undead slaves, servants, and soldiers. The children he could capture and let grow to a useful size before killing and turning them into undead as they were near useless for anything but scouts and stealth operatives as small and underdeveloped as they were, whereas the rest he could kill immediately and raise as undead with but a single gesture. Of course he could let some live, as having some living to produce more living to eventually turn into undead was useful as it meant his servants would be renewable instead of finite.
He made that mistake once in Drezen, killing every living person and leaving none left to reproduce. A rash decision made in the heat of the moment. He only realized just how incredibly foolish it had been later on as the war progressed, unsure as he was about how much longer the war would last. Had Deskari and Baphomet been more intelligent, they could have held off his armies for quite some time. Decades, maybe, depending on how long it took him to figure out how to raise demons from the dead. Then his influx of new soldiers would drastically reduce as people would eventually cease volunteering to go to the World Wound with him active there. Except, perhaps, individuals from Geb, Ustalav, and Cheliax, and he would have had no means of producing more mortals to turn undead on his own. That rash decision could very well have dealt his crusade a serious blow. Thus he had no intention of repeating such a mistake ever again.
Instead, if he decided to conquer this land, he could create individual slave ranches of sorts for each intelligent species so he could constantly produce more souls to harvest and enslave every year like a farmer reaping his crops. A far superior method to just killing them all and leaving none to reproduce. The slaves could even have a modicum of comfort and security and they could potentially even train in individual professions all to make them complacent and unwilling to attempt to rebel against him while being more useful to him when they eventually joined the ranks of the undead.
Or he could build a kingdom with a system similar to Geb, maybe. It was faintly irritating but he had to admit, Geb had corrected for the mistake he had made centuries before he had even made it. Though he could easily take the concept of their society and remold it to suit his purposes, taking out every little thing that he saw as a flaw. And there were plenty of flaws that needed to be removed.
But all that was purely hypothetical, of course. A matter of if he decided to conquer this land, which he was as of yet undecided upon. He needed to build his Ziggurat before deciding on his ultimate goals in this world.
Eventually they reached the town square and Twilight stopped. “Oh! I see Mayor Mare! Everypony hold on, I’ll go talk to her. We would be fine doing this without asking, but getting her permission first would be even better.” She then bolted ahead to talk to the pony she had mentioned.
“So, Miss Applejack… While we’re waiting for her, what can you tell us about Ponyville?” Areelu Vorlesh asked.
“Ain’t much to say really. We’re just a small town smack dab in the middle of Equestria. My family’s been here since the village was founded and we own a farm and orchard right next to the Everfree called Sweet Apple Acres. Some of my friends own or work at a couple businesses here in Ponyville. Twilight owns the library, my friend Rarity owns the Carousel Boutique, and my friend Pinkie Pie works at the best bakery in town, Sugar Cube Corner. Other than that our town is pretty dominated by Earth Ponies. So we’re a superstitious and conservative bunch here in Ponyville. So, uh… No offense but I can’t imagine many folks will react too well to a lich like Mors.” Applejack explained.
“No offense taken. You already explained that undead are usually depicted in horror stories. It is only natural, then, that your kind would view the undead and necromancers with suspicion and fear. Such misplaced prejudice existed back in our world as well, so it comes as no surprise to me.”
“Yeah… Thanks for understandin’. Never heard of ‘demons’ before, but based on y’all’s explanation, being evil souls from this ‘Abyss’ place or what have you, the same probably applies to you and Arueshalae, Miss Areelu. So I wouldn’t go tellin’ anyone what either of you are if I were you, even if you both redeemed yourselves like Arueshalae says you have. Or at least I wouldn’t go into much detail beyond the name, since nopony’s ever heard of ‘demons’ before.” Applejack told them.
“I understand. Thank you for the warning.” Areelu stated, giving Mors a look that told him she would have words for him when they had a few moments alone.
After that the group fell into silence for a few moments before Twilight returned with a smile on her face. “I’ve explained the situation to Mayor Mare, and convinced her to let us use the town square for the announcement. She’ll be ringing the bell on top of town hall to gather everypony then I’ll give the announcement outside. How much longer will your invisibility spell and the illusion you use to make yourself look alive last, Mors?”
“Both can last up to a full twenty four hours if I so choose. Or I could dispel them sooner if I wish.” Mors explained.
“And you can dispel one without dispelling the other?” Twilight asked.
“Of course.” Mors stated.
“Great! Then come on. We’ll wait just in front of Town Hall until there’s a decent crowd. Once enough ponies know what’s going on, word will spread really fast which should eliminate any chance of anypony seeing you causing a panic.” Twilight stated before leading them to the front of Town Hall.
Soon the wooden slats protecting the bell on the roof of the Town Hall opened up and the bell began to ring a bit. Hearing the bell and seeing Twilight and Applejack standing in front of the building, curious ponies began to gather wondering what was going on. After about three minutes, the crowd grew large enough that Twilight was satisfied with it.
Clearing her throat she started. “Hello, everypony. I just wanted to make a quick announcement. I just met some interesting creatures in the Everfree. Don’t worry, they’re not hostile or anything like that, they just aren’t ponies. So Ponyville is going to be having some interesting new guests for a while. They are all currently invisible behind me so no one would panic upon seeing creatures you aren’t familiar with. Before they turn visible again, I’ll tell you. They are big and bipedal, sort of like minotaurs, but they’re a bit different. So they might be a little intimidating when you first see them, but I promise they’re really nice just like Zecora. So, Mors, would you mind letting everypony see you all now?”
“Of course.” Mors responded before dispelling the invisibility on all of them, while leaving the illusion that made him look human in effect.
There were several gasps and a bit of muttering from the crowd, but no one immediately started screaming.
Twilight smiled at the lack of immediate fear. “Alright, would you mind introducing yourselves to everypony?”
“Ember, you are the most charming member of our group. Would you mind introducing us to these kind folk?” Mors requested.
“Me? Are you sure? But I’m not charming at all. I’m just a silly little girl.” Ember asked, somewhat surprised by this. “Arueshalae is much more charming than I am. Maybe she should introduce us instead.”
“No. You give yourself too little credit. You are very charming, otherwise you wouldn’t have gathered such a large following in Drezen. Nor would you have been able to redeem a Demon Lord like Nocticula. You are the face of our group and I’m sure all of us would agree with that sentiment. Right?” Mors asked.
Everyone else agreed with this, except Areelu who didn’t care and thus remained silent. It was true, after all. Ember was the friendly face of the group whether she realized it or not, whereas Mors was the unfriendly face of the group when a more intimidating hand or a show of force was necessary as well as being the leader. They each had their roles and Mors was well aware of which roles each of them fit into and how best to utilize them for their respective roles. So he knew Ember was the best choice to introduce them, especially considering how the girl managed to convince even Nocticula, a Demon Lord, to redeem herself.
“Well, alright then…” Ember said before taking a couple steps forwards to stand next to Twilight and Applejack. Giving the crowd a friendly smile, she waved at them “Hello, everyone! I’m Ember and these are my friends Commander Mors, Arueshalae, Woljif, Lann, Nenio, Areelu Vorlesh, Jharsygax Aghamornalyandre, and my raven Soot! It’s really nice to meet you all! You all seem like really nice people, so I hope we can all be friends.”
The crowd seemed to react quite positively to Ember, as Mors had expected. Good. That should make things easier.
“Is there anything else I should say, Miss Twilight?” Ember asked.
“No. You did very well, Ember. Thank you. Alright everypony. Applejack and I will be showing them around and they’ll be staying in Ponyville for a while. So they’ll be around if you have questions or want to talk to any of them. That’s about it. Thank you for your time!” Twilight told the crowd.
Hearing this the crowd started to disperse.
“I think I saw Pinkie in the crowd. Heh. Knowin’ her… Well I won’t ruin the surprise for her. Anyway, Twi, I still want a word with you. It’s sort of important. Would you mind talking for a sec before we show them around?” Applejack requested.
“Hm? Oh. Sure. Sorry everypony, would you mind waiting here for a moment?” Twilight requested.
“Very well.” Mors stated.
“Thanks.” Twilight said before walking a short distance away with Applejack.
“What do you need?” Twilight asked.
“Twi, I don’t trust them.” Applejack said in a quiet tone.
“What? Why?” Twilight asked, now speaking in a quieter tone as well. “This doesn’t have to do with the fact they eat meat does it? They said it themselves, that manticore attacked them. Besides, even Griffins eat fish and dragons like Spike eat meat sometimes too.”
“Nah. It was intimidating when we didn’t know anything about them, but that ain’t the problem. Twi, Mors is a dang skeleton. An undead necromancer. That alone is suspicious but you heard everything they said back at their camp about a war, this ‘World Wound’, the ‘Abyss’, and demons. Even Lann said his people became like that from cannibalizin’ some poor sap and all the rest of his people became slaves for a demon because of it. And they pretty much admitted Areelu was outright evil and was the one who made this ‘World Wound’ thing in the first place. And they all got weapons. How can you trust any of them after that? No. No way. They’re all dangerous.” Applejack told her, glancing back at the group. She saw Mors was staring at her and shuddered as she felt like his illusory eyes were staring straight into her very soul. Which they probably quite literally were, all things considered.
Twilight bit her lower lip and took a deep breath. It was hard to argue with that. She did remember everything they had said, and not all of it was good. In fact, most of it was pretty scary. “I get your point. I’ve actually been thinking about that too. But if it’s true and they are dangerous, it’s better that we keep them calm and warn Princess Celestia. They seem… cautious. Guarded. I don’t think they’ll try anything for at least a few days even if they are dangerous. So right now our priority should be to make them think we trust them so they let their guard down. During the surprise part Pinkie is probably setting up as we speak, I’ll send a letter to Princess Celestia and ask her what we should do. Just try not to provoke them until then, alright?”
Applejack sighed but nodded. “Alright Twilight. I trust ya. At least I know you’re seein’ what I’m seein’. Just… be careful, okay? I don’t want you or anypony else gettin’ hurt because we trusted the wrong group of folks. Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. Let’s head on back. Don’t want them gettin’ all suspicious just yet.”
Twilight nodded and the two of them walked back over to the group. “Sorry about that. Okay, everypony follow us and we’ll show you around town.” She said with a smile.
Twilight and Applejack lead the group around Ponyville, showing them most of the important locations and introducing them to several ponies.
Nenio seemed particularly interested in the train station, especially the train itself. Arueshalae decided to buy Ember some new clothes from the Carousel Boutique once the owner returned, since the shop had a “closed” sign on the door by the time they arrived. Though Ember insisted it wasn’t necessary. And Woljif took a particular interest in the Sugar Cube Corner bakery, though he was unable to purchase anything at the time since they had yet to exchange their Mendevian currency for Equestrian currency. However, Twilight did purchase some doughnuts for the group as they passed the bakery, which made the Tiefling quite happy as he devoured his pastry while they walked.
The tour lasted for a couple hours before Twilight and Applejack finally led the group to a very large tree with a door and windows in it. “And this is Golden Oaks library, where me and my assistant Spike live. Why don’t you all come on in?” She said as she walked up to the door and opened it for them.
The group filed into the library and immediately noted how dark it was inside. Once they were all inside some lights in the roof turned on as if someone had flipped a switch, revealing an interior that was bigger than the outside would lead one to believe which was currently full of ponies. Strange decorations filled the library, including a banner that had “Welcome to Ponyville!” painted on it in big bold letters.
““““Surprise!”””” The crowd shouted.
“Welcome to Ponyville!” Exclaimed a pink Earth Pony. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie, and I made this party for all of you! Were you surprised? Were you, were you, huh?!” Pinkie Pie demanded excitedly.
“Uh… Yeah… Very surprised… What is all this?” Lann asked, uncomfortably.
“A Welcome to Ponyville Party! I throw one for everypony who’s new to Ponyville! So when I saw Twilight and Applejack introduce you all, I just had to throw one for all of you!” Pinkie Pie explained. “I hope you don’t mind me using the library for this, Twilight.”
“No, it’s perfectly fine. In fact, I fully expected this.” Twilight said, smiling at the pink pony.
“Thank you very much, Pinkie Pie! We really appreciate it. So I suppose this is that ‘surprise’ Applejack mentioned earlier, right?” Arueshalae asked.
Pinkie gasped and stared at Applejack. “Applejack! You didn’t ruin my surprise did you?!”
“Nope. Don’t you worry. I just said I wouldn’t ruin the surprise, I never told them it was a surprise party.” Applejack told her.
Pinkie gave her a suspicious glare for a moment before immediately brightening up and smiling at her. “Okay! Anyway, I’m sooo glad to meet you all! We’re going to be the bestest friends!”
Areelu Vorlesh sighed and shook her head. “Miss Twilight. You said this was a library correct? Would you mind if I sat down and read while the others enjoy this… ‘party’?”
“Oh, sure! Go right ahead. Are there any books you’re looking for in particular?” Twilight asked.
“A history book, preferably. I would like to acquaint myself with this land as much as possible.” Areelu stated.
“Okay. Follow me and I can help you pick out a couple books. The rest of you, enjoy yourselves.” Twilight said before leading Areelu deeper into the library, and Nenio followed after them.
The rest of the group spread out randomly across the library.
Ember and Woljif immediately went to the food tables and got slices of cake. Arueshalae stayed and talked to Pinkie Pie. Lann talked to a few ponies who came up to him but otherwise kept to himself. Mors just stood off to the side and watched silently. Most ponies were too intimidated to approach him.
“How detailed would you like your history books? There are a few lengthy ones I could recommend that go into a lot of detail and a few shorter ones that just cover the broad strokes. Which would you prefer?” Twilight asked.
“Something in the middle preferably. But failing that, the broad strokes shall do.” Areelu stated.
“Something in the middle, eh…? Ah! I think I know just the book!” Twilight said before leading Areelu and Nenio to a bookshelf and telekinetically levitating out a specific book. “Here you go! This isn’t as long as some history books I have but it’s not too short either. It covers most of the major events in the past thousand years since Princess Celestia and Princess Luna started ruling Equestria. Well, it’s a bit outdated, but it’s a start.”
“It will do. Thank you.” Areelu said before taking the book out of the air and heading off to read.
“And what about you, Nenio? What would you like to read?” Twilight asked.
“Do you have any books on science? Magic works too. Either or. I’m very interested to see the differences in science and magic between our two worlds!” Nenio requested.
“Oh, sure! That’s easy. I strongly recommend reading books by Star Swirl the Bearded! He was the greatest wizard in Equestrian history and his contributions to magic can not be understated! He was a true genius!” Twilight said.
“Is that so? In that case, I would love to read any books of his that might be in your possession. I can also recommend several books on magic of my own, should you have any interest in reading them. However, I would need them back eventually.” Nenio requested.
“Of course. And I would love to read any books you might recommend. Though starting with one will probably be for the best right now.” Twilight said.
Nenio nodded and reached into her personal small bag of holding. Pulling out a book she held it out to Twilight. “If you’re planning on reading one at a time, I strongly recommend starting with this. It covers a wide range of topics from the basics to some highly advanced magical theory and equations.”
A lavender aura suddenly appeared around the book and it levitated out of Nenio’s hand towards Twilight. “Thank you! I’ll start reading it tonight and have it back to you in a few days. Now I would recommend reading this. It’s by far one of Star Swirl’s best works.” Twilight said before levitating a book off another shelf towards Nenio.
Nenio took the book and examined the cover. “Thank you, girl. I will return this as soon as I am finished with it.” She then walked off, already starting to read the book.
Twilight then sighed and went to go find Spike, who was in the middle of talking to Woljif.
“So you’re this world’s version of a dragon, huh? Where are your wings, little guy?” Woljif asked.
“Yeah, I’m a dragon. And I don’t have wings. They haven’t grown in yet. Why?” Spike explained.
“Haven’t grown in yet? You mean you don’t hatch with them? Man you got ripped off there, little buddy. I almost feel sorry for you. Jharsy here is a dragon where I’m from and this little guy hatched already having his wings. He’s only a few months old by the way.” Woljif told Spike, scratching under the chin of the tiny metallic gray dragon sitting on his shoulder.
“What?! He was born with his wings?! No fair!” Spike pouted.
“Yeah… Well, look on the bright side, little guy, you’re a lot bigger than he is right now. Plus, he can’t even talk or use his breath weapon just yet. And that’s despite him being centuries old already.” Woljif said with a smirk.
“What? Centuries old? I thought you said he only just hatched a few months ago?” Spike asked, confused.
“He did. But he’s apparently some sort of special dragon demigod or something like that, which is why his scales are always changing color.” Woljif told him.
As Woljif said this, Jharsygax’s scales turned from metallic gray to pure white.
Woljif smiled and motioned towards the little dragon on his shoulder with his thumb. “See? Anyway, because of that, he was able to choose to stay inside his egg and not hatch for centuries until the Commander came along. That’s why his name is so long and nigh unpronounceable. Where we’re from, dragons’ names get longer the older they are. Not sure exactly how long it takes for it to get longer off the top of my head, you’d have to ask Nenio or the Commander. Point is, you're technically a lot younger than him but you’re also a lot bigger. That should make up for the wings, huh?”
“Eh… I’d rather have wings… Color changing scales would be nice too.” Spike said somewhat bitterly.
Woljif chuckled before kneeling down and patting Spike on the head. “Ah, don’t worry about it. Your wings will grow in eventually and it’ll be great, I’m sure. And even dragons from our world can’t change the color of their scales, it’s just this little guy. So don’t let it bother you too much.”
Spike sighed morosely. “I guess… Thanks, Woljif.”
“Sure. Anyway, I think your big sis there wants a word with you.” Woljif said, standing back up.
Spike turned around and looked at Twilight. “Oh, hey! What’s up, Twilight?”
“I need your help with something. Would you mind coming with me for a bit?” Twilight asked.
“Sure.” Spike shrugged.
Twilight led Spike upstairs where she set down the book Nenio let her borrow, and summoned a paper, quill, and inkwell which she used to start writing a letter to Princess Celestia.
“I need to let the Princess know about our new friends. So I’m going to need you to send her this letter.” Twilight explained as she wrote.
“Hm? So soon? Can’t it wait until after the party?” Spike asked.
“I’m afraid not. Sorry, Spike, but it’s urgent she gets this letter as soon as possible.” Twilight told him.
“Does this have something to do with the meteor you saw last night? I know you, Applejack, and Fluttershy went into the forest to investigate it, then you brought these guys back. Do they have something to do with it?” Spike asked.
“Yes. They didn’t just have something to do with it. They were the meteor I saw, Spike. They’re, for all intents and purposes, aliens. Unfortunately, that’s all I can tell you right now, but trust me when I say, this letter is critically important.” Twilight explained.
“Alright I guess.”
The two of them stood there silently for a few moments longer before Twilight finally finished the letter and rolled it up before levitating it over to Spike who took it and seemed to incinerate it with his green flame breath. The smoke then drifted off at high speeds towards Canterlot where it rematerialized in front of Princess Celestia, who was currently sitting on her throne.
Princess Celestia smiled upon seeing the note. She always loved receiving letters from Twilight. Unrolling it she started reading it immediately.
‘Dear Princess Celestia,
There is a matter in Ponyville that requires your urgent attention.
Last night I saw what at the time I thought was a meteorite crash into the Everfree Forest. However I noticed some oddities with the meteor so I took some of my friends and went to investigate. However, what we found was not actually a meteor at all. It was a group of as yet unknown intelligent creatures. We made contact with these creatures and their names are: Commander Mors, Areelu Vorlesh, Arueshalae, Ember, Lann, Woljif Jefto, and what is apparently a “demigod” baby dragon named Jharsygax (with a much longer last name I am uncertain how to spell).
This normally wouldn’t be a problem as they were not immediately hostile and seemed friendly, even offering to share some of their leftover breakfast with us (which was some sort of stew containing the meat of a manticore that attacked them the previous night). However, there are a few things I found concerning, to say the least.
First and foremost, the leader, Commander Mors, is a Lich. A Lich being a form of skeletal undead creature. And he can apparently use necromancy.’
Celestia did a double take upon reading that line and her concern sky rocketed.
‘I realize that may sound outlandish and even fictional but I promise you, it is true. Fluttershy, Applejack, Zecora, and I all saw it first hand. He is legitimately a walking skeleton, and he raised the skeleton of the manticore they killed the previous night as an undead. He does have the ability to use magic and is currently under an illusion to make himself look alive. However, considering the meat in the stew came from the manticore they killed and we found them while they were not expecting us, I do believe he is legitimately undead and a necromancer rather than it just being another illusion. This, however, was the least concerning thing I found as despite being undead he did not seem immediately hostile or evil despite having several opportunities to attack us if he was. And all of his other companions seemed to be alive… Well… Sort of.
Two of them are apparently something called ‘demons’ which they claim are creatures from ‘the Abyss’ which is apparently some sort of extradimensional afterlife for evil creatures or something to that effect? It’s strange. Normally I would dismiss notions of there being any sort of afterlife at all but after seeing the results of necromancy in person, I find it significantly more difficult to deny the possibility. Regardless, these demons claim to be reformed, if I remember correctly. One of them, Arueshalae, I sort of believe since she seems extremely kind. Whereas the other, Areelu Vorlesh, I do not. Especially since one of them, Lann I believe, outright said Areelu was evil while Ember claimed she was redeemed or at least could be.
Regardless, what truly concerned me were some of the things they mentioned. Mors was apparently the commander of something called the Fifth Crusade, which was a war of some kind. They mentioned something called ‘The World Wound’ which was apparently opened by Areelu Vorlesh, so I can only guess it was a portal of some kind and they were at war with demons.
Mors said he became a lich and learned necromancy because he was against insurmountable odds in this crusade and he was desperate. I have no way of knowing if this is true.
Lann said his people were corrupted by a demon after they were tricked into eating somepony while they were starving to death, and that all of his people were subsequently enslaved by said demon except for him.
Also, just so you’re aware, they are all armed. I convinced them to store their main weapons away but most of them are now carrying short swords or daggers instead. For ‘self defense’ or so they claim.
Now, all of this can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but Applejack and I both agree that we find it all highly concerning. They don’t seem hostile yet and show no signs of becoming hostile any time soon, but if you aren’t too busy I would like to request that you come to Ponyville so you can meet them for yourself. I’m worried but everything is just far too vague for me to make any real judgment call on this, so I would like your help if possible.
Just so you know where to find us if you decide to come, Pinkie Pie is currently throwing a Welcome to Ponyville Party for them in the Library. So they will all be busy here for a couple hours.
Forever and always, your student, Twilight Sparkle.’
Princess Celestia immediately rolled up the letter and teleported it to her room before rushing to go get Luna. After waking Luna up and giving her a brief rundown of the situation, Celestia left her in charge of Canterlot for the moment while she rushed to Ponyville.
Meanwhile Pinkie Pie was introducing Arueshalae to those of her friends that she had yet to meet.
“Arueshalae, this is Rarity! Rarity, this is Arueshalae!” Pinkie chirped happily.
“A pleasure to meet you, darling. I must say, your clothes are absolutely fascinating… You simply must let me make a dress for you sometime. Oh, I know the perfect gems to compliment your wings and tail!” Rarity said excitedly.
“Hello! Actually, you own the Carousel Boutique, right? I’m not sure if Mendevian currency translates to Equestrian currency, but when I eventually have money that I am able to trade with I was actually thinking of asking you to make a dress for my friend Ember! She lived on the street for most of her life, so her clothes aren’t in the best condition, you see.” Arueshalae said.
“Oh really? Could you take me to this friend of yours? I would love to meet her.” Rarity said with a smile.
“Of course! She’s right over here.” Arueshalae said before leading Rarity over to Ember. “Ember, this is Rarity, the owner of the Carousel Boutique. Rarity, this is my friend Ember.”
“Hello!” Ember said with a friendly smile, waving at Rarity.
Rarity’s eyes were immediately drawn to Ember’s burns and the missing fingers on her hand. “Oh, you poor dear! What happened to you?!” She asked in genuine concern, walking over to Ember and looking her over to make sure she was otherwise okay.
“What do you mean?” Ember asked, tilting her head curiously.
“Your paw, darling! You’re missing claws! And your skin! You look like you were burned!” Rarity exclaimed.
“My hand and fingers, you mean? And that’s because I was burned. It was a long time ago. My daddy took me to Mendev since he was going to join the Crusades. But some of the Crusaders got scared for some reason so they tied me and my daddy to these wooden poles on top of these big piles of wood and lit the wood under us on fire. My daddy died, but some kind Crusader leapt into the fire and saved me! I was living alone in Kenabris ever since, at least until the Commander and his friends found me after Deskari attacked the city! I’ve been traveling with them ever since!” Ember explained.
Pinkie Pie’s mane and tail deflated, and tears started welling up in her eyes. Bolting forwards, she wrapped Ember in a tight hug. “You poor thing! How could those meanies do that to you?! I’m so sorry that happened to you!” Pinkie cried sympathetically.
“Oh, no. They weren’t mean at all. The Crusaders were all good, kind people. They were just scared of us for some reason. And sometimes fear makes people do things they shouldn’t. That’s all.” Ember responded, leaning down and returning the embrace.
Rarity shook her head, sympathetic tears welling up in her eyes as well. “I’m not sure I can accept that, darling. Fear is no excuse to burn somepony at the stake! Even worse, despite how tall you are, you sound like a filly. How long ago was this?”
“Oh, a very long time ago… A little less than a hundred years, I think? I was really small at the time. I think I was ten when it happened?” Ember said.
“A ten year old. They burned a ten year old! How dare they?! There is absolutely no excuse for such a thing!” Rarity growled. “Just imagining somepony doing such an awful thing to Sweetie Belle… No. Absolutely not! How can you possibly forgive them? In your position, I don’t think I would be able to ever forgive them knowing they murdered my father, maimed me, and left me a homeless orphan for no other reason than simple fear.”
“I forgive them, because I know that deep down they really were good people and they thought they were doing the right thing, even if they were wrong. And not forgiving them wouldn’t fix me or bring my daddy back. So why hold a grudge? Everyone deserves a second chance.” Ember stated.
Rarity looked at her speechlessly for a moment before shaking her head. “My word… I think you would give Fluttershy a very serious run for her money in terms of kindness… Ehem… Well I did not mean to be rude by dwelling on this… Your clothes! Yes, I remember. Arueshalae mentioned you needed a new dress. And looking at you I can see she was absolutely correct! I mean no offense, but your clothes are threadbare, covered in tears and holes, and ugh… that color… No it absolutely does not suit you at all! This is officially a fashion emergency! I must insist you come with me to the Carousel Boutique immediately so I can make a new dress for you post haste!”
“But our money probably isn’t viable here in Equestria. We can’t pay for it just yet.” Arueshalae said uncertainly.
“Nonsense, darling! For this dress I will not request any payment! Of course, for any further dresses I’m afraid I will have to, as I am running a business, but I can easily afford to give you a single dress to replace your current clothes free of charge just this once! Now come! I will not abide you staying in those rags any longer than you must!” Rarity said before walking around behind Ember and practically pushing her towards the door.
“It’s fine, really! You don’t have to make anything for me. I’m okay with wearing this.” Ember told her.
“Absolutely not. I won’t stand for it, darling. Besides, I want to do this for you. It’s perfectly fine, I promise.” Rarity responded as she continued to lead Ember towards the door.
“Well, if you’re sure… Thank you for your generosity. Arueshalae, can you please tell Mors where I’m going?” Ember requested.
“Of course! You two have fun!” Arueshalae called after them. She then approached Mors, who was still standing off to the side by himself. He was currently staring upstairs for some reason. “Commander?”
Mors turned his gaze towards her. “Yes?”
“I just wanted to let you know that Ember went with Rarity, the owner of the Carousel Boutique, to have a new dress made. After seeing her clothes and hearing her past, Rarity offered to make a single dress for her for free.” Arueshalae told him.
“Thank you for informing me. That’s fine. I’ve been meaning to have her acquire new clothes anyway, but every time I paid her for her work or gave her money specifically to have new clothes made back in Drezen, she gave it all to the homeless instead. Then we returned to Drezen from Nocticula’s realm in the Abyss and, well… The opportunity had already passed, as you know. It’s good that it’s finally getting done. At least we were fortunate enough to find her a proper set of boots that fit her before heading into the Abyss.” Mors stated in his emotionless monotone.
“Yeah… She’s a bit too nice for her own good sometimes, I think… But since the war is over, we can make sure her life’s a lot better now, right? No more fighting, no more killing, no more demons, no more Deskari or Baphomet… Just a nice peaceful world full of very friendly and colorful ponies!” Arueshalae told him with a smile.
“Peace…” The lich said as if tasting the word. “Hm…”
Arueshalae gave him a concerned look.
“You look concerned, Arueshalae. Don’t be. I have no plans of disrupting the peace as of this moment. So just relax and enjoy yourself. You have all more than earned this respite after such a long and hard fought campaign. You remember your dream, yes? Well this is a chance to experience it in reality first hand. Some of our friends may not be here with us, yes, but do not let that deter you. Go on and seize this opportunity.” Mors said, gesturing for her to rejoin the party.
She tried to smile at him, but she was still worried. “You’re right. Sorry, I guess I’m worrying too much.” She then walked off back towards Pinkie Pie who had mostly recovered from Ember’s story. The Commander wouldn’t start another war, would he? No… He wouldn’t! Right…? No… He had no reason to want to go to war with the ponies. She fully believed that he became a lich to save the world from the Abyss. There was no such threat here. These ponies all seemed so nice. And he said the reason he was considering taking over Mendev after the war was because the queen was incompetent and he would be a better leader. She doubted the leader of the ponies had the same problem.
She took a deep breath and tried to relax. He was her friend. Even if his emotions were suppressed by whatever that monster Zacharias had done to him, her friend was still in there somewhere, she just knew it. She had to have some faith in him just as he had faith in her when he found her in that cell in Drezen and when he helped her overcome her nature and redeem herself. He wouldn’t start a war, and even if he did it wouldn’t be without a very good reason. The comparisons to the Whispering Tyrant that seemed to keep coming up just had her spooked. That was all.
Smiling at Pinkie she said, “So, how are you feeling after meeting Ember? I saw you got pretty upset after hearing her story.”
“I’m still sad… How could they do something so awful to someone so nice as her? Especially when she was so young when it happened?” Pinkie asked.
Arueshalae patted Pinkie on the head. “I’m afraid I can’t go into much detail, but the circumstances where we were from were not good to say the least. We were at war with… Some very evil creatures. A lot of people were forced to do a lot of very cruel things to protect everyone else. They were facing a threat that could and would corrupt even children and turn them into weapons, and had zero qualms with doing so…” Arueshalae looked away in shame knowing all the terrible things she had done to more than a few children herself before she was found by Desna. It made her feel sick to her stomach remembering it all.
“But… But… Why would they use foals like that?” Pinkie asked.
Arueshalae was silent for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you any more sad than you already were… This is supposed to be a fun party and I’m just making things worse…”
“No, it’s not your fault! I’m the one who asked! Don’t be sad! Oh, I know how to cheer you up! There’s still one of my friends I haven’t introduced you to yet! Follow me!” Pinkie said, perking up the moment she saw Arueshalae becoming distressed as well.
Arueshalae followed Pinkie over to a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. “Dashie! This is my new friend Arueshalae! Arueshalae, this is my friend Rainbow Dash!”
“Oh, hey. Nice to meet you.” Rainbow said, casually.
“It’s nice to meet you too! I like your mane, it’s very pretty.” Arueshalae complimented.
Rainbow smiled at that. “Thanks! I like your wings. They sort of remind me of a Thestrals’ wings but bigger and a bit spikier. So you nocturnal like them, or…?”
“Me? Oh, no. I sleep at night like all of my friends. Well, technically I don’t have to sleep at all since I’m a succubus, but I enjoy dreaming whenever I get the chance so yes, I almost always sleep at night.” Arueshalae explained.
“Wait, so you don’t need to sleep at all? Like at all, at all?” Rainbow asked, surprised by this.
“Nope! Neither does the Commander or Lady Areelu. In fact, before I started serving Desna I was incapable of sleeping at all. It was only after a lot of hard work that I earned the right to be blessed with dreams by Lady Desna.” Arueshalae explained.
“Huh… That sucks. I love naps! I have no idea what I’d do if I wasn’t able to sleep.” Rainbow commented.
“You do? Maybe we can show each other our dreams some time!” Arueshalae said excitedly.
Rainbow Dash gave her a confused look. “Huh? What do you mean?”
Arueshalae blinked, not understanding the question. Then her eyes widened in realization. “Oh! Right… Sometimes I forget mortals don’t really do that, normally. At least not unless they’ve been blessed by Desna too… I have the ability to bring other people into my dreams if they’re willing to visit them with me, and I can enter other people’s dreams too. It’s fine if you don’t want to do either. I just thought it might be fun…”
“Really? Sounds sort of like what Princess Luna does. Huh… Thought she was the only one who could do that sort of thing. Anyway, no offense, but I sort of just met you. Maybe if we were actually friends and got to know each other a bit, maybe, but right now? Yeah, no. Definitely not. That said… You got wings, so you can fly right? How fast can you go?” Rainbow asked.
“Um… About twice as fast as I can run, I think? Maybe a little faster if I really pushed myself? I don’t know, I never really paid attention.” Arushalae answered.
“Hmph… Then I’m probably faster. Still, wanna have a race some time?” Rainbow offered.
Arueshalae smiled happily. “Yes! That sounds like fun! I never had a chance to try participating in a race before!”
“You haven’t?” Rainbow Dash asked, curiously.
Arueshalae shook her head. “Unfortunately not. I’ve only ever even seen a race once before, as far as I can remember. It was during a tournament Commander Mors held in Drezen to raise the morale of the Crusaders and there were a bunch of other games being held that day too.”
“Man, you don’t know what you’re missing then! Well don’t you worry, I know a few ponies who would probably be more your speed. I just gotta see if they’re up for it or not, but I’ll try to set up something fun for your first ever race, don’t you worry, uh… Sorry, what was your name again?” Rainbow asked.
“My name is Arueshalae, and please do! Ooh, I can’t wait! Hm… I wonder if my friends would be willing to watch.”
Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Twilight went to open it. As the door swung open a large pony stepped inside, immediately drawing the eyes of all the guests. All of the ponies immediately bowed to this larger pony while the Commander and his group remained standing. Though they could all sense it. It was similar to the feeling they had standing in the presences of Deskari and Baphomet, though less overtly malevolent. A demigod.
This demigod had pure white fur, a rainbow colored mane and tail that seemed to be made of pure energy instead of hair and flowed on an intangible wind, and a mark resembling the sun on her flanks. She wore a crown, some jewelry, and golden shoes over her hooves.
“Princess Celestia! Welcome. I didn’t expect you to come so soon.” Twilight said, bowing to the demigod who was apparently known as “Princess Celestia”.
“You may rise, everypony.” Celestia addressed all the bowing guests. She then looked at Twilight and smiled. “I came as soon as I could after receiving your letter, Twilight. I’m quite eager to meet these new creatures you told me about. Would you mind introducing me?”
“Of course! Um… Should I call off the party and send everypony home?” Twilight asked.
Celestia looked around for a moment. “Well… I’m sure your friend worked hard setting all this up. It would be a shame to end it so early on my account. So, no. I would prefer a casual setting for this meeting than an official one anyway. Though I will be taking a slice of cake for myself, if you don’t mind.”
Pinkie Pie almost seemed to materialize next to Celestia holding a plate with a large slice of cake and a spoon for her. “One slice of cake coming right up, your highness!”
The plate was enveloped by a golden aura and levitated away from Pinkie towards Celestia. “Why, thank you, Pinkie. Now, Twilight, would you mind introducing me to these creatures you mentioned?”
“Of course! I… Oh. It seems like they’ve already gathered together. Right this way.” Twilight said before leading Celestia to where Mors and the others had congregated to meet with her.
Mors was already standing in front and stepped forwards to greet the demigod. “Good day, your highness. Princess Celestia, if I heard correctly?”
“Indeed. And you must be Commander Mors. Twilight mentioned you in her letter.” Celestia said, smiling at the disguised lich.
She was very good at hiding it, clearly having had extensive practice, but Mors was perceptive enough that he could immediately tell the smile was fake. He shifted the illusion covering him to match the false smile the princess was giving him.
“Did she now? I can imagine what she might have said…” He glanced at Twilight and his gaze lingered on her moment before he looked back at Celestia. “Well, Princess, allow me to introduce you to my companions.”
He then introduced each of his companions one by one, giving their name and race but little else. “I would introduce you to Ember as well, but I’m afraid a tailor by the name of Rarity took Ember to her shop to make a new dress for her. Which, admittedly, Ember was in desperate need of.”
“A pity. You must introduce me later. I would love to meet her too. As it stands, it is a pleasure to meet you all. Why not go rejoin the party? I’ll come speak with each of you individually in a few moments but for now, I would like to speak with the Commander here.” Celestia said in a polite tone.
Everyone dispersed but Woljif and Lann both stuck relatively nearby, likely hoping to eavesdrop on them. Areelu Vorlesh not only stayed but walked closer to stand next to the Commander.
If Celestia cared she didn’t let herself show it. “So… Commander, I heard you practice some rather dark forms of magic.”
“Mm… I’m sure you heard more than that. Such as what I am… So I will be honest. Yes. I do practice ‘dark forms of magic’. I’m not sure if she mentioned this, but my kingdom was in a terrible war. Learning such arts was my only choice to win said war, which Mendev had been on the losing end of for almost a century. It was quite brutal, but my tactics were necessary to truly put an end to the bloodshed.” Mors stated.
“Surely there must have been another way? Unleashing such horror just doesn’t seem worth it to me.” Celestia responded in an unreadable neutral tone.
“Forgive me, your highness, but I do not believe you have any authority to speak on matters of military tactics considering your kingdom apparently hasn’t waged an actual war in over a thousand years.” Areelu stated, adjusting the book under her arm.
Mors put a hand on Areelu’s shoulder and shook his head. “It’s fine, mother. Perhaps there might have been. The gods only know for certain. But I am not a god.” Not yet at least, he didn’t add. “So I’m not omniscient. I can only work with the information I have, and the information I have states that Queen Galfrey had been waging the war for over ninety years before I came along. Do you believe there might have been something she hadn’t tried after almost a century of constant war? Because if there was, I am not so much of a military genius that I could see it, myself. So as far as I am aware my magic was the only thing we hadn’t tried and the only thing that could have possibly worked. Unless you have another strategy that could have potentially defeated a near infinite horde of extraplanar monstrosities?”
“Diplomacy, perhaps?” Celestia suggested.
Areelu scoffed and rolled her eyes, looking almost offended by the suggestion. “A fool’s errand. Deskari, the Lord of Locusts, their main leader, sought only to devour all life on Golarion. He could not be negotiated with. Any diplomats would have been devoured alive by his swarm on the spot. And Baphomet, Deskari’s ally, would have them skinned alive and send their corpses back on pikes, if he was feeling particularly generous. Otherwise he would have kept them and tortured them for however long he saw fit before killing them, if he ever killed them at all and didn’t make them ageless just so they could suffer his torments eternally.”
Celestia visibly balked at that, her facade cracking a bit as Areelu described what each demon lord would do to their victims. “S-surely you must be exaggerating…”
Mors shook his head. “No. She isn’t. I’ve seen the horrors they inflicted on their victims first hand and if anything, she is understating it for the sake of anyone who may happen to be eavesdropping. Many of my soldiers refused meat entirely for quite some time after seeing what our enemies did to their victims. One particularly unfortunate victim was put in a healing pool and was boiled alive for three days. The pool would constantly heal his injuries, keeping him alive even as his flesh was bubbled, split, and peeled away as it was being boiled off. And that was not the worst torture they committed, though admittedly it is quite high on the list.”
Celestia winced and looked around, but no one but Woljif and Lann seemed to be listening. Even Twilight had walked off when the rest of Mors’ party had. Looking back at Mors she said, “I… I see… And I take it you never committed such atrocities, correct?”
“Of course I didn’t. There would be no point. They were demons. If it were an interrogation they would only lie so it would end, and torture for no reason is just a gross waste of time, effort, and resources. I will admit, I committed atrocities of my own, if you count my magic as an atrocity, but I never did anything so needlessly cruel or malevolent. Everything I did was with one singular goal in mind, protecting the many at the cost of as few as reasonably possible and ending the war. Both of which I accomplished.” Mors stated.
He then waved a hand dismissively. “Enough about that, for now. It is a depressing topic and this is not the time or place for it. I assume this isn’t the last we will speak, considering what Miss Sparkle likely said in her letter, so we can continue this later. I actually have a fairly important matter I would like to discuss with you.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow at him. “And that is?”
“Money, of course. I have quite a bit of gold, but it is all Mendevian currency. Would it be possible to exchange it for this land’s currency? And if so, where would I go to deal with such a thing? If we are going to be staying in this land for any length of time, we will need currency to get by and if I can exchange what currency we have for this land’s currency that would save us a lot of trouble.”
Celestia actually relaxed a bit hearing that. “Oh. Haha! For some reason I hadn’t even thought of that. Yes, I can help you with that easily enough. In fact, this is perfect. Like you said, this is not the best time or place for this conversation but I would like to continue so this gives me an excuse to bring you back to Canterlot. We can talk about your past and what your plans for the future are in more detail there.”
“Wonderful. As for my plans for the future, I simply plan to purchase some land, build my home, and settle down after a long and hard fought war as any veteran might. At least for now. In the future I have some ideas, but nothing concrete just yet. Honestly, your highness, I’ve only just arrived last night and know nothing about this land I find myself in. You can’t expect me to have planned out all of the next few millennia already. I’m immortal. I can afford to take a bit of time to consider my options.” He tried his best to play off the last couple sentences as a joke as a social ploy to get her to let her guard down a bit. However, with his emotions suppressed he found it difficult to speak in any way other than his emotionless deadpan resulting in a less than stellar delivery of said joke.
Fortunately Celestia seemed to pick up on his intentions despite his rather lackluster delivery and chuckled a bit. Though she didn’t seem any less on guard than before. “Yes, I suppose that’s true. Immortals like us tend to have the luxury of time in our day to day lives. Regardless, I suppose if we will be continuing this conversation later, I should go meet your friends. Enjoy the rest of the party. We’ll talk more, soon.”
Mors nodded once. “Have a pleasant day, your highness.”
The welcome party lasted a little less than two hours before all the guests started to filter out. At some point Ember had come back. Apparently Rarity had simply taken some measurements that day and it would take a couple weeks before Ember’s new dress was ready.
When most of the guests were gone and the party started to wind to a close, Mors' group gathered together again and were approached by Celestia.
“Well that was quite fun. However, I’m afraid I must be returning to Canterlot and I suppose we will be heading back together. Are you all ready?” Celestia asked.
“Indeed we are.” Mors said.
Celestia nodded and a golden aura enveloped her horn. Suddenly there was a flash of golden light and their surroundings changed. They were now standing in the middle of a throne room. And they all sensed the presence of another demigod.
Looking they all saw a dark blue pony with a black crown and jewelry, with a mark with a crescent moon against a black background on her flanks. Her mane and tail were much like Celestia’s but resembled a starry night sky.
This demigod yawned. “Sister, you hath returned… Perchance, might these be the creatures thine student warned thee of?”
“Thank you for being patient Luna despite having been woken up so early, and I’m sorry it took so long. To answer your question, yes. These are the creatures Twilight told me about.” Celestia said before introducing them to her.
“Greetings, Princess Luna… Shall we get straight to business? I have surmised that Miss Sparkle already told you what I am. So there's no point in trying to hide it from you. There are no other eyes here beyond you two, correct?” Mors asked.
“There’s nopony else here besides us.” Celestia stated.
“Good.” Mors said before dispelling the illusion that made him look alive, revealing his skeletal form in all its glory.
Neither of the princesses seemed surprised, but neither of them seemed to like what they now found standing before them either. “So tis true then. Thou art truly a necromancer as Twilight hath stated in her letter.”
“Yes. I am. Miss Sparkle and her friends have already informed me of the stigma surrounding necromancy as here in this world it is viewed as fictitious and is used in horror stories. I can certainly see why. Perhaps better than anyone in this world. However, I only sought out this magic due to a horrific inter planar war my kingdom was embroiled in between the mortal realm and the demons of the Abyss, which I’m sure she also informed you of. I can not understate the threat the demons posed to not just Mendev, but all of Golarian. The world we are from. They were a threat to all mortal life.”
“But you said Mendev had been fighting these demons for almost a hundred years, correct? Forgive me, but with that in mind the demons do not seem to have been as large of a threat as you’re implying.” Celestia stated.
“Mendev only managed to hold off the demons as long as they did because of the Wardstones, powerful artifacts created by Heaven that stopped the Worldwound from spreading and thus stopped the Abyss from consuming all of Golarian. Heaven is one of the three ‘good’ realms where benevolent souls are sent by Pharasma, the Goddess of Death, after they receive their final judgment in her boneyard. And the armies of the Abyss were only led by two Demon Lords. Demons who had gathered enough power in the Abyss to achieve partial divinity, becoming demigods. In this case Deskari and Baphomet. I need you to understand the gravity of that fact.”
Mors shook his head and raised a hand, showing all five of his skeletal fingers. “Five crusades. It took five crusades led by Queen Galfrey, artifacts granted to mortal kind by the gods themselves to stop the spread of the Abyss, and the power I gained from becoming a lich to defeat just those two demon lords and their servants. There are dozens more demon lords just like them in the Abyss, some even more powerful than them, and they each have an uncountable number of demons under their command. In fact, you two should know exactly how powerful Deskari and Baphomet were, considering you’re both demigods yourselves.”
This caught both Luna and Celestia off guard. “Hold on a moment, you think the two of us are demigods?”
“Let’s not play this game, your highnesses. My companions and I have stood before both Gods and Demon Lords. We all know when we are in the presence of divinity. Surely, you can sense it as well. Gods and Demigods have a unique unmistakable presence that very clearly distinguishes them from mere mortals. Neither of you have the presence of true gods, yet you are very obviously partially divine. You wield cosmic power on a scale mortals can only dream of. And if mortals prayed to you, you would be capable of granting them holy powers that are not of the same nature as arcane magic. So call yourselves whatever you wish, the truth remains.”
“I’m afraid we have no idea what you’re talking about. We’ve never granted any sort of powers to anypony.” Celestia stated.
“Really? How fascinating! This absolutely needs to be studied in further detail! I am already forming so many different hypotheses on the nature of divinity in this new world! Your highnesses, would you be willing to help me advance science in studying the differences in the nature of divinity between our worlds?” Nenio asked
“Do not bother. I doubt there’s any difference. I’m quite certain they simply lack worshipers.” Areelu stated.
Nenio nodded, “That was indeed one of the many possible conclusions I came to as well.”
“Quite… Tell me, are you two aware of the existence of any other gods or demigods in this world?” Areelu asked, looking at the princesses.
“Well… There was Discord, the spirit of chaos. But he’s long since been defeated and sealed away. And he never granted anypony any sort of powers either, as far as we are aware. Otherwise, no.” Celestia said.
“And when you ascended from your mortality, however you did it, were any religions formed worshiping you?”
“Indeed. For a time. However we swiftly quashed such foalish notions.” Luna stated.
“Then there you have it.” Areelu said, rolling her eyes.
“That’s still quite fascinating! It raises so many questions! Why are there so few gods and demigods here when there were so many back in Golarian? Why did this ‘Discord’ never have cults dedicated to him? This is exciting! I have so much new material to research!” Nenio said happily.”
“Ehem… This is all… I really have no better way of putting this… It’s all highly disturbing, quite frankly… I have a question. You keep talking about gods and demigods. Do you consider yourselves demigods? Can you grant power to ponies who worship you like you insist we should be able to?” Celestia asked.
“The commander can! There were a bunch of clerics that worshiped him near the end of the crusades! Most were undead but still. I’m not sure if the rest of us can, though… Miss Areelu, do you know if we can do that?” Ember asked.
Areelu sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “Presumably, yes. Though doing so would require amassing religious followers.”
“Regardless, I was attempting to make a point.” Mors interjected. He was very faintly annoyed by how much his companions were giving away. When the Princesses said they had never granted divine powers to anyone, he had planned to play it off to keep them ignorant. But the others had to go and open their mouths… At least Areelu seemed similarly annoyed by this. Oh well, there were only two of them apparently so the situation was not unsalvageable.
“As I was saying, Deskari and Baphomet were similar in power to you two. There were dozens more like them, and being even stronger, within the Abyss. And it took everything I already listed and the emergence of multiple slowly developing demigods, just them. So believe me when I say, had more of them taken an interest in conquering Golarian and had actually taken the war seriously, then we would not have stood a chance. Even the emergence of one more Demon Lord would have been enough to radically alter the face of the war and shift the balance of power. And, unpredictable as chaotic and unpredictable as demons tend to be, this could have happened at any time. So yes, they were very much as large of a threat as I am implying. Forgive my impudence, your highnesses, but you are very clearly ignorant of the reality of what we had to face. So you should not be so quick to jump to conclusions about the severity of the threat we faced just because of the timeframe.”
“I see. I apologize. I didn’t intend to diminish the scale of your accomplishment. I hope I didn’t offend you.” Celestia apologized.
“Ignorance is not offensive, it is merely a lack of information. Something that can be easily rectified. So, no I am not offended.” Mors stated.
“Pardon me, however I hath a query. Doth thou and thine friends intend to establish thine own religions here within Equestria?” Princess Luna asked.
“I can not speak for the others. With the crusades over, their goals and ambitions are their own. So the answer might vary from individual to individual. Personally, if I sought such a thing, it would be amongst lost souls who have not passed into whatever afterlife they belong. I’ve seen quite a few floating around, in that forest, in Ponyville, and even here in this very castle. There are several surrounding you two now, begging for you to help them or finding comfort being in the presence of divinity as a sort of stand-in for the afterlife they were denied. Far too weak to physically manifest on their own. I can help them manifest so you might be able to see and hear them. Would you like to?” Mors offered.
Both of the Princesses looked highly disturbed by this. “Y-you’re telling us, we’re surrounded by ghosts? How… How long? How long have they been there?” Celestia asked, looking around at the empty air around her.
“Who knows? How long have you two been demigods?” Mors asked, glancing at the ghosts in the throne room. There really weren’t that many. However there were still a few. Some had drifted over to him and were begging him for help or were begging to let them talk to the princesses. He ignored them. “Manifesting them all might be a bit inconvenient for you as they might talk over each other. So I’ll give you a choice. Would you like to see all of them, just one or two, or would you prefer not to see them at all? I won’t manifest them should you be unwilling to see it.”
Celestia and Luna whispered to each other for a moment before looking back at him. “We… We think it might be best if we could see them. All of them. Maybe… Maybe we might be able to find some way to help them?”
“As you wish.” Mors stated before raising a hand and casting a spell. Suddenly the entire throne room was filled with an eerie green glow. Suddenly a dozen or so ghosts of various kinds of ponies manifested in the throne room. This time Mors allowed all of them to maintain their freewill entirely. He was trying to give off the illusion of benevolence or at the very least neutrality after all.
Several of the ghosts crowded around the princesses talking and shouting over each other. Some stood or floated off to the sides. Some crowded Mors instead.
“I’ll never get used to that…” Woljif muttered. “Er… No offense, chief.”
Lann sighed. “Gotta disagree with you, Woljif. After living in Drezen after… you know what… I’m already way too used to this sort of thing. I’m kinda surprised you aren’t, honestly.”
“Well, yeah but come on! You gotta admit it always sends chills down your spine.” Woljif countered.
“All these poor lost souls… I hope the princesses really can help them.” Ember said, looking around at all the ghosts.
“I hope so too…” Arueshalae agreed.
“Interesting. There are more than I expected. Boy, how many such lost souls have you seen until now? Has it been more or less than the number you saw in Golarion?” Nenio asked.
“We can discuss this later, Nenio. Now is not the best time.” Mors responded.
Meanwhile the princesses pressed themselves a bit further back in their thrones and were trying to address the ghosts. “Please! E-everypony! One at a time! We… We can’t understand you if you all talk over each other like this!”
“I… Celestia… There are ponies here I recognize from before my banishment…” Luna said, sounding both terrified and heartbroken.
“All of you be silent. The Princesses will address each of you in turn.” Mors ordered, his dead emotionless voice reverberating through the throne room. All of the ghosts quickly fell silent.
The princesses hesitated for a moment before Celestia cleared her throat and shakily requested, “E-everypony please. Luna and I want nothing more than to assist you however we can. Please form a line and we will address each of you in turn.”
“Uh, should we go, or…?” Woljif asked.
“No… I’m sorry but would you all mind waiting for a bit while we address these lost souls? And Commander Mors, would you mind coming here. We may require your expertise for this…” Celestia requested.
“Just wait here and talk amongst yourselves. Sit if you must. This shouldn’t take long.” Mors stated before walking over to the thrones and standing between the princesses.
His companions moved off to the side of the room to wait.
“So… Mors… Why are they all here? Why haven’t they passed on?” Celestia asked.
“In my experience, unless ghosts are forced to remain by malevolent forces, they typically remain because something prevents them from moving on to receive their judgment in Pharasma’s court. Though sometimes they simply get lost or are merely trapped for whatever reason. And… Well… That’s purely speculation on my part and you may not like it so perhaps I should remain silent.” Mors stated.
“No, please tell us. Even if it’s bad, we need to know what’s going on if we are to help them.” Celestia requested.
“Very well. Once detached from their mortal vessels, souls pass through the Ethereal Plane, joining each other on their way to the Elemental Planes, then out of the Inner Sphere and into the Astral Plane. Souls then form the River of Souls, where they are watched over by countless representatives from the Outer Sphere, such as angels, devils, and demons. These forces attempt to protect the souls in transit from malicious forces, as most souls are destined to become petitioners who join and empower these guardians' home planes. The various afterlifes. The river ends in the Boneyard, where Pharasma judges the souls and dispatches them to a compatible Outer Plane that matches the alignment of their souls or shuttles them on toward some other fate. However, that is only the case in the reality we are from. Pharasma’s reach does not extend here and the planes where we are from are not here.”
“What art thou attempting to say?” Luna asked.
“What I’m saying is, either there is a completely different god of death that manages souls and other realms they go to for their ultimate reward or punishment than the ones I am familiar with. Or there is not and everyone who has ever died in this reality gets trapped within some transitive realm. However, as I said, it is merely speculation. The knowledge I have is from my own reality and as such things could be completely different here. So my knowledge of what happens to souls after death could be entirely wrong.”
He paused for a moment then looked out at the line of ghosts. “That said, you did mention one god you knew of. ‘Discord’. A ‘spirit’ of chaos, you said. Chaos is one of the spiritual alignments I am familiar with. So, perhaps all souls go to this entity’s realm after their deaths if he’s the only god here to collect them. However, you also said he was defeated so I assume he’s either dead or somehow sealed away. In which case, he’s likely ceased to exist or is otherwise unable to collect souls, thus leading to the same issue I’ve already pointed out. And if they aren’t interacting with the world in any way shape or form, I’m inclined to believe that indeed there are no other gods. Only you two, mere demigods who were, until today, apparently unaware of what you truly are. Likely with no planes of your own, as of yet. So, unless there are other gods or demigods you haven’t mentioned, I’m not inclined to view the fate of the dead optimistically.”
Both of the princesses were silent for a moment and the souls lined up in front of the thrones, especially the ones close enough to hear their conversation, started to grow restless.
Finally Princess Celestia said, “That paints a very grim picture, Mors…”
“Indeed.” He nodded.
“Still, we have to stay optimistic and try to help them. You keep calling us demigods and you just said we don’t have our own realms. Does that mean we could somehow create our own realms to send souls to?” Celestia asked.
“Every god has their own realm or can create one. Though these realms typically reside in planes that already exist. For example, Erastil and Iomadae have their own separate realms within Heaven. Desna and Cayden Cailean have their own separate realms within Elysium. Lamashtu and the other Demon Lords have their own separate realms within the Abyss. And so it goes with the rest of them. My companions and I do not as we were sent here right as we were ascending. So creating an entirely new plane from nothing rather than a sub-realm of an existing plane? I am unsure if it’s possible or not. That said, if you simply want to send them on their way and pray there is an already existing god of death to manage them, that can be arranged quite easily. Would you like to try?”
“Sister, I believe we ought to help them. The options presented are terrifyingly scarce indeed. We must trust their souls shall be sent to whence they belong.” Luna stated.
Celestia sighed. “I’m almost tempted to hold off until we can figure out where they’ll end up. But I think you’re right, Luna. It’s the best we can do for them right now. Mors, how do we help them move on?”
“You, at the front of the line. Approach.” Mors ordered.
The ghost at the front of the line hovered closer, timidly. “Princesses… I… I won’t be lost, will I? I don’t want to be stuck like he was saying…”
Celestia gave the dead pony a pained look. “I recognize you… You’re Somber Stars, right? You used to be a maid here in the castle until you died… That was twenty years ago…”
“Y-yes… That’s me… I’m so glad you remember me, Princess… but… please… I’m so scared…” The ghost whimpered.
“It’s going to be alright. I promise. Don’t let what Mors said scare you. I’m sure something has to be managing the souls of the dead already. And we’ll be investigating all of this. So even if his rather pessimistic assessment of the situation turns out to be true, I promise we will find a way to make a new afterlife and help every trapped soul find their way to it. So I promise you, you’re going to be alright.” Celestia said in a warm sympathetic tone.
“Th… Thank you, Princess… Thank you so much…”
“Of course… Now, I need to know you’re really you and not just an illusion made by Mors. So can you tell me something only you would know?” Celestia asked.
“I had three foals… Three beautiful foals… “ She then said each of their names.
Celestia nodded. “Yes, I remember. You brought them to the castle once. Your youngest accidentally broke a vase. I remember you were so worried that either you or him would get in trouble. Do you remember what happened after that?”
The ghost nodded. “Y-yes… You heard the noise and came to investigate. I was scolding him while trying to pick up all the pieces. When I turned and saw you standing there I nearly had a heart attack. I bowed and started apologizing, and offered to pay for a new one. You just smiled at me and asked me to introduce you to my foals. So I did. Then… You just explained to them why what he did was wrong and told them to be more careful. You picked up all the pieces with your magic, fixed the vase, and told me it was okay. That nopony was in trouble. I remember being stunned by how kind and forgiving you were. I’d worked for other nobles before being accepted as a maid here in the castle. They were all so rude and mean. Before that, I thought you’d be the same. So when you weren’t, I was so shocked and relieved.”
Celestia nodded. “Yes… It really is you then… I’m so sorry this happened to you. If I’d known you were still here after what happened, I would have tried to help you and everypony else here a lot sooner. Mors, what do we do? How do we help her move on?”
“Tell me, are you lost or trapped, or do you simply have unfinished business?” Mors asked.
“The day I died, I had a big argument with my daughter… It was over something that seems so trivial now… I just stormed out and came to work. I felt so bad about it later… I never had a chance to apologize, to say goodbye, or tell her how much I love her… When I was dying, it was the only thing I could think about. It’s still the only thing I can think about.”
“I see. Then would you be satisfied if we passed the message on to her, or do you need to tell her in person?” Mors asked.
“I… I don’t know if I want her to see me like this but… I don’t think I can rest if I don’t tell her myself.”
“Princesses, can you arrange a meeting?” Mors asked.
Celestia nodded. “A few years after you died, she followed in your hoofsteps and became a maid here in the castle. If you can wait until we can finish addressing everyone, I can have one of the guards outside go and call her in to come speak with you right away. Is that alright?”
“Yes… I’ve waited twenty years to apologize… I can wait a bit longer.”
Celestia nodded. Then her horn was enveloped in a golden aura and in a flash a paper, quill, and inkwell appeared floating next to her. She began writing something down on the paper.
Mors glanced over and saw it was simply notes. She was starting a list on what she needed to do to help the ghosts.
Dealing with the rest of the ghosts passed by quickly. Most simply had unfinished business or regrets that were keeping them here. A few of these issues were able to be resolved immediately by the princesses themselves and thus their souls departed almost immediately. Others, like the maid, had to wait a bit longer. Only a handful of the ghosts had no business and were simply stuck. For those ones, Mors had to send them off himself. A complete waste of valuable resources in the form of souls, but he did it regardless to maintain appearances. Helping souls instead of enslaving them would improve the princesses opinion of him and his necromancy, considering they had no basis for the truth. Thus making his future operations far easier.
It took about a few hours to help all of the souls that could be helped that day. The rest had to wait a bit longer for reasons that varied from ghost to ghost. For those, Mors un-manifested them, reverting them back to the state they had been in before he came along so they wouldn’t scare the castle staff. He would likely be called back to remanifest them later so the princesses could talk to them and prove their business had been concluded.
When it was over, Mors stepped down and walked a ways away from the throne before turning to face the Princesses again. His companions stood up and walked back over to join them. “With that out of the way, shall we pick up where we left off? You were asking if we planned to start our own religions. As I said, if I were to do so it would be amongst lost souls like the ones we just helped. Specifically, ones who might be too afraid of the possibility of there being no afterlife and would prefer to stay in the world of the living rather than taking the risk of being stuck in a transitive plane. Perhaps amongst any apprentices I might teach my craft as well. However, whether the others will pursue such a thing is entirely up to them. So, do any of you have any interest in starting your own religions?”
“Honestly? My entire plan was just to die in the war fighting demons. Even if that hadn’t worked out, I thought I’d die soon anyway since my kind don’t live long. Never thought I’d become immortal, let alone a demigod. Then I thought we’d all die when we were sent beyond the maelstrom. So… I really don’t know what to do with myself now. Starting a religion?” Lan shook his head. “No. That doesn’t really feel right to me.”
“I don’t want anything silly like religion. I just want to use my new tricks to help people however I can! They don’t need to worship me for me to help them.” Ember stated.
Arueshalae looked down at the ground. “I’m not sure… I don’t think I’m worthy of it…“
“Heck yeah, I wanna start my own religion! That’s just way too good of an opportunity to pass up! Plus I really am a demigod now and if Areelu’s right I really can actually give them divine powers! So it’s not like I’d be lying to ‘em. So what’s the harm in it? Besides, in my opinion, all of us deserve it after everything we’ve been through. Hey, Arueshalae, you already redeemed yourself right? You don’t feel those urges anymore and you can even dream now, right? As far as I’m concerned that means you aren’t a demon anymore. Can’t be. So what’s the problem? You aint got nothing to prove to anyone anymore. If anyone’s ‘worthy’ of it, it's you and me. And the Chief, of course.” Woljif said with a big smile.
“Well… Maybe, but… I’m still not sure…” Arueshalae said.
“Religion? I’m more interested in pursuing further experiments that were previously impossible for me with my newfound abilities. Though being known as a goddess or demi-goddess of science with devoted followers could open very interesting avenues of experimentation into the nature of faith and religious orders as well… Hm…” Nenio said, clearly considering it.
“After some time, perhaps. For now, I have different concerns.” Areelu stated.
The Princesses looked at each other for a moment before looking back at the group. “Well, in Equestria everypony does have basic rights to freedom of religion. Just so long as any religions you decide to create don’t violate our laws, I suppose it should be fine… But in your case, Mors, defiling the dead is considered a crime in Equestria. I’m sure many will try to argue that your necromancy is exactly that.”
“Of course they would. Necromancers faced similar issues on Golarian. However, if souls willingly decide to stay in the material plane for fear of what may come next, should my hypothesis be proven correct, who are they to judge? I needn’t necessarily dig up graves and raise corpses, though perhaps having bodies again would be of some comfort to the dead. But, I suppose a more delicate hand may be necessary to ease this world into my practices. So I will hold off, and will continue projecting the illusion I am alive for now. However, I do hope you will not forbid me from taking apprentices. After all, look at the good we’ve done just today. I may be a demigod now, but even Pharasma, a true goddess, was not infallible. Souls still had regrets that kept them in the mortal plane or simply became trapped or lost in our world. I am not so arrogant as to believe myself superior to Pharasma. So I can not help every lost soul on my own.” Mors said, trying to play this diplomatically.
He didn’t want a war with the princesses just yet. Such a thing would be highly inconvenient. He would wait. He would wait until after he, Areelu, and whichever of his companions proved to be the most loyal achieved true divinity. And he took the role of this realm’s God of Death. At which point he’d be nigh unstoppable. Especially if there truly were no other gods to resist him.
“I believe this matter requires further discussion. The topic of using magic to influence souls and the dead is, obviously, not going to be a simple matter that can be decided right away. We need to know significantly more about it and especially the possible dangers before we can possibly make any sort of informed decision. So, I’m sorry, Commander Mors, but I’m afraid we have no choice but to forbid you from accepting apprentices. Just for the moment. At least until we can establish proper laws, rules, and regulations for it. After all, while helping lost souls move on is a noble and good use for it that nopony would be opposed to, seeing what we have so far I’m certain there must be truly horrific ways in which it can be abused. After that, however, who knows? Perhaps we can assist you in establishing a properly managed academy or college.” Celestia told him.
Mors bowed his head in mock respect. “Fair arguments. You are quite wise, your highnesses. Very well. I shall abide by your decision.” It was mildly annoying but it would be politically disadvantageous to disobey them for the moment. At least so blatantly. He would bide his time. “That said, I and perhaps Nenio and my mother, should they be interested in assisting me, will be looking into the nature of death in this reality and shall investigate to find out if there is a god or gods managing it and any planes souls may or may not be being sorted into. I will get back to you with our findings as soon as we’ve found any relevant information. That said, let us finish this meeting discussing money, shall we? As I said earlier, I have a significant amount of Mendevian currency I would like to exchange for currency from this country.”
Celestia smiled, “Ah, yes. I nearly forgot about that. Certainly, we can get that sorted out. Though depending on how much you have, it may have to wait until tomorrow. It’s getting late. So it’s almost time for me to lower the sun and for Luna to raise the moon.”
“You two control the sun and moon?” Nenio asked eagerly.
“Er… Yes… Would you like to watch?” Celestia offered.
“Yes! Absolutely! I need to take notes! Two demigods controlling the day night cycle! The implications for the differences in cosmological processes between here and Golarian are immense!” Nenio said, reaching into her bag of holding and taking out a fresh notebook and her favorite silverpoint pencil.
“Right… Before that, you’re welcome to stay in the castle until we can find you proper accommodations. So let me show you to the guest rooms.” Celestia said, standing up from her throne.
Mors cast an illusion to make himself look alive and the group followed Celestia out of the throne room and to the guest rooms.
Nenio then followed her to a balcony to observe and take notes as she lowered the sun and Luna raised the moon.
As the Princesses and his companions were busy, Mors went to the room Areelu was staying in. After ordering any ghosts in the area away, he knocked at the door.
“Enter.” She called.
He pushed open the door and walked inside. “We have matters to discuss.” He stated.
Areelu, who was sitting on a chair next to a desk at the side of the room, with the chair rotated to face him, nodded in agreement. “That we do. Particularly our two hosts and the hypothetical lack of gods in this world.”
“How likely do you believe it is that they're lying and this is some sort of elaborate trap?” Mors asked.
Areelu raised a hand to her chin in thought. “Hm… Quite unlikely, but I won’t deny the possibility is there. The complete absence of gods, save one who is supposedly dead or sealed away somehow, is quite suspicious.”
“Do you believe it’s safe to explore the planes to investigate?”
“Safe? Absolutely not. Could we survive such an expedition? Quite possibly with the power we’ve acquired, but it entirely depends on what we might encounter, how powerful they are, and how many of us go. I would be far more comfortable with such an expedition if we had been able to complete the process of ascension before our banishment. Still, should more of your companions than just the fox be willing to accompany us, we should be able to temporarily fight back against a single god or god-like entity and escape back to the mortal plane. If they haven’t revealed themselves until now it stands to reason they have reason to want to remain unknown and likely would not pursue us back and risk revealing their existence to the mortals.”
Mors considered this for a moment. “Would that not depend entirely on how likely they believed it is that we would reveal their existence if we were allowed to escape?”
Areelu nodded. “Perhaps. But our relations with the Princesses are decent at the moment. So should that come to pass, there are two fully fledged demigoddesses here that may be willing to help us drive off this god, assuming they aren’t deceiving us. Six near demigods and two actual demigods should, in theory, be more than enough to drive back a single god. That, however, would require us to put a significant amount of trust in the princesses. Something I’m uncertain is a wise decision at the moment. We need to learn far more about them before we can risk such a thing.”
“Agreed. I will ask the ghosts around the castle about them and learn as much as I can. Then later, after the princesses are satisfied I’ve helped them send off all the lost souls within these walls, I will set more from outside the castle to spy on them for me. Information is our most valuable resource at the moment and I will see to it we acquire as much as possible by any means necessary. Now, I have another question. The midnight bolts and the crystals. If you could craft more midnight bolts, could we use them to acquire more crystals?” Mors inquired, being intentionally vague just in case the rooms had some unknown magic that allowed the princesses to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“I can already imagine what you have in mind. Sadly the bolts were designed for a very specific and specialized use. How do I put this…? They… were tuned for a very specific alignment and essence. It would require a significant amount of research to modify them for your purposes. Research we can’t easily conduct without willing participants or a starting point to base my research on. Back in our reality I had the crystals formed in the Midnight Isles to research. Here we have no such thing. Besides, using the bolts would be a political disaster which may not be the best option in our current circumstances. So, no. We will have to find another means of completing our ascension. It will be difficult but it should not be impossible. Especially considering we are already partially ascended.” Areelu explained.
Mors flexed his wings and nodded. “I’ve heard demons and daemons can gather power in other ways involving souls. Something I specialize in quite heavily. Would that work for us?” Devouring souls. That was something he could do quite easily. And he certainly had no qualms against it.
“Perhaps, but even with your abilities it would take centuries if not millennia. Unless you completely usurped the flow of souls entirely. Having the entirety of this reality’s equivalent to the river of souls flowing into our gullets. Then we would achieve divinity quite quickly indeed. However, that is hardly a practical solution, and I’m quite sure some of your companions and the princesses would kill us for such a thing. We wouldn’t be able to hide it and while it would be quick, that’s only speaking relatively to centuries or millennia. It would still take time to achieve full divinity that way. A year to a decade or two, as a very rough estimate. In that time we would both be hunted down and destroyed or sealed away much like this ‘Discord’ the princesses mentioned. That’s completely disregarding the possibility of there being a hidden god that would take notice and intervene. So it’s not feasible.”
“Drinking the river of souls itself would be quite the extreme measure anyway. Not something I would turn to as a first resort.” At least not without a significant amount of preparation and insurance to ensure nothing could stop him. It was actually quite an intriguing prospect otherwise. “Regardless I suppose finding a way to complete our ascension will require further consideration and less obtuse means… Speaking of the river of souls, assuming there are no gods and there are no afterlifes, do you know if it would be possible for each of us to create our own planes? Our own equivalents of the Abyss, Hell, Heaven, and so on to form a proper afterlife. Or would that require pre-existing planes?” Mors asked.
“If there truly are no other planes, it may be possible for us to create our own in the void left where they should exist. Failing that we may be able to find ways to pull planes from the maelstrom and convert them for our purposes. Either way, acquiring realms of our own should, in theory, be possible.”
Mors nodded, thinking to himself, considering how to use this information to his advantage. “I will think on this… Enjoy the rest of your night.” He said before turning to leave.
Areelu said nothing, letting him walk out without another word.
Mors spent the rest of the night calling ghosts to himself, interrogating them about the princesses, and developing plans for the future.
As she slept that night, Arueshalae felt something odd within her dream. A sort of instinct, or no perhaps inkling was a better word for it. A subtle feeling in the back of her mind. She had felt it the previous night too but had decided to ignore it. She had wanted to enjoy the company of her friends a bit longer and the smiling face of Mors. In her dreams he was just as alive as the day she met him in that cold damp prison cell in Drezen and as happy and jovial as he was during the celebration after Drezen had been liberated from the demons. Something she knew she would never get to see in the waking world ever again, and so she found comfort in it in her dreams.
However, it was back again tonight and she was quite curious. So as much as she wanted to stay in the comfort of her beautiful dream, she decided to listen and follow this feeling. Somehow both unsure and yet completely certain of what she was doing she stepped out of her dream and found herself floating in a vast sea of stars. One drifted by her. Reaching out she cupped the star in her hands.
Then she realized, it was no star after all. It was a dream. The dream of a pony child who was sleeping at that very moment. Her eyes wide with wonder she watched the dream, seeing the little foal running and playing in a field with who she assumed were his friends. She smiled warmly, joy filling her heart as she saw the foal’s dream wasn’t so different from her own.
She released the dream and let it drift away into the sea of stars. She then willed herself to drift through the sea of stars to yet another dream nearby. Cupping it in her hands she looked into this dream as well. It was an old pegasus flying through the sky. She was clearly having a lot of fun. This dream was sort of odd to Arueshalae. It was so different from her own. As much as she had learned and grown since Desna first spared her, she still couldn’t quite understand mortals. Sure, flying may have been enjoyable but it was nothing special. To her it was just another means of getting around like walking. What was so enjoyable about that? What made it worthy of dreaming of? She didn’t understand.
“Lady Desna… It seems I still have much to learn… I suppose I still don’t fully understand dreams.” She said, wishing Desna could hear her wherever she and the others were now.
“Ye doth not understandeth dreams? And yet thou art here within the realm of dreams. How curious.” Said a voice from behind her.
Startled, Arueshalae released the dream, turned and saw Princess Luna floating in the void behind her, looking at her curiously.
“Oh! Princess Luna. What are you doing here?” Arueshalae asked.
“We could asketh thou the same. However, to answer thine query, tis one of our royal duties as Princess of the Night to guard the dreams of our subjects from nightmares and other malign forces.” Luna stated, floating a bit closer.
“It is? So, I suppose you’re a demigoddess of dreams. Sort of like Lady Desna. I guess that means you fulfill a similar role to her, here in this reality.” Arueshalae said, looking away from the princess.
“Oh? Doth this ‘Desna’ guard the dreams of ponies in thine realm?” Luna asked.
“I suppose she guards the dreams of mortals. At least, in my experience she did. Though, maybe it isn’t all mortals. Maybe its just her priests and priestesses? I’m not really sure. I… I never…” Arueshalae sighed and shook her head.
“Thou did something thou regrets sorely. Something thou canst ne’er taketh back, correct?” Luna asked in a quiet, sympathetic tone.
Arueshalae looked at her. “Yes… A lot of things…”
“As have I… Come. We wish to showeth thou something.” Luna requested before her horn started to glow with a dark blue aura. Suddenly there was a flash of light and the two of them were somewhere else. The throneroom of an unfamiliar castle with two separate, currently vacant, thrones..
“Where are we? I know this is a dream but whose?” Arueshalae asked.
“Mine. And tis no dream but a nightmare… Mine worst nightmare… The greatest mistake I hath e’er made…” Luna said sadly.
That’s when Arueshalae noticed a dream version of Celestia walking into the room.
“Not another step!” Luna’s voice echoed through the throneroom before she walked out from behind the thrones, glairing at Celestia. “Didst thou really expecteth me to sit idly by whilst they all basked in thine precious light?!” The dream version of Luna demanded
The dream version of Celestia gave Luna a pained look but seemed somewhat at a loss for words.
The dream Luna walked up to a podium between the two thrones. “There can beest only one princess in Equestria! And that princess shall beest me!” Dream Luna shouted, her voice magically reverberating through the room as she stomped the ground with her front hooves. The podium shattered from the force of it.and shadows creeped up the wall, causing it to crack and break before the stained glass window above and behind the podium exploded revealing the sun. Dream Luna then stood on her hind legs raising her front hooves as she floated into the air and the moon rose behind her, eclipsing the sun.
Suddenly shadows began swirling around her condensing and heating up until they turned from pitch black to glowing orange like a ball of fire or blazing hot metal. The core of the ball turned black again before turning blue. Then the ball unfurled revealing Luna, but changed. Warped and twisted.
She cackled maniacally before thrusting her horn forward and cutting a swath through the roof of the throne room with a beam of magic. Thus the roof began to collapse in on itself.
Celestia seemed to gather herself for a moment before walking forwards.
The now transformed Luna stepped through the billowing dust from the collapsed roof, her wings flared.
Celestia launched herself into the air, hovering near the top of the partially collapsed roof. Luna fired another beam, blasting another hole in the roof and forcing Celestia to land.
“Luna! I shan’t fight thee! Thou must lower the moon! Tis thine duty!” Celestia shouted, sounding angry, though Arueshalae could sense a hint of grief in her tone.
“Luna? I am Nightmare Moon! Now I hath but one royal duty! To destroyeth thee!” Nightmare Moon shouted before firing another blast of magic at Celestia.
The beam missed by a hair, blowing another hole in a wall. Celestia flared her wings and took off, flying out through a hole in the roof.
“And where dost thou think thou art going?!” Nightmare Moon demanded before taking off after Celestia.
The dream froze and everything shifted to a sunny meadow where only Arueshalae and Luna, the real Luna, were present.
Arueshalae looked at Luna and saw she was crying. So she knelt down and wrapped her arms around Luna in a hug. It was still somewhat odd to her to embrace someone for non-sexual reasons but Ember had taught her it had other meanings and could sometimes help people feel better. When she asked the Commander, he had confirmed it was true.
Luna seized up for a moment before wrapping a hoof around Arueshalae, returning the gesture. She continued to sob into Arueshalae’s shoulder for several minutes before finally lowering her hoof and pulling back a bit. Arueshalae let her go but stayed kneeling for the moment.
“Th-thanketh thee…” Luna sniffled, finally calming down.
“What happened next, if you don’t mind me asking?” Arueshalae asked in a somber sympathetic tone.
“Sister and I… We did battle… I gave her no quarter and refused to lower the moon… I was determined to slay her and maketh night everlasting… To force all to worship me and my night… She had no recourse… She… She used the Elements of Harmony to banish me to the moon for a thousand years… I made my return only recently… Twilight Sparkle and her friends used the Elements again, and banished the nightmare and its dark powers from my heart…” Luna stated.
“And you’ve been working to redeem yourself ever since but no matter how hard you try or how much good you do, you can’t forgive yourself…” Arueshalae said.
Luna was silent for a moment. With one final sniff, she wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded. “Indeed…”
Arueshalae sighed. “Despite all of that… What I did… What I was, was still so much worse… Now it’s my turn. I have something to show you too.”
Arueshalae placed a hand on Luna and pulled her into her own dreams. Her own nightmare. They stood outside the ruined church where Arueshalae first began her path to redemption. The site of her final crime.
Arueshalae had to look away, as she showed Luna exactly what happened that night. She remembered it in perfect detail, but she didn’t want to see it happen again. She’d tortured herself over it for so long already.
When it got to the point where Arueshalae entered the priestess’s mind, she froze the nightmare and shifted the dream so they were standing in the house she always imagined. Only this time the house was empty, for the purposes of her conversation.
“I killed her. That priestess of Desna. She was my final victim… In her dying moments, I entered her mind. Her dreams. I was curious. You know, demons don’t sleep. Mortals always compare their greatest moments to dreams. So I thought it would be interesting to see for myself, and while I was at it… to mock Desna. The priestess lay in my arms dying of my kiss. I remember everything. Down to the smallest detail… I dove into her mind to see what mortal dreams were like. But the goddess saw me in her realm. And… it turned out I stayed there far longer than I had planned. I thought she was going to kill me. To punish me for murdering one of her priestesses. But… she didn’t. Instead, she gave me mercy… She awoke in me the memories of the sinners whose souls were used to create me… All those humans… I knew nothing of them until Desna showed me. Each of them had their own dreams. And a world without pity trampled them and placed them on a path that led to the Abyss. Their memories… All their hopes and pain…”
Arueshalae shook her head. “When I woke, I was filled with regret. For everything. Lady Desna helped me, in a way. Set me on the path to redeem myself. To finally understand the dreams of mortals and to finally be able to have a dream of my own… It was long and difficult. Sometimes I thought it might be impossible. After all, I am a succubus. A demon. A being that’s supposed to be inherently evil. Or at least I was.”
She paused then an image of the commander when he was still alive appeared in the house, with a genuine smile on his face.
Luna looked at the image curiously. She had seen the illusion he cast of himself when he was alive but it wasn’t the same. Even his illusion lacked something. When the illusion smiled it was like he was wearing a mask. Something he did just for show rather than because he meant it. This image was different. This was how he truly used to be.
“Then I met him, in a cell in Drezen after I had been captured by the demons… We spoke once before when he, his friends, and his army of living crusaders were on their way to take Drezen back from the Abyss and I was still imprisoned… His image was projected in my cell through some artifacts of Desna he had found, and he looked almost exactly like one of the Azata from Elysium.”
Mors’ image changed, growing numerous butterfly-like wings and his features changing slightly, becoming perfect and impossibly beautiful, as little green and blue butterflies fluttered all around him.
“I like to think that maybe, just maybe, had things been different, had he just chosen a bit differently, he might have become like this. A beautiful Azata, like I had seen him that day in my cell. Rather than giving up everything for the crusade and becoming a lich.”
“Tis a shame then that he did not.” Luna stated.
“It is…” Arueshalae nodded. The image changed, depicting Mors as he was now. A skeletal lich wielding a large scythe that oozed a deep sense of wrongness, his empty eye sockets glowing with ethereal necrotic light. “Though, even when he chose to pursue necromancy instead of becoming an Azata, he still helped me. He was there for me every step of the way on my path to redemption. He helped me overcome the urges I felt. Because of him, I’m not even sure if I really am a demon anymore or if I’ve become something else. Because of him I can sleep. I can dream. I even have a dream of my own now.”
The house filled up with all of their companions, both current and former. Laughing and enjoying themselves. Mors was randomly flickering between the human and azata versions Arueshalae had shown Luna.
“What a lovely dream it is.”
“Mhm… Sadly, it’ll never happen. There are friends here we’ll never see again and Mors won’t come back to life. We’ll never be…” She blushed a bit and stopped herself. “Well it doesn’t matter anymore…”
“Dost thou have feelings for him?” Luna inquired, raising an eyebrow.
Arueshalae looked away. “I… No? Maybe? I’m not entirely sure… But like I said, even if I did it doesn’t matter anymore. He can’t return any feelings I have for him. Or had, I suppose…”
“Come now, thou thinks far too little of thineself—” Luna started, clearly trying to be supportive.
Arueshalae cut her off. “No you don’t understand. It has nothing to do with me, it’s him. He’s…” She hesitated and then released a deep exhale. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but… when Mors became a lich, he had to sacrifice something… A piece of himself… I don’t know what happened exactly but whatever his teacher, Master Zacharius, did to him to make him a lich it killed him. And I don’t just mean physically though it did kill him that way too… He… he changed…”
Arueshalae looked at Luna with a pained expression. “He says his emotions have been dulled. That he can hardly feel anything anymore. And it’s true. All of us know it. Ever since then he’s barely expressed any emotion at all… It’s so bad that at first I wondered if he still thought of us as friends at all or if he only saw us as tools to be used and disposed of as he saw fit. Sort of like how demons see others…. But even after he became a lich he still went out of his way to help us. To help me. He still treated us almost the same as he used to. Just… without the same emotions that used to be there. So I know he’s still in there, somewhere. Lost. Numb… But even if he is, he’s not capable of feeling anything for me or anyone. And certainly not like that.”
“O-oh… That’s… horrifying.” Luna said, the concern clear in her tone.
Arueshalae looked back at her dream. In place of the human or the Azata, the lich now stood. Whole and present unlike the previous flickering images of him. She nodded in agreement with Luna. “Horrifying. Macabre. Sad. But it’s the choice he made. The worst part is, even if we could theoretically find some way to help him regain whatever he lost when he became a lich, he's already dead. So even if we could help him, it might just kill him. I mean, he is a necromancer, and a very powerful one at that, so it might be possible he could just... choose not to die? But at that point he'd probably be a ghost or some other different type of spectral undead. And what if whatever method we used didn't actually bring his emotions back or even destroys his soul entirely, by mistake? Then it would have all been for nothing anyways and we would have either killed him or simply made it so he can't physically touch things. Plus, is that something he'd even want or would he want to stay a lich even now that the war is over? So there's nothing we can do... the Commander we knew is gone forever.”
Luna gave Arueshalae a sympathetic look. "I do not envy thee, thine situation."
"Can we change the topic? I don't want to talk about this anymore..." Arueshalae requested.
Luna looked at Arueshalae’s dream. “As you wish... We neglected to ask during our prior meeting in the waking world, how did thee and thine friends come to be here? Thou claimest to be from another reality. How is such a thing possible?”
Arueshalae wasn’t sure how to answer this. She didn’t want to tell the truth otherwise Luna might get the wrong idea and try to attack Mors. But she didn’t want to lie either. “I don’t fully understand how it all works, but… How do I put this…? After we killed Deskari and Baphomet and won the war, some of Mors’ enemies sent us beyond the maelstrom. No one knew what would happen. We could have been found and killed or devoured by some unknowable god-like entity or just kept traveling forever into nothingness. It was supposed to be a death sentence. We only ended up here by pure luck. You’ll have to ask the Commander, Lady Areelu, or Nenio to explain the maelstrom to you. They know a lot more about interplanar things than the rest of us.”
“I see. Very well. I shan’t bother thee further. I must return to mine royal duties for the night.” Luna said.
“You’re going to go protect people’s dreams from nightmares, right? Would you mind if I came with you? I’m very new to all of this and I just think it might be a good way to start learning about my new abilities… If you don’t mind, of course…” Arueshalae requested.
Luna hesitated for a moment before smiling at her. “Verily. I welcome thine company. Perhaps we might explore more pleasant dreams whilst I defend the dreams of mine subjects from nightmares.”
