The Page of Pride

The pages of the Necronomicon

Paragraph two

Nemo

I woke up in an infirmary bed. The magical light of the room flickered, and the quiet of the room was regularly disturbed by a beeping sound.

My eyes opened slowly, I blinked twice to remove the sleep from my eyes.

My head was bursting from a massive headache and every movement hurt.

I let my gaze slowly travel from the flickering light above me, towards my left hoof. Several tubes were connected to my hoof as were a few cables  that were connected to a cardiograph and two other monitors.

My breath became laboured, and I started to feel less and less pain as adrenaline was pumped into my blood. I let out a scream of fear and tried to remove the cables and tubes as fast as I could. Yet, I was stopped as a butter-coloured Pegasus with a doctor’s coat spurted into the room and started shushing me.

“It’s ok, you don’t have to be afraid. You’re safe now.” I don’t know what it was. Maybe her voice? Maybe her eyes? I don’t know what calmed me, but it worked faster than anything else I had ever experienced.

“W-Who are you?”

“I’m Fluttershy." She smiled gently. "Please, stay calm for a second while I examine you, ok?”

I watched for the next minute as Fluttershy checked everything that could be checked. She checked pulse, breath, ears, eyes, hooves and rated the data on the monitors. She then turned around and smiled. “Ok, seems like we could stop the process before it could spread out too much.”

“What process?! Is something wrong with me?” I yelled, but I quickly softened my tone as I saw Fluttershy cringe away from me.

“I-I’m maybe not the best pony to tell you…” She tried to avoid to look at me. “I-I’ll go and get somepony, who’s better fit to do that.”

She was almost out the door as I realized that I had yelled at somepony who had probably saved my life. “I-I’m sorry that I yelled at you…” Now it was my turn to avoid to look at her. I felt so ashamed, I knew that—wherever I was, whoever had saved me—those ponies had saved my life, and they deserved my thanks and respect. Fluttershy, however, quickly spurted towards my bed and started to comfort me.

“Oh, no. It’s not so bad. You must have been through a lot. I completely understand that you’re scared." She once again smiled at me. "How about you tell me your name.” She gave a gentle smile.

“My… name…” I rubbed my head. “I…”

“Oh no,” She gasped.

“I-I don’t know…”

“Ok, let’s start small." She patted my back. "Can you recall anything about what happened yesterday?”

I thought for a moment, and pictures of the three zombies, the yellow Minotaur, the armoured ponies and the burning city rushed before my inner eye. “E-Everything.”

“Ok, do you know what you were carrying?”

“Um, A shotgun, munition, a saddle bag filled with bits, some provisions and medicine.”

The mare nodded. “You’ve survived a long time. So I assume you’ve lived in one of the successful settlements? Do you anything about that?”

I saw pictures of a settlement, ponies and what looked like my life. Yet, I could not make out faces, I couldn’t name places. The memories were there, but incomplete. My name? Friends? Family? “No… I can recall that I lived somewhere… but not where it was or who I lived with.”

“Oh dear. I’m afraid that you’re suffering from systemized amnesia.”

I just sat there. Thinking. Until I looked up and took a deep breath. “You said that something was wrong with me?”

“I-I—”

“It’s ok. Just get that pony that can explain me what's wrong with me, ok?” I forced a smile.

Fluttershy left the room and I let myself fall into my cushion. I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment.

----[一]----

As I opened my eyes again I saw that there were now three ponies in the room. Fluttershy. A lavender unicorn—with a violet mane with stripes of purple and pink. She wore a black coat—which covered near her entire body—and her deep-purple eyes absently looked at me. And lastly, a dim-yellow coloured stallion with a long-golden flowing mane—who wore the same armour he had worn yesterday.

“Are you finally awake?” The unicorn asked in an annoyed tone.

“Twilight! He has been through a lot! He is allowed to rest!”

“He is wasting my time, Fluttershy. My students are waiting.”

“Well, he could become your student. So, how about being nice to him for the time being?” The stallion spoke.

“He won’t survive if he doesn’t toughen up.”

“But can’t you just let him rest for the moment. If he isn’t completely healthy, he might not withstand your training, Twilight,” Fluttershy said in a worried fashion.

“You’re too kind, Fluttershy,” Twilight said as she shook her head.

“Well, we can’t be as cold as you, now can we? Princess.” The stallion said with that last word drenched in high molar acid.

You know as I said that the Minotaur was the embodiment of fear? Well, I was wrong. Trails of smoke emerged from her mane and the stripes in her mane were smouldering. As she opened her eyes, flames were bursting from her irises. “DON’T! EVER! ADDRESS ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!” She formed multiple purple darts in mid-air.

“Or what!” The stallion grabbed his waist and took a folded handle—which unfolded into the broadsword he had wielded yesterday.

The situation would have escalated, had Fluttershy not interfered. “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT!!!!”

The two stopped midway and looked astonished at the Pegasus. “I’m very disappointed in both of you! If you have to break each other’s bones, do it somewhere else. This is the medical wing. Not a battlefield.”

The two huffed and looked away from each other. The magical darts disappeared into the void they had come from and the stallion’s sword folded itself back into a compact rectangle. “Fine!” The two said in unison.

Fluttershy coughed and looked apologetic at me. “I’m sorry for that. Those two tend to fight each other. Normally with words, but sometimes physically.”

“You’re… Twilight Sparkle? The princess?” I asked with disbelief.

“Here we go again,” The stallion sighed.

“Oh shut up, Clashing Steel.” She glared at Clashing Steel but quickly returned her attention towards me. “I was, yes.”

“Where have you been? Why did you disappear?”

Twilight sighed, “That’s a story for another day I’m afraid. What is more important now, is what has happened to you.”

“What do you mean?”

Twilight wanted to say something, but got cut off as a new voice entered the room. “Where is the new half-zombie?”

I saw a stallion hanging against the frame of the door. He was smoking. His hair was greasy and he had a rotten colour as coat. His eyeballs had a diseased-white colour and his eyebrows were missing. Part of his teeth were exposed due to a hole in his cheek and his teeth had a stained-yellow colour with black spots. He wore a brown coat—which was covered in holes, exposing rotten parts of his flesh. He still had most of his coat, but where his cutie mark should have been—a crusted wound crested his flank. “Oh… hehehe… hi!” He said in a hoarse voice.

I screamed.

“Crafted Shadow! Didn’t I tell you not to smoke inside the medical wing! Also, don’t scare the poor colt! He just barely escaped death, so it would be just too lovely if you wouldn't give him a heart attack!”

“But, I didn’t mean too~”

“Apologize!”

“But~”

“I said, apologize!”

Ok, apparently, fear has many faces. I couldn’t see the look on Fluttershy’s face, but it must have been terrifying, when even a zombie cringes away from it.

“O-Ok, just, stop staring at me.”

Fluttershy’s expression softened and the zombie straightened himself. “Good evening. My name is Crafted Shadow, I am the former right hand of lord Lucifer and am now the strategic advisor of Cerberus. Yes, I’m a zombie. No, I won’t eat you since I’m not a cannibal. I like to read, eat and smoke. And—”

“Y-You don’t eat ponies?” I asked with a tremble in my voice.

The zombie looked at the other three ponies in the room. “You haven’t told him yet, have you?”

The three shook their head in unison. “We were about to, but then you interrupted.” Twilight said.

“Told what?”

“That you’re a zombie now,” Crafted Shadow said with glee in his voice, “well, a half-zombie to be precise.”

I stared at Crafted Shadow for a while. “WHAT?”

“Smooth, very smooth,” Clashing Steel said while sarcastically stomping his hooves. In the meantime, Fluttershy had run over to me and started shushing me.

“Don’t worry, we contained it before the transformation was completed. You have to thank Clashing Steel for that.”

“You were lucky that we found you last minute. Any second later, and you would have been a zombie too.”

“BUT I WASN’T BITTEN! How did I—” My sentence died as Crafted Shadow started to laugh. “I’m sorry, could you explain me what’s so funny?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but you’re so cute at the moment. You actually believe that they have to bite you to turn you into a zombie?”

“Yes, how would they otherwise?!”

“Well, I wasn’t there at the time, but my master told me that the dragons burned your kind and—well—all the other races.”

“And your point is?”

“Oh wake up!” He yelled with his hoarse voice, “Don’t you see? They weren’t bitten either! They were burned. And even now, more and more ponies are converted into zombies. And I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen any dragons in a while.”

“But how do they…”

“A zombie has to show you death to start the process,” Twilight said, “If you die after you’ve seen death, then you’ll be reborn as a zombie. However, if you survive, you have twelve hours until the process is complete and you become a zombie too.”

“Luckily, we’ve found an inhibitor that stops the process. Unfortunately, it doesn’t reverse the process,” Fluttershy continued.

“However, we did find a way to use their curse to our advantage.” Clashing Steel ended.

“And what would that be?” I asked.

“Necromancy,” the three said in unison.

“B-But that is magic. I don’t know if you have noticed, but I’m an Earthpony.” He tapped his forehead to proof his point. "See! No horn, no magic."

“Details,” Crafted Shadow said, "don’t let that bother you.”

“He is right,” Twilight said, “what matters now is that—as Fluttershy and I have discussed—you get one more day to regain strength. Tomorrow at six A.M., Clashing Steel will pick you up and give you a tour through our base. After that, you’ll join me and my students for your first training. Understood?”

“But, I’m not a soldier, I don’t want to fight!”

“Oh, grow up!" Clashing steel growled. "We aren’t babysitters. We’re mercenaries! You don’t want to fight? Fine, then take your stuff and leave!”

“But, couldn’t I help with something else?”

This time Fluttershy shook her head. “I’m sorry, my dear. But a necromancer is of too much value to waste his potential with the crops.”

“Listen…” Twilight wanted to say something, but couldn’t finish her sentence, “How should we call you? Fluttershy has told us that you’ve lost your memories and that you can't recall your name…”

It was silent for the next two minutes until Crafted Shadow spoke, “How about Nemo?”

“Nemo?”

“Yes, Nemo, no one in Latin. I think it is fitting since you’re literally a colt without a past. You’re no one.”

“Nemo…” I let the feeling of the name glide over my tongue.

“Ok then, Nemo,” Twilight continued, “I understand you’re scared, really I do, but you have to see that you have no choice. Besides, don’t you want this nightmare to end?”

“I-I—”

“YES OR NO?!” She pressed.

“Yes, your majesty.”

Twilight sighed, “Fine, then I’ll see you tomorrow and Nemo… don’t ever call me like that again.” She glared for a fraction of a second at me and then left the room.

I looked at Fluttershy, “You’re the element of kindness right?” – She nodded – “Was she always like that?”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid no… Her eyes used to be… brighter. Now I can only see shadows in her eyes…” She let her ears droop a bit and sniffed.

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s not your fault. We’ve all lost many things, she is no exception. And I’m afraid that she blames herself for her losses…” She walked for the door and sighed, “Anyways, I have other patients to attend to. Welcome to Cerberus…” And with that she left the room.

“I have business to attend to too, you know, strategic advisor and stuff. Welcome to the family.” Crafted Shadow waved goodbye without looking back as he too left the room.

“Before I leave, I need your measurements for your uniform.”

I gave him my measurements and smiled as he too left the room.

I let my head fall on the cushion and sighed. Don’t you want this nightmare to end?

Twilight’s words spun around inside my head.

Hope? So, that’s what it feels like…

----[一]----

“GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE!” I shot awake as Clashing Steel stood inside my room. He dropped a box on the floor and grinned. “Come on! Get up, get dressed and GET GOING! But please, take a shower first. You smell even worse than Crafted Shadow. You got two minutes! We have a busy day and Twilight will kill you and yell at me if we’re late for your first training.”

“Two minutes?”

“One minute and fifty seconds.”

I squeaked and dressed myself at record speed.

After we went to the cafeteria to get our breakfast—which was gigantic, considering what I had to live off of in the wastes—Clashing Steel showed me the base of Cerberus.

Apparently it was a bunker that the royal sisters had built inside the mountain of Canterlot in case that one of the other super powers decided to break the agreement. You know, better safe than sorry.

“Why didn’t they use the bunker during the days of the green fire?”

“I don’t know, I wasn’t in Canterlot during the attack of the dragons. You’ve got to ask Twilight if you want to know what happened in Canterlot during those days. But don’t get your hopes up, she doesn’t talk about it.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know kiddo. Ask Fluttershy or Applejack, they’re her friends. At least I think that they’re friends, they don’t behave much like friends if you ask me. Fluttershy and Applejack try to, but Twilight is always so… distant towards them—not cold like she is towards the rest of us—just… distant,” Clashing Steel said, “Anyways, we’re almost at the garage. You’ll love our mechanic.”

We stood on a twenty meter high industrial platform as we entered the garage. Beneath us, there were about fifty ponies working on ten vehicles like the one that had saved me yesterday.

“What are these things? They look like bugs.” I looked in awe at the massive brown-red vehicles.

“Well, we call them dragonflies, due to their dragon-like trailers. A bit farfetched, but hey, nopony complains.” Clashing Steel shrugged. “HEY SCOOTS! The new one is here, come and say hello.”

An orange Pegasus with purple mane flew towards us and landed next to us. “Clashing Steel! I told you to not drive the dragonfly through fire! If you get stuck, you’ll cook alive. Besides the armour isn’t designed to withstand those temperatures. We still need that special alloy before we can make it fireproof.”

“Yes, but we didn’t find any bits in Canterlot. Besides it was an emergency, we’ve defeated another super-zombie and freed another three hundred zombies from their agony.” He smiled proudly.

“Why do you need bits?” I asked.

Scootaloo—who finally noticed me—looked confused at me. “You’re the new one, right? Well, it seems that the alloy bits are made off—if correctly enchanted—has fireproof properties.” She sighed, which made a few strands of her mane fall into her face, she waved them away and looked back at me. “However, it seems that the dragons have eaten most of them and now we can’t find any of them…”

“How much do you need?”

She shrugged. “Not much, kiddo. Most of the fire resistance comes from the enchantments, which means that we only need a thin layer of the alloy.”

I took my saddlebag and threw it towards her. “Is this enough?”

She opened my saddlebag sceptically, but her expression quickly changed as soon as she saw the amount of bits that I carried with me. “H-How did you get these?”

Clashing Steel looked even more confused. “Why do you carry money? It is worthless in the wastes, didn’t that slow you down?”

I shrugged. “Mostly because of boredom, I guess. I didn’t really value my life out there. It seemed so pointless to struggle, so I guess I started to do some pointless things.”

“SWEETIE BELLE!” Scoots yelled down the platform.

“WHAT?”

“TELL BUTTON TO FIRE UP THE FORGE! WE’VE GOT BITS!” She then turned to me. “Thank you. This might be enough to coat two dragonflies.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek and then took off to meet Sweetie Belle and Button so they could start melting the bits.

I watched for a few more minutes until Clashing Steel ordered me to follow him.

----[一]----

After seeing most of the base, we eventually went through orchards.

It was a gigantic field where everything grew. Powered by magical light and Pegasi and gryphons who regulated the weather in the gigantic greenery, everything grew—together with the agriculture knowledge of one of the best farmers in Equestria—at a maximum rate, producing enough food for everypony in the facility.

“Hey, Applejack?”

An orange mare with yellow mane and a cowboy hat—who was bucking an apple tree—turned around to greet us. “Howdy Clashin’. How was y’all last mission?”

“Good, we killed a super-zombie and saved the life of this one.” He stepped aside and motioned me to introduce myself.

“Hello.” I said awkwardly. Applejack, however, didn’t seem to share the same awkwardness. She sprinted forward, grabbed my hoof and shook it until I felt dizzy.

“Well, howdy-doo, a pleasure makin' your acquaintance… um…”

“N-N-e-e-m-m-o-o-o,” I stuttered while she shook me like a maretini.

“Well, howdy-doo, Nemo. I'm Applejack. And welcome to Sweet Apple acres two point O.”

She finally let go of my hoof but it took me a moment regain my posture.

“It’s nice to meet you too.”

“So, what fraction are ya goin’ ta join? Supply, combat, crafts or arcane?” She said with a giant grin?

“Um… well, apparently I’m going to be a necromancer?”

At the notion of what would be my profession,  Applejack fell silent. “Oh, well, that is nice too.” She started awkwardly but got more confident with every word. “Twi is a good teacher but… she can be hard sometimes. Don’t let it discourage you, sugacube.”

“Thanks.”

“Sure, and if there is something you need. Just ask. Ya’ll can always find me on the orchard.”

The conversation didn’t take long after that. There were some facts on how the greenery worked and some attempts from Applejack to get to know me better. But she stopped as soon as I told her that I was suffering from amnesia… and as soon as I explained what amnesia was.

After that we left the greenery and continued our tour.

----[一]----

After the tour, we went for the hall of the necromancers.

The room itself was big but almost empty. In the middle of the room, there was a circle of ponies, meditating and in the middle Twilight sat with her eyes closed, muttering something in another language.

“Twilight! Your new student is here!” Clashing Steel yelled through the room, though he was quickly silenced as a purple dart shot in his direction. It was far enough from his face to not do any permanent damage, but close enough to scratch his cheek. “Argh. What was that for?!” He glared daggers at Twilight while she walked towards him.

“He is late.” She looked at me with her cold gaze. “But I’ll let it pass since it is his first day.”

“Sheesh, still, you don’t have to shoot darts at me.”

“Indeed, I don’t have to.”

“Fine, please continue with your sleeping session.” He huffed and left the room.

“It's called meditating! You imbecile.” She yelled after him while she summoned some more darts which she slinged towards the entraced, piercing the stone frame of it. She then calmed herself and looked back at me. “Welcome.”

“Um… Hello.”

“I hope your tour was informative?”

“Ye—”

“Since this will be your new home from now on.”

“I—”

“This will be your new family.” She pointed at the ponies behind her. “You will be assigned a room near our quarter, and they will help you if you have any questions.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.” She shook her head.

“Why not?”

“Because I might feel guilty afterwards…” She sighed.

“Um… why would you—”

“Because the next step wouldn’t be necessary if you had been a unicorn.”

“Next step?” My question was answered as she levitated a blood-dripping bone next to her. “Where did you—” I couldn’t end my sentence as a sharp pain flowed through my body. I fell back to my haunches and looked at my right foreleg. It was covered in blood, and a chunk of meat was missing. I wanted to scream in agony, yet every energy to do so faded as I slowly lost consciousness. I dropped towards the ground. And as my blood left my body—and covered the tiles of the hall in crimson—Twilight just looked at me.

“Nope… no guilt… too bad.” She then stomped her hooves to get the attention of her students. each of them removed the cap of their black coat to uncover their faces, and gathered around Twilight.  “It looks like we have a surprise pop quiz. You! Summon something to stop the bleeding. You! Go and tell Fluttershy to prepare the operating room. You! Summon a stretcher and bring him towards the operating room. If this pony dies than there will be consequences for everypony! SO. GET. GOING!”

Every student jumped and did exactly as told.

Twilight sighed as she removed the blood from my bone by polishing it with her own black coat, “You were right, Nemo. You indeed needed a horn…”