The Page of Pride

The pages of the Necronomicon

Paragraph four

Entering the woods

My first lesson was about to start and Twilight had ordered her students to form a half-circle around her.

“Let’s begin with the basics. What is necromancy?” Twilight’s voice echoed through the almost empty hall.

With practised ease, the students chorused, “The art of summoning, milady.”

“Where does a necromancer get his energy?” She walked like a drill master to the left. Luckily she didn’t yell like one, her voice was calm and yet firm.

“From the water-vapour of Lake Hades in Tartarus, milady.”

“How do we treat the dead?” She walked to the right in the same fashion.

“With uttermost respect, milady. We do not disturb the peace of the dead unless necessary.”

Twilight nodded in approval, but didn’t smile at her students’ ability to recite mere words. She came to a stop in front of me and looked me in the eyes. “These are the three most basic things you will ever learn about necromancy. Any questions?”

“We get our energy from a lake?” I cocked an eyebrow.

Twilight frowned at me.

“What?” I looked around—not knowing what I had done wrong—and noticed that the rest did their best not to move. They all just looked in front of them, avoiding to make any noise that could draw the attention of their teacher. The room was filled with complete silence. That was until the mare next to me whispered to me, “If you’re talking to her, always address her with milady.”

Sure, say princess and she’ll kill you on the spot, but milady is ok.

I asked my question again. “I’m sorry. How do we get our energy from a lake, milady?”

Twilight let go of her frown and huffed. “The lake is not filled with water. Lake Hades is the lake of the dead. When something dies, its soul will flow through one of the three Sanzu Rivers, which mouth into the lake, and is added to the soul-water. Eventually, the soul-water will vaporize and permeate through the dimensional wall that separates our worlds and enter our realm. Necromancers can absorb that vapour and get energy from it.”

So I’m basically breathing dead people.

I cringed internally at the thought of that and asked another question. “You said necromancy is the art of summoning. But what do we summon? I thought it was just about reviving the dead, milady”

“We can summon the dead, but we won’t! They have earned their rest, and we should respect that,” She said firmly, “However, we are allowed to summon them in battle. But only if we need them.”

“But, what else can we summon if not the dead, milady? Also, you summoned a bunny only for your students could practice shooting. How is that respecting the dead?”

“You can summon anything that can be considered a thing.” She let her horn glow and a purple blob appeared in mid-air. She waved a bit with her horn and made the blob take the shape of some geometrical figures and eventually that of a bunny. “Which means that I can also summon a puppet and enchant it with a simple golem-spell. You might not believe me, but I don’t take joy in torturing little animals.”

You’re right, I don’t believe you.

“Ok, everypony.” She stomped her hooves to get the attention of her students back, not that she had lost it. “We continue from where we stopped yesterday” – She pointed at the mare next to me – “Summer Song, you’re going to coordinate the combat training today.”

Summer Song nodded. “Yes, milady.”

The rest of the group formed two lines, one facing the other, and Summer Song signaled them to begin. Combat weapons, projectiles, and shields were summoned all over the place and beat against each other; filling the room with the sound of clashing metal and war-cries.

Twilight looked back at me as she saw that the training had started. “Nemo, we’re going to practice basic summoning. It is relatively easy in theory, but hard to master in practise. After an hour you should be able to form a blob of energy like I just did and after that you’ll learn how to shape it to your will. This should take roughly a day to learn and after that we’ll refine your methods until you can do it with maximum efficiency.”

The two of us sat down and she began explaining how to feel the magic, how to channel it and how to make it fill a part of space.

----[一]----

“They can what?”

Every last sound had died inside the war room. Everypony had stopped midway of whatever they were doing and focussed their attention at Crafted Shadow and Violet.

“They can pick up those signals too…” Crafted said again as he stared at Violet who wore a look of disbelief and fear.

“B-But how?”

“That’s irrelevant right now.” He jumped on the nearest chair and clapped his hooves. “Ok, everypony. I know most of you can’t stand the sight me, that’s ok since don’t like most of you either. But at this moment nopony in that settlement safe! No matter what has protected them for so long, the zombies will try to destroy it and wipe the settlement off the map. We’ve already lost more than a day, but we can still make it if we hurry.”

Most of the ponies had just dropped whatever they were doing—making some cups shatter and some papers fall to the ground—and had gathered around Crafted Shadow.

“I need three dragonflies, two dozens of warriors, one dozen of gunners and archers, and a dozen of wizards ready to leave in one hour. Get me every map of the Everfree. And somepony fetch me Twilight, Fluttershy, Clashing Steel, Applejack, Button, Noble Pin, Wanda and a new box of cigarettes. PRONTO!”

----[一]----

I tried to focus my mind on a part of space to make the energy flow towards. My horn became warmer and an aura formed around it. The aura reached from the tip of my horn, out towards that part of space and assembled there. A white blob formed, growing bigger and bigger as more energy flowed into it.

Another part of the knowledge Twilight had given me was another language. The dead language of Necromancy, which was an old and long forgotten Saddle Arabian dialect.

“Form,” I spoke in the old tongue as I motioned the blob to take shape of a dagger. First the handle formed and after a few seconds the blade emerged from the blob, forming an one-edged bowie knife.

“Harden.” The knife gained colour as I completed the spell. The blade took a shiny-grey colour of polished metal and the handle got wrapped in brown leather.

I let go of the knife and made it plummet towards the floor causing a small thump to be audible as the point pierced the wooden planks.

Twilight pulled the knife out of the planks and inspected it “Not bad… Not bad indeed.”

“I'll take that as a compliment, milady,” I said as I tried to catch my breath.

“I said it was not bad, I didn’t say it was good” – She pointed at the knife – “the blade is dull, you’ve created iron not steel and the design could be better. But all in all, you’ve made progress, I cannot complain.”

Well, that would be the first time.

“Next I want you to—”

“Miss Sparkle!” A mare—wearing the uniform of the war room—galloped inside the hall towards where Twilight and I were sitting.

“I am teaching, make it quick.” She said coldly, not even looking at the mare.

She saluted at Twilight and spoke, “I’m sorry to interrupt, Miss Sparkle. But Crafted Shadow has ordered you to come to the war room.”

“Has he?” She asked with disinterest, “Has he given a reason why I’m supposed to interrupt my lessons for his shenanigans?”

She nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. We’ve picked up a signal coming from the Everfree. There is apparently a settlement there.”

Twilight’s ears perked up. She stood up and stomped her hooves. “Everypony, I’m gone for the next hour. Summer Song, you're in charge. See that they train hard, but don't let them kill each other. Don’t disappoint me!” Summer Song nodded.

I got back on my hooves. “What am I supposed to do, milady?”

“We still need to train a bit before you can start combat training… I guess you could just come with me to the war room. Just be quiet during the meeting.”

Joy, babysitter Twilight… I groaned internally but nodded as a sign of acceptance. We left the hall and went for the war room.

----[一]----

The motor of the dragonfly whirred deafeningly as we drove towards the Everfree forest.

“Focus!” Twilight pressed, “You have to master it in a day, otherwise you’ll be useless.”

“Yes, milady.” I focussed harder and harder on the part of space in front of me. “Fill…”

The magic reached out from my horn and filled the space in front of me.

“Spread!” The word was spoken under more strain than I had anticipated, but pressure of both time and my teacher had already taken their toll. I was now training for more than ten hours, forming shields and even more shields. I was almost at the end of my endurance.

The mass spread out and formed a pane in front of me.

I wanted to command it to harden, but as we drove over another boulder; my concentration popped like a bubble and the pane shattered into white dust, scattering into nothingness.

Twilight sighed, “You won’t be of any help if you lose your concentration by the slightest disturbance.”

“Hey, you ordered me to join this rescue mission.” I glared at her. “I can’t even summon a proper dart, let alone throw it right. How, for heavens sake, will I be of any help?!” I groaned in frustration.

“That’s exactly why I ordered you to come with me," She said in a controlled fashion, "Real life combat is more precious than any training I could give you. Besides –” She pointed at Summer Song “– She is here to ensure that you don’t die.”

Summer Song nodded but shifted awkwardly as she tried to open her mouth. “Milady, I don’t mean to lecture you but… he has been training for hours now, maybe you should let him rest for a while.” She looked down in an attempt to evade her teacher’s iron look.

“You’re right… Nemo, you have thirty minutes rest. After that we resume training.”

I let myself fall to the ground in exasperation. Twilight left this part of the dragonfly and left Summer Song and me alone. I looked at Summer Song and smiled dully. “Thanks, another hour would have killed me… again.”

“No problem. She is a good teacher, but she forgets that we’re not all geniuses like her. We can only learn so much at a time.”

“True…” The conversation just stopped. I had expected that she would say something more, but the longer I waited the more awkward it became to resume the conversation. After a while I just decided to break the awkward silence. “How long have you been a necromancer?”

She looked at me sceptically. “Why do you ask?”

“I just wondered. She treats you more like an assistant than a student. So I thought you must have already quite some experience.”

“Oh, well, I’m one from the first necromancers of Cerberus.” She stroked her chin in a thinking manner and scribbled some numbers in the air. “Five… twenty days… seven hours… almost four years.”

“You’ve endured four years of this?”

She chuckled and shrugged, which lead to the conversation dying down again.

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

“Only occasionally. I’m mostly training, so there isn’t much time to indulge in social activities.” She tossed a bottle towards me which I caught in my levitation field.

“Thanks.”

She just smiled as I opened the bottle and drunk it empty. I sighed in relief as I felt the water re-hydrate my body. “How long until we’re there?”

“A few more hours and then we still have to go through the Everfree.”

“Oh, well ok… do you mind if I go and stretch my legs for a while?”

She shook her head, so I decided to leave my awkward companion behind.

The dragonfly was big, but not that big. Only Twilight, Summer Song, Crafter Shadow and one dozen of the warriors were in this dragonfly.

Summer Song doesn’t talk that much, I should probably avoid talking to Twilight, I don’t know anypony of the warriors… So I guess I could try to talk to Crafted Shadow?

I shrugged internally and went searching for the zombie and went for the part of the dragonfly where the warriors were sitting.

As I entered, nopony batted an eye. They all just looked in front of them, not moving, not speaking and I wondered if they were even thinking. They all just sat there in their brown and red armour and each had two of those foldable weapons attached to their saddlebags.

“Hey, new one! Come here and talk to me. These guys are boring as buck.” I saw the half-rotting Crafted Shadow sitting at the end of the row, waving at me for attention. I shrugged and walked towards him—many times excusing myself as I tried to press me through. I took a seat opposite of him and looked at him.

“Hi, I know that I haven’t shown myself from my best side the first time we met, but I would like to welcome you into our little club.” I cocked an eyebrow as he stretched his green-ish hoof towards me, but as I saw his expectant smile I decided to return the hoofbump.

“Thanks… I guess?”

“No problem. How is training with Twilight going?”

I cringed.

“That bad?” He smiled sympathetically.

“I don’t even understand why she has ordered me to come along. I couldn’t summon a shield for my life. It’s like she wants me to die.”

“Well, a necromancer becomes stronger the more death he sees…” He said while lighting a cigarette.

“You think there are ponies going to die?”

He took a drag and exhaled the smoke. “Definitely. If not the settlers, then our own ponies…”

I cocked an eyebrow. “How can you be certain?”

“Because I know what will happen –” He came closer to me “– I know the enemy, and what he will send.”

“He?”

“Yes, he.”

“You think somepony is… wait, somepony is controlling the zombies? Why would anypony do that?”

Crafted Shadow facehooved. “NO! I mean, yes! Something is controlling them," He groaned and gritted his teeth, "Why don’t you know yet?”

I recoiled a bit at his outburst but retook almost instantly my posture. “Hey! I’m a member for like two days. And most time I was in a coma because you guys decided to implant a bone of mine in my head! So instead of yelling at me, you should explain me what I should know.” The other warriors looked at me in surprise.

“What?!” I glared irritated at them, and in almost perfect synchrony they looked back in front of them and I turned back towards Crafted Shadow.

“Hehehe, you’re right. I’m sorry.” Everypony looked in disbelief at Crafted Shadow but Crafted just looked back and frowned. “I’ll behead whoever loses a word of this! Understood?!”

They didn’t nod, but you could read from their eyes that they had understood the order.

“So, what I wanted to say is that yes, somepony is controlling all the dead you see outside. Ever noticed that they act in a too organized way? That they do way too complex things than you would expect from a bunch of brainless, rotting meat-bags?”

I remembered the three zombies that had blocked my way in front of Mjölna’s shop, the night- and day-guard zombies playing instruments and the spectator zombies watching me as the Minotaur tried to squeeze the life out of me.

“You can thank the zombie lords for that. They control the hordes of walking dead you see outside.”

“How do you know that?”

He facehooved. “I did introduce myself right? I was the former right hand of the master of pride, Lord Lucifer.” His expression intensified. “When I say that there's somepony who controls all the dead, then that means that I know. I was a part of that machine of terror. I too was a general. I too have killed. I was one of the zombies that brought this plague upon the dragons.”

My eyes shot wide. “You. Did. What?!”

“Oh, joy. Here we go again. The don’t-you-know-what-you’ve-done-expression –” He took another drag and exhaled the smoke “– you do realize that I know what I’ve done. That I know that I’m part of the problem. So, how about you relax.”

“Why should I?”

He groaned. “Because I’m sorry.”

I fell silent.

“Why do you think I joined Cerberus?” He asked, not expecting an answer. “I realized that I was destroying something beautiful. So I tried to find a way to fix it, a way to undo the damage that had been done. I collected every book I could find, every piece of art and every instrument to such an extent that Lucifer was joking about that I would be a better minion of Barbatos. Yet, my attempts seemed futile as most of the civilization had already been destroyed. I desperately searched for a settlement that I could protect, a way to silence my conscience. But instead I found Cerberus.” He smiled and sat back, relaxing as he continued his story. “I’ve spent months learning everything about Cerberus. Learning their rhythm, until I could predict where they would be next. So, I told my lord about a mission they were ‘planning’ and presented falsified information stating the same. I could arrange it so that he would send me, his loyal subject, with an army to privateer one of their precious little dragonflies, infiltrate their base and kill every last one of them.” His smile then turned into a grin and he chuckled a bit as he finished his telling. “Instead I killed the army he had given me and teamed up with the enemy.”

“And they really just trusted you?” I cocked an eyebrow.

He chuckled, “Let’s say I can be very persuasive.” He smiled ominously.

----[一]----

Twilight knocked at the door and entered, together with me the council room.

“Thank you for coming, Twilight.” Crafted sat at the head of the table. A map of the Everfree hung behind him together with a blackboard.

“Make it quick.”

“Why is that colt here?” A bulky, bearded, brown earthpony asked in a deep voice as he inspected me with a sceptical look.

“He's with me, Button.” Twilight spat.

“So? You know he is not allowed in here, only the members of the—”

“Enough!” Crafted slammed his hooves at the table, silencing everypony in the room. “Nemo, sit! We have much to arrange, and Tartarus knows how little time. So instead of wasting it on formalities, how about spending it on things that do matter?!”

Nopony replied.

Crafted coughed and lighted another cigarette. He turned around and pointed at the map. “The signal originates from the centre of the Everfree. It’s a loop that tells everypony that the Everfree is zombie-free. Which is a good thing, really. Except that telling the world is not a good idea. Quite the opposite. They are literally inviting the zombies to come and kill them,” He said in a controlled, more-or-less business-like fashion. “I don’t know how much time we have, which makes it complicated. But we have to leave as soon as possible and save those ponies.”

"But how do you know that they're in danger? They haven't seen a zombie in quite a while, why should they bother showing up now?" Royal Pin asked.

"Have I ever given you the wrong advice, Royal Pin?"

"Um..."

"And have I ever been wrong at predicting something when it came to the behavior of zombies?"

"No, but—"

"THEN HOW ABOUT YOU STOP WASTING OUR TIME AND JUST DO AS I TELL YOU?!"

"I-I... ok."

"Good." Crafted almost instantly calmed, leaving Royal Pin perplexed at his outburst. "Button, are the dragonflies ready?"

“We’ve finished the maintenance, so the three you ordered are ready to leave. They are fuelled, the armour has been restored and the arming is ready too,” Button said.

"How about the warriors?"

“My warriors are still checking their gear, but they should be ready in half an hour,” Clashing Steel said.

“The wizards are ready to leave. We’re only waiting on your sign.” A light-green unicorn with a long red mane and scarlet eyes said.

“Thank you, Wanda. Clashing, tell your soldiers to be ready in five minutes, they can check their gear on our way there." – Clashing waved one of the war room ponies over and whispered something it his ear – "Now, Royal Pin, I understand that you have the right to doubt me, but it would be nice if you could answer my question too. You know... for the settlers sake!” Crafted pressed.

This snapped him out of his little shock. “O-Of course. We only need to load our ammunition on the dragonfly, then we’re ready to go.”

“Good. We don’t need healers, since they have survived a long time. So we can assume that they have medicines and a doctor. Applejack, are the provisions ready?”

“acours’. We’re now loading them on the dragonflies.”

“Perfect, Twilight and I will lead this mission. We will take this route over the Rambling Rock Ridge and enter the forest at the side where the castle of the two sisters stands” – He followed the path with his hoof over the map right towards the Everfree – “We’ll enter the village, explain the situation, load all the ponies on the third dragonfly and leave as soon as possible. Any questions?”

“Why do you send so little soldiers?” Everypony looked at me.

“I told you not to speak in the war room.” Twilight said in a disapproving tone.

“No, you told me to be quiet, which I was. Besides he asked if there were any questions. I had one.”

“It’s ok, Twilight,” Crafted said, “Nemo, we have to be quick and subtle. If the zombies get to know that we’re coming, then they might counter-act. It is tactically advantageous to send a small force who can be coordinated more precisely and can move more quickly than an entire army. Besides, we can’t leave the base unprotected. I hope I don’t have to explain what could happen if we did.”

I nodded in understanding and apologized for the interruption.

“Fine, everypony.” Crafted clapped his hooves. “GET GOING!”

----[一]----

“Why did they listen to you?”

Crafted looked confused at me. “What do you mean?”

“In the war room. I just wondered, why does the entire Cerberus lay the fate of a few dozens of ponies in the hooves of a zombie? Why do they trust you?”

Crafted snorted and laughed exuberantly.

“What?”

He wiped a dry tear out of his eyes and looked me back in the eyes. “Oh, nothing. You really think that everypony in Cerberus trusts me?”

“Well, I assumed so?” I cocked an eyebrow.

Crafted calmed himself and shook his head. “Watch this –” He turned towards the pony right next to me “– Hey, you there.”

The pony in question turned towards Crafted and frowned. “What?”

“Do you trust me?”

The pony snorted. “Over my dead body.” He turned back to stare holes in the sky.

“You see, everypony hates me. Only the council trusts me. If I would tell the ponies to jump, then they wouldn’t even pay attention to me. If I told somepony of the council that it would be of benefit that everypony jumped at once, then they would jump until they were told to do otherwise.”

“But that doesn’t make sense, I mean you must have done something to earn their trust?”

“Yeah, there are some ponies that trust me. There is that lovely mare in the war room that always greets me in the morning. But majority just hates me because I’m a zombie,” He sighed, “It’s funny though, my words have no value unless somepony else verifies them. But I can't blame them. I mean I have betrayed my former master just to join Cerberus, it’s not like that shows my trustworthiness.”

“True…”

The rest of the time we had just a little chit-chat. No major things, just some few things about Cerberus and the base. After a while, Twilight entered the room and told me that the thirty minutes were over and that I had to resume my training. I nodded and said goodbye to Crafted, who just absently waved at me as I left the room.

----[一]----

The machines slowed down as we finally entered the Everfree forest. I can’t give you that many details of how it looked like since there were no windows in the dragonfly, the whole thing only had a camera and a few monitors in the cockpit.

Summer Song entered the room. “Milady, the driver asked for you to come in the cockpit.”

Twilight looked over to her and rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Fine… Nemo, you can rest for the time being.”

The blob I had formed popped and scattered into the void it had come from as I let myself fall to the floor and thanked the stars for releasing me of my agony.

Summer Song chuckled and brought me another bottle of water as Twilight left the room as she went towards the cockpit. “We’re almost there.” She smiled.

“Thank heavens for that.”

There will ponies die, one way or the other. I cringed at the thought of what Crafted had said, but I tried to drown those worries by hoping that the zombie was wrong.

----[一]----

“You asked for me?” Twilight entered the cockpit and one of the two ponies who were driving turned around to salute.

“We’re now at the top of the formation, ma’am. Crafted Shadow has suggested that you should make first contact as a kind of reassurance that we won't harm them.”

Twilight groaned. “I am not going to play the saving princess. Summer Song will make the first contact.”

“Crafted Shadow said that it would have a psychological effect on the settlers. They might cooperate much easier when they see that you're with us.”

Twilight mumbled something about that she will end the very existence of Crafted Shadow. “I'm not repeat—”

The dragonfly came to a sudden halt, making Twilight lose her balance and fall on the stallion she was just talking to.

She got back on her hooves and glared at the driver.

“What happened?! Why did you—” Her sentence got stuck in her throat as she looked at the monitor. A yellow mare with a long soft-red mane and freckles covering her nuzzle was waving at the machine. She wore a cowpony hat and a small pink ribbon that bound the tip of her tail together.

Twilight stared in disbelief as the mare kept waving at the camera that was recording her. She wore a grin of innocence and hope.

Twilight gulped.

“I'm sorry ma'am, but she just jumped in front of the machine. I couldn't just drive over her.” The stallion looked at Twilight and was surprised that she just stared at the monitor. "Is there a problem, ma'am?"

“A-Applebloom…”