Well, this is not what I wanted to happen. I think to myself as I look around an utterly destroyed train car. Five dead guards, a dozen injured, a panicked Umbra trying to hide behind me. All because some asshole decided to raid the train. A bandit asshole? No, a necromancer. A necromancer and at least a dozen zombies. I’m gonna get blamed for this, I just know it.

While normally I would have been content to let the guard handle it, these ponies are incompetent. Rule one of fighting the undead, aim for the head no where else. The guards were trying to subdue the zombies and failing miserably. Rule two: If the necromancer dies, his undead die with him. Its always good to take out the source of the problem as quickly as possible. Again the guards were doing the opposite. They decided to focus on the zombies and were outright ignoring the sickly unicorn necromancer.

Now how to do this? Kill everything? No. Then I will get blamed for the guards deaths. One at a time? Maybe, would be slow. Kill the necromancer, screw the consequences? Again, maybe. My thoughts were rudely interrupted by one of the zombies. It was attempting to bite me. How cute, it thinks it's a threat. I poked its head and focused on the dark energies animating it “Rot” It screamed in agony (well as much agony as a zombie can feel) as the magic holding it together was forcibly broken down. This caused the necromancers eyes to widen in fear.

I looked directly at the necromancer and stated fairly loudly “Rule three: Don’t tick off things more powerful than you.” I took a step towards the necromancer only to be surrounded by three zombies. Each one received a Rot spell, targeted at the magic holding them together.

The necromancer bolted. He took three zombies with him, leaving eight to cover is retreat. It was a simple clean up job, only took a few minutes to destroy the remaining zombies. The guards suffered quite a few losses. nine dead, five wounded. Only six of them escaped unscathed.
They have never fought undead before, have they? Just what sort of lax training did they receive?

As four of the guards tended to the wounded, the other two flew about the wrecked train to find any survivors. Luckily we were the only one on the train. Minus the conductor, who was now dead; zombies at his face. With the train wrecked and conductor dead it would seem we were going to have to walk the rest of the way to Canterlot. Screw that.

“Umbra” I said

“Yes mommy?” she whimpered out, still scared of the zombies returning.

“May I see the bag? Mommy needs to get someone out of it.” She handed me the bag and reached inside, looking for a large skull in a bottomless bag full of books and odds and ends.

By the time I found the skull, the guard had gathered the dead together and were talking about where to place the bodies, so they could be retrieved later. “If you cover them you can put them in the bag” I said gesturing to the bag in my hand. “Its got room for them, and would prevent the necromancer from coming back and using them for zombies.”

Before handing them the bag I pulled the large fossilized skull out of the bag. A tyrannosaurus skull stolen from the Crystal Empire’s Museum of History. I had carved and intricate circular seal into its forehead; a wraith seal. Designed to hold a portion of my soul and condense ectoplasm into a wraith in the shape of the physical analog.

The guard had finished placing the dead in the bag. twenty three bodies in total: ten guard (one of the wounded had bled out), the conductor and the once zombies. “Alright form up. We are going to have to hoof it to Canterlot!” the current leader of the guards shouted.

“Yeahhh, how about: No.” I replied as I touched the seal on the tyrannosaurs skull “Sue, I’m in need of you; Awaken.” The seal glowed for a moment before a black fog leaked out of the skull and took the shape of a T-rex. She stood 13 hoof lengths at her hip and was 40 hoof lengths long. She appeared looking like a living creature, save the dark purple glow given off by her purple and black hide. “I’m not walking, neither is Umbra. Nor do I think your wounded will survive the trek. My official recommendation is Rex riding.” I pat Sues side smiling at the now panicked guards.

“M-monster” one of them mutters.

“Yes and yes. However it would be better than walking, correct?” A few nods.

Sue lies down on the ground and I climb on, Umbra follows. “You getting on?” I ask the guards. They climb on one at time, miraculously they all fit. Though three pegasi opt to fly instead.

One of the pegasi takes off quickly in hopes of reaching Canterlot before us, to inform them of what has happened and how we will be arriving. I doubt he will make it to much before us I think with a smile.

I pat Sue and say: “Ok Sue, follow the tracks. Everyone else HANG ON!” Sue stands up and starts walking down the tracks. Everyone is doing their best not to fall off. I may need to invest in a large saddle.

Best thing about wraiths: their stamina is drawn from the magic of their creator. Best thing about my magic reserves: they are bloody massive. Meaning Sue will be able to keep up top speed far longer than a T-rex should be able to.

Sue’s pace begins to pick up to more of a run after a few minutes. Everyone still hanging on. Sue may be slower than the train, but we will still make a decent time. By train we were about three hours away, on Sue only about four.

I hear Umbra shout “Weeeeeeeeeeee” as we move along the tracks.

Author's Note

Hello again, sorry for the somewhat late chapter. (I try to get them out on Wednesdays) I hope you enjoyed the chapter, if you did please say so! If you didn't: please tell me why.

I still have no idea where I'm going with this story, but for now I will keep working at it.

If you spot any errors, please point them out!