Sanctioned Necromancy

by One-Of-Three-Names

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 20929

Not everypony in Equestria sees the dark arts as inherantly evil.

While the princesses of Equestria do a very good job keeping their land a peaceful and bright place, this does not mean that darker and more insidious forces do not exist.

In order to combat these powers, one must understand them, and Celestia has ensured that there is always at least one living pony in Canterlot who does. For the past several years that pony has been Pale Bones, aided by his assistant Scarlet Shade. They spend most of their time in a hidden archive beneath Canterlot's library, researching the dark underbelly of Equestria and the dangerous abilities its denizens wield.

Published 2012-06-19 13:24:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-09 22:22:15 UTC

Flowers

Authors note: I'm still new at this, and I have no editor. I apologize for any formatting, punctuation, or other errors. My writing improves greatly by the fourth chapter and onward.

The sun woke him.

Prying his eyes open, Pale Bones stared out the castles window at the rising sun with as much disdain as he could muster; which he assumed to be quite a lot. Staring at things with disdain seemed to be a fairly common ability for Canterlot ponies, especially among unicorns. A stereotype perhaps, but he felt it was a true one. After a few minutes of glaring at the source of the morning light, he slowly slid out of the warm embrace of his ridiculously comfortable bed and onto the stone floor of his chambers. He stumbled slightly as he struggled to keep his hooves steady. A cold breeze flowed through the window and seeped into his skin like his coat of dull white fur wasn't even there. It sent a shiver down his spine and caused his sickly green mane to stand on end. Part of his brain was still asleep, and he decided to make a game of how little effort he could put into walking without falling. The short path to his red mahogany dresser became a wobbling journey where he nearly knocked over several items about his room. After a few embarrassing seconds, he clumsily managed to open the bottom drawer of the dresser with his hooves, and used his teeth to pull out a thick brown cloak with built in saddlebags. With a practiced motion, he flung it around his shoulders and over his back, sighing with relief as it settled over his body and cut off the cold air still wafting through the open window. He stood there for a moment and blinked a few times, clearing the morning ooze from his eyes. He briefly thought about grooming his mane, figuring he might as well look presentable like a pony of his status should, but thinking of the effort that would require changed his mind rather quickly. It wasn't as if his job required him to be seen in public very often. And during the few times he was required to make an appearance; ponies had much bigger problems to worry about than whether or not he had bed head.

The halls of Canterlot Castle were usually quiet. Most jobs in the castle were slow, there just wasn't much that needed to be done throughout the day. Bones figured the only place that was consistently busy here was the kitchens, feeding the entire castles staff three times a day wasn't an easy thing to do. His stomach gave a low growl as he was reminded of food, and he decided to take a shortcut through the throne room towards the kitchens.

He could hear echoed voices join the sound of his hoofsteps as he passed through the throne room's back archway. Celestia was here, as she was every morning, giving audience to various important ponies as they voiced their complaints. Bones admired her seemingly endless amount of patience, and wondered how long he could remain sane in her position. He asked himself this question almost every time he walked through here, and the answer changed from day to day depending on his mood. Today however, his answer was not particularly long.

"Bones" one of the two rear guards said, acknowledging him and letting him pass.

Bones noted the other guard whom he didn't recognize give his ruffled mane a condescending look. In the light of his earlier glaring match with the sun, Bones found this funny, and found himself struck with barely contained chortles as he made his way past. He could hear the two guards whispering intently once they thought he was out of earshot. He wondered for a moment what they were discussing. Officially, Bones was a royal adviser to the princesses, but had on more than one occasion heard rumors about what the staff really thought he did. Bones found the rumors about him to be as humorous as they were inaccurate.

"-and so I believe I should be granted possession of his estate if he passes on, heavens forbid." A regal looking unicorn was addressing Princess Celestia. Well dressed in a stylish overcoat and top hat, he was probably one of Canterlot's aristocracy, or a wealthy land owner from somewhere.

Celestia fixed him with a patient smile. "I really think you should take this up with him, Mr. Hills. I'm afraid this is really none of my business, especially since he is still alive."

Mr. Hills looked flustered, and was about to speak when Celestia interrupted.

"Ah! Good morning, Bones." she said as he trotted towards the eastern exit.

"Morning Celestia." he replied, sparing her a sleepy glance. He then began muttering something about her sun being too bright for its own good while he continued on his way out. The words came out slightly slurred, the mornings haze of grogginess only just now starting to rise, but he could swear he heard her chuckle softly when he left the room.

Over the years Bones had been in service to Celestia, he had begun to suspect that she secretly despised being treated like a royal mare by everypony. So he began attempting to converse with her more casually, and after a few months he had simply stopped bowing, and spoke to her as he would anypony else. He didn't attempt to claim that he knew what the princess thought, but he imagined having at least one pony other than her sister who didn't treat her like the living demigod she was pleased her.

The kitchens were hectic as ever, and warm, several blazing ovens will do that. Nearly a dozen ponies hastily wove their way around each other as they attempted to fix meals for every member of the staff. A bright green stallion that Bones recognized as one of the cooks greeted him as he entered.

"Bones! What can I get for you today?"

He pondered for a moment before responding, his head finally clear. "Two carrots, and a bouquet of flowers, please."

The chef cocked his head "What kind of flowers?"

"I don't care, as long as they're alive."

The cook shrugged and disappeared into the kitchens chaos.

"Hey Bones."

A mares voice came from behind him, and he whipped around to see a familiar brown earth pony.

"Oh, its you again." Bones was surprised to hear the tone of his voice be several degrees harsher than he intended.

The mare seemed unfazed. "You remember my name yet?" She said, a smile forming on her face. "You get one guess every day!"

Bones rolled his eyes and tried to get another look at her cutie mark, but she quickly turned and put her head in front of his, blocking his vision.

"Ah ah ah! No cheating!" she giggled and tried to flick her black mane out of her eyes.

Bones sighed heavily "I don't know. Uh, Dolphin Tale?" It was a stupid guess, but he found himself just wanting her to get out of his face.

She laughed "Not even close!" The mare peeked over his shoulder at something, and quickly ducked past him into the kitchen just as the brightly colored cook returned.

"Who was that?" The cook inquired, watching the brown earth pony navigate her way through the kitchen staff.

"I have no idea." Bones replied, shrugging "She's been talking to me almost every day for a few weeks now. I thought she was one of your staff."

"She's not a cook, I'll tell you that much." The chef said as he passed Bones the food he had requested.

"Perhaps she is a serving girl or something." Bones levitated the flowers into his cloaks saddlebags, and the carrots into his mouth where he munched on them gratefully. After messily thanking the Chef, Bones headed to the gardens.

Bones found Celestia's statue garden to be unnerving, doubly so after the Discord incident. He had often wondered why she had kept such a dangerous creature, even trapped in stone, in such a public place. Granted it wasn't often anypony got to visit the garden, but still. He purposefully made his way through the maze of marble and hedges until he reached what appeared to be a large ornate crypt, so worn and eroded that that the text etched upon it was no longer legible. Bones made sure the coast was clear, and closed his eyes, reaching for his magic.

Celestia had taught him this spell many years ago, a sort of royal password in magic form. It involved sending a series of images and ideas directly to the door of the crypt, almost as though he were attempting telepathy. After concentrating for a few seconds, the stone door of the crypt began to slowly rumble aside with the grating sound of stone on stone. He made sure nopony had seen him, and slipped inside the ancient structure, letting the door sliding shut behind him.

Navigating the tunnel in absolute darkness was something Bones had picked up over time. After so many years of passing this way, he knew the path by heart. It wasn't exactly a difficult path, as long as he never took any ninety degree turns he ended up where he needed to be. He had once set off on an expedition to explore all these tunnels, and emerged from the labyrinth nearly dying of thirst a couple days later. As far as he could tell, they constituted some sort of hidden bunker, long abandoned and unused. Imagining a time where something like an emergency command bunker was actually necessary sent chills down Bones's spine, and he made an effort to clear his mind.

After a few minutes of walking, he followed a curve in the tunnel, and saw candlelight flickering from underneath a stone door ahead. He could hear the muffled music of a record player emanating from within.

The sound of the door opening made Scarlet jump, nearly dropping the books she was holding.

"Oh! Is it morning already?" She asked, still trying to hold the books while balancing on her hind legs.

Bones laughed and levitated the books out of her grip, letting her fall back to the ground on all fours. "Yes, yes it is."

She sighed and stretched, though Bones couldn't imagine why. Habit he supposed, curious.

"What were you doing anyway? Forgotten how to use magic?" He joked with a smile, and began looking at the titles of the books she was carrying, sorting them into their proper shelves.

"Just trying to save some energy, boss!" She said with what Bones would describe as a 'bubbly' voice.

Bones twitched with slight annoyance, causing his focus on the levitation spell to wobble. Scarlet had taken to calling him boss recently. Probably in a playful way, but he didn't like it. He concentrated on sorting the books again, frowning slightly as he read one he didn't recognize. "Thatched Knee's guide to.. What? What is this?"

"That one goes in the Creatures of the Night section." Scarlet said cheerily as she approached him.

"Right, I've never seen it before." He said, sounding troubled. He tucked the book into its respective shelf and sat down at the central table.

"That's because it showed up last night, after you left." Scarlet settled down across from him, her red mane falling down over her face mask. now that she was close, the odd echo in Scarlet's voice was audible. It seemed to just come from her general direction, rather than just her mouth.

"Showed up huh? Who delivered it?" Bones asked curiously, gazing into the glowing purple sockets of Scarlet's mask.

"No idea, but you know how it is." She said, standing up again and grabbing the candle on the desk. She began lighting the remaining lanterns, once again neglecting to use magic.

He did know. This certainly wasn't the first time tomes has simply shown up out of nowhere. He suspected they were enchanted to seek out practitioners who could make use of them.

"You know you don't need to save your energy like that, It isn't as if I'd let you run dry." Bones said, watching her as she went from lantern to lantern with the candle.

"I thought about what you said earlier, about potential. I thought it might be useful someday, you know. If we need it." Scarlet said, still focusing on her task.

Bones couldn't really think of an adequate reply. The music from the record player came to the forefront of things again.

As the lights were lit, The Archive became more visible. Bones and Scarlet were in the central research area between the two main isles of bookcases, There were several desks which held invaluable regents and tools for casting the most elaborate spells, a brass summoning circle inlaid into the floor for the more complex or dangerous rituals, and there were various potions which were placed precariously along the tops of the bookcases, for use in contingency plans. To the casual observer though, it looked like a library. A medium sized library with green glass lanterns which gave the place an unnecessarily eerie green glow. Unlike the average library however, The Archive was full of forbidden and terrible knowledge, manuals on how to use the most despicable and terrifying dark magics known to pony kind.
Bones had read almost all of them.

Scarlet approached him out of the stacks. Her entire body was wrapped with a black cloth, pinned in place at each of her hooves. On top of the wrappings she wore a dark blue hooded cloak, which actually looked quite good in contrast with her red mane. The silver mask she wore covered the upper half of her face, and it was carved with wonderfully elaborate designs and details. She cocked her head to one side as Bones examined her.

"Why are you staring at me?" Her jaw didn't move as she spoke.

Bones snapped out of his reverie, apologizing and clearing his head. He remembered the flowers. "Oh, I've got something for you." he said, unbuckling one of his cloaks saddlebags.

She seemed to perk up. "Hm?"

Bones produced the bouquet of flowers and levitated them to her. Scarlet almost snatched from the air and let out a gleeful noise.

"Oh thank you! You don't know how much I needed this." She said, almost giddily, she placed the bouquet against her nose and made an inhaling sound.

"Yeah, well I did say-" He was cut off as the temperature in the room abruptly plummeted about twenty degrees. A dark purple glow enveloped Scarlet, and a feeling of power radiated around the room. Bones shivered and clenched his teeth shut as he watched the flowers wither and die, drained of their vitality.

The temperature and lights returned to normal as Scarlet exhaled. The purple glow vanished.

"You enjoy that far, far too much." Bones said, wrapping his cloak around himself a bit more tightly.

"I cant help it! It feels like a full nights sleep in flower form." Scarlet replied, disposing of the daisies remains.

Bones almost groaned, still remembering how tired he was when he woke up. "That does sound nice."

"Mmhm." She concurred. "Still, its a shame not being able to replenish myself naturally. What with being dead and all."

Notes on Necromancy

Dear Celestia

You asked me for a report on what I know of necromancy. This is a simplified and abridged version of what I understand so far. Telling you everything would likely fill several books if I went into detail. Some of this information I have yet to be able to verify, I have no way to observe the soul, and the methods used by the authors of the books I've read are long lost to time. I hope this at least sates your curiosity for the subject somewhat.

Cycle of The Soul

The soul lives in the bone.
The skeletal system acts as a sort of series of leylines for the soul, with a unicorns horn acting as a medium which can channel, concentrate, and convert parts of the soul to enact the casters will on reality. The horn essentially programs the energy to carry out a certain task, with the brain acting as the programmer. This is known to ponykind as casting a spell. Using magic expends the users very life force in order to alter reality to a limited extent. For the average unicorn, expending their life energy is not a problem they need to worry about, it is restored over time naturally simply by living. Eating, drinking, sleeping, anything that grounds them slowly restores their lost energy.

What we refer to as a soul, is better described as the raw essence of life. It is malleable and very versatile, able to adapt and grow to fit new circumstances very easily. A good example of this is its method of procreating. During gestation of a new foal, the mother slowly transfers new portions of her soul to the fetus. When the foal is finally born, the soul animates it, and uses the physical body to interpret the world around it. The soul grows as its body does, learning more as the brain develops, but remains 'incomplete' until a certain point in the bodies life is reached, and its purpose is found. According to the books I've read, the appearance of a cutie mark ends the developmental stage of the soul. As the soul goes about its life, everything it experiences is imprinted upon it. The soul uses the body as a tool to experience reality. It is a very efficient tool, designed to require almost no help from the soul to be active. Unfortunately, tools can break, and wear out. While the body may be break, as long as it is alive, the soul is still housed there. This is an especially horrific fact in regards to sufferers of brain damage. In these cases the soul still retains its memories and cognitive abilities, it simply lacks the means to express it physically. Normally when the body dies, the soul instinctively leaves, as the body can no longer provide the soul with sustenance and experience. As of right now I believe you may be one of the very few who can know for sure where the soul goes after death, but this is where necromancy comes into the equation.

Revenants

It is possible, through a very obscure spell known as the Soul Cage ritual, to trap the soul in the skeleton of a body. This must be performed within a certain time frame after death, while the soul is still lingering in or near the body. After a brief period of confusion, the soul adapts to its new situation, and becomes what is known as a revenant. It animates only the skeleton, the remaining flesh on its bones becomes literal dead weight, and will rot and decay as it is no longer living. The nearly self sufficient physical body it once had is now gone, and the soul must now expend itself to do everything from basic locomotion to holding itself together. Not only that, but its method of replenishing its lost power is now gone as well. Since the revenant now must use magic to perform even the most basic of actions, without a way to sustain itself it will eventually expend all of its essence. If this occurs, the soul, along with the individual it represents, will simply cease to exist. To compensate for this, the revenant develops the disturbing ability to absorb the life of other living things through physical contact. Essentially the revenant gains the power to steal souls to replenish its own. The revenant is able to absorb the life of plants, insects, and small animals with no real consequence, the energy they contain is seamlessly integrated into the revenants soul, adding to its power. Absorbing the life of other sentient being however, has terrible consequences that will be covered in a later section of this report.

Note: Considering that pegasi and earth ponies do not consciously use magic, I'm not sure if it is even possible for them to be revenants, or if they would just be trapped within the bones until they were destroyed. There is no record of any revenant being made of a non-unicorn.

In addition to the other qualities mentioned, the revenant gains another curious and useful trait. Normally when the soul is bound to a living body, there is a limit as to how much it can grow in power. I have no idea why this is, the soul takes up no physical space as I understand it. Rather than just keep swelling as the body eats, sleeps, and lives, the soul will stop growing once it reaches a certain size that differs from pony to pony. Perhaps there is a limit as to how much power they may contain without somehow harming the flesh of their bodies. Revenants however, have no such limit as far as we know. They have been observed to absorb vast sums of life with no problem, and can store it until they wish to use it. What this means is that even the least gifted of sorcerers upon becoming a revenant has the potential to eventually become nearly godlike in power should he be patient and conserve his energy. This is one of the reasons why revenants can become so dangerous. (I am using size figuratively when describing a soul)

Note: The authors of books regarding souls have noted that it seems earth ponies have a much larger reservoir of soul energy than the other two species of ponies. This is odd, considering they don't actually use magic. Perhaps this is the source of their physical strength?

It is possible to aid the revenant, and allow it to use less energy as it moves about by physically fastening the bones together using leather straps, hinges, or metal plates. This allows the revenant to focus less energy on holding itself together, but requires regular maintenance. These additions also give the revenant a measure of durability, which is useful in combat situations. I have even heard of a specialized suit of armor being made for a revenant that acted both to hold him together, and provide protection. As they no longer have bodies, Revenants do not require any sort of physical sustenance, and sleep is no longer necessary. This also means they have no way of naturally healing themselves. Their bones will decay over time, and require replacement if broken. It is also possible to re-perform the Soul Cage ritual to bind the soul into a different skeleton entirely.

Liches

Liches are why necromancy is considered one of the most despicable of all the dark arts. They are terrifying and nearly unstoppable creatures formed from revenants who absorb another sentient soul. Rather than integrating into the revenant, the two souls meld into one another, vying for control over a single body. The resulting conflict drives both souls completely and irreversibly mad. The Lich completely loses control over itself, absorbing the life of anything it touches. The Lich instinctively seeks out other living beings, inevitably pulling other souls into itself, plummeting further and further into the depths of insanity while gaining more and more power. The only way to kill a Lich is to utterly destroy its physical form, this is further complicated by a Liches tendency to mold other skeletons and corpses onto its body using its malformed magic. The result is usually a massive screaming soul starved monstrosity in the form of a moving pile of rotting flesh and bone. Storms of chaotic dark magic usually surround such things as they lose control of their vast amounts of power. There is no known way to reverse Lichdom, it is imperative that the Lich be destroyed before it absorbs too many souls. A single Lich is capable of killing hundreds, and each time one has appeared it has had to be incinerated with the concentrated power of the sun. They are without a doubt one of the most dangerous creatures in existence.

Known Liches throughout history:

Sanguinious Dracul III
Heinhoof Kemmler
Silver Tongue
Darkblade Evildeath
Mortis Rotgut
Karen Bones

That covers just about everything, you should now have a layman's knowledge of necromancy if you didn't already. Let me know if you have any questions, and I can go into detail.

-Pale Bones

Authors note: Thank you to my readers so far! Any and all feedback is appreciated.

Optimism

"Undead, technically" Bones corrected her, raising a hoof knowingly.

If Scarlet had eyes she probably would have rolled them. "Right, undead, of course." she sat down at the table across from him and tsk'ed at his messy brown-green mane. "Do you even try in the mornings?"

"Nope!" Bones declared, sitting up straight and looking proud.

That got a laugh out of her, she stood up and disappeared behind a nearby bookcase. He could hear her rummaging around for something. Her voice flowed over the shelves to him. "You really should, my mane looks better than yours, and I'm dead!"

Bones opened his mouth.

"Undead!" Scarlet called, before he could speak. Bones smiled. She appeared again, holding a mottled looking brown book. She placed it on the desk in front of her and sat down again. "So, whats on the schedule for today?" she asked with genuine eagerness.

Bones attempted to identify the book she had brought out, but didn't feel like putting forth the effort to read upside down. "I don't know" he admitted, his smile fading. "Let me think for a while."

He really wasn't in the mood to do any studying today, and besides studying there really want much to do unless he was called upon. His job took sudden and drastic turns from being incredibly boring, to utterly terrifying. Generally however, his job was to know things.

He knew a lot of things. He knew how to raise or speak with the dead. He could summon extra dimensional entities and bind them to his will, and knew how to safely enter and navigate said dimensions. He could create or destroy powerful cursed objects. He was skilled in thaumaturgy, and could inflict terrible pain on anypony in Equestria with nothing but a lock of their hair. He could see into a pony's soul or dominate their minds simply by maintaining eye contact for a few moments. He knew how to place a hex that would effect and entire family line for generations. He could even create a monster capable of massacring hundreds across Equestria. He could do all these things, but he wouldn't. His job was to know dark magic inside and out, and how to stop the ponies who practiced it.

Fortunately, dark magic practitioners were not very common. Unfortunately, this tended to make Bone's job very dull during the lulls between sorcerers. There was a lot of quiet time in The Archive.

The sound of Scarlet flipping a page in her book brought Bones back to reality. The record player was now on a very slow and methodical piano piece. Bones found it relaxing, and he let himself be lost in the music for a while.

He wasn't sure how much time had gone by when he noticed Scarlet staring at him patiently.

"What?" he asked, just now noticing he was resting his head on his hoof.

"Do you want to practice some spells or something?" she asked, closing her book.

"Depends, what kind of spells?"

She shrugged. "Memory?"

Bones snorted. Memory charms was something he had always been good at. Navigating the brain and suppressing the imprints of memory on the soul was complicated, sure. But for some reason he found it came naturally to him, and it was a skill he had mastered years ago.

The candlelight cast odd shadows across the bookcases throughout The Archive as the grainy silence stretched on, the record had long since been over and was now making a low scratching sound as the pin dragged across its surface. Both ponies continued just staring at each other.

After about thirty seconds Bones realized he had been subconsciously participating a staring contest, and began blinking his watery red eyes, rubbing them with his hooves. Scarlet was laughing.

"That was hardly fair" he complained, half jokingly.

"You started it." Scarlet was still recovering from her giggles. "Seriously though, what are we going to do today?"

Bones pondered for a moment "I suppose we could go out? Philomina can always find us if we're needed."

Scarlet liked this idea, she let out the same gleeful noise she made earlier, and bounced into the stacks saying she would be right back. Excitable as ever.

Bones considered taking his cloak with him, but figured the morning chill would have dissipated by now, and took it off, revealing his rather gruesome grinning skull cutie mark. He left his cloak draped on his chair and took a look at the cover of the book Scarlet had been reading: 'Tangible Illusions, by Midnight Gleam'. That sent a twinge of guilt through him, thinking of the days when Scarlet used to pride herself on her appearance. Bones met up with her near the front exit; she had acquired a pair of saddlebags from her room and was busily securing the straps. Bones gestured towards the saddlebags.

"What are those for?" He asked.

"Flowers!"

The Archive was located directly beneath the Canterlot Library, and could be accessed through a secret entrance in the libraries restricted section. The entrance was similar to the crypt in that it required a password to open. Bones had only ever been seen leaving the archive once before, by Celestia's protege Twilight Sparkle. The incident had occurred when Twilight was still fairly young, and he had stuck to the plan and played dumb as to the existence of the secret entrance he had just emerged from seconds before. He grimaced as he remembered how he had to refrain from using the library entrance for the next week as Twilight had set up shop there, just waiting for him to try it again. Today however, the coast was clear, and they were not accosted by anyone other than a dumfounded looking guard who had to let them out of the restricted section without remembering letting them in. The Canterlot Library was a bit of a maze, the interiors circular design could confuse anypony who's not a frequent visitor. Bones greeted the current librarian as he left, an aging yellow mare who's name he couldn't remember.

Immediately after stepping outside, he regretted not bringing his cloak. He felt the same chill from his bedchamber this morning bite into him. He paused for a moment and scowled at the world. He figured it would be a few years still before a early spring breeze would bring him low, but middle age wasn't too many years away either. Scarlet continued on, and appeared to be reveling in the sunlight. Another pang of guilt. Scarlet only got to see the sun once every few days when they went out together, any other time they were usually out on business and had no time to simply enjoy being alive. Technically alive anyway. Bones picked up his pace to catch up with Scarlet as she headed towards the flower shop.

The pegasi had apparently decided today would be slightly cloudy, their shadows occasionally blocking out the sun as they drifted with the wind. Most in Canterlot it seemed were getting a late start today, and the streets were busy with overly well dressed ponies walking to where they worked, or to tea parties or whatever it was normal ponies do in Canterlot. It suddenly struck Bones how out of place they must look, a pale unicorn with a raggedy green mane, and a deathly thin mare who was dressed like a leper. The same thing seemed to occur to Scarlet as she moved closer to Bones, lowering her head a bit.

"Hey, cheer up. whats wrong?" Bones asked, feigning ignorance.

"Everypony is looking at us." She replied, adopting an even more passive demeanor.

"So?"

"Well, I-" She fumbled her words for a few moments, not sure how to respond.

"Don't worry about it. Look, we're here." Bones slowed to a stop and opened the shop's door for her. She looked at him for a meaningful moment before stepping inside, glad to be out of sight. Bones followed her, wondering what that look had meant.

The Royal Flower Shop was not technically royal, but it certainly looked the part. Bouquets and arrangements filled every wall and window, and the scent of flowers was nearly intoxicating. Those two carrots Bones had for breakfast didn't feel very adequate.

"Welcome! Is that you under there, Scarlet? Do you want the usual?" The shops proprietor was an indigo mare named Chrysanthemum from what Bones could recall. She had been rather wary the first few times Scarlet had shown up, but the two of them had warmed to each other over the past few years.

Scarlet's mood seemed to have improved greatly now that she was off the streets. "No, I think I'll be making a larger purchase today."

"Music to my ears, darling." Chrysanthemum clapped her front hooves together a few times before walking out from behind the counter.

Bones began staring out one of the windows as the two mares began negotiating feverishly. He wasn't looking at anything in particular, letting things drift out of focus and resting his eyes. He had just begun letting his concentration fade when a familiar red streak swooped through the window, followed by a loud screech. Philomena perched on one of the flower pots hanging from the ceiling, a small scroll curled up in her claws. Bones levitated it out of her clutches and unfurled it in front of him.

"What does it say?" Scarlet approached him, unceremoniously stuffing several bouquets into her saddlebags.

Bones shivered. Sun and stars it was cold today.

Secure

"So we've got a little sorceress on our hands?" Scarlet kept pace besides Bones as he made his way towards the castle.

"Looks like it, seems she's really taken to her new powers. Apparently she has nearly half the town under her control." They had made their way into the gardens now.

Scarlet was stunned into silence for a few moments, falling behind. "Half the town? And you said she was how young?"

"Doesn't even have her cutie mark yet apparently." Bones said, though he wasn't sure Scarlet could hear. He just hoped the little filly didn't decide that mind control was her special talent. "I'm going to need your help with the memory charms this time if we don't want to be there all week." He stopped near the entrance to the castles stables and turned to face Scarlet. "You up for it?"

"You bet!" He was sure Scarlet was grinning under that mask. Which wasn't saying much considering she had no lips. Scarlet wasn't quite as skilled with memory magic as Bones was, but they had practiced enough that he was reasonably sure he could trust her to go poking around in his brain. For what that was worth.

"Oh!" Bones stomped a hoof on the ground. "Could you run to the archive and grab a sleeping draft? And the instant gas infusion." He felt an itch on the back of his neck and he looked over his shoulder. It felt like he was being watched.

"Sure thing, boss!" Scarlet laughed and Bones heard her hoofsteps fading as she disappeared into the hedge maze.

Bones twitched and turned back to where Scarlet used to be standing "And my cloak!" he shouted.

Hoping she heard that, Bones resumed heading towards the stables, pondering how he should explain the situation to the night guards. Still, he smiled in spite of himself, he had never been authorized to use Luna's chariot before. He found it fitting somehow.

Bones was never particularly fond of flying, he wasn't terrified of it or anything, but he always forgot how cold it was above the clouds, and looking down tended to make him dizzy. This was in stark contrast to his partner, who was leaning over the side of the chariot, apparently taking great fascination with how very far away from the ground they were. Bones wrapped his cloak more tightly around himself, muttering under his breath as the wind whipped through his mane.

"You wanted to go to Ponyville, right?" One of the driving night guards called back to them.

"Yes! Land near the outskirts of town in possible, please!" Scarlet said cheerfully, raising her voice over the wind.

It was at times like these the eeriness of how her voice echoed was the most pronounced. There was no surface anywhere for it to reverberate off of. He supposed the night guards, being quite eerie themselves didn't mind though.

"Would either of you care to explain how you two managed to get clearance to take the princess of the night's chariot?" The other night guard had been silent until now.

Bones shivered in his cloak. He was in no mood for this. "No, we wouldn't. Now please just focus on flying." he said, a little more harshly than he intended.

Scarlet nudged his leg with her hoof. "Be nice."

Bones harrumphed, and pulled his hood down. It might have been his imagination, but he thought the flight was much more turbulent from that point on.

Bones wobbled on his hooves for a few moments after stepping off the chariot, but managed to not fall over. So far so good. Scarlet hopped off the cart with ease and approached one of the night guards.

"Thank you, sirs! Wait here for us, alright? It might be a while." She sounded so polite.

"Anything else we can do for you?" The more friendly of the two stallions asked.

Bones snorted, making sure the two potions he had packed were still intact before heading towards Ponyville.

Scarlet seemed to be enjoying the attention. "No thank you, this is still technically classified." She caught up with Bones with a bound or two.

"You think he has a thing for darkly dressed mares?" Bones smirked.

"Don't spoil my fun." Scarlet replied, punching his shoulder with a hoof "He was just trying to be nice."

"Mhm" Bones mumbled. They were just entering town now, he had been to Ponyville several times before, usually to deal with some unusual problem that the elements managed to fix themselves. He shivered as he recalled the Ursa Minor incident. Bones had been dangerously close to summoning planar help for that one.

From what he saw, the town seemed pretty normal, aside from being excessively busy. Most of the ponies on the street seemed to be carrying something or other, food seemed to be most common, but one of them was dragging what appeared to be a large grandfather clock; which was somewhat odd, but not so out of the ordinary he was willing to blame black magic.

Abruptly there was Pinkie Pie. "New ponies!" she screamed, then paused. "Wait, not new ponies. Hello again!" she beamed with an infectious smile, somehow managing to balance on her hind legs for an extended period of time.

Pinkie was impossible to avoid, and they encountered her every time they came to Ponyville. Bones had long since given up trying to alter Pinkies memory, hers was a mind he simply could not understand. Instead, he simply made her promise not to tell anypony about them, and rolled with it.

"Hey Pinkie Pie, how is everything today?" Bones had never actually told Pinkie what they did, but he suspected she at least understood that they showed up when something was wrong, or distinctly not normal.

"It was normal, then everypony decided decided to throw Sweetie Belle a party all at once! Its one of the biggest parties I've ever seen!" her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper as she leaned in close to Bones's ear. "And I've seen a lot." Then her face becomes downtrodden and she says "The whole town is in on it, but they didn't tell ME? Everypony knows Pinkie is the best party planner!"

"Calm down Pinkie" Scarlet attempted to comfort her, "Did you say the entire town was in on it?"

"Well, most of them." Pinkie adopted a worried look "And Twilight seems really upset about the whole thing. She locked herself in the library and wont come out!" She looked thoughtful for a moment "Did you two want to talk to her?"

"No" Bones said without pause. The last thing they needed was the element of magic poking into their business, and things would be all the worse if Twilight actually recognized him. She was notorious for seeking answers, and Bones didn't think he had the power to keep them from her without resorting to some really dirty tricks.

"Where is this party being held?" Bones inquired, scanning the other ponies as they bustled around him, noting the blank stares and mechanical movements. Thankfully he did see that a considerable amount of them seemed to be confused about what everypony was doing.

"Oh, its at Rarities boutique!" Pinkie Pie stated cheerfully, bouncing up and down.

"Rarities boutique? Why is it being held there?" Scarlet said, sounding confused. Bones could think of better places to hold a party too.

"Because that's where Sweetie Belle has been staying, silly!" She began bouncing away "I'm going to go help Mr. and Mrs. Cake! See ya!" with that, Pinkie Pie disappeared around a corner and out of sight.

Bones turned to Scarlet, sounding worried "Does Rarity have a daughter or something?"

"I dont think so." she sounded unsure of herself.

Bones cursed under his breath, wondering why this wasn't in the briefing, then scolded himself for not knowing these things already. "Well, if she is related to her, this just got a lot more urgent." Bone set off at a brisk pace, weaving between the active ponies on the road. If Sweetie Belle did decide that mind control was her special talent, that would not be good. Most who dabble in dark magic go bad, permanently. There were exceptions, Bones and Scarlet were examples of that, but they were few and far between. And if a practitioner couldn't be controlled, it was part of Bones's job to deal with them. It was the part of his life he hated the most. He was good at memory charms, but erasing a loved one from somepony's memories was not something he could do without serious risk of causing psychosis. Usually they would just have to deal with the grief, and there would be a cover story put in place to describe the disappearance, but destabilizing one of The Elements of Harmony in any way was not a good idea. This was the entire reason Twilight Sparkle was not allowed to know of The Archive's existence, Celestia wanted her to be able to enjoy her life without worrying about things like dimensional eldrich horrors and the creatures that lurked in the night.

Bones came to a crossroads near the middle of town, and paused for a moment. Wracking his brain trying to remember which direction to go from here.

"Howdy!" A familiar accented voice sounded from behind them.

Bones froze, then slowly turned round. Coming face to face with Applejack, her eyes seemed to almost be glazed over. Sweetie Belle had gotten to her too. Applejack did seem the type to face a problem head on. Unfortunately that is the one thing you shouldn't do when it comes to controllers.

"What y'all up to? Haven't seen you in town before." Her voice sounded cheerful, but Bones stayed wary. He was aware of how protective thralls could be of their masters, or mistress in this case. A violent mood swing was not out of the question if they said something wrong.

"We're bringing tribute!" Scarlet blurted out, somewhat loudly. Bones winced and suppressed the desire to facehoof.

Fortunately Applejack didn't seem to catch the obvious lie. "Well aint that sweet of ya! Follow me, ah'll take y'all to the little princess myself." She began trotting off down one of the roads, not taking no for an answer apparently.

Scarlet shrugged, and fell into line behind the element of honesty.

Bones hesitated a moment, then figured having an escort might prove to be an advantage. He rushed to catch up with Scarlet.

"Little princess?" Bones whispered, quiet enough that he thought Applejack couldn't hear.

"Beats me. Ego I guess?" Scarlet threw her voice to him without moving her head, which was a little creepy.

Pinkie Pie wasn't joking when she said they were planning a party. The area in front of the boutique was full of tables, and the tables were covered in food. Nearly every kind of food Bones could imagine, and more apples than he had ever seen in one place. The problem was nopony was eating it, they just kept bringing more until it was quite literally piling up and falling off the tables. Bones began worrying that they might actually run out of food to bring.

Applejack led them through the tables, careful not to trod on any of the fallen food.

"All those apples came from my farm." She stated proudly. "Big Macintosh has been bringin' the entire harvest!"

"You don't say." Bones muttered, hoping Ponyville wouldn't have to postpone winter due to lack of food.

The inside of the boutique wasn't a much better scene. Simply put, it was an absolute mess. There was food and torn cloth all over the floor, one of the mannequins had been torn apart and pieces were scattered about, the rest were wearing horrible combinations of clashing colors that looked awful. Rarity, her pure coat stained with unknown multicolor substances, was humming and she doted on a very unhappy looking, and ridiculously dressed filly perched on a pedestal. It was a little harrowing knowing that such a famous designer had mad these monstrosities. Then again, he knew that mind controlled ponies were never quite right.

"Just hold still a moment more." Rarity appeared to be putting the finishing touches on the absurd getup Sweetie Belle was wearing.

"Ah brought some visitors for the little princess!" Applejack declared, stepping aside to reveal Scarlet and Bones.

Sweetie Belle lifted her gaze from the floor, and Bones immediately averted his.

"I thought I told you not to call me that." Sweetie Belle said in a hopeless tone.

"Apologies miss." Applejack was smiling, staring at Sweetie Belle with what appeared to be adoration.

Bones leaned towards his partner. "You got this?" he whispered, still not looking directly at the little fillies eyes.

"No problem." Scarlet strode confidently up to the pedestal. "Sweetie Belle? Me and my associate here are from Canterlot. We came here to help you with you little-" She paused and looked the room "Problem."

Sweetie Belle did not look convinced. "Who are you?"

"I'm afraid I cant tell you that. Just know that we're here to help." Scarlet kept her voice soft and kind.

Sweetie Belle's face registered shock. "its not working!" Surprisingly, she seemed genuinely happy at this news.

Scarlet laughed. "I haven't got any brains for you to scramble." She tapped her skull through its wrappings, producing a hollow sound.

"Oh finally! This has nightmare has been happening all day!" she leaped off the pedestal and over to where Scarlet stood.

"Sweetie Belle! I was just about to finish!" Rarity was not pleased. She walked over to Sweetie Belle, levitating a pin as she did so. "Now I have to start over."

"So, you're not doing this purpose?" Scarlet asked, somewhat surprised.

It wasn't unheard of, most who discovered dark magic did so accidentally, just as Bones did. But usually once they found them, they used them willingly, and gladly. It seemed Sweetie Belle was a special case.

"Of course not! Everypony has been obsessing over me ever since this morning. I had to tell all of them to do random things just so they would leave me alone!" Her voice cracked near the end of her story.

Well, that explains the grandfather clock.

"I see." Scarlet said, remaining neutral now. "Why don't you tell me exactly what happened?"

Bones noticed that Applejack was now watching them warily. They would need to hurry this up.

Sweetie Belle launched into explanation. "Well, yesterday was a really bad day for me. And I was upset because my friends were both out of town and everypony was really busy and nopony had time for me. So I woke today wishing that somepony would just listen to me, and then everypony did."

It was an incredibly simple explanation, but it made sense. Subconscious desires often manifested themselves as unintentional spells in young unicorns, partially as a way of helping them learn magic, though usually it wasn't mind bending black magic.

Scarlet seemed to be mulling over the same thing Bones was. She didn't speak for a few seconds.

"Am I in trouble?" Sweetie Belle was looking worried now, and it was showing in her two mind controlled guards. Bones noted that Applejack was now moving to block the exit. Rarity had ceased fussing with the dress, and had acquired a disturbingly large amount of needles from somewhere.

"Of course not, but we're going to need your help turning everypony back to normal." Scarlet reassured her, in a mostly believable tone.

Sweetie Belle eyed Scarlet suspiciously and began backing away. "Your not going to banish me are you?"

This was getting dangerous. Bones didn't want to take his eyes off Rarities needles, but he didn't want applejack to have a clear path to his back either. "Scarlet, we had better go. Now." Bones said, his tone urgent.

Scarlet looked up from the filly and realized her predicament. "Ah. Not going to be easy then, huh?" She asked, a note of pained amusement in her voice.

"What do you mean by that?" Sweetie Belle sounded terrified now, she was almost out of Scarlet's reach.

"Scarlet, now!"

Several things happened at once, Scarlet leaped forward and wrapped her forelegs around Sweetie Belle, Bones formed a shield around Scarlet as she was bombarded by Rarity's magically propelled needles, and Applejack Bucked Bones about halfway across the boutique and into a wall. Her horn glowed red briefly, and Scarlet popped out of existence, reappearing behind Applejack at the exit, Sweetie Belle still clutched against her chest.

"Come on, Bones!" Scarlet was laughing, as though she actually enjoyed this. Though it was difficult to hear her over Sweetie Belles shrieks, and Rarity's roar of rage.

"Unhand my sister you, you ruffian!" Rarity unleashed another pin missile attack, which Applejack actually had to duck to avoid. Scarlet vanished from sight as she dashed outside, promptly followed by the two elements of harmony turned thralls.

Bones remained plastered to the wall for a few moments and thought about life choices.

"She's made of bone, Bones. Needles aren't going to hurt her."

After prying himself away and making sure his spine hadn't snapped, Bones followed the sound of chaos into the street.

Havoc was a bit of an understatement. There was a literal stampede of ponies following Scarlet as she sprinted towards the town hall, Sweetie Belle hovering in a shield bubble just in front of her. She was making ample use of the wing-bind curse as a steady stream of pegasi attempted to tackle her, and went careening out of control at the last second.

"Oh boy." Bones hoped he was guessing her plan correctly as he ran after the horde of angry thralls.

She managed to make it onto the town halls stage, where she set up a protective shield around herself and Sweetie Belle just in time, a veritable wave of ponies crashing against it. Bones caught up to the edge of the crowd several seconds later.

"I HOPE YOU'RE READY, BONES!" Scarlet roared over the din, she was amplified by what sounded like the royal Canterlot voice spell.

Bones frantically fished the two potions he had brought with him out of his saddlebags. He certainly didn't have time to prepare them properly before Scarlet's shield would give out. He began forcibly pushing his way through the crowd, trying to get as close to the center of it as he could. Something knocked into his side so hard that he fell over, nearly being smothered as the raging crowd constantly stepped on him, making it impossible to get up. Taking a deep breath, he desperately raised the two vials with his magic, and smashed them together.

The resulting bang surprised even him. The instant gas infusion mixed with the sleeping draft, doing what it was supposed to, sending an explosion of sleeping vapor over the entire crowd and beyond. It didn't linger long, the wind pulling it away within a few seconds, but a single inhale was all it took. The sea of enraged ponies slowly crumpled and collapsed. Bones dared to take a breath.

"Bones?" Scarlet sounded worried this time. He could hear scuffling as he assume she got off the stage.

"Here." He pulled himself out from under two pegasi who had collapsed on top of him. "Pretty banged up, but I'm alright."

"Oh good. Thought you might have been trampled to death for a second there." She started making her way towards him, picking around the collapsed thralls. Bones noticed that the wrapping around one of her hind legs and come undone, showing the bleached bone beneath. When she came within twenty or so feet of him, she froze, looking at something over his shoulder.

Bones tensed up. "What?" He turned around, and saw a familiar figure standing at the edge of the pile of sleeping ponies.

"Oh."

Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes into a leer.

"Oh bugger."

Authors note: Well, that wasn't nearly as dark or exciting as I expected it would be. I think I'm getting the hang of this though.

Contain

Well this wasn't good.
Bones was never particularly skilled at thinking fast, and usually he prepared meticulously to make sure he didn't have to. He certainly did have plans in place for the possibility where he did run into Twilight, but this was a bit of a compromising position she had caught him in. So naturally he said the dumbest thing he could think of.

"Uh. This inst what it looks like."

Scarlet groaned, he could hear her facehoofing behind him.

"Really?" Twilight raised her brow. "Because it looks like a pony who I distinctly remember coming out of a bookshelf several years ago, just knocked out the entire town using some kind of gas bomb."

Bones winced. "Ah, I was hoping you wouldn't remember that. And I can assure you I had very good reasons for knocking out the entire town." Bones needed to start thinking, because he obviously wasn't, and had probably just confirmed all of Twilight's suspicions. It was Bone's turn to facehoof at his stupidity. Technically he was authorized to alter anypony's memories in order to keep his profession a secret, but he was somehow sure that privilege didn't extend to Celestia's favorite student. In any case, he needed to seize the initiative, if Twilight became hostile things were going to get messy, fast.

Bones sighed heavily "Scarlet, get started, I'm going to have a chat with miss Sparkle." He began making his way out of the crowd of sleeping ponies.

"You sure boss?" She was already moving to where Sweetie Belle was sleeping.

Bones gritted his teeth. "Yes, and cover your leg." he was rewarded with an embarrassed squeak as Scarlet realized her leg wrappings had come undone.

"What is she doing?" Twilight asked warily as Scarlet finished covering her leg and placed her horn against the head of one of the ponies.

"Nothing that will harm them, walk with me." Bones played it calm, but his mind was racing as to how to properly manage this situation. He needed to contact the princess, let her know what had happened. Bones knew Twilight's dragon had a way of sending letters to the Celestia. If she gave him permission to alter Twilight's memory, then he could contain things from there, it was simply a matter of subduing Twilight bucking Sparkle. In the meantime, he would just try to buy time, and attempt to satisfy Twilight's curiosity.

Twilight stared at Scarlet for a while longer, probably making sure she wasn't harming anypony, but nothing visible was happening other than Scarlet's horn glowing softly. so she slowly began following Bones.

Bones was actually surprised at how trusting she was, then he remembered not everypony shared his dark profession. His job was to make sure ponies could afford to be so trusting in the first place. "So, you live in the library right? Lets head in that direction." He tried to sound friendly, keeping the anxiety out of his voice.

"Alright, but I expect answers on the way." She sounded hostile, but she fell into step beside him all the same.

"I'll answer what I can." he said after a moments hesitation. Why not? If he got permission to alter her memory, he could just suppress this, and if he didn't, then he would probably be telling her everything anyway. He decided to be at least a little reserved in his answers though, just in case.

"First question, who are you? And what are you doing in Ponyville?" Straight to the point then.

"I am Pale Bones, royal adviser to the princesses of Equestria. I came here by Celestia's personal request. And that was two questions." He recited in the most dignified voice he could muster.

It had the desired effect, Twilight appeared dumbfounded, showing shock, skepticism, then outright doubt.

"You don't exactly look the part." she said, regarding his drab cloak and now windswept mane. Her expression was a blank mask now.

"Well the idea wasn't to stand out." He said matter-of-factly. "I assume you were aware of the situation before we came?"

She looked down at her hooves as she walked. "Yes, it was as if everypony was under some kind of spell, similar to when Discord attacked, but different. I had never seen anything like it before. I locked myself in the library and sent a letter to the princess, then I just looked through my books for a way to stop it." She trailed off.

Bones had heard reports of the Discord incident. Unfortunately he hadn't been much help at the time. He and Scarlet had spent the entire day stuck to the ceiling in The Archive. He shivered, bad memories.

"Well, the princess sent me to take care of it." Bones was trying to avoid looking at Twilight, feeling it was rude for some reason.

"You?" Twilight began examining Bones up and down, re-evaluating him.

"Yes, dealing with these sorts of things is actually my job." He smiled weakly, his bruises were starting to hurt.

"I thought you said you were a royal adviser." she was becoming skeptical again.

Bones snorted "Officially, yes. Unofficially, Scarlet and I are a sort of special task force trained to deal with-" he paused, thinking "-unusual occurrences."

"What sort of unusual occurrences?" She seemed curious now, if not still a bit wary.

Bones shrugged "You know, things you don't read about in most books." He tried dodged the question, but Twilight wasn't giving up that easilly.

"Like?" she pressed.

Bones sighed "Like mind control for one."

Twilight bristled "Mind control? What are you talking about? I mean I've heard of it, but as far as I'm aware its impossible."

They had reached the library now. Bones stopped at the entrance and turned to face Twilight.

"That's what happened here today."

Twilight was stunned into silence for a second time. "But, who?"

Bones shook his head. "It doesn't matter now, Scarlet is taking care of it. They will wake up tomorrow morning and not remember a thing of what happened today. Shall we head inside?" He gestured at the libraries entrance.

"Oh, yes." Twilight opened the door and slipped inside, holding it open for him. He wasn't sure if she believed him just yet, but at least she was being civil.

The inside of Twilight's library was homely and warm. Bones always found the sight of books to be welcoming, regardless of their contents. He was abruptly thankful that Twilight seemed to have forgotten about the whole secret bookcase thing for the time being.

"Are the zombies gone yet?" Twilight's dragon Spike was peeking over the edge of the loft area where Bones suspected the bedroom was. "Who's this guy?"

"For the last time Spike, they were not zombies. They were just, ill. And this is Pale Bones, royal adviser to the princesses." Twilight closed the door as Bones stepped through, and started heading up the stairs towards Spike.

"Spooky name, and I'm pretty sure I would consider zombies ill too." he disappeared from sight as he stood up.

Bones spotted a writing desk out of the corner of his eye, with paper and ink ready and waiting. He looked up to where Twilight was speaking with Spike.

"-I'm just saying, Pale Bones sounds like a zombie name to me."

Bones suppressed a chuckle. He decided he liked Spike. With a bit of focus, he picked up a nearby quill and dipped it in the ink-pot on the desk. He figured Twilight probably wouldn't mind if he wrote a quick letter.

Dear Princess Celestia

I've been compromised by your student, Twilight Sparkle. Frankly I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner, she's far too smart for her own good. She doesn't know everything, just that I'm part of some royal task force that investigates 'unusual occurrences'. Request instructions from here, I could always suppress her memories, but I'm not sure how well that would go down with you, or Twilight for that matter.

Expecting your prompt reply

Pale Bones

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked, just as Bones finished up. He set down the quill and rolled the paper up into a scroll.

"Just writing a letter. Do you think you could deliver it for me?" He held the letter out to her, his magics signature green glow surrounding it.

"I suppose, but only if I can read it first." She walked toward Bones, and her horn shone as she accepted the paper.

Bones quickly retracted the letter from her, his green aura once again taking control of the letter. "I'm afraid I cant let you do that."

"Well why not? Celestia has never withheld something from me before." Twilight pouted.

Bones felt exasperated "I just cant, alright? Its classified."

"Fine." she pulled the letter away from him, the resulting backlash as she took control of the levitation spell was stronger than Bones had expected, he flinched slightly.

"But I get to read the response!" Twilight said as she climbed the stairs again.

Bones opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it.

Bones, Twilight and Spike were outside sitting at a table and discussing magical theory by the time Celestia's reply came. Or rather, Twilight and Bones were, and Spike was sleeping.

"I'm telling you, I've done it!" Twilight seemed dead serious about this, but Bones still couldn't bring himself to accept it. He had visited other realms of existence, seen deities with his own eyes, and had once had lunch with a demon and lived to tell about it, but he had never once seen any concrete proof that time travel possible. He was about to reply with a rebuttal when there was a low rumble, followed by a loud belch as Celestia's letter appeared in a gout of green flame, Spike did not appreciate this rude awakening.

"Finally." Bones said, snatching it out of the air before Twilight could react. "Its nearly dusk." He carefully unsealed and unfurled it, reading:

My loyal subject Pale Bones

My most sincere apologies for my late reply, I was indisposed and was not aware of the urgent nature of your letter. Thank you for informing me of the situation, I have a solution to the problem, and will enact it presently. In the meantime, you may NOT use black magic on my protege Twilight Sparkle, you may NOT discuss any more sensitive information information with her, do NOT let her read this letter.

Sincerely

Princess Celestia
Well that was helpful.

Twilight was looking at Bones expectantly. "Well?"

Bones gave her a pained smile, and incinerated the letter instantly with a thought.

"Hey!" Twilight blurted, rising from her seat "You were supposed to let me read that!" She sounded quite indignant.

"I'm sorry, Celestia's orders." Bone said, trying to placate her. He really did feel pretty bad about it, even if he had never technically agreed to let her read the princesses reply.

Twilight plopped back down on her chair, looking dejected. "I just don't see what the princess would want to keep secret from me."

Bones pondered for a moment before coming up with a stupid response. "If it makes you feel better, its for your own good."

She looked up at him, almost pitying his lack of tact. "That doesn't make me feel better."

"Oh hey there you two, enjoying yourselves?" Scarlet had appeared from seemingly nowhere, and was approaching their little picnic table outside the library.

Bones's stomach dropped, he had nearly forgotten about leaving Scarlet to take care of all the sleeping ponies.

"Oh, hey Scarlet. How are things?" he said, rather awkwardly. Bones simply could not remember how to talk like an intelligent pony today.

She sat down across from Twilight. "Oh you know, just finished wiping the memories of every pony in Ponyville." she sounded livid, and was glaring into Bones's very soul.

"And cleaning up the massive mess outside and in Rarities Boutique." She sighed and added "The filly is fine too, she shouldn't remember anything when she wakes up."

That was a relief.

Scarlet certainly had a reason to be upset, but she seemed more tired than anything. She began resting her head on the table. "What have you two been up to?"

Twilight didn't seem to be in the mood for talking, probably feeling betrayed by her mentor, and was ignoring Bones's silent plea's for help.

He deflated, and resigned himself to Scarlet's passive-aggressive fury. "Just talking, mostly."

Scarlet harrumphed and didn't answer. Bones found himself between two angry mares, and a very confused looking baby dragon.

It was going to be a long night.

Authors note: MY FINGERS ARE POWERED BY COMMENTS.

Protect

What followed was an indeterminate in length period of silence. Bones was distinctly reminded of downtime in The Archive, though with more steaming involved. Scarlet was absolutely still, her glowing eyes the only indication that she was even alive. Twilight wasn't much better. Bones became increasingly uncomfortable, and finally cleared his throat to speak.

"So, Twilight, this is my partner, Scarlet Shade." he gestured to his motionless companion.

"Pleasure." Scarlet said without moving her jaw. She did at least put effort into making her voice sound friendly though, it wasn't Twilight she was angry with.

Twilight nodded to her. "Glad to meet you. I assume you already know my name." It was more of a statement than a question. She looked up at the now star speckled sky and spoke again. "So, did you two need a place to stay for the night?"

"Well, I don't need sleep, but Bones probably needs someplace." Scarlet turned her head to look at Bones, and stiffened when she saw his panicked expression.

Twilight latched onto that bit of information. "What do you mean you don't need sleep?" Bones noticed she was staring at him, and was smiling deviously.

Scarlet hastily attempted to correct her mistake. "I meant I don't need sleep right now. Wide awake." she straightened up, and failed miserably at being convincing.

Twilight continued staring at Bones, who tried to give her a reassuring smile, and probably failed at it.

There was another few moments of silence before Twilight spoke up.

"Well, I'm going to bed." she declared, standing up. "Bones, you are welcome to the guest room. Scarlet, you may browse the library is you want, just put everything back where you found it." She left them there, levitating the sleeping dragon with her into the library.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Bones turned to Scarlet. "Nice one."

"I'm sorry, I just assumed when you said you were talking all this time you were explaining-" She trailed off, then remembered she was supposed to be angry. She shifted to the offensive. "So what were you talking about all that time then?" She glared at him, accusingly.

Bones scoffed "It wasn't anything like that. Celestia just told me to distract her." he sat up straight and folded his hooves across his chest.

Scarlet was not convinced. "Celestia told you that, huh?" She snorted and looked away, her mane falling over her mask.

"Yes, it was in a letter." This wasn't technically true, as her letter said nothing of the sort, But he felt it was implied. Bones watched her for a moment, her mane swayed in the slight breeze. He could feel his resolve crumbling. He sighed and stood up, moving closer to her. "Hey, I'm really sorry about leaving you back there. There was a lot on my mind, you know how stressful it can be to stay undercover." He sat down next to her.

Scarlet spared him a glance before looking away again, head held high.

"Look, I'll make it up to you. When we get back to Canterlot, I'll get you all the flowers you want. Okay?" He put a hoof on her shoulder.

After a few seconds delay, Scarlet finally decided she could grace him with her gaze. She poked him in the chest.

"I better."

"You will." Bones reassured her.

It was quiet again for a few minutes, Scarlet had pressed up against him as they sat together and watched Luna's sky.

"So, did you leave everypony just lying in front of the town hall?" Bones asked, his eyes fixated on the moon.

"Yes, yes I did." She didn't seem bothered by this in the least, in fact she appeared to find it highly amusing.

"I wonder how we are going to explain the lost day to them" Bones wondered aloud.

Scarlet shrugged. "Localized Discord event aftershock?"

It was nonsensical enough to work.

"Somepony should probably go relieve the night guards." Bones said, absentmindedly.

Scarlet stared at him.

Bones stretched. "I'll do it."

Bone's really didn't like the sun in the mornings. Really. He rolled out of bed with a groan. The groan occurred when his back made contact with the floor, and was promptly followed by a whimper as the place where Applejack had kicked him flared with what Bones would describe as 'agony' at the time. He proceeded to writhe on the ground for a while before he noticed Scarlet watching him from the doorway.

"Are you enjoying my pain?" He asked, only half jokingly.

Scarlet chuckled "I wouldn't know, I cant remember what it feels like. Need some help?"

"No, thank you very much." He grumbled and slowly got to his hooves, wincing as he felt the inevitable soreness in his legs. "Is Twilight awake yet?"

Scarlet nodded "She's reading a letter she just got from Celestia."

"Oh, good." Bones let himself feel optimistic about the future, a rare occurrence in the mornings. He walked into the main room where Twilight was reading a scroll on her writing desk. Bones noted the royal seal upon it.

"What does it say?" Bones dared to be hopeful.

Twilight looked up from the letter, just now noticing him. "Good morning to you too. Its from Celestia, she wants to speak with me, alone." She actually seemed pretty cheerful about the whole thing, as was apparent by the smile on her face. Quite an attractive smile Bones had to admit. In fact most things about her were attractive, he wondered why he hadn't noticed earlier.

Relief almost cut through Bones's morning mood. "Wonderful news, guess that means you're no longer my problem." that had come out so wrong. Scarlet giggled in the corner of the room.

Twilight's smile vanished "What is that supposed to mean?"

The day had been going so well too. Bones attempted damage control "That isn't what I meant to say. I didn't mean it like that."

Twilight narrowed her eyes like she had the day before. "Sure sounded like you meant it."

"What I meant was, part of my job is secrecy, and if the princess wants to see you herself, that means she is going to take care of things personally, which means I don't have to. Its a load off my mind." Bones began to notice how incredibly dry his mouth was.

Twilight continued her leer, but decided that his explanation wasn't quite as insulting, and went back to her reading.

Bones was suddenly aware that the only thing he had eaten in the past day or so was a couple of carrots. He wondered if any of that feast was still there near Rarities boutique, though Scarlet had claimed she cleaned it all.

"Is there anyplace I can get some food around here?"

Twilight recommended a local tavern called The Apple Trapper, which along with having a stupid name, was also the same place the two night guards had elected to stay for the night. Bones wondered how many buildings in this town had the word 'apple' in their names, or how many ponies for that matter. He almost missed Canterlot.

The streets were far from empty, most that were up and about seemed to be gossiping about what they thought had occurred yesterday.

"Did you hear that princess Luna's chariot is outside of town?"

"I know! Nopony has seen her though, what could be happening?"

"Its a conspiracy."

Bones smirked, he had heard much worse over the course of his life. He know once an official statement was released the rumors would dwindle into a few conspiracy theories held by the more eccentric ponies. The more amusing part was that usually the conspiracy theories were closer to the truth.

"So what did you think of her?" Scarlet was looking at him intently.

Bones raised his brow. "What do you mean?"

"I thought my question was pretty straightforward." Scarlet cocked her head to one side.

"Oh, right." Bones stared straight ahead "She was pleasant enough, too curious for her own good though. Absurdly powerful too." he considered Twilight for a moment "I liked her."

"Is that all you liked?" Scarlet seemed to be getting at something.

"I don't understand." He began watching her now, trying to gauge her body language.

Scarlet sounded slightly nervous, and her voice fell to a whisper. "You know."

Something clicked. "Wait, you mean like physically?" Bones was taken aback for a second. This was a topic that had never come up before. What had gotten into her?

She seemed almost reluctant to discuss the topic she had brought up. "I was thinking about last night, and, well, I know that stallions have-"

"Scarlet!" Bones interrupted. "I'm nearly a decade older than her!"

"So?" She shot back hotly. "You're still in your prime, and I know you haven't been with anypony since-" she stopped, seeing his crestfallen expression. "Look, I'm sorry. I've been trying to-"

Bones interrupted her again. "Can we just go home?"

Scarlet reeled for a moment, then nodded.

They were silent for the rest of the way to the tavern.

Ideas

"That probably could have been gone better." Bones stepped off the chariot and stretched, gritting his teeth as his bruises started acting up again. He noticed that the night guards were now glaring daggers at him.

Bones shook his head and attempted to placate the two dark stallions "I wasn't talking about your flying skills." He assured them.

They didn't seem to believe him entirely, but they at least stopped raking him with their eyes.

"So what were you talking about then?" Scarlet was already at the stables exit, waiting for him to catch up.

Bones noticed that her eyes glow seemed duller than usual, a detail that gnawed at him as he was reminded of all the magic she must have used the day before. "That whole thing."

She tilted her head "Really? I think it went pretty well considering."

"I was nearly trampled to death, and Applejack kicked me. You know she kicks things for a living? It shows." Bones stepped through the stable door and Scarlet fell in beside him, snickering. He shot her a disapproving look "You have a very interesting sense of humor."

She shrugged "You have to admit pushing the entire town into a murderous rage was a convenient way to get them all in range of the sleeping gas."

"I guess." He squinted his eyes from the mid afternoon glare. "Not really the safest option though. If they had broken through that shield they would have torn you limb from limb." They rounded a corner and began making their way towards the gardens.

She snorted and proclaimed with an air of confidence "They would have tried."

Bones smiled, but inwardly worried what exactly she meant by that. Scarlet was talented with most schools of magic, but he had trouble thinking of how she could defend herself from that horde without resorting to harming them. He decided to dismiss it as idle boasting.

Abruptly Bones realized he had left his cloak in the chariot, and stopped in his tracks.

Scarlet turned to face him. "Whats up?"

"I left my cloak in the chariot." He said.

"Oh. Why did you take it off in the first place?"

"I honestly have no Idea." He admitted, and turned around.

"Well, I'm going on ahead, I'll see you in The Archive, boss." She began to trot off towards the gardens.

He was about to reply with an appropriate jab when he heard the sound of someone approaching. He held his tongue expecting a servant or visitor, and so was surprised when Princess Luna stepped through one of the castles stone archways. Bones was briefly stunned by her splendor. He was used to Celestia's presence, but Luna's was in such stark contrast it caught him off guard. He managed to remember to bow politely; trying to spot Scarlet as he did so, but she was already gone.

Luna regarded him uninterestedly for a moment before recognizing Bones. "Oh, you are the one Celestia lent my chariot to yesterday." A frown crossed her face and she added "Without my permission."

"I do apologize for that, I assumed you had-" Bones began, but stopped when Luna held up a silver trimmed hoof. He found himself staring at her mane, which flowed magnificently even though there wasn't the slightest breeze.

"I don't blame you of course." She sighed irritably and looked up at the sun before giving Bones an appraising look. "I trust it was important, I know my sister holds you in high regard."

"It was." As Bones watched, he thought he could glimpse something of the night sky in Luna's stature. When he did, he began to feel the creeping unease he always felt when in Luna's presence for any amount of time. Her aura was genuinely off putting to anyone familiar with what it meant. Traces of the nightmare that had once shared her body still lingered in its edges, a taint that she wouldn't be rid of for years to come.

"I don't suppose you could enlighten me as to what you needed my chariot for?" Luna fished, and she straightened herself to her full height, radiating authority in the way only alicorns can.

To her credit it was a very impressive sight. The Princess of the Night in all her dark radiance was probably very intimidating to anypony who didn't have experience staring down demons. As it was however, Bones didn't so much as blink as he defied a ruler of Equestria. "Unfortunately no. Celestia gave me orders to not speak of it to anypony but her. My most sincere apologies princess." Given Luna's history, Celestia had elected to keep Bones's occupation a secret from her sister, at least until she was confident Luna was ready. It was a decision Bones disagreed with, but he supposed Celestia knew her sister much better than he did.

Luna narrowed her eyes. "She would say that wouldn't she?" She seemed to think something over briefly before coming to a decision. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I just heard it from you." There was a thrum of power in the air as Luna's eyes flashed .

Bones gasped as he felt Luna's consciousness brush against his. Instinctively his mind went into lock-down, blocking whatever attempt she had just made to intrude on his thoughts. He saw Luna's brow go up in surprise as she was rebuffed from his mind so forcibly. Bones recovered from the shock first. "No, I'm afraid she was very specific."

She ignored that, and a smile slowly spread across Luna's face as some realization dawned on her. "A royal adviser hm?" She stared at him knowingly.

"Just an adviser" Bones confirmed. Had Luna just attempted black magic on him?

"Of course." Luna chuckled and walked past him. "Farewell Pale Bones."

He watched her go, mulling over what had just happened and what it meant. He had always suspected Luna was a sorceress to some extent, but he never thought he would have his suspicions confirmed so blatantly. He had no idea what Luna had just tried to do, it didn't feel like mind control, and as far as he knew mind reading wasn't possible in such a direct way. Luna was ancient, so it was no surprise to him that she would be in control of powers he couldn't even recognize. He felt a small thrill as he pondered what kind of secrets she might be privy to that were long lost to time. He wondered if she would share some of them with him when The Archive was revealed to her. Then he considered the possibility that it already was revealed to her. In that tiny moment were Luna had full access to his mind, he felt a taste of her immovable will. Bones felt no doubt that she could have overpowered his defenses had she wished. He also had no idea if she had actually picked up anything in the short time their minds touched. He would have to discuss this with Celestia when she debriefed him tomorrow.

Bones blinked and tried to remember what he was doing before he encountered Luna, but it eluded him.

"No way." Scarlet was incredulous. "She actually tried to mind control you?"

"Not exactly mind control." Bones corrected "I have no idea what it was, could have been mind control or even mind reading. I shut it down before she could do anything though, I think."

"You think?" Scarlet said, leaning forward. The Archive's flickering green lantern light glinted off the curves of her silver mask.

He shrugged "Well how am I supposed to know? She could have picked up on something. I have no idea what she's capable of."

There was silence for a while.

"So Princess Luna is a sorceress." Scarlet said.

"Yup."

"That's crazy, and may or may not be terrifying to varying degrees."

"I agree. She's proven that she has no qualms about using her powers to get what she wants, but I don't really get the 'evil' vibe from her very much. Aside from the remnants of that Nightmare." Bones hissed the last word, and resisted the temptation to spit on the ground.

"I don't really think its something we need to worry about. She's Celestia's sister after all. I don't think she would let Luna roam around if she thought she was an evil sorceress." Scarlet was probably right.

"I'm still going to mention this to her tomorrow, and I'm not meeting Luna's eyes anymore."

"Both good ideas." Scarlet said, nodding.

More silence.

"You still owe me flowers you know." Scarlet seemed keen to collect on Bones's promise.

He grinned. "Yes, yes I do. We can go get some tomorrow after the debriefing, okay?"

"I'll hold you to it." Scarlet slid off her chair and disappeared into the stacks.

Bones looked down at 'Thatched Knee's Guide to Gargant's Ghouls' and grimaced at a particularly gruesome illustration of one of the beasts devouring an unidentifiable corpse. He had never heard of Gargant. From the books description it was a place, but as far as he knew it didn't exist. He suspected the book was either very old, or from some other plane of existence. The writer used weird words like 'everybody' and 'people'. He looked up from the book and began staring at one of the lanterns.

"You know Twilight claimed that time travel is actually possible?" He said absentmindedly.

"Ha!" Scarlet scoffed and she stepped back into view, carrying several fleshy tomes from the living books section.

"She even claimed to have done it herself." Bones watched her as she retrieved a small cage of small insects from the top of one of the bookcases.

"I'm sure she did." Scarlet began feeding small clumps of the writhing insects to the books, who made small mewling and growling noises as they snatched them from the air.

"Really though, she was explaining the theory to me, and through all the gibberish I'll be damned if it didn't actually start to make sense." Bones said, pressing his point.

Scarlet finished feeding the books and fixed the cage of bugs with an intense look.

"I'm serious. I think she might have been telling the truth." He said.

Scarlet levitated a small clump of the insects from the cage and made a deep inhaling sound, causing the poor creatures to wither and turn to dust.

Bones shivered as the wave of cold washed over him. He went to wrap his cloak around himself more tightly, then remembered for a second time that he had left it in the chariot. He scolded himself for his forgetfulness. "You should really warn me before you do that."

She giggled a little and replaced the lid on top of the cage. "That would be no fun."

Bones shook his head and smiled a little. "Anyway, I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt. Next time I see Twilight I'll ask her for more details."

"Ask me for what details?" Twilight asked, standing at The Archive's library entrance.

Bones stood up from his seat so fast he promptly lost his footing and fell over, hitting his head on the solid stone floor. "Owww!"

Scarlet began laughing uncontrollably.

Bones heard the sound of urgent hoofsteps, and Twilight's face came into his view as she stood over him.

"Are you okay? I didn't mean to startle you like that." She levitated him onto his hooves again. "Well, maybe I did, but not that much."

"Oh he's fine. They wouldn't call him 'Bones' if he didn't have a thick skull." Scarlet laughed even harder at her own joke. It seemed she was in one of her moods, and if she was surprised at Twilight's sudden appearance, she was too busy being in hysterics to show it.

Bones wobbled slightly "I think I'm okay. Just adding to my bruise collection." He shook himself to clear his head. "But what in Equestria are you doing here? How did you even get in?" He managed to shoot a glare at Scarlet, who attempted to stifle her laughter.

"Celestia told me." Twilight smiled and looked pleased with herself. "She told me all about what you do, and about this secret archive full of forbidden knowledge." She seemed close to salivating when she mentioned forbidden knowledge.

Bones looked at her searchingly. "She told you everything? Did she tell you about Scarlet?" This all seemed very sudden.

Twilight looked over at scarlet, who waved cheerfully. "Well, maybe not everything. She did mention that you would be explaining some things to me." She turned back to Bones.

He took on a thoughtful expression. "Right, well why don't you tell us what you know so far, so we can fill in the blanks."

Twilight looked uncertain. "Well, I know that you two fight dark magic practitioners, and wipe ponies memories so they don't remember what happened. She basically said that you protect Equestria from evil. She wasn't very specific though."

"Sounds like she told you next to nothing then." Scarlet said, she had finally stopped chortling.

Bones sighed "You're sure she said you were cleared to be told everything?"

Twilight nodded and revealed a sealed letter from somewhere. Bones took it from her and began reading.

Bones

After much deliberation I have decided that being candid with Twilight is the best option available. She has an insatiable curiosity for these matters, and I fear she will never be satisfied if things are not explained to her. I do worry about how the existence of The Archive will effect her mentally, but after years of knowing you and Scarlet I trust that if anypony knows how to keep sane its you two. I have explained the basics to her, but I'll be leaving the job of explaining the details in your more capable hooves. It is my hope that knowing these secrets will help her protect herself from the dark things that tend to gravitate towards her. She will still be staying in Ponyville, but she will have access to The Archive whenever she wishes. I will also expect you to teach her anything she requests help with with, however infrequent those requests might be. Her special talent is magic after all.

Princess Celestia

Bones finished reading at looked up at Twilight, who was watching him expectantly. "Alright, your obviously cleared. But are you sure you want to know this stuff? Its not exactly pleasant."

She nodded vehemently.

"Alright, then I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. First thing you need to understand is that we don't just protect Equestria from black magic, we also use it. We are practitioners."

She was mildly shocked at this, and Bones could see her processing the implications in her head.

"We generally don't use our abilities on anypony except other sorcerers though. In order to combat the kind of magic they wield we have to understand it completely, which means we are perfectly capable of using it ourselves should the need arise. And this archive-" he gestured around him "-is where we learn our craft. The books contained here can teach you everything from shielding yourself from curses, to the exact procedure required to sacrifice part of your soul in exchange for demonic power, and even how to raise the dead."

Twilight just stared at him blank-faced.

"Sheesh boss, I would have put on a spooky record if I had known you were going to do that." Scarlet chuckled.

Bones ignored her.

After a few moments of stunned silence, Twilight finally spoke up with a question. "You can raise the dead?"

Bones grinned "Of course! In fact, its my special talent." He pointed towards Scarlet with a hoof. "Just ask my partner here."

Scarlet reached up and removed her silver mask, revealing the bleached white skull beneath. "Hi!" she said in the most friendly tone she could manage.

Twilight had been taking everything pretty well so far. But after staring at Scarlet's non-existent face and fully grasping what she was seeing, she decided that was an appropriate time to faint.

"Think I overdid it?" Scarlet asked, innocently.

Calculated Risk

"You really need to tone down your dark humor."

"Sorry." Scarlet put her mask back on and squelched the last of her giggles. "That was pretty funny though."

"Maybe a little." Bones admitted. "But it wasn't worth it." He nudged the fallen Twilight a few times, attempting to wake her.

"I didn't know she was going to faint like that." Scarlet said defensively. "Besides, she's going to have to learn to handle these things anyway."

"I would have preferred a more gradual introduction." Bones muttered. "We should probably move her."

"Why? Whats wrong with the floor? It's not like she can tell if she's comfortable or not." Scarlet kicked one of Twilight's hooves lightly, proving her point.

Bones rolled his eyes. "In the interest of courtesy I think we should move her someplace more dignified." He wondered if Scarlet was really so disconnected that she had completely forgotten the concept of manners. There was another explanation, but Bones valued his hide too much to risk voicing it. "Perhaps in your room?" He suggested.

"What?" Her voice shot up an octave.

"Well you have the only bed in here." He shrugged. "Seems only logical to put her there." Bones used the word 'logical' very deliberately, if Scarlet protested she would only make herself look petty and irrational.

Scarlet's eyes flared slightly. She knew exactly what he had just done, and was probably going to make him pay for it at some point. "Very well, in my room then." Her tone sounded a little dangerous.

Bones grinned. "Thank you, that's very kind." He lifted Twilight up and draped her over his back, wincing a little as his still sore legs protested. He slowly began making his way towards Scarlet's room, doing his best to ignore the pressure Twilight's weight was putting on the large hoof shaped bruise on his back. He could feel Scarlet's eyes on him the entire way.

Scarlet's room looked exactly like what you might expect a studious sorceress's room to look like. She had really taken to the candle aesthetic, and her room was full of them. Bones disliked the fire hazard, but had to admit it gave everything a very pleasant warm glow. The room was not particularly spacious, and appeared even less so because of the mess and clutter. There was a writing desk that took up an entire wall, a bookcase with Scarlet's personal collection in it, and the bed. The bed itself was a bit superfluous considered Scarlet had no need for sleep, but it was carved into the stone of the room itself, so it wasn't really something they could remove. She had taken to piling books and supplies on it when she wasn't using them. Bones grunted and weaved his way through the fallen papers and stacks of books to Scarlet's bed. He carefully moved the items off the bed and piled them neatly on the writing desk, revealing the rather luxurious red bedding that was beneath them. Bones levitated Twilight off his back and placed her onto the bed, curling one of the blankets over her for good measure. It was quite cold in there, and Bones dimly wished he had his cloak again.

"You going to read her a story too?" Scarlet said snidely, watching him while she leaned against the door frame.

Bones had brought this on himself, but he was starting to get irritated at Scarlet's teasing. "I don't think she would enjoy your romance novels."

Scarlet looked thoughtful and tapped a hoof against her chin. "You never know, she might."

Bones gave her an incredulous look and made his way into the main chamber again, he had a book about ghouls to finish.

Walking back to his bedchamber at night was usually something Bones enjoyed. Occasionally he even stopped to do some stargazing when he was still in the gardens. Tonight though, he just wanted to get some sleep. His body ached and he was a little worried about leaving Scarlet alone with Twilight. He knew Scarlet would never actually do anything to harm her, but she was always mischievous. As he wandered into the darkened castle Bones thought about how he would explain the situation with Luna to Celestia during the debriefing. Making any kind of accusation would be a bad move, and arousing Luna's ire was the last thing he wanted to happen if word of what he said ever reached her. He decided to just describe what happened, and offer no opinions on the matter. It was probably the safest way of going about it other than just keeping his mouth shut.

Most of the ponies in the castle were either asleep or staying in their chambers. He passed the occasional guard, but aside from a nod or polite greeting they seemed to be either too focused on their duty or at staying awake to offer any conversation, for which Bones was silently thankful. When he neared the stairwell that lead up to the floor where his room was though; he heard hushed voices around a corner to his left.

Eavesdropping is not something he normally did, especially since he found most conversations in Canterlot to be vapid and boring. However something about all the events of the past few days compounded with his paranoia, and he paused, his ears perking up slightly.

"We've been here for months already, how much longer is this going to take?" The voice was very distinctly male.

"Oh quit complaining, its not that bad." This one seemed familiar, and feminine.

"Easy for you to say, you know what I do all day? Nothing. Nothing at all, I just stand here."

"You'll forgive me if I don't feel sorry for you. Just be patient."

"Fine."

"Fine then." The sound of hoofsteps let Bones know that the conversation was over.

What in Equestria was that about? It sounded innocent enough, but their tones were way too serious to be considered normal conversation. What could-?

No. He severed his line of thinking before it got out of control. It had been a long day, and he was jumping to conclusions. They were probably just a dissatisfied couple looking for something more, that wasn't an uncommon thing in Canterlot. It wasn't any of his business anyway. He needed to rest, before he started seeing conspiracies in paintings or something. He started making his way up the stairs, following the tantalizing call of his bedsheets.

When Bones entered The Archive the following morning, he was greeted with an interesting sight. Scarlet was completely undressed, and was standing utterly stock-still as Twilight examined her with apparent great interest. Bones had made many modifications to Scarlet's skeleton over the years, and the result was a rather interesting mix of leather straps, hinges, and metal plates that worked in unison to hold her together without magical aid. He had even added a few armor plates in strategic spots along her body to make clothing drape along her form more naturally, as well as provide protection. The largest of these was a steel breastplate that he had fastened to her ribcage. Parts of Scarlet's original mane had been tied to strategic places along her spine and tailbone for aesthetic and sentimental reasons. Bones had done his best to make it appear natural, with moderate success. The hair was old and difficult to groom without breaking the fragile strands. The cannon bone of her right foreleg had been replaced three times, and was noticeably different color than the rest of her skeleton. It had long since gained a reputation for being unlucky, and they had both considered adding an armor plate to it. Scarlet had eventually declined, claiming that it was 'temping fate'. Whatever that was supposed to mean.

Twilight noticed him come in and looked up, smiling. "Hello Bones! Scarlet tells me you're the one who did this?"

Bones wasn't quite sure how to answer that question. Did she mean the modifications to Scarlet? Or did she mean raising her from the dead? He didn't want Twilight to get the impression that he had killed Scarlet or something. "I made the alterations to her skeleton, yes."

"It's very impressive, if not a bit ramshackle. You must have a very extensive understanding of pony anatomy, or at least the skeletal structure." She sounded sincere, even a little envious.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you just called me 'ramshackle'." Scarlet said, though there was humor in her voice.

Bones suppressed a swell of pride, and walked over to where the pair were standing. He decided to follow Scarlet's lead and not take the ramshackle comment personally, it wasn't entirely untrue after all. "It's an ongoing process. I apply preservatives regularly, and we replace parts and bones as needed, so it ends up a little random looking at times. I'm impressed you managed to get Scarlet to cooperate like this though, you should show me your secret." He smiled at Scarlet, who's grinning skull leered at him.

"Please Bones. You're talking to a pony who deals with Pinkie Pie on a daily basis. Scarlet is very reasonable if you just listen to her." Twilight said, returning to her study of the joints on Scarlet's hind legs.

"Well, cant argue with that first part." Bones conceded, and before either of them could say anything he continued. "So, I assume you haven't changed your mind about learning what we do?"

"Yes, I'm especially interested in how you achieved this." Twilight gestured to Scarlet "Speaking of which, where do you get bone replacements?" She regarded the ill-fated cannon bone.

That question caught Bones off guard, and he and Scarlet exchanged a meaningful look for a moment before he cleared his throat. "We don't rob graves if that's what you're wondering, but lets focus on something a little more basic for now, alright?"

Twilight nodded, but noted the deflection. "That's a relief, so what did you have in mind?"

Bones pondered that for a second. "Well, how about we teach you to shield yourself from curses? That's probably a good place to start."

She tilted her head a little "Is that different from a normal shield? Because I can already do that, quite well I might add."

Bones smiled at her "I'm sure you can, and the standard shield is very useful in most situations, but it usually only protects you from physical harm. Contrary to what you might be aware of, there are many, many different kinds of shields. Scarlet here has refined the art of making magical shields down to almost an art form. Why don't you explain shield charms to her?" He spoke that last sentence directly to Scarlet, who seemed to stand up straighter as Twilight turned her attention to her.

"Well." She began "Standard shields require sustained concentration and power." Her horn began to glow as a bright red translucent shield encased her with an electric crackle. "Shield charms on the other hoof, are one time deals. You program the power required, and it stays dormant until activated by whatever you programed it to protect you from." She let the standard shield fade, and replaced it with what appeared to be floating black strips of unintelligible text that flowed from her horn and began slowly circling her. "The shield charm usually looks very different depending on what it protects from. This one is designed to protect me from curses directly targeting me, and at least give me warning against things indirect ones like entropy curses."

She looked at Twilight to make sure she was getting everything, but needn't have worried. Twilight had apparently produced a notepad and quill from somewhere and was taking notes feverishly.

Scarlet began speaking more confidently "They require less power than standard shields, but are more complex in their formation. Once you get the hang of it though, you can get really creative and design your own. I've made shields that protect against heat, cold, gas, you name it."

Twilight nearly gaped at that. "That sounds absolutely amazing. How do I get started?"

Scarlet giggled, which was mildly disconcerting coming from an animated skeleton. "Tell you what, let me get dressed, and I'll show you. Okay?"

Bones watched as Scarlet began wrapping herself up again, and smiled faintly when Twilight began bombarding her with questions. They seemed to be getting along much better than he expected. He looked around, and noticed that the place hadn't been cleaned since yesterday, and there were piles of books laying about on a few of the tables. He figured he had a few hours before the briefing, and Scarlet seemed to be handling Twilight pretty well.

"Scarlet, do you need any of these books right now?" He asked, shuffling through a couple of them, sorting them subconsciously as he tried to remember where each book went.

"I don't think so. I'll probably need that book that describes shield charms though." She said.

"Is it out here?"

"No, It's still on the shelves somewhere."

With that, Bones began cleaning up. Sorting books was tedious, but soothing in its methodical familiarity. It also passed the time pretty well. It always awed him a little when he fully comprehended how much Scarlet read. She had probably surpassed him on most subjects by now, and when it came to memory she was completely unparalleled. Though her nearly photographic memory was mostly attributed to her not having to rely on the fallibility of a physical brain. Bones envied her a little. He thought about all the time he had wasted in his life just sleeping, and imagined what he could do with it if he got it all back. So many possibilities.

By the time he had finished sorting the mess of books and filed them all away, Twilight was already attempting some rudimentary shield charms. She and Scarlet had moved a few of the tables, creating room enough for them to practice. Bones seated himself between two bookcases off to one side and observed.

"Okay. I want you to try that again, but stop concentrating as soon as the spell is complete. Remember this isn't a standard shield we're making." Scarlet was sitting on the floor, watching Twilight's progress.

"Alright, here goes." Twilight closed her eyes and adopted a focused expression. Her horn shone softly, sparked, and wavered as a small stream of floating black text flowed from it. It was nearly identical to the shield charm Scarlet had performed earlier, but the text was appeared much more fluid, and it glowed purple near the edges. Twilight beamed when she opened her eyes.

Scarlet clapped her front hooves together. "Excellent!" She stood up and approached to admire the purple unicorns handiwork. "It looks solid enough, but there's really only one way to see if it works or not."

Twilight looked apprehensive "You mean you want to try laying a curse on me? isn't that dangerous?"

Scarlet shook her head. "It doesn't have to be, depends on the severity of the curse. I know one that just gives you a runny nose for an afternoon. Would you be alright with me trying that?" She quirked her head quizzically.

Bones frowned as Twilight nodded. He could distinctly remember spontaneously acquiring a runny nose many times in the past, and all of them conveniently after he had annoyed Scarlet in some way. He would have to remember to have a chat with Scarlet about that.

Scarlet took a few steps back from Twilight and began focusing power into her horn, which glowed a dull red. She concentrated for a moment, then let the energy loose. What looked like smoke slowly rose from her horn, and dissipated into the air.

There was silence for several seconds before Twilight spoke up. "Did it wo-" but she was abruptly cut off as the black text around her spun furiously, coalescing into a wall of script facing in the direction of Scarlet. The wall glowed brightly for a moment, then crumbled away, disintegrating into nothingness. After another hesitation, Twilight repeated her query. "Did it work?"

Scarlet nodded. "It did, well done. That's the thing about curses, you cant see them coming. Also remember each shield charm has only one charge, but you can have up to seven shield charms active at once." She sat down again, rolling one of her shoulders.

"Why seven?" Twilight inquired, taking a seat as well.

Scarlet shrugged "No idea, but the whole amalgamation collapses if you try to add an eighth. Also keep in mind it gets progressively harder to cast shield charms the more you have active."

"I've only ever been able to cast six" Bones interjected. "Don't expect to be able to put up a bunch of them at once if you're distracted."

"Understood." Twilight was writing notes again, but she paused as something occurred to her. "Why isn't this sort of thing common knowledge? It seems like it would be pretty useful for everypony to know this shield stuff."

"Mostly because it was invented by sorcerers to defend against other sorcerers" Bones said. "The book we learned about shield charms from is full of other nasty stuff, we've considering writing a separate book just on shields and giving it to the public." He glanced at Scarlet. "We haven't gotten around to it yet."

"Oh." Twilight said, dejectedly.

"By the way, you do know you're not allowed to tell anypony about what you see and learn here, right?"

"Yes, of course. The princess made that very clear to me yesterday."

"Good. Speaking of the princess." Bones stood up. "I have to go meet with her now, I should be back in an hour or so."

"Before you go." Twilight said. "Would it be alright if I went to find something to eat?" She asked, a weak smile on her face.

Bones blinked "Oh, right. I'm sorry, I would have brought some food for you, but I'm so used to having just Scarlet here." He shook his head. "Yeah, you don't need my permission, Celestia said you can come and go as you please. Take Scarlet with you if you want."

"Oh glee!" Scarlet gushed. "I can come right? I have this thing where I cant go out without an escort. So I don't really get to go that often. Especially during the day."

Twilight stared at her "You're not allowed outside without an escort? Why's that?"

Scarlet visibly sagged "It's sorta a long story that has to do with Liches and death, destruction and all that."

"Wha-?" Twilight was just confused now.

"Oh, and Scarlet? If you get back before me, you're welcome to keep teaching her things. You seem to be pretty good at it. Just keep her away from the restricted section." Bones began walking towards The Archives garden exit.

"Wait, your restricted library that is accessed through the restricted section of the normal library has a restricted section?" Twilight laughed.

Bones's voice took on a serious aspect. "You can laugh, but our restricted section is restricted for a very good reason. The books there can and will kill you if you handle them improperly."

Twilight stopped laughing, fixing him with searching stare.

Bones continued. "Or possess you, or turn you into a monster, or transport you to another reality, or-"

"I think she gets it." Scarlet interrupted.

"Just making sure she understands sneaking in there is a very bad idea." Bones fixed Scarlet with a piercing look.

"Hey, I was young and stupid when I did that." Scarlet said defensively.

Bones grinned. "We both were. Now you two try to have some fun. Especially you Scarlet, I know how you get when you're stuck in here too long." He kept his tone friendly, but inwardly shivered at some of the pranks Scarlet had pulled in the past when she got bored. She had been outside much more often than usual recently though, so he didn't worry too much.

Time to meet the princess.

Thinking Fast

"Let him in." Celestia's muffled melodious voice sounded from beyond the door.

The two guards that had been arguing about whether or not to let him in were silent. Bones shot the one that had been against his entry an 'I told you so' look.

"Sorry Bones, like I said, he's new." The other guard apologized for his partner, and the two of them parted to let him in.

"Thank you." Bones said, and pushed open the door to Celestia's private chambers. He caught a few words of the guards conversation after they closed the door behind him.

"I told you, almost every other week."

"Forgive me for following procedure."

Bones thought that perhaps Celestia should invest in a thicker door for the place where she held her secret meetings. Not that she had many. Her room was surprisingly full of mostly dark colors, various shades of deep red and royal purple. There were a few selections of very comfortable looking furniture, but other than that it was surprisingly sparse. Bones spied a writing desk, and a bookcase in a corner. He wondered idly what kind of books Celestia might have tucked away there. Living as long as she had, he suspected they were of sentimental value.

"Welcome. Make yourself comfortable, anywhere is fine." Celestia was lounging on a particularly plush looking futon, made appropriately for her size. Her eyes tracked him and he made his way across the room and stood before her. When it appeared that he wasn't going to seat himself, she spoke again. "You prefer to stand?"

"For now, yes." Bones said, shifting his weight awkwardly. He was feeling slightly tense, and didn't think sitting still would help. Quite the opposite, he felt like pacing.

She smiled and shook her head a little. "Well, lets start from the beginning. Twilight gave me her perspective, but I'd like to hear the full version."

"From the beginning." Bones repeated "I suppose that would be the flower shop."

He began explaining everything that had happened on the day before last down to the smallest detail, as accurately as he could remember. Celestia stopped him when she had questions or needed clarifications or elaborations on anything, but otherwise the account was proceeding smoothly, and Bones had no trouble remembering most of the details. Due to Celestia's demands for absolute accuracy and detail, these debriefings tended to last a while, especially when she began asking exploratory questions about the inner workings of dark magic. Such questions usually led to more questions until just getting back on track was an endeavor in itself. Luckily Bones had already explained mind control to Celestia in a previous session, and she asked no questions about it. Not directly anyway. Instead she was particularly curious about the mental states of those controlled in this case, specifically Applejack; who had continued to call Sweetie Belle 'princess' even after she had requested for her not to. Celestia pressed Bones for his theories.

"Why would a mind controlled thrall disobey a direct order from its master? Especially one so easily followed." She queried.

Bones thought thought about that, and was perplexed for several seconds before coming up with a hypothesis. "I would think it might be because it is so trivial." He explained. "She was hardly in control of her own abilities as it was, she didn't even want to control anyone in the first place. It doesn't surprise me that her powers were unstable or unreliable. Or both." When he had finished, he felt that he should clarify. "Pure speculation of course. It isn't as if I have the opportunity to test this sort of thing."

Celestia quirked her brow questioningly.

Backpedaling time. "Not that I want to, of course." He gave her his most reassuring grimace.

"Of course." Celestia replied, her voice tinted with good humor. The small smile that graced her face was infectious.

Bones found himself finally relaxing. The room was warm and welcoming, and Celestia's presence had a calming effect on him as it always did. He sat himself down on a convenient pile of cushions. He found himself distinctly reminded of Luna at that moment, though he couldn't remember why.

The two of them traded a few more ideas before moving on, covering the conversation with Sweetie Belle and Bones's subsequent mistake.

"At least you stopped any of the needles from hitting the foal." Celestia pointed out, giving Bones a sympathetic look.

Between Scarlet's intervening body, clothing, and armor, Bones seriously doubted the chances of any needles getting through. He suspected the princess was just trying to make him feel better about the whole thing. He also was pretty sure that Sweetie Belle wasn't considered a foal anymore. Then again, from Celestia's point of view, Bones himself could be a foal. He wondered how she perceived time. He began playing with the idea and it was a short while before he noticed the alicorn staring at him, and figured he probably looked like he was daydreaming; which was somewhat accurate. He pulled himself back to reality.

"You are sure you are not injured?" Celestia pressed again, with only a hint of worry this time.

Bones still felt a twinge of guilt at the concern in her voice. "Not seriously. I'll be fine." He said, attempting to smile. He hated the idea of making her worry, Celestia had a way of making him feel things.

"If you're sure."

Bones continued on to tell her of Scarlet's flight and last stand, Twilight's appearance, and Bones's letter.

"Speaking of the letter. I have a question." He said, raising a hoof.

Celestia nodded to him. "Ask."

"In your reply, you said you had a solution, but as it turns out your solution was just to reveal everything to Twilight. So why did you tell me to not say any more to her?"

Celestia seemed to consider her words. "I wasn't sure exactly how much you had told her, your letter was not very specific."

Bones had just begun to form an excuse when she continued.

"Which I am sure was no fault of your own. You were no doubt in a hurry. I planned to assess how much she knew the following day, and to proceed accordingly. Since she seemed to have inferred a great deal already; and appeared to be coping with it rather well, I decided to reveal things to her. If I had thought that she couldn't handle the knowledge however-" Celestia stopped speaking, and gave Bones a tired smile. "Well, there is a reason I cannot wield the elements of harmony anymore."

It took Bones a few moments to fully comprehend the magnitude of what Celestia had just said. That was probably the most revealing thing about herself she had ever told him. The heavy implications it made about her past were definitely something to think about. He wondered what exactly she would have done if Twilight hadn't taken things so well. Obviously Celestia would never do anything to harm her protege, so he guessed she would have authorized Bones to wipe Twilight's memory. Then again, Celestia had shown an extreme dislike for the idea previously, so it was possible that she wouldn't take that option. What other choice was there there though? He supposed she could just lie to her and explain everything away, but that just seemed out of character. At least Bones thought it was out of character, how well did he really know Celestia? Especially in light of what she had just said.

"So how are things with Twilight?" She inquired, interrupting Bones's thoughts.

"Uh" Bones sputtered stupidly, scrambling for his mental bearings for the second time in the past couple minutes. "After the initial shock, she seems to be taking things rather well. Scarlet has been teaching her how to perform shield charms, she had just managed her first one before I left."

"Good that she is learning. Are you all getting along?"

"Yes, actually. Twilight and Scarlet seem to be getting along much better than I expected." Bones was glad to give her some good news.

She seemed genuinely pleased to hear it, and a full smile graced her face for a moment before it faltered. "And what about you?"

"Me and Twilight? Or Scarlet?" he asked, gesturing to himself.

Celestia gave a slight nod, perhaps out of reflex. "Both."

Bones considered the events of the past few days. "Aside from offending her with my occasional poor choice of words, Twilight and I seem to get along pretty well; but I don't think she had made her mind up about me yet. As for Scarlet, she didn't appreciate it when I left her to take care of the entire towns memories. She's been getting back at me for it, but its harmless aside from being a little annoying."

There was an expectant pause before Celestia spoke again. "Is that all?"

He did a little recap of events in his mind, trying to remember something he had missed. When he found nothing he replied "I think so. I can't think of anything else."

Celestia looked thoughtful, and her attention wandered to a place a few feet above Bones's head.

He began to wonder about what was on her mind. What does an immortal think about anyway? He had always figured that they saw the larger picture of things, and planned in long term, but he could never know for sure. It didn't feel right to ask. When the silence began to drag on, he attempted to get the princess's attention "Should I continue with the debriefing?"

Celestia returned her gaze to him, as if just remembering he was there. "Did anything significant happen after our exchange of letters?"

Bones considered that, and shook his head. "No, not really. We went to sleep shortly after that."

The princess nodded, and her sight shifted from him again, but only for a few moments. When she refocused on him, their eyes met, her brightly colored irises bore into him. Bones felt like she was looking into his soul, and for all he knew, she was.

"Luna's sky was especially beautiful on that night, was it not?" Celestia said, her voice calm, neutral.

Bones was abruptly vividly aware of Scarlet's body nestled against him, and of the crisp night air that flowed thought his mane as the two of them gazed up at the countless lights that lit the darkened sky. As quickly as the sensation began, it stopped, and he was still sitting in the princess's bedchamber. What in Equestria was that? Did Celestia do that? How? Why?

"Yes, yes it was." Celestia answered her own question. She slowly stood to her full, impressive height, regarding the door to her balcony with intent. "If there is nothing else, we can conclude this meeting."

Bones got to his hooves as well, deciding that if Celestia intended to tell him what had just happened; she would have. He could figure out what had happened later. Right now he had to be the bringer of bad news. "Actually yes, there is one thing."

She paused and turned to look at him once more. She waited, expectantly.

Bones sighed and averted his eyes, steeling himself what whatever might come next. He had made up his mind, Celestia needed to know. It was his job to tell her about black magic and its practitioners, even if it was her own sister. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Sister?" a new voice called from the direction of the door.

Bones froze, nearly shuddering as recognition flowed through him. He never really considered the possibility of recognition being a negative emotion. Perhaps it was just the accompanying dread.

"Luna?" Celestia's brow rose in surprise. "What do you need?"

That meant Celestia wasn't expecting her. Which only made Bones's suspicions as to why she was here worse.

"Would you mind if I borrowed Bones for a moment?" She sounded polite, and purposeful. It gave the impression that her request was of importance, but far from a demand.

"Of course." Celestia said, though Bones could tell she was curious as to exactly why Luna required the assistance of one of her advisers, especially this one in particular. Apparently not curious enough to ask though. "We were nearly finished here anyway." She gave her attention to Bones once again. "You wanted one last thing?"

Bones's mind raced. It was his duty to report to Celestia about any unauthorized dark magic, but Luna was right here, in the same room. She would hear everything. On top of that, he thought knew exactly why she was here, and also that she knew that he knew exactly why she was here. She didn't want him to tell Celestia about her mind games, and doing so right in front of her would be a blatant challenge against her. Concealing the truth from one of the princesses of Equestria did not sit well with him at all, but neither did did going against the direct wishes of one. Thinking on his hooves was not his strong suit, but he had to make a choice, fast.

"Do you still have those notes on necromancy I gave you a while back?"

Authors note: Sorry that took so long. What do you all think of me perhaps making the Second Chance chapter a prologue? It would certainly be a better hook, but it might set a false tone for the story since nothing that dark has happened since.