Author's Note

[Comedy][Implied Gore]

This is a riff on Rambling Writer's Death Valley (224,825 words, [Dark][Adventure][Drama])

HERE LIE SPOILERS: What should have been a routine bit of ley line sanitation turns out to be anything but, with a remote town in the Frozen North hiding layer upon layer of secrets. And one of the mares (and one kirin) who helps unravel it was a lich's apprentice just a few years ago. When all's said and done, Twilight herself notes that Amanita is well on her way to becoming a legend in her own right.

Credit for the first line goes to TCC56.

FoME's Exhumed History (Rambling Writer's "Death Valley")

"Oh. My. Glitter." Sunny Starscout dropped the book in her hooves out of shock and called out to the other mares in the Crystal Brighthouse. "GIRLS! You have got to read what I just found in Dad's journals!"

Before they could even answer, she was digging through the boxes of what they'd been able to salvage from Opaline's palace. Not much had survived the Together Tree eating the place whole, but she and Misty had been able to find some books at the base. Now it was just a matter of cross-referencing it with her father's research, and...

"Zipp and Pipp had to fly home for some royal pony business," Izzy said as she came into the storage room. "What's got you so excited?"

Sunny triumphantly held up the book where she'd seen the name in her father's journal before. "This!"

Izzy took it in her magic and squinted at the cover, puzzling out the title. "Necromancy?"

"The magic of the dead." Sunny pranced in place. "By Amanita, the mother of moral necromancy herself! Dad thought she was just a myth, like the Great Seedling or Sunset Shimmer, but we have a primary source!"

After flipping through a few pages, Izzy nodded in understanding. "Ohhh, wet unicycling."

That stopped Sunny in her tracks. "Uh, 'wet' unicycling?"

"Sure! Ponies wear out just like anything else. Not the best material, but you make do with what you have in the Bridlewood." Izzy wrinkled her muzzle. "Though leatherworking stinks, literally. So, what kind of stuff did this Amanita do?"

After a few false starts, Sunny grimaced and said, "You know what? I'm going to need to get used to this kind of thing if I'm going to look into her research."

"Don't leave me out of it." Izzy kept paging through the book, her smile widening. "I've already got some ideas for upgrading Señor Butterscotch."

Sunny shuddered as some of Argyle's more dire speculation came to mind. "Please don't cause a zombie apocalypse, Izzy."

"Relaaaax, I don't even know what that is!"

Living in interesting times was a lot better than the old curse made it out to be, but Sunny had to admit, it wasn't all magical friendship rainbows. "We'll do it together. And maybe get Misty to supervise."

Misty chose that moment to arrive. "Oh, that was Amanita's primer. Opaline always called it 'Necromancy for Cowards,' but she never told me why."

Looking from one eager unicorn to the other, Sunny contemplated the potential consequences of tampering in death's domain.

Three seconds later, she grinned and said, "Well, let's find out!"

Hitch looked up from his paperwork. "Huh. A sudden sense of impending doom. That's the third one today. I should probably check on the girls when I'm through."