"And you're sure that you really snapped its neck?"

Twilight sat in her reading area, flicking through pages of old books, tryiong to find out, what kind of Dragon I had encountered. We came here immediately after we awoke in the morning from our... little adventure. Well, actually I awoke in the morning, and forced Rainbow to come along. Although, honestly, she can be mighty cute when she's groggy. So cute in fact, that I almost gave in to her pleas and let her sleep.

"Yes, like I told you. I made sure that I had him in place and then I bit down. I even felt the bones crunch and rub against my theeth as I did so."

Twilight and Starlight shivered at the description. Even though they had been present during quite a few of his fights, they've never really overcome the fact that he was a carnivore and things like these were normal for him.

"Yeah, right... anyhow, is there anything else that was weird about it? Did it behave weirdly, only walked on three legs or maybe bounced around like Pinkie or something?" Twilight asked, after striking through a few of her listed possibilities.

"Well, it did seem to have a conscience of some sort... at least it basically ripped itself apart after seeing Fruitbite..."

"Fruitbite? How did that little colt get there?" Twilight asked slightly shocked.

"Eh, he was paying me a visit last night, because reasons, and originally, when I heard that roar, I told him to go home. Well, you can see how that turned out." I said in annoyance. "Although I've got to admit that it was only because he didn't listen to me that we got this thing killed, 'cause I was kinda tired already."

"Pffff, a little colt rescuing a giant Dragon, Pfwahahaha, that's too good to be true!" Rainbow laughed from her chair.

I shot her a short glare. "Need I remind you, who passed out, peeing all over herself? Or who carried you home and put you into bed, only for you to grab my arm and pull me in with you?"

Rainbow sputtered, before she shot up into the air and hovered right before him. "Hey! Just so you know, I passed out because I was hurt bad and I was unconcious when I did that other stuff! Also, even if I'd been conscious back then, how should I know that... that..." Her face suddenly flushed red and she quickly looked to the side. She then flew back to her seat, where she crossed her forehooves before her chest and pouted, mumbling something to herself.

"Ooo... kay... Wait, 'pulled you in'? How did she manage that? I mean you may be roughly in our size range now, but you still have your old weight, right? How did you even manage to stand on the clouds?" Twilight asked with a suspicous gaze.

"Euh, secret Dragon powers?" Alex answered with an uneasy smile

"Right..." Twilight said with narrowed eyes. "Anyhow, what about its physique? did anything strike you as odd?"

I thought for a moment. Not about what struck me as odd, mind you, but about a way how to tell them. I mean, I couldn't just tell them that literally the god of their world gave me some side onfo, right?

"No, you can't! I would really like to avoid refreshing this whole 'Faust' thing. *Shudder* You can't imagine how hard it was getting that out of their system!"

Yeah, I know, don't worry.

"You saying 'Don't worry' only makes me worry more, you know that?"

"Well, there was something with its flesh... it somehow felt like it shouldn't have been there..." I described vaguely.

"What, like it was an illusion or something?" Starlight asked.

"No, more like it wasn't the flesh of a Dragon. It actually tasted more like... yeah, well, I better not speak any further."

Every pony in the room shuddered, when they understood what Alex was implying. They all stared at him for a tense, uneasy moment, before Twilight coughed and broke the silence. "Yeaaah... let's not think about that for now... So, you say that think was an Amalgamation of sorts? That would certainly explain it suddenly falling apart, but that doesn't explain, how it could stand back up after you bit its neck."

Twilight started to pace throuhg the Library again, going in circles around the open space in the middle.

"Well, maybe it's some kind of undead?" I proposed.

"Unlikely. Undead don't usually have that much skin or flesh still on them, because the dark magic makes it rot away. Unless..." Twilight quickly darted over to one of her bookshelves, where she pulled one of the books halfway out of its place. The whole room started to shake and the shelf suddenly began to move to the side, revealing a secret chamber with another, smaller shelf of books.

"A secret room? Wow, and here I thought only I had those back in my town." Starlight mused, receiving two very unamused looks from Twilight and Rainbow. "Hehe, yeah, right, not funny..."

"Exactly. And yes, I have a secret room in here. After all, I cannot study dark magic without making sure that I am undisturbed." Twilight said.

"Wait, dark magic? You study dark magic in here? Butt... uhm, isn't that kinda dangerous? Not that I'm afraid, of course." Rainbow asked insecurely.

"Only if I were to fully let those spells consume me. However, since I only ever give them a tiny fraction of what they'd need to fully consume me, I'm perfectly safe. Plus: the spells aren't that powerful that way, so the aftermath is easier to clean up. Still almost burned my whole library with that last one, though..." Twilight explained, while rummaging through one of the shelves, in search for a book. "Also, even if I were to be consumed, the Tree is keeping copies of our memories and minds as backup, in case we get corrupted."

"Ah, I s- wait a second, the tree is keeping copies of our memories and minds? As in, it knows what we think?" Rainbow asked uneasily, while covering the top of her head with her hooves.

"Umm, that is a very unrefined way of putting it, but yeah, kinda." Twilight answered.

"What we like, what we hate, what we thought and did, everything?" Rainbow mildly panicked.

"Yyyyeah? Why are you getting so worked up over it?" Twilight seemed more than suspicious by now.

"W-worked up? Nahahaha, me, getting worked up? No, I'm not getting worked up." Rainbow defended weakly.

"Of course, you're not getting worked up. Definitely not scared of having your darkest fantasies and wildest fetishes discovered, aren't we?" I teased her.

"What? Fetishes? Fantasies? Pff, nah, I'm too awesome for mushy stuff like that!" Rainbow proclaimed, getting some shades out of nowhere and putting them on her muzzle.

"Of course you are. After all, that would simply be too... devillish for you..." I teased even further, causing her eyes to widen behind her shades and her cheeks to darken.

Starlight and Twilight both looked at us with varying levels of confusion and curiosity. "You know, you're acting pretty weird to day... Has something happened between you two?" Starlight asked curiously.

"Nope!" Rainbow and I quickly said together, only causing their confused looks to harden.

"Right... well, whatever, I found the book that I was looking for. Hold on a second." Twilight said, before quickly burying her nose within the pages of a pretty old looking book. Its cover looked torn in many places and the material looked to be... leather? Well, that was certainly rare... though seeing as it was a book about dark magic, it was hardly surprising.

Anyhow, she flicked a few pages, seemingly searching for something, when suddenly her eyes widened and she exclaimed. "Found it!"

All attention was on Twilight as she showed us a page with weird-looking texts and a few pictures, most of them showing ponies in various states of decay, as well as a single one that was showing an obviously undead pony on the left, a pony that looked pretty much alive and an equal-sign between them.

We all looked in wonder upon the pictures. However, when it came to the actual texts, we all could just stare dumbly. What I first thought to be just a very lousy handwriting, or rather hoofwriting, turned out to be an entirely different language. Twilight noticed our estranged looks, before she turned the page around and blushed slightly in embarassment, apparently having forgotten that none of us can read... whatever language that was.

"Eheheh... sorry." She she laughed uncomfortably, before clearing her throat and reading aloud. "Necromancy, Subchapter: The perfect Undead. As you, fellow Necromancer, by have surely noticed, our craft relies heavily on the fine workings of the system. As described in the previous chapter, when raising the dead, we use our magic powers to transfer a dead sould into the state of living. However, when doing so, we can only ever lift part of the sould we have aimed for. That is, why the Undead can only support a fraction of their original body's flesh and they can be destroyed easily. That much you know already. However, in theory, it is possible to pull the whole soul back into the state of life. This would require enormous amounts of energy, not only to lift the soul, but also to trap it in her renewed life. Should this endeavour be successful, then the created Undead would not only possess their original living appearance, but also be capable of most functions of life, including reproduction. Also, they would be virtually invincible, as long as their soul is kept stable."

Starlight and I nodded in acknowledgement, while Rainbow had already dozed off after just a few words. Though, there was one thing that was picking on the back of my mind. "What does it mean with 'the system', though?" I asked.

"In Necromancy, life and death aren't seen individually, but as states within the same system. Just like matter always seeks to reach a state of minimal energy, so do souls seek to transfer from the high-energy state of life into the low-energy state of death." Twilight explained.

"I could've told you too, you know?"

Yeah, I know, but if anyone were to ask how I know that then I'm not sure if I could keep you secret for much longer.

"Yeah, alright. Thanks by the way. For keeping me secret 'n stuff."

"But that's hardly what we were looking for." Twilight suddenly said, ripping me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked intelligently.

"I mean, it clearly states here that it's only possible in theory. That doesn't mean that it's actually possible." Twilight dismissed.

"Yet, we have seen something that clearly fits this description." I argued against it.

"Well, then you must have seen things the wrong way! Besides, this would be the ultimate worst-case scenario and-"

"Twilight!" I interrupted her. I knelt down and grabbed her shoulders, looking directly into her clearly panicking eyes. "I know this is bad, but especially because it is a worst-case scenario, we can't just dismiss it. Just think of what happened at the wedding, when everyone dismissed you and thus almost doomed all of Equestria to be Chrysalis's love-slaves!"

"That sounds wrong in way too many ways and you know it."

Twilight let her head fall slightly, trying to breathe off her incoming panic-attac, which was already causing her to tremble in my grasp. After a few heavy breaths, her head shot up with a look of determination on her face. "You're right, we cannot take this lightly, we have to act fast. Starlight, I want you to scan the area around Ponyville for any signs of dark magic and immediately tell me, when you find something." Starlight nodded and gallopped out of the room. "Rainbow, you... Rainbow?"

Twilight tilted her head in wonder, as she saw her friend sleep in mid-air, her wings flapping automatically to keep her aloft. I couldn't help but take this chance. I charged up just a very minimal lightning odem and then...

*bzzt* "AAAAAAH!"

Rainbow shot to the ceiling as if she had just been stung by a bee. (Well, what a giant bee I am.) She looked around, trying to find her assailant, before looking down to us and seeing our amused faces.

"Ehm, ehehe, umm, I wasn't scared!" she said sheepishly.

"Of course you weren't" We both deadpanned.

"Anyways, rainbow, I want you to patrol the area in and around Ponyville, in case there are more of these things. Especialy the Everfree Forest!" Twilight commanded.

"On it!" Rainbow snapped a salute and flew off, leaving us two alone in the room.

Twilight looked over to me, shifting slightly in place, as if she felt uncomfortable, being alone with me now...

"So? Any tasks for me?" I asked, snapping her out of whatever thought she was just having.

"Ah... n-no, just... two questions." She said, slightly nervous. "First off... what happened between you and Rainbow? Anything you'd want to talk about?"

I felt small beads of sweat form behind my scales. Could I really just admit to her that... that I basically cheated on her? Not only that, but even just a few days after we had become a couple? Sorta... On the other hand, I definitely didn't want to lie to her, as I felt that it would just make it all worse than it already was.

I'm in some deep shit...

"Eh, could be worse."

"Well... yeah, something has happened, but... I currently don't want to talk about it. I promise, I will tell you when I'm ready to, but... not now." I said, hoping that she would accept it.

"Ok. Just don't get too worked up about it, alright? you know how important you are to me." Twilight answered, shortly followed by her rearing up to give me a short peck on my lips.

Phew, crisis averted... for now.

"So.. what's your other question?" I asked hesitantly. When i did so, Twilight suddenly tensed up. Her heartrate quickened and her ears were swiveling faster than a radar on overdrive.* She tried to retreat backwards, but my claws were still on her barrel, so she just lightly pushed into them. I knew this behaviour. After all, even if she was intelligent, deep in her core, she was still a prey animal and this were her primal instincts telling her that a predator was near and she had to flee.

"Whe-when you didn't want to- to elaborate... It... It tasted like Ponies, didn't it? You know the taste of Ponies, which means that... that you've eaten... Ponies." She started trembling harder, her body apparently revving up its engine to make a mad dash should it need to.

I'm in some deep shit... again.

"Agreed."

Of course, I hadn't eaten any ponies... yet. I didn't want to elaborate, because I was covering for Navi and I thought that they would think it must've been told me by someone, because they trust that I don't eat Ponies. Apparently I was wrong with that one though, seeing as I now held a trembling Twilight in my arms. I must admit, it kinda hurt, but seeing as deep down, they're still prey, I think I kinda understand.

Still, even if I understand, I had to come up with something to say. I couldn't just tell her about Navi, now that I'd covered so much for him already, but I also hadn't eaten any ponies whose names I could spill. However, there was a pair of freeloaders, who met a very... fiery end.

"Uhm... well... do you remember the FlimFlam brothers?" I implied.

As a reaction, Twilight pressed her head into my left shoulder and whimpered slightly. She was breathing heavily and her tremble didn't stop either.

"When you... when you look at me, or ponies in general... do you get the urge to... eat us?."

"No." I said, although it apparently served little to calm her.

"R-really? Not even... a little?" She asked fearfully. I knew I had to do something to calm her, so I went to make my worst mistake that morning.

"Well, I've got to admit, having you pressed so tightly against me gives me the urge to eat something else entirely." I said in the most seductive way I could muster.

And with that, my attempt to make a turn for the sexy failed utterly. all I had managed with that was that Twilight somehow started trembling even harder than before and tightened her grip around me.

"Sorry." I apologized.

"I-It's alright. Just..." She paused and took a few laboured breaths, before continuing. "Let's just not talk about this again..."

"Agreed.

Meanwhile, somewhere in a dark cave, an evil mastermind was sitting in his lair and admiring his work. His black claw softly stroked over the orb the other was holding and his wings twitched ever so slightly, as he felt the surges of power, the orb was emanating. He sat in the middle of the dimly lit main hall of his lair. Before him, there stood about twenty ponies, which had recently found their ends at his assitant's hooves, but were now brought back to un-life with the help of his most valuable treasure. He eyed each of them closely, almost lovingly. Like a father would to his sons. His absolutely beautiful sons. Not in the way of appearances, but in the way that they all followed his every command, no matter how absurd or even dangerous it may be. To them, life was meaningless, as was death. They could not die, but they also weren't truly alive.

Just then a yellow stallion of the living sort entered the room and on his back, there was even more material for the new, magnificient army that they were creating. However, something seemed amiss.

"These are alot less than in the past. Have you grown incompetent or how do you explain your lacking results?" The master questioned, with a threatening undertone in his voice.

"Yo master, please don't speak that voice. And please believe me that I didn't have any choice. The dragon was destroyed and I think they know, so we should really hurry and star up the show!" Bang reported.

"Have they now... interesting. While that Dragon was only a test run, I did expect it to last a bit longer... Very well, seeing as this 'Alex' seems to grow in power quicker than I had anticipated, I will use up what we have and then fill up the ranks with a few hundred lesser undead." The master mused. He then turned to his still loyal servant and, for the first time since they have met, seemed to smile warmly down upon him. "Ready yourself, Big Bang, for you will be the stallion to lead our Army to victory."

Big Bang just stood there for a moment, shocked over what had just been said. when his master didn't revoke his decision, though, he beamed in glee over his new task. Never before had he imagined, that he would be allowed to serve his master in such an important role and he was determined to fulfill his task, no matter what may come.

Author's Note

*Thank you, MikiStenbeck, for that one ^^

Also, a little update on the progress of the story: You remember me mentioning a timelimit, right? well, turns out that it's this saturday. oops. Don't worry, though, as this story is coming to a close shortly anyways, so you won't miss out on anything.

Number of chapters to go? -> 2 after this one.
Out of which how many have porn segments? -> 1.
Any more bonus chapters? What about an epilogue or something? -> No to both, 'cause I have no further ideas for bonus chapters and technically, this story already has an epilogue and it would feel weird to have two epilogues.