Author's Note

A little heads-up before you read: this chapter is basically one giant info-dump. Sorry to all those that don't care about this all and you're welcome to everyone else. Next chapter will be a proper one again ^^

The value of Information

After the little talk Applejack forced him into, Frosty was quite glad to hear that at least the punishment they got was alleviated, now that their claims have proven to at least be close to the truth – something that he immediately made use of by busying himself with another project of his.

He went into the Everfree, equipped with a rope and followed the path they had originally taken to get to the cave. Two Changelings were waiting for him inside of it and bowed before him as he entered.

“My lord, we have done as you ordered. We have also taken care that nopony followed us.” Pharynx reported.

“Very good. Now, I need you to tie yourself up with this.” Frosty said, levitating the rope over to the two changelings.

“Certainly, my master.”

A few seconds later, the two changelings were tied up back-to-back, sitting on their haunches.

“Is there anything else you need, my master?” The Commander asked.

“No. At least not from you directly. I am now going to run a few experiments and, as much as I hate to say this, but this requires that I remove you entirely.” Frosty stated.

“It is our purpose to serve. If we can no longer serve you then we will be honoured to join you once more.” Pharynx said, bowing his head.

“I am glad to hear that.” After saying that, Frosty sucked the synthetic souls out of the servants. Immediately after he did that, the original souls in their bodies retook control.

“What?! Where am I?! What was that just now?!” The commander shouted. “And why in Chrysalis’s name am I tied up?!”

“Oh my, you are quite the noisy type, aren’t you?” Frosty remarked, as he went over and stood before the changeling.

“You! What are you?! No normal Pony could ever have the strength to defeat an entire infiltrator cell with such ease!”

Frosty grinned from ear to ear as he looked down upon the tied up commander. “Oh, you are right – in a sense. I am probably just as much a normal pony as you are, with the difference that I don’t have to disguise myself to look the part.”

“Then what are you?! You are neither changeling, nor pony. That much I can tell.”

Frosty chuckled darkly. “Oh dear commander, that is not for you to know. But, speaking of knowing: I would like to know, where your hive is.”

“I am NOT going to tell you!” the commander shouted defiantly.

“I know… But I think I can change that.” Frosty implied, sending a rock from nearby flying for the commander’s head. It impacted near the temple, creating a small gash that drew green blood.

“OW! If you think that I would cave from such minor torture then you are utterly mistaken!”

“Oh no, never would I think that something like this would be successful. However, this little wound of yours gives me a good basis for a far more painful procedure… for you at least.”

Frosty concentrated on the cells around the wound and corrupted them with his necromancy, intending for them to infect the flesh around them and cause the other cells to die off, however nothing along those lines happened. Instead, to Frosty`s great surprise, the corrupted cells began to rapidly multiply, sealing the wound within seconds of applying his magic. Furthermore, once the wound was completely sealed, the corruption was almost immediately fought back, effectively healing the wound, without even leaving a scar.

“Huh… that’s interesting.” Frosty remarked, looking slightly baffled at the effect of his ministrations.

“HAH! You want to repeat hurting and healing me?! Sorry kid, but I’ll be damned if I let anything slip to such a laughable method!” The commander mocked.

“And so will I. But alas, I have to thank you. Your defiance has led me to a very interesting discovery.” Frosty said in a pleased tone.

“I don’t care what you’ve gained from this. I will not tell you anything, even if I have to give my life for it!”

“Oh, I know you wouldn’t, commander. However, you might help your subordinate there to tell me…”

“NEVER IN A THOUSAND YEARS would I encourage anyling to commit treason!” The commander declared.

“And I don’t need you to… in fact, I don’t even need you at all. I just need your body…” Frosty said, letting his words sink in for a moment, before he pulled the commander’s soul out, turning his body into a zombie. He then quietly commanded the zombie to stay put, while he busied himself with Pharynx.

“So… now that your commander has refused my offer, I ask you: where is your hive?”

Pharynx only showed a brief smirk, before going back to an unreadable expression. “I can’t remember that you have made an offer. All I have heard are demands and weak threats.”

“Then I will make a deal with you right now. If you tell me where your hive is, then I will let you live and escape unharmed.”

“PAH! And why would I need your promise for that?” Pharynx laughed him off. “Even if you tried to harm me, I would still just slip away.”

“Oh really? In that case…” Frosty turned his head slightly and spoke to the commander. “Commander, dinner is served.”

As soon as he said that, the commander went into a frenzy, trying to get to his promised meal, but being hindered greatly by the ties. Pharynx, however, looked completely unimpressed.

“You see: I love pitfights and I would love to see you pitted against your own commander.” Frosty stated.

“Pff, you are a terrible liar, you know that?” Pharynx laughed. “You can promise me everything you want, I don’t buy it. Your eyes are giving it away – all this time, you had never intended on actually letting me live in the end.”

“Well, you caught me there. That doesn’t mean that your death has to be painful, though. If you tell me the location of your hive, then I will make sure that your death is swift and painless.”

“I don’t fear a painful death. Give it up, you are never going to gain any information from me!” Pharynx taunted.

“I will make you go through the flames of Tartarus a thousand times over before I even think about finally letting you die!” Frosty threatened.

“Bring it.” Came Pharynx’s reply.

For a moment, both stared at each other, before Frosty continued talking. “You know, it is a shame. If you won’t tell me, then somepony else will have to. Maybe it will be your friends? Maybe your family? Whoever it will be and whatever I do to them, it will be your fault.”

Pharynx suddenly started to laugh loudly, mockingly. “Oh no… that’s just too good. We told these fillies the same thing! And you know what? Even they didn’t fall for that. As much as I don’t care about you ponies, I respected them for holding tight as long as they did. It didn’t surprise me at all that what we did to them next broke them, though.”

For a moment, Frosty fell silent, feeling anger slightly boil up inside of him. “What did you do?” He asked as neutrally as possible.

“You know, ponies aren’t really my type, but if the Queen orders it, you know… might as well enjoy it.” Pharynx implied.

“What did you do?!” Frosty asked again, this time a bit more forcefully.

“But really, these three were very young, even for my tastes. But the way they felt… OOH so absolutely gorgeous. It was as if I was poking around inside of pure love.”

“WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!”

“Well…” Pharynx leaned in a bit, almost touching Frosty’s snout as he gave him a very smug grin. “I suggest you keep a good look on them. Especially that orange one might lay some eggs in a few weeks…”

With that, every last constraint for Frosty was gone. He let out a feral scream of rage and ripped the soul out of Pharynx’s body. When he noticed what he had done, he panicked, quickly slapping the soul back inside the body to fix his mistake. The moment the soul was inserted again, the body indeed showed movement, however something seemed off… the Zombie had fallen completely silent.

“Good day, my master. How may I serve you today?” Pharynx asked the stunned Frosty.

“Master? Wait, are you a servant?” Frosty asked after a moment of stunned silence.

“A servant? Why no, my master. I am an Elder Lich.“ Pharynx answered.

“So there is more types than just servants and zombies?”

“Yes and no, my master. The ‘Zombie’, as you refer to them, is just a very low-energy form of undead. The more energy you spend in our creation, the more sentient, more intelligent and more powerful we become.” Pharynx answered.

“Ah, that makes sense. So, what is the difference between an Elder Lich and a servant?” Frosty asked further.

Pharynx seemed a bit displeased at the question, but answered anyways. “There are quite a few differences, my master. For one, the host of a servant is still alive. That brings with it that servants are better at displaying emotion, but also forces them to take in materiel sustenance. Us Elder Liches, on the other hoof, don’t feel any emotion and thus can only mimic them, however we don’t need any food whatsoever. We only need a small upkeep in soul energy to keep our flesh from rotting. Furthermore, acquiring us Liches is, mathematically speaking, cheaper than acquiring a servant, as servants actually require you, my master, to give up energy in order to create them, whereas an Elder Lich merely needs the original soul of the being it is to inhabit.”

“Okay, so what about similarities? And more importantly: if Elder Liches are so cheap, why hasn’t Equestria been overrun by them by now?” Frosty inquired further.

“To answer the first question: Both, Elder Liches and servants, can use basic necromantic abilities, like corrupting an individual’s body, and also the slightly more advanced ability of taking their opponent’s soul energy. Basically, we Elder Liches can upkeep ourselves. Also, both of us retain our host’s memories, giving us the ability to take our host’s place in their former social environment. As for the latter question: For a Necromancer to summon an Elder Lich, the Necromancer has to fulfil two conditions. Firstly: the Necromancer has to have taken the soul of at least one sapient being and secondly: they have to remain sane afterwards.”

“You mean it isn’t common for Necromancers to remain sane?”

“Indeed it would seem so. Most Necromancers are Unicorns and Unicorns channel all their magic – whether it be Necromancy or not – through their horns. Since Necromancers store their collected souls within their own, all that Energy is conducted past the user’s brain. Apparently, that causes the users to experience an emotional overload which is proportional to the power of the souls collected. Since sapient souls are the most powerful after those of alicorns, the overload they cause has seen many Necromancers go insane, if they did not outright die from the immediate effects.”

“So basically, becoming a Necromancer already in itself carries a risk of self-destruction? Huh, that would explain why I haven’t seen or heard of anyone other than me… Say, how do you know all of that? It just seems a little weird that the servants and undead I created know more about my abilities than I know myself.” Frosty asked further.

“Why, because we are connected to the great expanse, of course! Just like you are, my master!”

“The great expanse? What is that?” Frosty asked almost sheepishly.

Pharynx looked a bit confused, but shrugged it off as a simple lack of terminology and knowledge. “The great expanse, my lord, is the collective knowledge of every necromancer that lived and lives and contains every piece of knowledge regarding necromancy that your predecessors have collected over time.”

“Oh really? Heh, that sounds like a very neat thing to have.” Frosty remarked.

“Quite indeed sir, but… excuse me if this question is disrespectful towards you, my master, but are you not connected to the expanse?” Pharynx inquired tentatively.

“I’m afraid not. Maybe it is because I’m not from this world… say, how exactly does the expanse work?”

“In theory, it is very simple. Once a Necromancer has found out about something new regarding necromancy, it is automatically added to the pool of knowledge, whether they like it or not. The closest analogy I could provide to this would be an art gallery that magically acquired every single painting in existence the moment it was finished.” Pharynx described.

“Did my new findings get added to it?”

“Not as far as I am aware. Granted, you cannot trace back, which exact individual the knowledge came from, but you can feel the age of it. Currently, it seems as if there haven’t been any new findings in over five thousand years.”

Frosty rubbed his chin slightly. “Well, that would certainly explain, why there is so little written about Necromancers. If we assume that a Necromancer has to be at least somewhat active to discover something new, it is safe to say that the last actually active Necromancer died over five thousand years ago.”

“That stands to reason, yes. Even so, or rather because of it, I would advise caution, my master. As you might already know, Necromancers cannot die in the traditional way, meaning that every Necromancer since has either gone insane or been eliminated by an outside force.” Pharynx cautioned.

“Indeed, which is why my next question is: how do Necromancers die?”

“Generally, if your body is destroyed, your soul will use up its excess energy to rebuild it. This process will start, even if your body is completely atomized, but will take more energy, according to the degree of destruction. If you don’t have enough energy for a full recovery, you will only regain a portion of your original body, with the rest being added once enough energy is available. That is, if you are lucky enough that that portion is able to sustain itself long enough. If you completely run out of energy, then your soul will vanish. Nopony knows exactly what happens afterwards, other than that you are gone. As for the acquisition of the energy, there are three steps that your soul will go through in an attempt to acquire energy: At first, it searches the immediate area for anything that lives. Should there be nothing then you will receive energy from your servants and undead in the order of their distance to you. Lastly, if the other two fail, your soul will tap its own resources.”

“Ah, well thank you very much. That should be enough information for now. I guess I should be heading back to Ponyville now. In the meantime, I would like you to take as much changeling equipment back here, there might be something useful in there. The former Commander will help you with this.” Frosty commanded.

“Yes sir, it will be done.” Pharynx confirmed.

“Good. Also, you will serve as my personal access to this ‘great expanse’ from now on.”

Pharynx’s eyes lit up for a moment and he made a deep bow. “I feel honoured that you bestow such great responsibility to me, my master.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll be off now.” Frosty said, leaving the cave.