Failure, Eternally Retold, Part Three: Morality

Spike looked over his notes. "I think they have to be in a certain order, but I'm not sure what that order is." He, Celestia, Nik, Twilight and Applejack were in Luna's yurt, up near the top of the hill. Kai, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had gone to check the defenses with Princess Luna. "Any ideas?"

"They're all different colours," observed Applejack. "P'r'aps we need ta arrange 'em into some sorta pattern?" she moved some of the stones around until she came to the keystones from the solar spire, hidden haven, and the tomb of the animated. Being white, black, and grey, respectively, they didn't fit anywhere in the colour wheel. "Maybe not..."

"Is there some significance to the order in which you collected them?" asked Celestia.

Twilight shook her head. "I'm not sure, but I don't think so. Kai was pretty certain that we should go after them in a certain order, but one of them, we changed course to go after. I don't think we were supposed to do it that way, if the order was important. Even then, our journey had a start and end, and circles don't do that."

"Have we stopped ta consider that maybe this doesn't have an order? Ah find it hard ta believe that if ya jumped through all these hoops ta make it this far, the ponies what designed this whole business would make ya keep jumpin'."

Spike furrowed his brow. "What if we--"

"Princess Celestia!" A guard burst through the open tent flap. "An army of zombies is approaching from the east!"

Celestia raised her eyebrows. "Zombies? What are you talking about?"

"That's what they looked like!" confirmed the guard. "And there was this really big one that walked on two legs!"

Celestia took a deep breath. "Tell my sister to prepare for battle." The guard saluted and ran back out. "The rest of you, figure this out. The sooner we solve this, the sooner we can begin the process."

Celestia rushed to the eastern wall and looked out as far as she could into the shadow protruding from the hill in the evening sun. Sure enough, a fifty strong group of armed ponies, seemingly stitched together, was marching in a surprisingly well-organized formation. Behind them, a three metre tall bipedal creature was walking, both armed and heavily armoured. What the guard had failed to mention was that the biped had four arms.

"What in the world is that?" asked Luna, taking her place beside Celestia. "Have you ever seen anything like that before?"

"Never. But it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, we can't let it stop us from finishing this ritual. Ready the soldiers, it's time for battle."

As the soldiers rushed to their battle stations and prepared themselves for combat, Fluttershy made her way to the medical tent in preparation for any injuries that may occur. Kai and Rainbow Dash took to the front lines, ready to fight off their foe. However, as soon as he saw what they were up against, Kai rushed toward them, his bardiche at the ready. While multiple guards called him back, and others counted him as a lost cause, Rainbow admired his initiative and flew after him.

"So what's the plan," she asked. "You take the big one, I'll take the rest?"

"I just want to talk to the big one," answered Kai. "Keep your weapon down unless I tell you."

"What weapon?" Rainbow was not trained in armed combat, and was mostly relying on punches and kicks.

Kai rolled his eyes and slowed as he approached the group, still out of range of the archers. They stopped and split down the middle, creating a path for him to approach the armoured figure. "Bone."

"I have come for the fun," he grinned. He let out a loud laugh that sent a chill down Rainbow's spine. "Am I late?"

"You are," answered Kai. "However, there may be more. We've not called off the fight just yet, and would be much appreciative if you would join us in defense of the hill."

"A king of the hill match? Consider me there. But first, I believe I owe you something." Bone reached behind his back and pulled out Kai's old glaive, now repaired with a a razor sharp edge with a waving stripe pattern. "To maintain the weight that you have grown accustomed to with this glaive, I have kept the materials the same, with very slight modifications. Damascus steel blade, with an oak and teak shaft. Give that a try, and see what you think."

Kai gave the bardiche to one of the zombies, and took the glaive. It felt different than when he'd last held it, less brittle. There was no longer any rattle when he stopped suddenly on a swing, and the shaft no longer flexed in his hooves. A wide area cleared as the zombies stepped back, and he tried a few wide strikes and several tight formation techniques. It was much easier to use now. As he struck hard to the right, Bone caught the blade on one of his swords. They shared a smirk, then separated their blades. As they turned to each other and bowed, Kai's cloak fell to the side, revealing his bandages.

"You're injured?" asked Bone. "How did you manage that?"

"I was tortured," replied Kai. "It was more painful than when you broke my shoulder."

Bone scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I thought about that a few hours after you left. Sorry."

"The lakebed dome attendant fixed it right up."

"Ah. I was wondering when you would notice."

"I noticed the moment it snapped in half."

Again, Bone let out a chilling laugh. "All is well. Now, let us set up an extra layer of defense around you."

Kai looked around. "I think you'd need more soldiers to surround us."

"No shit, It's just me and a bunch of mind-controlled flesh puppets. They feel no pain, but they'll fall apart in a few days when the magic wears off."

Kai nodded, turned around, and led the group back to the outer layers of the camp. Rainbow flew ahead of him and told Luna and Celestia to instruct the archers to hold their fire. As promised, the amalgamated stitched-together flesh forces stayed outside the palisade walls, with Bone patrolling the perimeter, just waiting for the opportunity to strike out at whosoever would attack. He took his orders from Kai, rather than from the princesses, but an extra layer of protection was something they certainly weren't about to decline.