Roses for the Grave

Chapters

Ch1: Investigation
Ch2: Allegations and Obligations
Ch3: A Second Chance
Ch4: Fleeting Shadows
Ch6: Building Normalcy
Ch7: The Long Week
Ch8: Welcome to Ponyville
Ch9: To be Normal
Ch10: A Gift from the Grave
Ch11: Fear Not the Dark
Ch12: Fools 'n Ghosts
Ch13: Lucky Cricket
Ch14: Bugger All
Prologue: Ghost Town
Ch5: A Place to Call Home

Ch1: Investigation

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch1: Investigation

“Hmm,” a yellow unicorn stallion pondered as he examined the corpse before him. He wore a brown fedora and a long overcoat of matching color, but it didn’t cover his cutie mark, a magnifying glass. the detective had his own floating right before him so he could closely examine the details of the previously undead mare. It had been a few nights since the fateful encounter and word had immediately been sent to Canterlot. A batch of soldiers had been dispatched to the town along with an investigator to deduce what caused this rare situation to surface.

Within the room of the old shack where the body was being kept, stood three more stallions. One was one of the Canterlot guards, white coated earth pony brandished in the gold plated uniform of the army. Sky blue eyes stared intently at the decayed creature, but he remained stalwart and showed no emotion. He was to assist the inspector as well as guard him in whatever way he could.

Watching from the side was a very old pony. He was probably the oldest in town by far, but still had a lot of life in him. The old coot had a dirt colored coat, a trait that seemed to be very common in this ghastly town. However, he also sported a long white beard that covered his mouth and fell a little ways just below his chin. He had wrinkles here and there, but he was very well built, thanks to working the graves for who knows how long. His cutie mark was that of two shovels crossing each other with the handles pointing up. Unlike everypony else, he forgo wearing anything.

Next to him, was another dark chocolate stallion, his grandson. Who was the unfortunate soul to run across the undead mare and had been given the displeasure to strike down the creature shortly after her discovery. After ending her life he had cried for a short while. Partly out of happiness for still being alive, but more so for ending the existence of this abomination, that somehow seemed like an innocent bystander. It was an odd thought to say the least, but it kept nagging him even as he went home to tell the other gravediggers what had happened. Word quickly got out in the town about the encounter and everypony began to avoid the cemetery like the plague. Easier said than done.

“Ah hah!” The inspector exclaimed, causing all the gentlecolts to shoot him an expectant glance of anticipation. The inspector went on, “I have determined with my investigative skills that…” He paused for a moment to cause a bit of a dramatic effect. The other stallions in the room leaned forward eager to learn more. He then finished his statement, “…this mare is dead!”

The officer who was supposed to guard him facehoofed, while the grandson sighed at learning nothing new, and the old pony fumed at him, “I could of told you that captain obvious!” He gritted his teeth angrily.

The inspector retorted, “That’s Detective Details. Captain Obvious was busy with paper work so I was called in,” Before the grandfather could ask if that had been a joke or if there really was some pony called Captain Obvious, Detective Details turned to the grandson and asked, “You’re the one who found the body correct? What was your name again?”

“Dig Dug, sir. And….” He was interrupted before he even began to speak.

“You say it… she was digging a grave correct? Whose grave was it?” He asked as he pulled out a note pad with his magic and got a pencil ready.

The grandfather interjected before Dig Dug could answer, “Some pony named Blue Rhapsody,” he said with a bit of irritation and as he slowly began to lose his patience.

The detective looked up. “Wait, you mean the composer?” He perked up with a bit of excitement.

The old colt raised an eyebrow. “The what? You know somehow know this pony?”

“Not personally, but she composed a few famous classical pieces before her untimely demise. My history is a bit rough, but I believe she lived between three or five hundred years ago,” he replied as he then added on a bit of his own humor, “I bet you met her Gray Beard.” Details chuckled lightly at his lame joke.

“That’s Old Beard!” Old Beard retorted, fuming at the hot shot detective.

“Now, you said you had also dug up the grave to see what this… mare was digging up?” He felt uncomfortable referring to the once undead pony as a mare, but he knew better than to make something so presumptuous as to call her a thing.

Old Beard walked closer. “Ay, we dug up the grave and found that it was completely empty. Never been disturbed before this creature started digging into it.” He shook his head at the decaying corpse. It was an incomprehensible oddity to him for the dead to disturb the dead. “I also worry what became of that grave’s owner. I fear she might be walking around now just like this one.”

Details looked over the mare again and motioned his bodyguard to come closer as he examined her cutie mark. “What do you noticed about her cutie mark, Giant Wall?”

The royal guard known as Giant Wall got closer and looked it over. Old Beard also budged in to get a good look as well. The soldier took a good look at the mares flank for a while and just shook his head. “Looks like piece of paper to me. I don’t see what's so special about it.” He noticed the detective smiling knowingly.

“Yes, it is some piece of paper, but what you need to look at is what’s on the paper!” He grinned as he magically brought up his magnifying glass and hovered it over the mark, “What do you see?”

Peering closer than before he could make out the words that adored the paper, but they weren’t just any mere scribble. They were in fact, music notes! A bit of realization hit Giant Wall. “It’s… a music sheet….”

“So?” Old Beard replied not making the connection.

Detective Details just sighed and shook his head, “It’s a music sheet my friend. So, one could assume this mare had a talent for music. And how many mares with music related professions do we know that are missing from their grave?” He smiled again.

“Wait, you’re saying this thing is–"

“That’s correct. This is the famous Blue Rhapsody!” he said with a bit of triumph, but he quickly frowned. "This would explain why she was digging up her own grave. She was probably trying to get back into her resting place. However, that doesn’t explain how she got out of it in the first place.” He sighed dejectedly as he came back to square one.

There was a quiet peep from the corner of the room as Dig Dug raised his voice, “Uh, Detective Details?” He was still a bit shaken up by everything and was nervous to speak up.

“Yes, Dig Dug?” He turned to him as a friendly smile plastered his face.

“Well, over the past few years we’ve had some odd things happen in the graveyard...” he trailed off to collect his thoughts.

“Odd things?” He motioned at the corpse. “Odder than this?”

“No, but strange things have been happening. Like mist and fog coming out of nowhere and covering the entire cemetery. Then there were the dug up graves and missing bodies…” He was quickly interrupted by a surprised detective.

“Wait, you mean to tell me that some pony has been going around and digging up the dead? And this never struck you as odd?” He became very suspicious of the young colt.

Old Beard spoke up with a hint of anger, “Of course is struck us as odd! Some days we would find freshly buried graves or disturbed ground as if a gopher had dug out of them. Other days we would find graves dug up, but the body completely undisturbed. Then some mornings we found the graves dug up with a note attached to the tombstone with an apology on it. And not too long afterword the body would be returned with another note apologizing and offering condolences! It was the strangest thing...”

“A grave robber who leaves an apology? Do you still have the notes?” He asked hoping for a lead. Old Beard nodded to him and went to a cupboard and pulled out a few white slips and hoofed them over to the detective. Most of the notes had generic apologies like, “Sorry for your loss and for taking the body". Others were apologizing and trying to explain that it was of utmost importance that they had the body, but never went into details as to why.

Old Beard began to explain, “We were quite upset when this started to happen, but the bodies were always returned and sometimes in better condition than they had originally been in. Usually the notes were left for freshly buried corpses. I don’t like think about what they needed them for, but it never felt like they desecrated them. We were even grateful when one body that had been completely destroyed was returned in perfect condition. You would never have suspected they had been broken into bits. Figure they had died in their sleep.” He chuckled lightly, but then noticed the hardened look on the detectives face.

He breathed in deeply and sighed, “I had heard of cases where sometimes magical energies could cause inanimate objects to start moving again. I had hoped that might have been the case or that maybe this was just some random mare with a skin disease. However, after hearing all of that it leads to the one conclusion I was hoping to be wrong.”

“And that would be?” Giant Wall asked looking back at the corpse.

He grimaced and his horn glowed orange as he cast a simple spell. The body of the mare started to glow as dark purple smoke began to drift from the body almost like an odor. This caused the detective to grind his teeth.

“W-what is that?” Dig Dug stammered out as he watched this all happen.

The Detective answered with a bit of reluctance, “That is leftover magical energy escaping her body. Sometimes spells will leave an invisible residue for some time after being cast. Usually when hastily cast or if the caster doesn't care about leaving a mark.”

Detective Detail took a deep breath and uttered the type of magic that was feared and loathed, “I have only one possible conclusion; Necromancy…”

The eyes of the other stallions went wide. Despite them being earth ponies with limited knowledge of magic, except for Giant Wall, Necromancy was still something not unknown to them. It was one of the blackest sheep of all spell schools. One of the spell types that gave magic and unicorns a bad name. It was the go to spells when the less modern and less tolerant of ponies wanted their kids to fear and hate unicorns or magic.

Great Wall finally spoke up, “You mean there’s a Necromancer somewhere in this forsaken town?!” He got a few queer looks from the two residents of said town, but they were still chilled by the revelation to berate the soldier. Great Wall continued to speak, “We must inform Princess Celestia immediately and find this fiend at once!”

Details nodded in agreement, “Yes, have a messenger send word to the princess immediately and make sure all the guards know that no pony is to leave this town, understood?”

The large soldier saluted with one hoof and trotted out of the small shack to send word and give the others their orders.

Dig Dug spoke again, doing his best to have courage in his voice, “What should we do?”

The Detective rubbed his fedora and then sighed, “I think Miss Rhapsody deserves to be laid to rest. Wouldn’t you agree?” The young stallion grimaced, but he nodded in agreement. He wasn’t too keen to go back out there, but he was reassured by the detective.

“I’ll make sure to send a guard or two to help you.” His attention quickly turned to Old Beard. “I need you to give me a list of every unicorn within the town and how long they’ve lived here if possible. Necromancy requires magic so that eliminates a lot of possibilities, but I can’t have guards arresting ponies left and right without some kind of proof.”

Old Beard smiled, “Well your search will be quite short. Mostly earth ponies in this town and if I remember correctly one particular couple has only been around for a few years.”

The detective a gave sly smile back at the old coot. “That most definitely helps. I’ll still want a list of every pony else. I’m not eliminating any possibility.” He then started to trot to the door. “I need to handle a few other things, but I’ll be back shortly for that list. Where is this couple anyway?”

Old Beard chuckled. “They run the magic shop in that large dead tree.”

Details stared blankly then laughed and struggled with his reply, “This… is almost too easy.” He winked and rushed out, determine to arrest this necromancer before he would know what hit him.

Giant Wall was finishing barking out orders when Details trotted up to him, his brow furrowed in thought as he approached. He gave him a small smile before motioning him over. "Wall, mind if I talk to you?" He looked over at some of the other guards and then whispered, "In private?"

The guardspony only nodded with only slight concern as to why the detective wanted to speak to him alone. The two trotted off to an alley between two houses for their little chit-chat.

Details sat down as he tapped his chin and knocked the side of his head lightly with one hoof. Something was obviously bothering him, but Giant Wall wasn't going to press him for it until he was ready to speak up. As the silence between the two started to draw out he began to shift uncomfortably.

"Wall," Detective Details began quickly catching the guards attention, "this might just be my imagination or insignificant, but I just want to talk it out with somepony without causing a panic." Giant Wall just nodded while the inspector continued, "There's some oddity's about the corpse that aren't adding up and I'm wondering if I'm missing something."

"Like what?" He asked simply, giving Details' his full undivided attention.

"That mare, Blue Rhapsody, died some hundred years ago." He was merely stating fact and didn't wait for Giant Wall to respond. "Yet, if you looked at her corpse you would never suspect that. It almost looked like she died somewhat recently. The decay suggests only a few years."

"Well, didn't Old Beard say that the bodies were sometimes returned in like new condition? Is necromancy capable of repairing a dead body?" Giant Wall was only making a guess on this.

"While I'm unfamiliar with the art, I believe it to be possible. However, why was she not returned fully repaired like the others? I know part of it was the injury from when the lad that struck her, but some of the decay on her was... unnatural. I saw signs of magical based injuries."

"So?"

"These injuries originated internally, not externally. That suggests the magic that was driving her possibly began to rapidly destroy her from the inside." The detective hummed to himself as he got lost in thought again. "It's obvious this necromancer was experimenting with all these bodies."

"And you believe these injuries were a result of one their experiments?" Giant Wall queried to make sure he was on the same page.

Details nodded as he confirmed the question, "Yes, but it seems whatever went wrong made them want to quickly get rid of the body and be washed clean of it. Didn't even bother to fix her up again. Which brings me to the last and strangest thing of all."

"And that is?"

"Her blood. It was fresh, way too fresh. Almost like she had a recent transfusion, but I don't see why this Necromancer would bother with such a thing. Even if necromancy could somehow produce fresh blood, why would they even bother giving it to a walking corpse?"

"Why bother raising the dead in the first place?" Giant Wall quipped.

The detective chuckled. "Fair point, but I think this is something the princess will be most curious about. Whoever this necromancer is, they have a lot to answer to..."

Author's Note

UPDATE 7/4/2016:
Removed "(Updated)" from the chapter title.

UPDATE 2/23/2014:
Proofread the whole chapter. Cleaned up some of the writing, adjusted some of the conversations, and I added a bonus scene. For those who already read the story it's at the very end of the chapter. I think you'll find it most interesting!

UPDATE:
I got rid of the old Author's notes. They were placed there before fimfiction added an Author's note section. I also retconned one small thing. If you read before the update you haven't missed much. Just retconned the bit about magical residue and changed it so that it only sometimes is left behind if a spell is cast hastily. Don't want it to be easy to track necomancy. Fixed some grammar, but nothing in depth.

Ch2: Allegations and Obligations

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch2: Allegations and Obligations

Detective Details rubbed his chin as he looked upon the town’s magic shop. It had been built into a giant, decaying tree. The wood was completely black almost as if it had been charred from a fire. Not a single leaf anywhere on it, though something that would be normal in the fall, it was a little out of place for a tree in the fresh spring. Then again a lot of things were out of place in this depressing town.

A few small windows were placed here and there, two at the front near entrance where a dark purple door stood and another two near the top where the branches began. The tree had incredible girth allowing plenty of room inside while also having an impressive height that was nearly three stories high. Above the entrance was a little hanging sign with a unicorns head and a bit of a spark emitting from the horn. Below it were the words, “Magic Shop” done in dull yellow against a green background.

A single word could describe this place; eyesore. As gloomy as this town was, this decaying tree, while maybe fitting for the graveyard, didn’t really sit well in this town. If this had been one of the more colorful towns Details bet the ponies would have wanted this tree torn down. If this had been in Canterlot with the stuck up nobles, they’d burn down the tree themselves without even trying to petition for its removal. That or Princess Celestia herself would have removed such a tree to stop the nobles from whining. He didn’t envy the princess’ job one bit.

The front door held a little sign on it with the word open on it, but looking at the tree and the windows, now noticing that all the windows had black shades drawn to prevent any light from entering, one would wonder if it really was open for buisness. The detective second guessed himself for a moment before reaching out to open the door.

Before his hoof touched the door his name was called out, “Detective Details!” He turned his head to see Giant Wall approaching him. His armor still managed to shine even with how gray and dull the day was. Weather pegasi didn’t seem to work much this far up north.

Details finally acknowledged the guard, “Ah, good to see you here. Did you finish everything up on your end?”

“Affirmative, message sent to the princess and all the guards are barring any from leaving the town. We’re telling them it is for their own safety at this time and none doubt otherwise.” He nodded and stood tall.

“Very good, I’m about to check out our first suspect,” he replied as he reached for the door and entered inside. Giant Wall followed behind into the hollowed tree.

It was incredibly dark within the shop, even the light from outside seemed incapable of entering. It took a moment for the detective’s eyes to adjust to the darkness, but he was soon able to spot vanilla coated earth mare with straight black hair that fell only to her shoulders. She had dull gray eyes and was peering down at paper back book. It was hard to tell in the lack of light, but it looks like some kind of romance novel. It was a wonder she’d be able to read anything in this room.

She looked bored, but when they came in her ears flicked and she looked up, a bit of surprise entered her face before returning to a look of boredom as her eyes half closed. She bookmarked the page she was on and set the book down gracefully. It was after she removed the novel from in front of her face that Details and Giant Wall could see that it wasn’t boredom on her face, but a sultry interest.

She batted her long eyelashes a few times before greeting them in a seductive manner, “Well, hello gentlecolts. What could I do for two fine stallions such as you?” She seemed eager to… please.

The detective put on his best poker face remembering he had a job to do and there would be time for pleasantries later. Giant Wall on the other hoof looked towards the ceiling and bit his lip trying not to be pulled into such an invitation.

Detective Details looked around a moment to take in the contents of the shop. Books and ingredients seemed to litter the tables and shelves with a bit of disorganization. His eyes were adjusting more to the dark and could barely make out the titles on some of the books, none that really interested him. He let off a soft sigh as he approached the counter, shivering a bit. It was very cold in here, almost freezing.

He got up to the counter and smiled at the mare. “Good evening miss, I’m wishing to speak with your shop keep!”

The sultry look of the mare quickly disappeared into boredom again and a strong hint of annoyance and possibly anger. She turned around and yelled into the back that lacked the sexy and inviting voice they first heard. It held mostly a disgruntled anger now. “Hey Shop Keep! You got customers, visitors, or whatever!” She turned around, grunted with a scowl at the two and went back to her book.

The detective frowned, realizing he just got on the wrong hoof with her and any hope for a more pleasant conversation with her later was quickly destroyed. It was then he noticed a tired looking unicorn stallion entered the front from the back room. His eyes green and bloodshot and his black mane was a bit of a mess. He had chestnut colored coat and Details couldn’t help, but wonder why all the stallions in this town seem to have brown colored coats. The stallion wore an even darker brown robe, a robe more common to be worn by magic users than a shop keeper. The robe completely covered his body, including his flank, preventing him from seeing his cutie mark. Not completely uncommon for those who have understanding of magic. Still, a somewhat rare sight.

With a yawn the unicorn reached out his hoof over the counter and introduced himself, “Hello, I’m Shop Keep. What can I do you for?” He half smiled, but the sincerity was questionable due to how tired he looked. Might as well have been drunk or sleep walking.

Details took notice for a brief moment Shop Keep eyes looked to his left at Giant Wall. A frown appeared on his face for a slightest moment before his eyes refocused onto Details and his smile returned.

“Hello, I’m Detective Details and this here is Giant Wall.” He nodded to the soldier who gave a nod in return to Shop Keep, “We’re here to investigate a recent… incident and we are just going around for a bit of questioning. If you don’t mind sparing a bit of time that is.”

Shop Keep frowned, but replied with a bit of reluctance and a shrug, “I suppose there’s no harm in it.” The mare next to him looked up for a moment to stare at the lot then went back to her novel.

“Very good, I…” He looked around, he wasn’t sure that the question, "Are you a necromancer?" would be a good opening. Instead he decided to take this in a more casual direction, “Don’t mind me asking, but why is your shop kept so dark and dusty?”

Shop Keep looked at him indigently and scoffed. “This place isn’t dusty!” he said, slamming his hoof onto the counter causing a large pile of dust to kick up. He grimaced as he proved himself wrong. The mare and the guard chuckled at this.

Shop Keep yawned with some annoyance and answered the question, “Well, we have some materials here that are very sensitive to light." His eyes shifted momentarily to the mare as he said this. "So, gotta keep the place dark else we risk losing the ingredients. And we got some very rare ones so shunning the sun is a small price to pay.”

“Really, what kind of rare ingredients?” Detail asked with a bit of intrigue.

Shop Keep seemed hesitant to answer for a moment and pondered about replying. He thought it over and finally said, “Well, we have petals of a Death’s Rose for one.”

Detective Details suddenly had a look of excitement. “You have Death’s Rose?! That stuff is so hard to come by. How much?”

Giant Wall frowned at this, as they were supposed to be interrogating instead of shopping. He sighed though and let this run its course.

Shop Keep answered, “About a hundred bits.”

Giant Wall looked at him like he was crazy. “hundred bits for a bunch of petals?”

“Hundred bits per petal,” Shop Keep corrected.

“Per petal?!” Giant Wall had trouble comprehending this and his jaw dropped. “That’s a–"

He was then cut off by Details. “That’s a steal!” he said excitedly as he reached around for his wallet.

Now Giant Wall was looking at Details as if he was the one who was insane. Details saw this and explained, “Death’s Rose normally goes for hundreds and hundreds of bits in Canterlot sometimes even thousands. It’s an incredibly rare ingredient not just due to how impossible is is to find the flower, but also because it takes a long time to harvest a single petal.” Details placed his money satchel on the table and started counting his bits.

“So, you’re from Canterlot?” Keep asked with a raised eyebrow. Not a surprising fact considering the guards uniform.

Details nodded and Giant Wall steered the conversation back to where it was, “So, why are these petals hard to harvest?”

“You can’t just pluck the petals off. You must wait for them to fall off naturally,” Shop Keep explained and then spoke to Details, “I only have three petals at this time, but if you want them all they'll be three hundred bits.”

Detective Details smiled and started counting out the required bits. As he did, he motioned to the Mare next to Keep. “By the way, who’s this lovely lady?” He turned to her and gave a more than friendly smile, hoping to get on the mares good side again. She seemed to return the smile back for a moment.

Keep answered the detective with a bit of reluctance, “My… wife.”

A bit of sweat poured Details' neck and he noticed the couple had an uncomfortable silence going between them. From the way that Mrs. Keep had been acting when they first came in it sounded like they had hit a rough patch in their marriage. He went back to counting bits and didn’t want to drive a wedge any further between the two or even be in the middle.

After a few minutes he pushed over three hundred bits to Mr. Keep and he asked, “I know those petals are very vulnerable to light so if you don’t mind would be okay if I pick them up after dark?”

Shop Keep shrugged. “I have no problem with that. We’re open pretty late.”

Details then made a simple request, “If it isn’t any trouble I’ll probably have somepony else pick these up for me. Would you be kind enough to write up a note so they can prove they’re here to collect those petals up for me? Don’t want anypony stealing those such a rare commodity!” He grinned looking forward to getting them.

Keep smiled at the bits and answered, “Certainly, that's a pretty good idea if you can't come yourself!” He magically lifted up a quill and a piece of paper with a dark purple glow and wrote a small note and signed his name. He lifted the note to the Detective who then took it with his own magic, looking it over then placing it in his pocket.

“Well pleasure doing business with you Mr. Keep! We’ll be taking our leave now!” He smiled brightly and started towards the door.

“Don’t you want to ask me more questions regarding your investigation?” Keep asked with a raised eyebrow. It was odd that he hadn’t been asked anything remotely related to it.

“Oh, we’ve got all we needed!” Details gave Keep a sly grin and trotted out, followed by Giant Wall who seemed confused by this as well.

As the two got a good distance away from the shop, Giant Wall gave Details an odd look and asked, “What’s with the rush to get out of there? We barely asked them anything and only managed to buy some stupid flowers!”

Detective Details pulled out the note Keep had given him then he pulled out the apology letter written by the culprit who had been stealing bodies. “Well, I didn’t see any reason to make our friend think we suspect him anymore than we already did.” He smiled as he held the two notes up to Giant Wall. The hoofwriting on both were exactly the same.

Shop Keep felt nervous, he was left in the dark as to what those two suspected and the look the detective gave him when he left made him fear the worst. But there had been no signs of suspicion and he even sold the last of his current supply of Death Rose petals. He looked nervously at his “wife” and she looked back at him. She frowned and gave him a very stern look, “Tonight?”

Keep nodded back. “Tonight.”

Mrs. Keep sighed, she was feeling tired herself, but knew what had to be done. “I’ll be in the back then.” She got up and trotted off into the back room.

He took a deep breath and called back to her, “I’m gonna go out for a moment, I’ll close up shop till I get back.” He didn’t get a response, but knew she was alright with it.

Shop Keep looked below the counter and pulled out a bundle of Violets with his magic. There was something he wanted to do before everything went straight to Tartarus. He walked out the front of his shop and flipped his sign. It had a simple enchantment on it to say what he needed it to when it was flipped. So, when it turned over it said, “Back in 15 Minutes.”

He started towards the original main entrance into the cemetery. The bundle of violets floating next to him as he trotted. There were barely any ponies out at this time. He didn’t blame them though, they were all a bit spooked and it was a few hours before nightfall. Occasionally he would see some of the local residents that would give harsh glares or whisper a few racial slurs. He hadn't exactly been the best neighbor and it didn't help that a portion of the earth ponies in this town didn't exactly like unicorns.

As he approached the gate he noticed two more Canterlot Soldiers standing on each side. One was an earth pony and the other was a unicorn. The earth pony walked up to him as soon as he realized he had the intentions of entering the cemetery. “Sorry, no pony is allowed to enter the graveyard.” He then proceeded with an apology as he noticed the flowers, “I’m sorry. You’ll have to pay your respects another time. It’s for your own safety.”

He looked to the ground in disappointment and sighed. His gaze shifted back up to the soldier and nodded, “I… understand.” With that he turned around and began walking back to his shop with a look of defeat. He hovered the flowers in front of him and sighed, “Sorry Blue….”

Dead of night, Luna’s moon rose high above the quiet town. Mr. Keep, as he was known by the town, was asleep in his bed on the second floor of his shop. It was a bed meant for only one, something the ponies of the town would find odd considering he was married. There wasn’t even a second bed in his room. In fact both of them slept in completely separate rooms... usually.

Something soon lightly laid on top of him, barely stirring him from his slumber. He opened his eyes to find darkness, but despite how dark it was he could see two very distinct blood red eyes staring at him. He stared back at them not even bothered at all by the sight. This was something he woke to from time to time. It was sometimes unpleasant, but other times… well… it would be very pleasant.

He quickly felt lips pressed against his. Not a simple peck, but a romantic and loving kiss with a hint of lustful passion. Or perhaps it was the other way around? The red eyes backed off as they finished their kiss and she whispered, “Mr. Keep….”

Keep gave a light groan in response to that name. He then heard her call him by another name, “Julius….”

Julius Grave, which was his true name, growled and whispered, “Don’t call me that while we’re still here! Never know if they’re listening.” His eyes shifted around the dark room in paranoia. When his eyes locked with the beautiful red ones again he spoke, “Is everything ready… Mrs. Keep?”

He could see irritation at that name in her eyes and this time she groaned, “Hate that name, but yes everything is accounted for. Finished a bit early so, I thought we could… you know?” She giggled and leaned down to kiss Julius once again. He sighed and embraced the kiss, letting her tongue run along his lips before it pierced his mouth to play with his own tongue. He rubbed her back with approval as they locked themselves in a tender embrace.

After a moment she left his lips, a bit of saliva trailing from them. She began to kiss around his muzzle and his head while occasionally nuzzling him. He closed his eyes as memories of better years surfaced. He felt her grind against him with want and he was ready to comply, but as she started to kiss along his neck he felt her nibble it lightly. His eyes shot open and he shouted out louder than he meant to, “That’s enough!”

His breathing was heavy and he felt her breath hot against his neck. She nuzzled his neck a moment before whispering into his ear, “I’d never do it without your permission. You know that.” She sighed at having to end the fun then kissed his cheek and got off of him. “I’m ready when you are.”

Julius sighed, feeling a bit of guilt, but knew his paranoia was well placed. He rolled out of bed and gave her a nod. He could barely see her, except for her red eyes that stood out like a sore hoof. She tip toed over to him and began to lead him through the darkness.

Most of the shop had been cleaned out. The detective never came and picked up his petals, nor did anypony come in his stead. Everything in the front of the shop was still there to ward off suspicion, but everything in the back had finished being packed up and Mrs. Keep had been transferring the last of their supplies that day.

As Julius' and his partner made their way to the basement they both took a cautionary look around out of a shared instinct. It was somewhat pointless for Julius since his eyes were still adjusting, but he did so regardless.

They made their way over to a rug and Mrs. Keep lifted the rug off the floor it had been on. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but the wooden floor. However, she soon placed her hoof on a particular section and pressed down hard. The timber sank into the floor and the floor magically opened to reveal a hidden passage with a ladder.

She helped Julius get his hoofing on the ladder and he slowly descended into deeper darkness. Tree roots occasionally brushed his hide as he went a good ways down. Once his hoof hit the dirt floor he made room for Mrs. Keep to drop down.

He heard the sound of the floor closing up as the entrance sealed. He saw nothing, but red eyes suddenly drop down to the floor instead of using the ladder as intended. She landed safely in front of him and once again he was captivated by her eyes. Those crimson irises were truly beautiful, even if they did remind him of bright blood.

Julius saw her close her eyes, leaving him in pitch black darkness. He could light his horn, but as a precaution he dared not cast magic less they risk being detected by magical means. So, being left in the dark was a discomfort he was willing to deal with at this time.

He blushed as he felt lips being brushed against his again. He realized he was more vulnerable than he ever been before with her. Normally he had magic at his disposable, but now he couldn’t risk casting spells. His heart raced as she pushed him against a wall. Despite how curvy, light, and sensual she appeared, she was far stronger than she looked and he didn’t have anywhere near the strength to push her off. Not that he'd would want to mind you.

He tensed up as he felt her kisses trail to his neck again. His breathing picked up its pace and he felt himself panic. Julius tried to calm himself, but panic entered at full force as he heard “it”. The hissing sound he was way too familiar with. The soft sound “they” made, just before they strike. He breathed out her name for a moment, "Femme..."

Femme Fatale's laughter echoed lightly and he felt her kiss his neck before she opened her eyes half way and brought them to his eye level. “Never to you. Not unless you wanted it,” There was a bit of disappointment in her eyes, just because he believed she really was going to pass on her "gift" to him for a brief moment. Of course, he had known her long enough to know better.

He felt her lips grace his and he calmed down. She could see perfectly in the dark. It was one of her… special gifts.

She soon was leading him through the passage, keeping him close. Their bodies rubbed against each other in the small space they had. Something she enjoyed and though Julius wouldn’t admit it, he also enjoyed it.

After a few minutes she placed his hoof on a wooden ladder. “I’ll meet you at the rendezvous. Please Julius,” he turned to her to find her staring deeply into his eyes as she continued, “Stay safe.” Femme kissed him one more time and her eyes drifted away and back into the darkness to go along another path. He kept watch at where she disappeared off to before

He sighed and began the long climb up. Occasionally after climbing about what would be one floor, he’d reach some solid ground, walk a few steps and bump into another ladder to take him up further. It was done so there wouldn’t be a giant drop that deep into the ground.

Eventually he reached the top and moonlight crept in from a few holes that surrounded him. He put his hoof to the roof and peered through each hole. He could see the cemetery around him. After being in the dark so long he could see almost as plain as day. He smiled as he saw a thick fog had rolled in. It was convenient luck. He did know spells to conjure up similar fogs, but avoiding any spell casts and any unnatural occurring fog was a good way to tread at such a sensitive time.

He pushed at the roof above him with his hoof. A few good bumps and it popped open like a lid. He soon climbed out of an old tree stump. It was in the middle of the cemetary, but it was so close to the far back near the forest that it was easily disregarded. He closed it back up and took another look around. Glad that no pony else was out this far tonight.

A sigh of relief and he wandered a short distance from the stump. He soon stopped before a couple of graves. Unlike the normal graves each burial was entirely encased in stone. This meant those buried here were wealthier than most around here. However, Julius knew better.

He looked around making sure he was truly alone and he began to push on the slab that covered one of the nameless graves. As he pushed it off he could begin to see a stone stair case with a bit of light emanating deep within.

Julius dropped down and then reached back up to close the entrance again. The light from within its depths allowed him to still see. He quickly trotted down the staircase; every so often he would turn a corner to another set of stairs lit up by a magical torch. He did this a few times before he was about at about a level below that the secret passage had been at. This lead to a short hallway filled with sarcophaguses placed within the walls.

He cantered along the hallway not bothered in the slightest as to where he was. This was practically his home away from home. This saddened him slightly that he’d no longer be able to visit it. As he exited the hallway he entered the main crypt with a very high ceiling. The room was incredibly large, filled with more magically lit torches and sarcophaguses , except these were on the ground. Around him were varies stone tables along with a one large wooden one on the side. The wooden one was littered with books and notes.

He then took in a few finer details, like the carvings of fine steeds within the stone coffins and the alter that was at the very back. One big detail that would be the first thing most other ponies would see was the traces of dried blood all around the room. Usually on the stone tables, it was splattered here and there as well as the floor near them. However, the alter in the far back instead had blood drawn in complicated runes and symbols. Though most unicorns may not understand what it all meant, any with a fair bit of knowledge of magic would recognize it was a form of magic that was best left alone. However, any highly advanced magic user would be able to tell that it was most likely necromancy.

A slight chill went through Julius as a new presence entered the room. A low haunting moan echoed throughout and he lazily shifted his eyes around to find its source. He looked down and from the ground a green lucid haze flowed up from it. It took the form of a light greenish blue earth pony filly, but where her hind legs would be was instead a wispy tail that weaved and flowed like smoke. Her cutie mark was three green ghostly flames. Her sea green hair fell past her shoulders tossed in an invisible wind and looked almost wet.

She got in his face and he was staring into eyes that were completely white and she spoke in wispy otherworldly voice, “Who dares disturb my slumber!” she moaned out.

Julius just stared at her for a moment just shaking his head. Pupils soon appeared in her eyes and he could see her light blue eyes return to her. She stared at him for moment and then put on a wide cheery smile and spoke to him in a joyous ringing voice, “Oh, hai Julius! Didn’t realize it was you!” Her smile kept getting wider.

He managed to chuckle at his spirit companion. She had always been an amusing and silly ghost. “How are you doing Ecto Burst?” He said with a little more cheer than he had earlier this evening.

She continued smiling brightly and tossed and turned happily in the air while answering, “I’m doing great! So, glad to have you back. I guess this means everything is safe now?”

Julius looked away from Ecto for a moment and then turned back his gaze with a frown. “The light is beginning to consume us.”

Ecto cocked her head with confusion, “Huh, what? What does that mean?” She rubbed her head with her ghostly hoof and then her eyes went wide as she began to grasp the meaning of coded phrase. “Oh!” she exclaimed as she got the message. Her smile began to leave her. “So, we have to… you know… go?”

He nodded to her question. “Gather up my books, notes, and whatever supplies you can carry. I have to erase my work, can’t risk them figuring out what I was trying to do,” he began to walk over to the alter as he said this, passing right through Ecto, causing a slight chill to run through him as she entered his body for a brief moment.

“You got it Julius!” She called out to him as she quickly flew over to his desk gathered up all of his research. She may have originally been born an earth pony, but when she became a ghost and gained the ability to float and fly she had little to complain about. She loved it; she dare say she was happier as a ghost than when she was alive. At least, after Julius found her.

Meanwhile Julius was erasing and cleaning up the blood runes and markings around the main alter. He wouldn’t have time to get to the others around the room, but he didn’t care if those were discovered. It was only the ones around the alter he was worried about. Those dealt with his research and ultimate spell which he wasn’t going to risk anypony figuring out what he had been doing. It was unlikely they would be able to figure it out, but he wasn't leaving that to chance.

It took him a good twenty minutes to wipe the blood away or at least wipe it all to an illegible smear on the floor. He looked around to make sure there was nothing else to give any hint to the ritual. When he saw all was well he turned to see Ecto ready with all his supplies. She had them all perfectly balanced in large stacked tower in her hooves and showed signs of toppling over, yet it remained steady.

He trotted over to her and reached down his robe to pull off his neck a silver necklace with a deep blue gem in the center with two dragons clawing at it. “Take this with you,” he said as he put the necklace around her neck and Ecto willed it to not fall through her. She frowned at this action though.

“But don’t you want to keep it with you?” she pleaded knowing how valuable it was to him.

“It has to stay with her. In case anything happens.” He trailed off not wanting to discuss this any further. “Go to the rendezvous and keep an out for my signal just in case.”

She frowned, but then smiled cheerfully again. “Don’t talk like that! Nothing bad is going to happen! Even if you get caught we’ll save you!” she said triumphantly.

He smiled back and dismissed her, “Better get going.”

She nodded and went through the wall, all the physical items she carried passed with her. Some ways through the wall was the underground pathway he had taken to escape from the village. It wasn’t actually connected to the tomb so he would have to go back to the surface again...

Julius pulled himself outside of the secret tomb and quickly closed it. He noticed the fog had lightened up and cursed to himself quietly. He began to head back to the stump that went back down to the underground passage.

As he drew closer to the dead tree he started to slow down, his head drooping as he got closer. He looked to the ground and then he reached out with his magic and pulled something out of his robes. It was one of the violets he had from earlier. He stared at it for a moment and shook his head while whispering, “No, it’s a dumb idea.” He took a few more steps to the trunk and stopped again. “But it wouldn’t feel right not to.”

He gritted his teeth and grumbled, “This is such a bad idea.” He shook his head and turned around heading away from the stump and more in the direction towards the village.

It was a few minutes of walking and treading lightly, but he knew exactly where he wanted to go and was thankful no pony was patrolling the cemetery as far as he could tell. He trotted between tombstones trying not to bump into them and avoid making to much noise on the grass. He soon stopped before tombstone that was unremarkable like the rest around here, but the name on it was all that mattered; Blue Rhapsody.

He saw that the ground had been freshly reburied, happy to know she was back in her grave. Julius took a seat before it and then followed with a deep breath. He reached out for the violet again and placed it gently on her grave. A few more slow breaths and he started to talk to the grave quietly, “I never meant to hurt you. I’m pretty sure you knew that though.”

He looked away for a moment and then back at the tombstone. “Brought you a violet. I know you liked them. I had a bunch of them ready for you, but things got in the way you could say," he chuckled lamely with that and went on, "Wish I could have given you those Death’s Roses you liked, but they’re hard to come by and I can’t part with the one have right now. You understand right? I hope you don’t mind.”

He sighed at all this. “I enjoyed your company. It was a nice while it lasted. I have to go though, but I just wanted to say goodbye and that I’m sorry.” He let a tear drop from his cheek and onto Blue Rhapsody’s grave and said is final goodbye, “Rest in peace.”

He breathed slowly for a few more moments as he collected himself and then turned away from the grave. He was still staring at the ground as he did. Finally gathering his strength he lifted his head up and felt his heart stop.

“Fine night for a stroll isn’t it, Mr. Keep?” Detective Details said with a smirk while he leaned against a grave as Giant Wall stood next to him, glaring coldly at him. It almost felt like he was staring straight into his soul.

His ears drooped back, but he composed himself. “Detective, what brings you out this night?” He wasn’t going to assume the worst until the Detective played all of his cards. Hopefully he didn’t suspect anything yet, but that was wishful thinking.

“I could ask you the same thing, but if you must know we’ve been patrolling the graves this night to make sure no more restless spirits are wandering about.” He smiled and then asked, “So, what brings you out here?”

Thankfully Julius had an excuse prepared for such an event. “Well, I occasionally come out here to find materials. Some can only be harvested in the night and some only grow around the graves. Certain types of fungus, mostly.”

Details pondered the answer and found it to be believable. “Very well, but that doesn’t look like your looking for mushrooms.” he pointed with one hoof at the flower on Blue Rhapsody’s grave.

“I like to pay my respects to the dead like most of the others in town.” he knew very well other ponies in town would come out and place flowers on random graves from time to time.

“Any reason why you picked that grave?” Details asked trying to poke holes in his story.

“Well this was the desecrated grave. I visited it a few nights ago after the… tragedy that transpired here. I’ve visited it occasionally to see if they finally buried the body. I actually tried to do that earlier in the day, but those guards wouldn’t let me leave.” He cursed inwardly as he realized he just gave the detective another question to ask him as to how he got past the guards. As Details opened his mouth Julius quickly interrupted him, “Detective, you never did pick up your petals.”

The detective closed his mouth and gave a soft smile. “Ah yes, I never did. It completely slipped my mind. I don’t suppose it would be too much trouble if we go pick them up right now, seeing as we’ll have to escort you to your shop anyway.”

Julius put on a slight frown, but inwardly he was smiling. He could just use the secret passage within his shop and be home free. Of course Details wouldn’t know that and he bet he figured he simply found a way to sneak past the guards using the fog, “I see no harm in that detective.” He trotted over to the two of them watching where he stepped as he did.

Soon the three of them were on the stone pathway back to town. Julius was at the front leading them. The detective and the guard were at each of his sides. They were supposed to be guarding him, but it felt more like they were herding him and trying to keep him from running away.

After a little bit he thought he saw a flash from behind him. He turned around to look to his left. He noticed the detective was looking back at something. When Details noticed that he had been doing something he simply turned toward him and gave a friendly smile. Julius regarded it at just being his imagination until he looked forward and noticed two blinking white lights in the foggy distance. He then saw out of the corner of his eye the detective igniting his horn causing a quick blinking light to go off from the tip.

He finally put two and two together. The guards were signaling each other, but about what was the question. Unfortunately, he’d have to just go with it until he could learn more. He was just praying that he'd be escaping through the tunnels before it would come to that.

The fog was finally clearing up and they passed the two guards at the main gate. No trouble or explanation was given, but he felt the guards eyes glued to his back. He was liking this less and less with each passing moment.

“That fog was pretty thick earlier, no wonder you got passed them,” Detective Details finally said, breaking the silence.

“Yes, I didn’t even see them as I went in. I probably walked right passed them. They hold so still you’d think they were statues!” He chuckled a bit and to his relief the detective laughed at the expense of Giant Wall who didn’t find it that amusing.

“Right you are, but I’m surprised you braved the cemetery even though there might have been a ghost or some monster like that out there,” he replied, back to asking questions again.

“Well I’m pretty capable of taking care of myself,” he responded as they finally got to the front door of his shop. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw movement inside of his shop.

“Oh, Mr. Keep. One thing I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Details said very nonchalantly.

“Yes?” He asked as he fiddled with the lock on his door. He was eager to get away from Details now. He then heard the sound of hoof beats rapidly approach them. He turned to notice a few unicorn guards coming from out of the fog towards his shop.

“I was just wondering...” He paused for a moment as Julius finally unlocked the door. “What were you doing inside of that grave you crawled out of,” A sly grin appeared on the detectives face.

Julius froze; his heart sinking and completely stopped pumping for several moments. He gave the detective too little credit. He was now also definitely sure there was movement inside of his shop. More royal guards most likely and he bet it didn’t take the detective long to assume when he somehow got passed the guards that he might have had a secret exit in his home. He now noticed more guards were coming out from the side streets. There had to be at least five more now with another three quickly approaching.

A group of unicorns approached the detective, a little short of breath. The mare leading them spoke to the detective, “We searched the crypt. It wasn’t pretty, but we definitely found traces of what we believe necrotic rituals inside.”

Details turned back to Julius, his prideful smirk growing even wider. “Well, Mr. Keep. We’d like you to come with us for some… questioning.”

Julius closed his eyes, took a deep calm breath. He had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but…

His horn started to glow a dark purple and as soon as he turned his head and found an opening he teleported a good distance away from the guards and immediately started to gallop towards the graveyard.

“Halt in the name of Celestia!” a couple of guards shout at him as they began to give chase. Details smiled and then looked up his, horn flashing a few times.

Celestia can go buck herself! Julius thought as he teleported ahead again to get some more distance from the guards. He would be using his dark magic, but he didn't want to give them any insight to what he what he was capable of. He was a bit surprised they only brought earth ponies and unicorns. He figured they’d at least bring a pegasus or two. He then instinctively looked up, and good thing he did. A pegasi mare was diving right at him donned in the Canterlot armor.

He kept his eye on her and just as he was about to be impacted by the pegasi he teleported ahead again causing the mare to hit the ground and tumble into a roll before getting back up on her hooves.

Julius looked to the sky again and saw no other pegasi thankfully. He then turned his attention ahead of him and found the two guards from before ready to intercept him. The unicorn lashed out at him with magic, a bolt of energy charging at him. Once again he made a really long teleport appearing past the gate and charging into the cemetery. He then waved his horn and cast another spell. The fog around him became thicker and even more started to roll into the cemetary.

Details was galloping and witnessed all of this. “Huh, not bad, but not good enough.” He raised his horn and signaled the sky once more.

Julius took a moment of rest in front of an old crypt. He breathed in a few times as he caught his breath and charged another spell as he launched a small ball of purple light towards the sky. It rose higher and higher into the sky until finally it exploded. A massive amount of purple energy releasing from it that could easily be seen from all over the near country side.

Meanwhile in the forest Femme Fatale and Ecto caught sight of this and the only words to escape her sensual lips was, “Oh no, Luna please don’t let him be–”

Three pegasi caught sight of where the energy had come from and were now quickly spinning around the area, flapping their wings as hard as they spun around in wide arcs, causing a whirlwind to clear away the fog. Julius saw this, but it didn’t cause him to run. He stood his ground and looked out from the fog.

Details and Giant Wall were approaching along with all the other guards who quickly fanned out to surround him. Julius still made no attempt to run.

“We have you surrounded Mr. Keep. I don’t know why you made that light show, but we won’t have to rough you up if you just stand down and surrender peacefully.” Details still wore his smirk believing he had won.

“I really must correct you on something detective,” Julius deadpanned.

“Oh? What’s that?” Details replied still believing he had total victory.

“Well, if I’m not mistaken I have you surrounded,” he stated simply which caused laughter to rumble from all the guards in the area. The detective chuckled lightly at this.

“What makes you think something so preposterous?” he continued to chuckle hard while he wiped a tear from his eyes.

“Detective what am I? What are you arresting me for?” Julius asked.

“You’re believed to be a necromancer and we’re arresting you for the illegal use of necromancy. Simple as that,” Details replied not seeing where he was going with this.

“And what do necromancers do?” Julius asked once again as a grin started to form on his face.

“They wield dark forbidden magic’s and can raise the dead,” he answered again his smile leaving his face as something began to dawn upon him.

“And where would I go to get said dead to raise?” A large smile spreading on his face as his horn began to glow with black and dark purple energy. The whites of his eyes filling with the color blue as a dark mist trailed from the corners.

“A graveyard…” It was now very much clear to the detective and the others.

“And where are we now?” He now had a sinister grin as his horn glowed violently.

“A… graveyard...” He and all the other guards were now incredibly nervous as to what was about to happen.

“You really do have an eye for details don’t you?” He let his wicked smile say the rest as he reigned back on his hind legs to then stomp back down with both of his forelegs as he let his magical energies be released into the ground below like a shock wave.

The earth suddenly rumbled and the graves began to stir. Almost in unison hooves began to pop out of the dirt as varies levels of decayed undead ponies pulled themselves out of their resting places. The great thing about the spell was that it helped bring the undead to the surface and fast.

Julius turned around as another undead broke his way through the stone door of his crypt and more continued to pour in from all over. The sheer number of them was far more than an ordinary necromancer to summon. But he wasn’t an ordinary necromancer now, was he?

All the guards took defensive stances as they quickly got surrounded. Glowing ghostly, blue eyes stared at them, ready to rip right through them at a moments notice.

“So, detective, I think you should stand down and I won’t have to rough you up,” Julius let off an almost villainous laugh. Now he was the one assured victory. Very few things could stop him now. Unfortunately, one of those very few things was about to.

Without warning, a brilliant light exploded around some of the nearby undead. Leaving them lifeless and charred. “What the?” Julius looked over at what happened. Suddenly another flash of light rained down onto some of the soldiers, the undead were lifeless again, but the guards remained unharmed. Then it happened once more then a few more times quickly clearing out the entire area. Julius finally noticed that it was coming from the sky.

He looked up and he swore he had another heart attack. Descending from the heavens was a very large white pony. One with very large wings and a long horn on her. She had gorgeous hair that magically flowed even without wind that beheld multiple colors such as pink, green, and blue. She was adorned with a brilliant golden regalia and her flank was marked with an image of the sun. Her purple eyes seemed to pierce his heart as she stared down at him coldly.

As his heart started to pump again and he could think straight once more he finally realized what was happening. Princess Celestia herself just appeared to take him on. He was overcome with a mix of fear and hot rage, but there was only one thing he could say in response to this, “Oh, buck this.”

He immediately teleported a short ways away, barely inside the thick fog and he galloped faster than he ever had done before. He would need to get into the forest to have any hopes of escape now. Luckily the fog would give him cover as he made his escape.

Except, the fog began to immediately dissipate all around him. Is it the pegasi? No, this is magic. Only one other word came to his mind. Celestia...

He started to push himself harder and gallop faster to the edge of the forest, but then he saw a flash of light, strike in front of him and he instinctively jumped. This was probably a terrible idea.

As the light exploded under him he was sent flying through the air towards the forest, but as the world spun around him he could see it wasn’t soft grass he was landing towards, but graves. He soon impacted one of the tombstones on his back side, breaking the hard rock and sending him rolling along the ground.

He winced at the pain, but as his hoof rubbed the grass he immediately reacted to its touch. Using his necromancy he began to drain the life from the plants around him to heal his wounds and restore his stamina. The grass around him quickly died and he felt his wound patch up enough that he could push through the pain.

Julius got up on his hooves and stepped forward, but felt his head hit something soft. It was surprisingly warm and somehow inviting. Yet he felt himself grow fearful as he noticed that it was white. He backed up and looked up to see Princess Celestia staring down at him with a terrible yet calm rage in her eyes. Something not very befitting of her that she rarely ever had to do. But he had apparently earned her full scorn.

His eyes were wide with fear, but they soon became angry and he started to charge up his magic. Not even Celestia herself was going to stop–

Her horn quickly flashed with a gold blinding light and he immediately became dazed. He stumbled back and forth unable to finish whatever foolish thought he originally had. Once again he stumbled right into Celestia then he fell back again and attempted to try his hoof at another spell. That was quickly stopped by Celestia as she cast another spell and he felt himself get drowsy.

Julius fell to the ground as the world began to go black. Last thing he saw was Celestia staring down at him, a slight smile creeping onto her face.

Author's Note

UPDATE 7/4/2016:
Removed "(Updated)" from the chapter title.

UPDATE 2/27/2014:
Finished cleaning up the rest of the chapter. More or less the same stuff as yesterday, no new scenes.

UPDATE 2/26/2014:
Cleaned up some grammar and conversations. Actually said Femme's name, but only said her full name in in a paragraph. I still have more to fix, but will do so later. Only just got up to where Julius runs into Ecto. I also have retconned Ecto's appearance slightly. She's now a little filly ghost. Removed old Author's Notes. Plan to finish clean up of this chapter tomorrow. Feel free to wait before rereading.

-Special thanks to MobileDeluxe for helping me come up with the name for Ecto Burst

Ch3: A Second Chance

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch3: A Second Chance

Julius Grave found himself shrouded in darkness and it took him a moment to realize his eyes were simply closed as he tried to recall what had just happened. It was a blur for a moment, but then it came crashing down on him. He had been trying to escape and had raised a small army of undead to ensure his safe leave when the worst possible thing happened. Princess Celestia had appeared and ruined everything, quite literally.

A bit of anger rose in him at the thought of the princess. She was one of the greatest banes of those who practice dark magic and she descended upon him like a terrible plague, burning all his hopes and dreams in a heavenly fire. It didn't help that he had a personal vendetta against her.

His rage continued to well up, but then it suddenly dissipated into a bit of pride. It had taken Celestia herself to stop him. He mused on that thought and found it flattering, yet infuriating. Maybe he was overestimating his abilities and he had just been an unfair match to her lap dog guards that she had sic on him. Still the fact Celestia had to step in to save the day didn’t make him feel any less accomplished in his magical prowess.

It was then his ears flicked to nearby voices. A conversation was going on, but he was still a bit out of it to distinguish what they were talking about. He finally mustered up his strength to open his eyes.

The world around him was blurry and he could just make out three figures not too far from him. He began to lift his head up and then winced, letting out a grunt of pain. He had been hurt before from landing hard against tombstone. Julius' back ached, though he had drained the life from some plants to heal the wound, it hadn’t healed some of the internal damage. What was worse was now that his adrenaline rush had ended the pain was far more noticeable.

His grunt caught the attention of the three who had been looking over him and he heard a slightly familiar voice speak, “He’s coming to.” It was gruff and spoke in a serious and stern manner.

Another voice spoke up, one that he found quite irritating now, “Wakey, wakey Mr. Keep,” Detective Details called out to him tauntingly, “You have a lot to answer for.”

His vision started to clear and he could see Details looked upon him from beyond a cage. A little further away was Giant Wall and with him stood… Julius felt his heart stop and start again. These mini heart attacks couldn’t be good for his health. Standing in the middle between the Details and Giant Wall was Princess Celestia.

Celestia quickly took note of his fear of her. It saddened her that any pony would fear her, but she understood why. She had just unleashed some of her powerful magic upon him earlier and she had been a great threat to those who practice dark magic for a very long time. Strangely though, even as he looked on her in terror, a fire seemed to burn in his eyes. A tremendous rage just barely being held back.

Julius started to get up, gritting through the pain in his back as he did. As he stood, he noticed that his legs had all been chained together to prevent any quick movement. He was inside of cage just large enough for him to move around in, but it looked like it had been built for an animal instead of a pony. Though was he any different from an animal to them?

He then took notice to an orange cloth that seemed to surround the area and he realized he was probably inside of a tent. A slight sigh of relief escaped him as he had feared they had taken him to a prison or Canterlot at first.

Feeling a bit daring, he started to conjure up some magic, but felt like something was pushing his spell down on his horn followed instantly by a slight shock of pain around his neck and he ceased his spell casting. He yelped at the pain and brought one hoof to his neck. As he rubbed around he could feel a collar had been placed on him. He quickly determined it was a collar enchanted with a shock spell set to go off if he tried to cast magic. The collar was only secondary precaution as he looked up to his horn to see a metal ring placed upon it. Such rings were made to prevent unicorns from casting magic and could only be taken off with a key or a very skilled locksmith.

Giant Wall spoke up, “Don’t even think about. We’re not going to let a monster like you cast spells under our watch.” This statement earned him a cold glare from Julius as he continued to rub his collar and horn.

Details backed up from the cage to be next to Celestia. Julius, wanting to stall and prolong finding out his fate, decided to make idle conversation, “So… where did I go wrong?”

“When you started practicing Necromancy,” Details remarked stroking his chin in amusement.

Julius was irritated by this replied. “I meant where I went wrong with my escape.”

Details perked up and seemed happy to explain, “Well, after our little chat at your shop I was able to compare your little pick up order to the apology notes you had left–”

He was quickly interrupted by Julius smacking his hoof against forehead followed by him gumbling, “Of course, the notes! Why didn’t I think of that?”

Details continued, only mildly annoyed by the interruption, “Yes, anyway after I confirmed it was your hoofwriting I made sure our pegasi kept an eye on your home along with a few unicorns. We cast a few life detecting spells…” Julius found himself holding his breath. He knew about such spells and they could track how many living creatures were in an area, but the catch was they had to still technically be alive. Details then went on, “…and we only ever detected one presence inside of your home when we started. Our pegasi in the sky never saw your wife leave, so we assumed you had a secret escape way hidden in your home and you had your wife escape as soon as possible.”

Julius released his breath with some relief, glad they had come to a logical, but wrong conclusion. Details then finished his explanation, “So, we had patrols stationed throughout the graveyard that night. You got lucky with that initial fog. You didn’t create that fog did you?” He asked just to make sure.

“No, that was a naturally occurring fog,” he knew the detective had seen him cast a spell to create an artificial fog before and wasn't going to bother hiding that fact.

“Right, so you got lucky, but after that fog lightened up we caught site of you leaving that grave and well, you know the rest.” He gave his trademark sly grin and Julius shook his head in defeat.

It was then Celestia finally spoke up, “Mr. Keep, I would appreciate your cooperation and I think you’ll find your punishment to be far less severe should you answer honestly.” She put on tender smile and he could actually feel its warmth, but to him it felt like he was barely being singed by fire and he didn’t believe the sincerity, regardless of how convincing it was.

“I’ve got nothing to tell any of you, especially you Celestia.” He scowled straight at her, doing his best to hide his fear and show his anger.

Giant Wall didn’t stand for that remark, “Watch your tongue and refer to the princess with proper respect!”

“Calm yourself Giant Wall,” Celestia said softly and he immediately backed down. She commanded much respect among her guards.

Details spoke up again, “Mr. Keep I know you don’t like us and I don’t blame you, but it’s in your best interest to answer us. For one I don’t think your wife has anything to do with this, but we will have to arrest her as an accomplice if you don’t start to answer our questions.” Julius chest ached at the mentioning of his wife. “I’d hate to see such a nice mare as her suffer for her husbands crimes.”

Julius sat in though for a moment before the detective asked, “When we found your lair there was something amiss. There were traces of necromancy, but we never found any sort of research notes, books, or much else. Just a few basic necromancy signs here and there. But from your little show at the graveyard you know far more than a novice Necromancer.” He paused for a moment and continued, “Your home was completely cleaned out so we bet your wife has your supplies or you’ve hidden them. So, if you tell us what you’ve been doing and where we can find your wife along with your research, we’ll lighten your sentence and if your wife has little to do with your little hobby we’ll let her go with a slap on the wrist. Sound good?”

Julius pondered for a moment and considered the option, “What will you do with my research should you find it?”

The detective was about to answer, but instead looked to Celestia, unsure what she was going to do with it. She replied apologetically, “I’m sorry Mr. Keep, but we will have to destroy all of it.”

That settled it, he knew what his options were now. “My secrets belong to the dead,” he answered and held his head up in defiance.

Details and Giant Wall sighed at that choice, while Celestia looked at the two them with what looked like suspicion. She turned back to look at Julius and spoke, but not to him, “Please leave us.”

The two looked at her quizzically. “But princess, we shouldn’t leave you with–" Giant Wall was soon cut off by her.

“Leave us,” she commanded with more force. The two looked at each other before they bowed and left obediently. Details turned around and looked at Julius as he left, seeing a great deal of fear and nervousness in his eyes.

As he left the tent and exited the magical sound barrier that had been placed so no pony else could hear their conversations, he whispered to Giant Wall, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pony so afraid of the princess before…”

Back in the tent Celestia laid down in front of Julius’ cage and she could see plain as day he was incredibly afraid of her while simultaneously furious. He had been able to maintain some of his courage while Detective Details and Giant Wall had been there because he didn’t think she would do anything drastic in front of her loyal subjects, but now he wasn't feeling so confident.

“Now that we are alone and no one can hear us,” Celestia stared which only made Julius have another mini heart attack. Celestia sighed and put on her best and most comforting smile,.“You don’t have to fear me. I have no intention to hurt you. Your secrets are safe here, with me. So, please tell me everything about your research.”

Julius stood by his decision. Dark magic users had become cautious over time and thus developed key phrases that had hidden meanings and only if another replied with the correct response would they know it was okay to talk to them. Was helpful with knowing who they could trust “My secrets belong to dead.”

Celestia responded, “Then I shall raise the dead and ask them myself.” A slight smile and she held back a giggle as Julius’ jaw dropped. She had just given him the correct key phrase.

“H-h-how do you?” He stammered out and she quickly answered.

“A necromancer many years back was kind enough to surrender his secrets about Darkmoon Covenant in order to be pardoned. They were quite helpful in uprooting many of you. I’m hoping you will be so kind to share with me even more secrets and update me on the changes in your little secret society. So, while you’re in my custody I’d highly recommend only speaking to me about any of your knowledge.” She took a more serious tone and hardened her look.

Julius started to feel a great weigh placed on his shoulders. He had no hope of communicating with any possible Darkmoon members without risking their identities as long as she knew their secret phrases. He then asked for future reference, “Who was it that told you all of this?”

“He’s long gone, but his name was Black Tail,” she responded, not seeing any harm giving out the name of a long dead stallion.

Julius took a mental note of that name and said, “I’m not gonna talk. If you really do know what all our phrases mean then you know what that particular one implies.”

Celestia did know. It meant he would die before he would ever tell a living soul who wasn’t a part of Darkmoon Covenant. But she had no intention to kill or torture it out of him. She would rely on her diplomatic skills, but she wanted to bring something else to his attention.

She leaned over for an object on a nearby wooden table and pulled it to her with her magic. It was a small badge of the sun and she hovered it before him. He seemed unimpressed by it and she explained, “We found this on you after we had you subdued.” She looked at his gaze and he didn’t seem worried about her finding such a trinket. She continued, “I find it odd someone such as yourself who holds such enmity towards me and my sun to have an item like this.” He started to look a bit more worried now, “Some might think you’re hypocritical or maybe have a love affair for light and darkness.”

Julius fidgeted a little in his cage thinking; Dear Luna, please don’t tell me she knows about that too.

Celestia lowered her horn to the badge and it released a bit of magic on it. Suddenly the sun turned into a crescent moon with teal colored eye with a dragon’s iris in the middle.

Buck my life…

Celestia’s gaze hardened again, “A Necromancer and a Child of the Night. Bad enough you raise the dead, but you worship Nightmare Moon as well? You’re looking at some very severe punishments if you don’t start making some compromises,” a slight smile etched on her face as she said this.

A Child of the Night was a member of the cult known as the Children of the Night. They were known as strict worshipers and supporters of Luna or rather Nightmare Moon. They loved the night for it was beautiful and brought forth the cover of darkness. Members tend to be the more shifty type of individuals such as necromancers, at least in Julius’ case. It was not restrictive to just them. Unfortunately when Nightmare was recently defeated by the Elements of Harmony and returned to ruling along side her sister, the faith of their church waned. Some still continued their praise of Luna while others wanted her to embrace Nightmare Moon once more. Overall, many abandoned the cult, taking with them their contributions that funded them.

Julius shifted around uncomfortably once again, his once obvious choices now starting to blur from what they once were. Celestia spoke up, but with a kinder and more forgiving tone, "It all looks very bad on you, but when I look at you I don’t see some evil or corrupted pony. I see a very kind and good soul that has simply walked down the wrong path.” She smiled as Julius looked up at her in surprise and confusion at this kind of proclamation.

“What makes you say all of that?” He said with bewilderment and suspicion.

“I heard about how you approached the grave of the poor soul who had suffered from your spell. You put a flower down for her and you were apologizing if I’m not mistaken.” Julius nodded to her as she said that. Guilt had driven him to do that, but not for the exact reasons she believed. “Then when you summoned your little army you could have had them immediately start tearing through my guards, but instead you offered them a chance to surrender. You acted in self defense instead of malice. Necromancers I’ve ran into in the past would never offer that.” This had been true. He didn’t have any intention to hurt the guards so long as they backed down. His original plan was to have them distract the guards while he made his escape into the woods. Of course if it had been many years earlier he would have had a lot of blood on his hooves right now. He had changed a lot since then...

Celestia leaned down closer and he actually scooted forward to her feeling more comfortable around her now despite his personal feelings. “You also put your wife’s safety before your own. I doubt a wicked pony would be able to care so much for an individual besides themselves.” There was a bit more to that than she knew. For one, Femme Fatale wasn’t his wife. That was merely a cover story for them living together in that dingy town. However, she was his friend and he made sure she and Ecto got away before he did.

Celestia was one of the few ponies to ever look at who he was instead of what he was. It made him feel warm and safe as if he could trust her. Unfortunately, he knew better than to get too close to the sun. It would only burn you and everything you know and love around you. However, he was willing to get just a bit closer.

“That light show I put on before the fog was cleared was actually a signal for… her…” he almost said ‘them’ which could have been very bad. He was on thin ice as it was. "To run. She’s probably long gone now.”

Celestia nodded believing he was finally starting to trust her. “That’s okay. If we find her I can assure you that no harm will come to her.”

No, you won’t hurt her… that is until you find out what she is.

“I’m willing to offer you something very special, Shop Keep. A second chance,” Julius cocked an eyebrow at Celestia, wondering what exactly she had in mind. She gladly went on, “If you tell me about your research, help us track down your wife, and reveal to me all your secrets about Darkmoon and anypony associated to it, well…” She trailed off a slightly mischievous smile coming onto her face. “We could suddenly find all these allegations to be false and a very capable caster who may just find himself with a very cozy job at my school due to his extensive magical knowledge.” She gave him a little wink.

The hint wasn’t subtle so it was hard to miss, but he couldn’t help but be a smart mouth, “So, you’re bribing me?”

Celestia frowned. “Heavens no, I’m offering you a great opportunity and forgiveness from your past sins!”

In other words, you're bribing me.

He put a hoof to his chin in thought, it was an amazing offer. One, which only a fool would turn down in their current situation. This was an opportunity of a life time. He could forgo everything for the high life. Working at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns would most certainly earn him a very high pay and a very cozy job. He’d probably have to watch his back for the rest of his life if Darkmoon found out he had betrayed them and they would without a doubt find out, thus making him live in paranoia. However, he already had to live like that now so how would it be any different? It was a pretty sweet deal.

There were just a few problems besides assassination attempts on him that made him hesitant. One was his research. Celestia already said she would destroy it, but he believed if he might, given enough time, be able to convince her to spare it. He would be willing to take that risk if it wasn’t for the second problem. The mare Celestia believed to be his wife. She was at an even greater risk and Ecto would also be in possible danger. He couldn’t possibly save his research and them.

It was that moment he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Celestia took noticed of this and turned her head to see what he was looking at. She saw nothing else in the room of interest and she turned back to him. There was a small smile on face. “That’s a very generous offer Cel…” he quickly corrected himself trying to make a good impression as he got glint in hie eyes, “Princess Celestia.” She smiled when he used her proper title. “If it’s alright with you, I’d like some time to carefully think it over. It is quite the life changing decision.”

Celestia stood with a brilliant and triumphant grin on her face. “Take your time. I completely understand your hesitance, but I believe you will come to the right decision.” She turned toward the flaps, exiting the tent.

Julius called out to her before she left, “Princess!” She turned back to him. “I’d like to thank you for treating me as you did. Very few ponies have ever looked past my talents and at who I am. You’re a far kinder and gentler pony that I was lead to believe, and I thank you for it.”

Celestia’s heart seemed to melt at his kind words and she gave him a most radiant smile that seem to warm up the room. For a moment she thought she saw that hate enter his eyes once more, but believed it to be nothing more than a trick in the dim light. She gave him a nod and left the tent.

Julius smiled and whispered, “I’m also thankful that you’re so trusting and gullible.” His smile turned a bit devilish as he looked to the ground as Ecto popped her ghostly head out from the dirt floor, smiling up at him and giving him a wink.

Author's Note

UPDATE 7/4/2016:
Removed "(Updated)" from the chapter title.

UPDATE 3/6/2014:
- So, cleaned up dialog and grammar like before.
- Mentioned and added hints that Julius has a more personal reason to hate Celestia besides her being anti black magic.
- State outright that his secret society is Darkmoon Covenant.
- When I originally made some of these early chapters I hadn't decided on names of ponies and things till later. I also didn't have a reason for Julius to fear and hate Celestia more than he already did. I didn't get the idea till later chapters. The reason has yet to be revealed at this time of writing.

OLD NOTES:
- Originally I was going to make the chapter longer, but this seemed like such a perfect stopping point that I couldn’t resist.
- You’ll notice I introduced Julius as Julius Grave. That’s his real name. I revealed it there so people won’t get confused and think his last name is Keep.
- I also Introduce the Children of the Night cult here. I have an entire Underworld planned so it's not just Necromancers the Mane 6 will be dealing with.
- We're almost to the Mane 6, so hold your horses!

Ch4: Fleeting Shadows

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch4: Fleeting Shadows

Julius stood up and stretched out as a wide grin appeared on his face. Ecto Burst rose from the ground, her body passing through like she had pulled herself out of water. Her wispy tail flowed fast with excitement and her giant grin that nearly reached both ends of her face made Julius start to chuckle. He was still very much in danger, being captive to Princess Celestia and all, but that didn’t prevent his ghostly companion’s confidence from raising his own spirits.

“Was that Princess Celestia?!” She practically shouted out in a cheery voice, causing Julius to hush her and be thankful that there was a barrier to prevent noise from being heard from inside.

“Yes, so we have to be quiet or else we’re in huge trouble!” He hissed out at her and she nodded, not losing her bright smile.

“Okay Ecto,” he whispered out to her as she approached his cage, “We need to find the key to get me out.” She instead passed right through the cage to get to him. Iron bars weren’t going to stop a ghost from phasing right through. “Okay, well then we need to get the key to my chains along with this blasted collar and ring on my head,” he continued as he rubbed the magic inhibitors around his neck and horn.

Ecto stuck her tongue out and touched the chained cuffs that bound Julius and gave them a tug. They passed right through his legs as if they had been made of mist. A shiver went through his hooves as they went right through. She then touched the collar and pulled it right through his neck, causing him to go real cold for a moment and cause his breath to be icy and visible. She then did the same with the ring making him for a moment feel like he just had brain freeze.

As he regained his warmth, Julius let off a soft sigh, “You know, it almost feels like cheating when you do it that way,” he then chuckled as he saw Ecto Burst undeterred smile.

She then started to tug on him; her touch was cool and felt like morning dew licking at his hair. He always found it fascinating that spirits could pass through objects like they weren’t even there, yet at the same time could physically touch and move them.

He soon shivered again as she pulled him through the iron bars. He passed through just like her, the cold chill whipping through him once more as his body went straight through the metal. Ecto had pulled him through solid walls and objects before, but he never quite got used to the sudden icy chill. It always had a lingering bit of fear attached to it, but quickly vanished as fast as it came. Thankfully it became bearable after happening many times.

“Alright, so how many guards are we looking at out there?” Julius queried as he rubbed himself to get back to a more normal body temperature.

“A lot!” She answered vaguely with a continued cheeriness.

Julius sat there with a bit of an annoyance at the answer, but he should have known better to expect anything else from a child.

“Okay, how are we going to get out of here?” He asked, hoping she at least had a plan.

“I’m gonna carry you out! We’ll go right through everything that gets in our way!” She said victoriously as if it was the greatest plan in the world.

Julius knew it would work to some degree. They would phase through everything that would try to stop them. However, the one problem with that ability was that certain magic’s could still affect them. And he would bet his tail Celestia would know just about every last one of them.

“It could work, but how are we to escape with out being seen? Celestia will easily be able to stop us and even if we avoid her magic we could still be followed,” he questioned as he fidgeted in place nervously, his leg shaking almost uncontrollably.

“Don’t worry! Fe…” Ecto stopped herself and looked around before correcting herself in case somepony was listening, “I mean Mrs. Keep has our escape covered! We just need to wait for the signal,” her smile got a bit sly as she leaned in to whisper all of this.

The chestnut colored stallion’s nerves calmed a little bit and he was glad Ecto was using his Femme’s code name instead of her real one. Caution would be their best friend right now. Julius then asked, “Does she know Celestia is out there?”

“Nope!” she answered brightly, not realizing the gravity of the situation.

He facehoofed with a sigh, “Dear Nightmare Moon please let this work….”

Princess Celestia exited the tent with a great confidence on her tired face. She felt like she had found the rarest gem within a mountain. Not only had she and her guards caught a Necromancer, but she believed she had just managed to convince him to turn over a new leaf and aid her in her fight against dark magic and the Darkmoon Covenant.

She immediately started making plans as to how to help him reintegrate himself into society. The sudden appearance and high ranking he would have might look suspicious to some, but the perks of having a knowledgeable spell caster of the dark arts around would make those worries well worth dealing with.

The best part of all this, to her at least, was that she could sense a very good pony inside of him. One who had simply fallen to the wayside and who she would gladly lead back into the light. She would still need to be careful though. Those who have tasted the power of darkness are more easily tempted to return to it. However, she had the utmost confidence that she could keep him from submitting to those desires.

The encampment was filled with varies tents neatly scattered around. The fabrics colors consisted of white and gold, her signature colors. Some guards had already retired to their tents for the night while others took watch. A few were enjoying a late night meal to help them get through their shift. The guards were of all pony types, leaning more towards unicorns due to the current situation they had to deal with.

Originally, twelve guards had been sent out to help with the investigation. Not including Details and Giant Wall who were put in charge of the mission. As soon as Celestia had received word that it had been confirmed as Necromancy she flew out here with an extra thirty guards as a precaution. It proved unnecessary and she hadn’t wanted to bring this many at first, but the Royal Guards refused to let her leave without some of their best members for her personal protection. They had arrived late that evening and had taken the time to set up camp. They didn’t make their presence known so they would have the element of surprise if it was needed, which had proven to be a smart move.

Celestia soon approached Detective Details and Giant Wall who were just chatting away. They were just a short trot from the prisoner’s tent that she had just left. Details was first to notice her and immediately turned his attention to her, “How did it go princess?” He asked with a bit of worried eagerness.

She smiled warmly. “I think we will soon have a very powerful ally. He’s still mulling it over, but I believe he is willing to repent for his misdeeds and help us uproot many of the dark magics that hide within Equestria.”

Details laughed triumphantly at this news while Giant Wall was a bit skeptical. “If you don’t mind princess, how did you get that riff raff to agree to that?”

“Riff raff?” she said as if Giant Wall had just called her that. “My dear, you should not be so quick to judge some pony you hardly know. You need to look deeper and find the good within them.”

Giant Wall quickly defended himself, “No mean to offend, I’m just suspicious is all. Those dark casters have been known to be quite deceitful.”

Detective Details pitched in, “I think my friend here would just appreciate it if you could relieve him of his worries and suspicions.” He gave Giant Wall a friendly pat on the back.

Celestia nodded, “Well, I saw a good pony in there that simply made some mistakes in his life. I treated him like I would treat any normal pony.” Her smile brightened and explained, “He was so taken aback by this treatment. I could tell he wasn’t used to it, but he seemed so touched by such kindness that he began to warm up to me. He even told me few had ever treated him like that before.”

Both Details and Giant Wall nodded at her words. The princess had always been talented at seeing the good in others. She was able to find the best in almost any pony.

Celestia then finished up, “I also promised to excuse him from punishment and offer him a position at my school should he help us.” With that statement she once against lost the faith of not just Giant Wall, but also Detective Details.

The detective just stared at her dumbfounded while Giant Wall just shook his head in disbelief, “Princess!” He took a moment to get better control of his voice, “Surely you can’t promise him that! I could understand lightening his punishment, maybe even excuse him from it if the information he provides is incredibly helpful, but to also provide him a cozy job and life?! It would cause a huge uproar!” Giant Wall received a few looks from some of the guards, unable to believe he had just shouted at Celestia like that. He looked to the ground in shame and cleared his throat, “Forgive princess, it was not my place to say that.”

Celestia shook her head and waved a hoof dismissively, “No, it was very much your place to show concern. However, I need his full cooperation and by having him kept close, I will be able keep an eye on him. Think of it like living in a high life prison while serving the community. His contributions will prove to be invaluable and as long as no pony here mentions this night then there would be no cause for an uproar from the nobles.” She gave him a wink.

Giant Wall didn’t like the thought of the necromancer escaping justice, but he understood why the princess was doing this. He also knew why she would want to keep this knowledge from public eye as he had to deal with nobles before and many times he had strong urges to throw their stuffy noses off the nearest cliff or tower. He could only imagine what urges Celestia had when dealing with those aristocrats like Blueblood. He actually shivered at the thought of dealing with that pain in the plot.

With a final sigh he consented, “I will trust your judgment princess, but I urge you on the side of caution.” Celestia nodded to this, fully prepared to deal with anything that was thrown at her.

From the woods a few low curses were whispered from some glowing red eyes. They were far enough away from camp that they couldn’t be seen nor heard. “Well, with the royal pain being here this should make things more interesting...” The mare then proceeded to let out a high pitch noise that could only be heard by certain animals.

Two guards, one Pegasus and the other an Earth pony, stared out into the night with boredom. It was going to be a long night in such a dull country side. Though, it was a beautiful sight when they were looking at the rolling hills instead of the graveyard. Unfortunately it lost some of its majesty after about an hour of staring out at it.

The Pegasus, a stallion, swerved his ear and perked up to listen, “Hey, do you hear something?” He tried to listen more closely by closing his eyes.

The earth pony, also another stallion, looked at him then listened as well. “Hmm, I don’t hear… wait,” he said as he thought he heard something faint. “Actually I do think I hear something. Not sure what it is. Any clue?”

The Pegasus looked up over the woods where he believed the sound was coming from and replied, “I’m not sure.” He peered off into the distance and noticed a bunch black dots barely in the night sky. “Hey what’s that?” he asked as he pointed them out.

The other guard squinted at the dots and answered, “Looks like a bunch of birds to me.”

Suddenly the black dots that were believed to be birds were joined by even more birds rising from the forest.

“A whole lot of birds,” the same guard said again.

Screeching could be heard more clearly now and then even more birds rose to join the group, quickly becoming a giant mass of blackness that now seemed to be heading their way.

“That’s… a whole lot of birds,” he whispered with a gulp and a bit of worry.

The Pegasus had sharper eyes and they grew fierce with worry. “Those aren’t birds,” his answer caused his compatriot to shoot a look at him. “Those are bats,” he explained as he looked back at his friend and they both nodded and ran into the camp.

Princess Celestia was confirming plans with Giant Wall on the transportation of their prisoner when a pegasi guard quickly flew up to them and gave a bow. An earth pony guard came up quickly behind him as the pegasi pointed to the sky and exclaimed, “Princess, we might have trouble!”

She turned her head to the sky to see a black cloud of dots start to blot out the moon. She began to hear the constant screeching and she started to concentrate on the individual dots. “Are those…?”

The guard answered her before she could finish, “Bats, princess! I’ve never seen that many gather before.”

She didn’t seem too worried. “The night sky is their domain. As long we don’t disturb them we should be fine,” she reassured the guard, but then noticed that the screeching was getting louder. The group of bats were starting to get uncomfortably close. She could start to make out the details of each winged rat in detail as the moon shined down upon them. They were easily as large as a ponies head and each of them as black as the darkest abyss.

All the guards were looking up at this and they were starting to get on edge. Giant Wall started to breathe heavily as if he was going into battle while Details' horn began to glow with magic. Meanwhile, Celestia remained cool and collected till the very last moment. It was until the creatures of the night were just a little ways from their encampment that they started to dive down into them. She was the first to react and shouted in the infamous Royal Canterlot Voice, "KEEP DOWN AND HOLD STILL!"

Guards got low to the ground and froze up like statues. Details on the other hoof put up an orange shield with his magic, a few other unicorns did the same. Celestia continued to stand and she merely closed her eyes as they were enveloped by the winged beasts, their screeches piercing the night sky.

Ecto peaked out of the tent; the bats had completely enveloped themselves around all the guards and the princess. Vision of anything was completely impaired, especially those with shields, where the bats clung to them in great numbers, giving their wielders a view of nothing, but the black bats and their fangs as they gnawed on the bubbles. They would be unsuccessful in breaking them, but it would provide the necessary distraction. She turned back to Julius within the tent and asked, “Ready to go?”

Julius grabbed his children of the night emblem off a nearby table. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” he replied with a deep breath and sigh. He felt himself grow cold as Ecto easily lifted him off the ground despite their size difference and they phased through the side of the tent, making a break for the woods.

As they passed through he shivered and his eyes grew wide at the sheer number of bats that surrounded the encampment. Julius soon shut them as one flew right in his face and he began to grow cold over and over again as countless bats went right through his body, but it felt more like they passed through his soul.

Only after the chilliness and feeling of the creatures phasing through subsided did he dare take a peak. They were quickly drifting into the woods and broad smile stretched across his face as they reached tree cover. It quickly left as he noticed they smacked head first into a tree, only to pass through and bringing back the icy chill. Ecto was making a beeline through the forest, but he swore she was purposely going through the thickest trees just to tick him off.

Julius looked behind him and noticed they were well out of the camps line of sight. They were practically home free and he congratulated Ecto, “Great, we are out of here!” He regretted making the look back as he turned his head forward and they passed through another tree with his eyes still open. He saw a very disturbed squirrel and passed right through him as well. His eye twitched and Ecto let out a hearty laugh as they proceeded through the dense woods.

Celestia found it odd, they were still surrounded by the screeching bats after all this time, but they hadn’t attacked nor left their campsite. She dared to open one eyelid only to instinctively close it as one flew right in front of her face. She waited a moment before gathering her nerves again and this time more slowly opened her eyelid. She could barely see anything except the black fur and membrane wings of the flying mammal.

With a sigh of annoyance she let a bit of magic flow into the tip of her horn and a brilliant light flashed around her! The beasts that had surrounded her screeched in pain and backed off for a moment. She immediately took in the sights around her and was utterly shock at what she was able to see.

There were still many bats flying around, but every single one of her little ponies was being surrounded by these creatures. Either flying right around their bodies or obstructing the view such as the ponies with shields. She also noticed not one single bat was leaving the campsite. They were refusing to go no matter what. Suspicion entered her mind, but before she could contemplate on another action the bats she had warded off were in her face once again and obstructing her view.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, knowing that these creatures weren't going to willing leave them. The tip of her horn glowed once again, but this time far brighter. She opened her eye, now glowing completely white with the ethereal of magic as she prepared a large spell. One moment the encampment was covered in the darkness of these vile beasts, the next a brilliant light as bright as the sun itself erupted from the center of the encampment. The bats screeched and immediately fled into the sky leaving Celestia and her guards alone as they flapped away while screeching angrily. For a moment they all hovered around in the air above them before attempting to dive at them again.

Celestia looked coldly up at them as she released the same spell again, blinding a few of the guards while others shielded their eyes with a hoof or wing. The spell made bats fly further away while causing some of them to begin fleeing from the painful light. Celestia released the spell once more the very moment she noticed some of them starting to dive again. This final blast made them screech angrily and they all began to fly off into the night, dispersing from the large group they once made.

The magic glow in Celestia’s eyes faded and she checked around her. For the most part the guards seemed unharmed except maybe a few who had gone temporarily blind and were stumbling helplessly around. Some of the guards who were spared this impairment started to help the blind ones to some of the tents. Giant Wall was shaking his head as he tried to see straight. He hadn’t been expecting a bunch of bats, let alone a light show. Details on the other hoof was able to catch on quickly after the first blast and had wisely shielded his eyes with his hat.

“Well, that was interesting to say the least,” Detective Details muttered as he repositioned his brown hat comfortably on his head.

“I think annoying was the word you were looking for!” Giant Wall corrected in an unintended shout as he stuck a hoof in his ear to clean it, having gone a little bit deaf from the loud screeching as well.

“That’s the strangest behavior I’ve ever seen from those creatures. Not that I’ve seen them that much, but it’s still an oddity in my opinion.” Details tapped his chin with a hoof and he noticed Celestia was glaring back at the tent where they had been keeping their prisoner that they knew as Shop Keep. He immediately knew what she was thinking and exclaimed, “You don’t think he could have done that?! He was still restrained with his magic sealed wasn’t he?”

Great Wall quickly understood what they were presuming and as his eyesight came back he was able to catch Princess Celestia somehow gracefully stomp her way over to the tent. He and Details quickly followed her.

As Celestia entered the tent she let out an exasperated sigh and her eyes saddened to find the cage empty with all his bindings inside, yet for some strange reason still locked as if he had just slipped them off. Details and Great Wall came in and stared in disbelief. Before they could say a word Celestia gave out a stern command as her face hardened, “Find him!” She hadn't shouted, but she might as well have as it felt like one to the two other ponies. They ran out yelling to the other guards to prepare for a stallion hunt to find their escaped prisoner. After they left, she let her face soften again as she frowned in disappointment, a look she used to give her personal student when ever she had done something unbecoming of her. She then whispered to herself, “A good pony who just makes bad decisions….”

After some time, Ecto and Julius floated from the woods and onto a pathway that cut through it. Off to the side of the road was a decent sized caravan more often seen being used by traveling performers or merchants. The trailer was fairly simple with dull wood colors with a bit of red painted along the edges where the carpenters got fancy with swirls or some other shape of mild interest. There were no windows except for a few sliders on the inside so one could peak on out. It was more designed for transportation of materials than for ponies.

Ecto set Julius down gently and he rubbed out the last of the cold he felt due to all the passing through trees and branches and who knows what else. He was surprised to find he had actually gotten a little more used to it after doing it for what he suspected to be the last twenty or so minutes. With a stretch and one last shake he trotted over to the caravan, “Time for me to lose this disguise, keep a look out for guards in the meantime, Ecto.”

He heard a cheerful, “You got Julius!” as he opened the caravan and stepped in while shutting the door behind him. It was very cramped inside, filled with all the ingredients they were able to sneak out of the shop along with books and other valuables that were shrunk down or stored with varies packing spells. He let a dim violet light emit from his horn as he made his way to the back, ignoring most of the items around him.

In the back there was a dream catcher with a soft white gemstone weaved into it. This was actually Ecto’s bed; her spirit could inhabit the stone and rest there. It was a great way to sneak around a ghost and with none the wiser that he was carrying an extra soul on his person. Only certain magics could detect if she was there and most of those spells were in the necromancy repertoire. Thus, making it a non issue unless they had to deal with another enemy necromancer, but as far as he was aware he had no enemies within the Darkmoon Covenant, at least of the magic type and he most certainly wouldn't ever want one.

From the dream catcher his eyes drifted down to the silver pendent with a blue gem encrusted into its center. The necklace he had given Ecto before he got captured. He allowed a slight smile to creep onto his face as he took the pendent and hung it around his neck. He then looked back towards the door with a bit of paranoia. He stared down the door like it was about to burst into a million wooden chips while Celestia’s guards charged inside. He continued this for almost a good minute.

Satisfied that this wasn’t going to happen he then felt along the wooden wall and knocked on a few places before pressing in one certain area which caused a hidden and enchanted compartment to slide out. Inside was a large wooden box with even more enchantments on it. One last look at the entrance and he peaked inside of the mysterious chest.

A wave of relief washed over him as he looked upon his greatest treasure. Something so valuable he simply couldn’t bear the thought of losing it. He smiled sadly and breathed deeply for a few relaxing breaths before he sighed and his smile became a frown. He closed up the box and the hidden compartment as he went back to what he was originally here to do.

He knew it would be around here somewhere, but wasn’t sure where it was placed. The unicorns' light drifted over various bottles secured on the shelves. He was looking for a particular unlabeled bottle, but he knew very well what was in it. After a few moments of searching he found it next to a bottle that looked exactly the same, but was empty of any liquid. He pulled the filled bottle up, smaller than a salt shaker he uncorked the lid with his magic and the scentless liquid was exposed.

He took a deep breath and muttered to himself, “Well, bottoms up!” He then started to swig down the liquid, it was cool in his throat and it felt nice to have something to drink after all the chasing and running he had done. However, Julius knew better than to think of this as a refreshing drink. As soon as he finished he felt the potion's magic start to take effect. It was beginning to dispel a magical spell that he had been under for around two years.

It was a powerful transformation spell that he had went under in order to remain hidden and so he would have a way to escape any pursuers who would be chasing a pony with a completely different face. Sure, he could have used illusion spells, but those could be detected and could break if they weren’t properly maintained. Transformation on the other hoof was permanent until dispelled or till one went through another transformation. Unfortunately, such spells tend to be very uncomfortable process to go through. Sometimes they could be downright painful if the new shape was drastically different than the old. It also took a lot more work to make a transformation potion or spell. Thus most went with illusions for the sake of simplicity.

Julius hunched over and clenched his stomach in pain as the elixir began to work its magic. His body trembled and he was far more aware of his nerves than he wanted to be. His physical shape altered as a green glow began to overtake his being and spread. This effect was similar to that of Changelings as one of the ingredients was the mucus that made up changeling cocoons. His true physical make up began to show as he became a little bit less bulky and much leaner. The chestnut color of his coat began to gray, first a light gray and slowly into a color close to ash. His eyes glowed and went from a grass green to a deep violet reminiscent of his magic. As his eyes altered so too did his mane. Starting at the base of his skull, dark blue violet streaks began to move up to the tips of his hair. However, as it reached the tips the color change stopped short leaving some of the ends a faded black. The opposite happened to his tail; the color came from the end and stopped short of the base leaving the base black while the end hairs on his short tail remained the same violet color of his mane. Completing the transformation was a little goatee under his chin and as his mane was became longer and spiky, looking like it had not been groomed in a long time.

He stood up and rubbed his head as the uncomfortable awareness of his entire self finally subsided. Julius proceeded to rummage through some of their supplies finding some warm clothes to replace the all too recognizable robe he had been wearing. He bundled up in a long black coat that also covered up his cutie mark not taking any chances as his cutie mark would possibly cause a little too much suspicion in the current situation.

Julius' cutie mark was of a pearl colored in the deepest blues found in the hottest of flames being circled around by two shadow flames, the innermost of the fires were black and the edges were that of violet purple. One of the firy orbs was below the pearl while the other was above it. The tails of the fireballs encircled the pearl as they chased each other around and around. To sum up what his cutie mark meant, dark magic would say it all. Even though that was his special talent he had taken up deeply studying necromancy in recent years. He had always been very skilled in the other dark magics, but found necromancy a little bit more intriguing. The interest grew even more over the course of the last several years until it became the only thing he focused on.

With a good stretch and cracking a few bones he finally stepped out of the caravan. Ecto was hiding under their ride while scouting the roads and woods. She was able to adjust how much of her could be seen and was near invisible at the moment, only letting enough of herself to be seen so Julius would know she was still there. She gave him a smile and then covered her mouth as she started to stifle a laugh. Before he could ask her what so funny he heard rustling in the woods from where they had been escaping from before.

He turned around expecting the worse, but was relieved as he saw the flash of red eyes bounding through the trees. The eyes approached the road and the moonlight revealed the figure of the crimson irises. It was a pale white mare with black leathery bat wings. She had short locks of hair with her mane; the same color as her eyes which were accompanied by long eyelashes. Her tail was longer than Julius and her cutie mark was on display, a blooming red rose with thorns. Her fanged smile was sensual and her eyes were half closed with a “come hither” look.

Julius returned her smile. “Mrs. Keep,” He said with a bit of teasing. She had been under the transformation spell too, but had dropped it shortly after leaving the town and packed up their stuff in the caravan.

She pouted, yet answered him while still managing to look sexy, “Please Julius, no more fake names.”

He nodded in agreement, “Very well… Femme Fatale.”

Femme gave a warm smile at finally being able to use her real name again and she approached Julius. She then stopped short and looked him over before starting to giggle uncontrollably.

He looked at her with a blank stare and a cock of his head, “What?”

She did her best to answer without causing a laughing fit, “Oh nothing, didn’t realize you were going for the cliché villain look. You gonna give us a maniacal laugh now?” Ecto was giggling with her. Apparently this was what she had been laughing about earlier.

He rubbed the back of his head with confusion, “What are you talking about?”

She trotted up and brushed his goatee with one hoof. He suddenly became aware of it and then brushed it with his own hoof while exclaiming, “When did I get that?!”

“Well, it’s been a while Julius. Not shaving on your original body can have that kind of effect,” She answered this while giving him a few kisses, trailing down to his neck and kissing him there while whispering, “You know what I want to do right now?” She asked this while breathing against his neck and occasionally kissing it.

He felt he knew this answer as he felt her fangs brush against his fur, but he asked anyway, “What?”

She looked up at him and then her eyes drooped and her smile left her as she whined out, “I want to sleep!” She practically sobbed it out, “I’ve been stressed and working all day and all night. I really need a nap!” She rested her head on Julius’ shoulder and he patted one of her shoulders with his hoof.

He shushed her quietly, “It’s okay, you can go ahead and sleep, you’ve earned it.” He then turned his head to look at Ecto and almost ordered, “You too! I can take care of it from here." This earned him a smile from her and she went up into the caravan to rest in her dream catcher. Meanwhile he patted Femme a few more times before she gave him kiss and walked over to the trailer, swaying her hips enticingly as she finally entered it for a well deserved rest.

Julius took a deep breath and cast a spell called Insomnia on himself. He thought about using a similar spell which had the effect of around eight shots of espresso, but the crash and burn afterwards was a bit too risky right now. Insomnia, as the name suggested, meant he wouldn’t be able to sleep regardless of how tired he got. He’d simply deal with exhaustion instead of a complete crash and shutdown.

He trotted over to the reins and hitched himself up. One more spell to get some forward momentum and another for some extra strength and soon he was able to start pulling the little caravan along with little effort. The only thing lighting his path was the little bit of moonlight that struck through the trees.

It was about half an hour when Julius ran into the first set guards. They had started to patrol the road and unfortunately Giant Wall was with them. He stopped Julius the moment he got close to the group.

“Halt right there!” Wall commanded as Julius skidded to a stop and the stallion examined him over while a mare unicorn magically lifted a lantern up for Giant Wall to get a better look at him.

A knowing smirk came onto his face. “Check him for illusions,” he commanded to another unicorn in the group and she galloped over and started a spell before Julius could even protest. After a few moments she shook her head, “No illusions detected.”

Another unicorn had trotted over to his carriage and was performing a few more spells while a pegasi were flying around and checking for anypony hiding. They too shook their heads as well.

Just as Giant Wall was ready to admit defeat Details showed up and got right into Julius’ face. He swore those two were always together and it was starting to irk him. Details noticed the tips of his hair were black and he exclaimed, “Ah ha!” He tugged on his hair causing Julius to yelp in pain. He had a triumphant smile on his face, but it soon left and he grimaced. “Bah, it’s his real hair color,” he said then stomped off angrily while Julius glared daggers at him for messing with his hair.

He then coughed at the two lackeys of Celestia. “Mind explaining what that was all about?” he asked, playing the role of a normal traveling civilian.

Giant Wall and Detective Details stopped and looked at each other, realizing they had just mistaken a supposedly innocent pony for their perpetrator and had shown disrespect to him. Details being more elegant with words smoothed out the situation, “Oh, forgive us fair traveler! That was rude and inexcusable, but you must understand it was for your safety.” Julius continued to play his role by quirking an eye brow as the detective relayed this information, “You see a dangerous unicorn is in these woods and we must take every precaution to subdue him. We thank you for your cooperation and hope you understand this regretful distrust of you.”

Julius let his face lighten up which caused Details and Giant Wall to be more relieved. “I understand the caution then,” he paused for a moment and a thought came to him, “I’d very much hate to travel this forest alone if this pony is as dangerous as you say. Would it be asking too much to have an escort, at least until I’m no longer in the woods?” He asked politely and restrained himself from laughing at the two stallions’ faces. The two of them shifted their eyes at each other nervously, not wanting to give up more guards in their search.

Giant Wall sighed knowing what Celestia would have wanted them to do. He pointed at an earth stallion and a Pegasus mare, “You and you! Make sure this pony gets out of here safely then meet back up with the nearest patrol,” The two saluted and started to follow Julius as he went on his way. The group of guards then proceeded on their search in the opposite direction.

Having the two guards was quite the boon. The other patrols only stopped them for a moment to make sure they weren’t illusions and then quickly let them along their way without even batting an eye at them. Easily believing they were escorting the unicorn. Julius didn’t make any small talk. He could tell that they were tired and they could tell the same of him. He was glad he put that Insomnia enchant on him, otherwise this would have been a lot rougher if he started to fall asleep while lugging the caravan.

It took almost another hour to reach the edge of the woods, partly from being stopped by other patrols to clear them. He thanked the two guards who managed a small smile at the gratitude and they let him be on his way into the open plains. He was home free at this point.

The plan was to make it to the next town over and figure out what to do from there. He knew a contact was there who had links to Darkmoon and the other underground communities. However, with the night dragging on into the early hours of the morning he knew trying to make it to the town by sunrise was just not within his will power. His enchantments were wearing off and it would just be a good idea to rest now.

After traveling a few good miles away from the forests edge he finally pulled his caravan under a large lone tree. He unhitched himself and started to walk around to the back and slipped into caravan while locking the door behind him, taking one last glance at Luna’s beautiful night before shutting it away.

He stripped off his coat and cast a deep violet light from his horn so he could see. Femme was sleeping on a makeshift bed that was just barely large enough for two to squeeze in. She was bundled up under the blanket snoring lightly. In the back the dream catcher now had a sea green gem instead of a white one now, meaning Ecto was now sleeping in it.

He let off a soft relieved sigh and got under the blanked with Femme. It wasn’t like the bed they had back at their now former home, but after the long night it felt just as good. Femme felt his presence and immediately snuggled into him while resting her head on his neck. He gave her a hug and they both drifted into a deep sleep.

What felt like five seconds of sleep to Julius, was quickly interrupted by banging at his door. He opened his bloodshot eyes and groaned. Femme also moaned, displeased to wake from her sleep. She covered herself and turned away from him while muttering, “Julius, please go get that.” He wanted to argue, but knew better than that. The banging came again and he shook his head and got up with a yawn.

The banging happened one more time and he shouted, “I’m coming, I’m coming! Hold your horses!” He thought about the irony of that statement as he opened the little wooden slide to peak outside. He quickly shielded his eyes as the morning sun shot right at him. He backed away from it and rubbed them. The light landed near Femme and she let off an angry grunt and tried to cover more of herself from the bright intrusion.

A voice called from the slit, “Sir, please step outside.” It was more of an order than a request.

Julius closed the wooden slide and then unlocked the door and shielded his eyes from the suns rays as he stepped out. He didn’t close the door all the way and the light was pouring partially into the caravan. His eyes were blurry from lack of sleep and it took a moment of squinting and getting his face uncomfortably close to the pony in front of him to finally make out what he was seeing. It took a minute to register it was a guard and he yawned, not caring at all at this point. A boulder could land on him right now and he wouldn't give a damn with such little sleep.

The guard grunted, “We’re looking for a criminal and are asking if any travelers have seen this stallion,” He held up a paper to his face. He had to stare at it for a long time with his blood shot eyes to make out that it was a paper of him when he looked like Shop Keep. It even had his old name on it. Only thing missing was a reward… oh wait there it was. He mused to himself, reading that they were offering five hundred bits for his capture, but then he looked closely and noticed there wasn’t a decimal and it actually said fifty thousand!

“Wow, what did this guy do?” he said, continuing his role of ignorant traveler, but with much less enthusiasm than he would normally have. He admired the reward on his head with a small bit of pride before he had another heart attack for… well he was no longer keeping track at this point nor could he remember them all after such sleep deprivation.

The source of his stress came from a tired and sweet voice behind the guard, “Let’s just say he has very powerful magic and leave it at that.” Looking pass the guard in front of him, trying to make out what it was he was seeing only to finally have his eyes dilate as he saw around twenty guards and Princess Celestia, all staring at him. She approached him and once his heart started to beat again he stepped down and did his best to bow, nearly falling completely. He didn't want to bow to her, but was too tired to even try to resist.

“Please rise!” She said sweetly and he obeyed. He noticed her eyes were tired and bit bloodshot as well. He hadn’t been the only one that had been up all night.

From behind him an annoyed groan called out thanks to the light pouring into the caravan, “Julius! Shut the door…” Femme did not like the morning sun pouring in on her and for good reason.

“I’m a little busy at the moment,” he said forcing a smile at Celestia with a bit of sweat pouring down his neck.

“I don’t care… shut the door,” she wined out.

“I’m dealing with an important guest at the moment!” He turned his head slightly back towards the caravan, still keeping his eyes on the princess.

“Don’t care! Shut it!” She shouted this time.

“Not now! I have to–”

“I don’t care if Princess Celestia herself is out there!” He sighed at Femmes statement as she kept yelling, “So, unless your guest is going to set the sun in the next two seconds, you can tell them to take that oversized candle and shove it where it doesn’t shine!” Femme yelled out with her voice getting steadily louder. Julius facehoofed at the statement in embarrassment. Then in the scariest and most ominous voice she could muster, that unnerved even Celestia’s stalwart guards, Femme roared out the last of her rant, “NOW SHUT THE DAMN DOOR!” She sounded more like a dragon at that point, in fact, Julius was fairly sure a dragon would be less scary right now.

He quickly rushed over to the door, not even thinking of using his magic and he shut it as hastily as possible. With a deep breath he turned back with a fake and sheepish smile. The guards were glaring angrily at him, looking like they were ready to kill him over such disrespect towards the princess. He looked at Celestia, a hoof over her mouth in shock. He gulped thinking this was the end for him. What happened next surprised and relieved him.

Celestia was shocked by the statement, but that wasn’t why she was covering her mouth. It came out as uncontrolled giggles then she couldn’t take it anymore and started to laugh hard, her laughter like the sound of the purest of bells. Julius started to laugh with her nervously, trying to lighten the mood. The guards started to relax, but still glared daggers, only with slightly less anger than they had before.

Their princess walked up to him. “My, she’s not a morning person is she?” She was still having a giggle fit. It had been a long time since someone made her laugh so hard, but the irony of his friend's statement was just so perfect she couldn’t hold it all in, especially after the rough night she had.

“Yes, princess you could say she doesn’t enjoy the early mornings,” he said with a long yawn. Celestia beamed at him with a gentle smile and he felt a bit more relaxed though there was an odd glint in his eyes, but everypony was too tired to notice.

“Well, this will make for an amusing story later. So, I guess you haven’t seen that pony we’re looking for?” she asked then tacked on a second question, “Your name was Julius, yes?” she asked, trying to be polite as she got back to the subject at hoof.

He shook his head as he replied, “Sorry, can’t say that I have.” He yawned again and answered her second question, “And yes, the name is Julius.” He didn’t give her his last to be on the safe side.

“Well, thank you for your time. Sorry to have disturbed you.” She waved her hoof dismissively.

Julius nodded back to her. “Perfectly fine princess,” He said with a weak and tired smile as he turned around and slowly tread over to the caravan.

He was quickly stopped by the princess. “Oh, that’s an interesting cutie mark! What’s your talent?” He froze realizing he had walked out without covering his cutie mark representing that his special talent was dark magic. He retreated into his thoughts to think up a plan and soon found himself staring at the ground as he mulled it over.

Celestia noticed this and walked over. “Julius?” She inquired as she turned her head to the side, looking at the mark again with some suspicion rising in her. She poked him lightly and then heard a sound erupt from him. Curious she leaned closer only to hear it again a few seconds later. He was snoring.

He had fallen asleep with his eyelids half open while standing up. She let off a light laugh and shook him awake. His head bolted right up as he looked around in confusion. When he saw Celestia he jumped and yelped out in fear, “GAAHH!” he landed near the guard that had been standing near him as felt another mini heart attack. This was the worst one and he actually had to start beating his hoof against his chest to actually get it pumping again.

Celestia leaned over him in concern. “Are you alright?” she asked in a worried tone.

Julius started to remember what had happened before he had drifted off in mid thought. He stood up with a blush on his face and bowed to her while gritting his teeth. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting to wake up to the site of you Princess. I probably shouldn’t have overreacted like that,” he said then gave her his best sleep deprived smile, “Though waking up to you in the morning would make many… excited?” He winked at her with the flattered hint, causing the rage of her guards to return. Heck, he was a bit angry at himself for even flirting with that tyrant. If only Deimos could see him now...

Celestia waved her hoof at him with a chuckle, “Oh, such the charmer!” She smiled warmly again and then sighed out, “But I’ve taken enough of your time and I must be on my way. I look forward to meeting you again sometime!” She turned and started to trot over to a golden chariot that was hitched up to two pegasi.

Julius sighed with relief at the stroke of luck he just had and quickly made his way back into the caravan with some of the guards still glaring at him.

Meanwhile as Celestia boarded her chariot she gave an order to the guards staying behind, “I expect the search to continue. Do whatever you can to find him. I will send more squads to help your hunt. If he is he captured he is to immediately be brought to Canterlot and is to only be questioned by me, understood?” The guards she talked to saluted and she nodded to one mare as she gave the command for her chariot to take off.

As they ascended into the sky, her rainbow mane blowing at the same rate as it did on the ground, she let off an exasperated sigh followed by a yawn as she knew that her duties today would be that much longer with such little sleep. “This is going to be a bad day,” she muttered to herself in defeat.

Julius was quick to get back under the covers with Femme after he had locked the door. As soon as he was under she was curling up against him and kissing his neck. “So, who was it?” she asked in mild interested.

“A bunch of guards and Princess Celestia herself,” he chuckled out as he hugged her. Another yawned escaped his lip and he closed his eyes.

A realization hit Femme and she asked, “Wait, your telling me I got to tell Celestia to shove that sun of hers right up her–”

“Yup!” He laughed at how that had happened. At first he was mad, but looking back at the moment, it was pretty funny.

Ecto laughed from her dream catcher and Femme Fatale smiled. “It’s going to be a good day,” she stated as the three of them quickly drifted off into a well deserved sleep.

Author's Note

UPDATE 7/4/2016:
Removed "(Updated)" from the chapter title.

UPDATE 3/6/2014:
- Moved comments to Authors Notes section that wasn't available when originally writing this.
- Cleaned up everything like previous chapters. Was long enough without me needing to add a new scene.
- Revealed Femme's true form in this chapter instead of later chapters, but don't outright state that she's a vampire.

This chapter was another long one. Why I ended the previous chapter sooner instead of making it part of this chapter.
I had a few opportunities to end this chapter and break it up into more, but I felt that would have been to many chapters so you all get one big one!
Next chapter, after a little more time with Julius we finally get to the Mane 6! Fluttershy yay!

Ch6: Building Normalcy

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch6: Building Normalcy

The first rays of sunlight poured through the window of a mighty tree that played host to a town library. The upstairs of it was a bedroom and the warm light began to coat a sleeping mare. Her ears twitched as she let an eye flutter open to the blinding sun. A lavender colored hoof reached up to shield her pupils from the harsh beacon of dawn as her eyes started to adjust to the change in lighting. When her eyes finally became accustomed, Twilight finally returned a bright smile to the sun as if she was smiling at her own mentor, Princess Celestia.

She let off a yawn, turning her head to the ceiling and stretched out her body in an attempt to wake up her still sleeping limbs. She had managed to get a good night sleep, something that was a little rare for her, and she was ready to take on anything the day threw at her. With what strength she could muster, Twilight pushed herself up into a sitting position and held herself up with her hooves.

Craning her neck, she looked down to a basket by her bed that was the sleeping arrangement for her dragon assistant. To her surprise the makeshift bed was empty and she gazed around her room before finally calling out, “Spike?”

Almost immediately the door out to the library cracked open and her purple scaled friend peaked in. “Hey Twilight! You up?” He had an excited grin on his face.

The mare leaned toward the door, “Yes Spike, what are you doing up so early?”

“Don’t you remember? It comes in today!” He pushed the rest of the door open and was practically bouncing with excitement.

“What comes in… oh!” She suddenly remembered what he had been looking forward to. She gave him chuckle as she rolled out of her bed and stretched once more. “Let me get cleaned up and we’ll go get it.”

Spike simply smiled and bounded down the stairs to wait at the front door. Twilight smiled at his enthusiasm as she started towards the bathroom to give her teeth and hair a good brushing.

About ten minutes later Twilight and Spike were walking out of the town library and through the streets of Ponyville. Even as early as it was it was already bustling with life as the town residents began to go about their business. It was a Saturday so fewer ponies were working, but more were out to make the most of their weekend.

The two companions would wave or greet the individuals that would acknowledge them. Spike would wave from atop Twilight's back and she would nod or greet them with a friendly hello.

They turned a corner and found themselves at the back of fairly long line. A line that lead right up to their destination; a little shop that sold toys and comic books. The latter was the reason they were there. Spike was eager to get the latest issue of Batmane, which came out today.

Spike frowned slightly at the line, but that didn’t deter him from looking forward to the new issue. “Aw man, I can’t wait! They’re introducing a new villain in this one!”

Twilight humored his interest, though she didn’t completely approve of him reading all those comics, it at least it got him to read, “Oh? And who’s this new dastardly fiend?”

Spike was more than eager to answer like any child who had an interest, “All I know is this new bad guy goes by the name ‘The Fear’.”

“I’m guessing he scares everypony?” Twilight replied as she pointed out the obvious.

“Yeah! How’d you know?” Spike answered as they moved forward in line.

“Oh, call it mare’s intuition,” she chuckled and rolled her eyes. It was then she saw a blue blur shoot out from the store, kicking up dust and leaving behind a rainbow colored trail as it rocketed to the clouds. “Was that Rainbow?”

“I think so, I guess she’s a fan of the series too,” Spike said shrugging and they continued to move forward.

Deciding to kill a little more time, Twilight continued to ask questions, “So, isn’t this villain like some other nemesis of Batmane. What was her name?” She thought for a moment before she remembered and answered, “Scarecrow wasn’t it?”

“No, no, it’s Scarecow. Bovine terror enthusiast who studies the phobias of everypony,” Spike replied and Twilight was very sure he learned more vocabulary from comic books than he ever did from regular books. He then went on, “Seriously, who’d ever be afraid of some bird. That’s just silly, Twilight!”

“So, then what makes this Fear fellow different from Scarecow?” She raised an eyebrow as they almost got to the front of the line.

“From what I heard, this guy can become ponies’ greatest fears. With Scarecow it’s all in your head, but with this guy your actually facing your fear.” Twilight nodded to Spike's answer and could see how that would make a big difference. If a fear was mentally before somepony and they knew it was all in their head they could just try to shut it out, but if it was physically there they were forced to deal with it.

The two finally reached the front of the line and few minutes later Twilight was trotting out with Spike reading the comic on his back. She turned her head to look at him, only to be greeted by the cover of Batmane facing off a giant and fierce looking bat. “You up for getting breakfast at Sugarcube Corner Spike?”

The dragon put down his comic just for a moment to answer, “Yeah, sounds great!” He quickly pulled it back up to continue his reading. Twilight smiled and trotted along to their destination.

It was as they were a couple of blocks away from Sugarcube that Twilight noticed something. Out towards the entrance/exit to Ponyville that lead to the dreaded Everfree Forest, she saw a bunch of ponies digging in an empty plot of field. Curiosity got the better of her and she started to trot down to them. “Spike, we're going to take a little detour,” she explained to which she got just an incoherent mumble as the dragon was lost in his comic book.

Getting closer to the group she noticed a familiar cream colored pony with a graying mane and a scroll for cutie mark. It was Mayor Mare, the mayor of Ponyville. She seemed a bit distressed as she kept fiddling with her half rim glasses as she watched the ponies work on the site. Twilight walked up to her and put on a comforting smile while greeting her, “Good morning mayor! What’s going on?”

Mayor Mare jumped for a moment and then turned while putting on the best smile she could muster, but the worry was still etched on her face. “Oh, good day Ms. Sparkle!” She quickly turned her head to look at the construction crew. “Please excuse me I’m just dealing with the sudden abruptness of this new construction project.”

Twilight quirked her head. “Abruptness?”

The mayor turned back and nodded. “Uh, yes. These gentlecolts came in this morning purchased this piece of land and are already building! It was most unexpected and I’m just afraid some paperwork might have been missed. Never had project like this start so quickly…”

There was a very audible snort from a dirt colored unicorn with a red mane who continued to look at his blue prints without turning around. “Mayor, I have told you a hundred times. We’ve filled out all the necessary paper work! If we miss anything we’ll gladly fill it out, but we’re on tight schedule so stop bothering us unless you find something we missed!” There was a very noticeable frustration in his voice, seemed the mayor had been on his nerves the entire time.

The mayor finally relented, “Very well, but the moment I find something amiss I’m coming right back down here.” She galloped off towards Town Hall in a mad rush to make sure all the procedures were complete.

The Stallion muttered out, “I’m sure you will…” and then proceeded to direct his workers. Twilight took this time to get closer to the stallion and as she did she noticed that all the workers were covered up from head to toe. She assumed it was for protection, but she imagined it must have been very hot for a warm day like this.

Twilight finally spoke up to the stallion, “So, what are you building?”

The Stallion very noticeably cringed at the new questioner. He turned to glare at her as he answered, “None of your business!” He kept his eye on her without turning back to his plans.

“You can’t even tell me?” She asked quizzically.

The stallion noticed Spike on her back and mild interest seeped in before he refocused on her, “You’ll find out in a week,” he then turned back to the paper he was holding aloft with his magic.

“A week?” She replied and slightly regretted it.

The unicorn let out a very audible groan, causing Spike to stop reading to look at him as he looked back at her once more. “Miss, I have one week to get this project done. So, I’m under a lot of pressure and I’d appreciate it if you would please vacate the area!” He shouted the last bit out as vein throbbed on his forehead.

Twilight was about to say something, but closed her mouth as she saw him glower angrily at her. She quickly backed off and started trotting off to Sugarcube Corner. She clearly heard the unicorn sigh with a bit of relief as he went back to work.

Spike then voiced what was on his mind, “Man, what’s got his tail tied in a bunch?”

Twilight wasn’t too happy about the stallion’s attitude, but understood why he was acting like that. “Well you heard him, he has a week to finish… whatever they’re building. I’d be pretty stressed too if I was in his position. I bet I would act almost as irritable as he was. He also got bothered by Mayor Mare earlier so she must have got him to his wits end. Best just to let him have his space so he can work in peace.”

Spike rubbed the back of his head with his claws. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Doesn't mean he has to be rude though,” he replied, grumbling that last part out.

The smell of confectionery buffeted Twilight as she entered into the overly colorful shop known as Sugarcube Corner. It was enticing, inviting, and nauseating all at the same time. She closed her eyes as she let the scents of the sugary sweets consume her sense before opening them again to find a pink puffy mane pony with sky blue eyes bounding over to her.

The overly friendly, extremely hyper, and utterly impossible pink pony of peril practically punctured the purple pony's perfect perception of pastries with pink puffiness known as Pinkie Pie. “Wow, try saying that intro five times fast!” The pink pony giggled.

Twilight and Spike just looked at her for the seemingly random outburst before the pink pony noticed their confusion, “Oh hey Twilight, hey Spike! Can I get you some of that perfect perception of pastries I punctured? Which is funny cause I don’t remember punching any sweets. Not that I would unless it made them tasted better and I don’t think smooshed sweets would taste that great, but they’re still sweet so they’ll taste good, but not as good as they would un-smooshed. Cause really, who’d ever try to beat up your food unless it’s eggs where you have to beat them to make a cake, but I think that’s supposed to be a figure a speech! Which is also funny because I never knew speech could have a figure. Do you think it's curvy?” she said and asked a little too fast that Twilight barely kept up with the strange rant.

All Twilight could manage to say was, “What?”

Pinkie blinked a few times before an impossibly wide grin spread across her face, “What can I get for you?” Her perfectly sparkly teeth shined for a moment which made the lavender mare wonder how she kept them so clean when considering how many sweets Pinkie managed to consume.

Shaking her head she returned her smile. “Well a sweet breakfast would be nice.”

Spike leaned over from the side of Twilight's neck and asked, “Hey can I have some rubies too?” His eyes shined and as a bit of saliva watered from his mouth.

“Okie doki loki!” Pinkie replied as she bounced over to the counter to whip them up a sweet breakfast. Meanwhile Twilight found a seat and Spike hopped off and continued to read his comic from right next to her.

She took a look around and found the place to be a bit empty at the moment with only a few ponies eating in. It wouldn’t get really busy until lunch as most didn’t tend to have a sweet breakfast. After a few minutes she noticed the door to the shop open and a very familiar orange mare came in with a burlap sack filled with what she could only assume to be apples.

A Stetson rested at the rim of the blonde mane ponies’ head with a little bit of sweat pouring down her face as her emerald eyes focused ahead of her at the counter. The earth ponies’ flank was adorned with three red apples for a cutie mark. She proceeded into the shop and set the bag onto the counter before taking her hat in her hoof and then wiping the sweat from her brow. “Whoo, that there was a long haul, but here’s yer order Pinks!” The mare called out to her fellow earth pony friend, Pinkie Pie, with a thick southern drawl in her accent.

Pinkie hopped over and took the sack with all the apples and set them behind the counter. “Thanks a bunch Applejack! These will make some great caramel apples!”

“I reckon they will. Boy I can’t way to try me some of them,” Applejack replied with a lick of her lips.

“Then don’t!” Pinkie replied as she pulled up a caramel apple from nowhere leaving Applejack a bit dumbfounded as the sweet treat was hoofed over to her. She looked at if or a moment before she began to ask, “Wait, when did you… uh...” She stared at the pony with the impossibly wide grin before knowing better than to question these things. “Uh, thank you kindly Pinkie,” She then took a bite before letting off a sound of great satisfaction.

It was then Twilight waved out and called out for Applejack, “Hey AJ!”

A great big smile came onto her face as AJ turned to her and trotted over with the caramel apple in her mouth, taking it out when she finally reached her. “Hey sugarcube, how y’all doin’?”

“I’m doing great; just getting a sweet breakfast for a change is all. Was out getting Spike's latest comic and thought we’d come here since we were so close.” She looked towards Spike who looked up for a moment when she said his name. He smiled for a moment before returning to his story.

Applejack chuckled out, “Oh hey, it’s that there Batmane feller. Great hero I say! Applebloom likes him too!”

This got Spikes attention and he beamed up from his comic. “Yeah, he’s so cool!” He immediately retreated back into his tale, eager to find out what happens next.

AJ then turned back to Twilight. “Hey Twi, ya know what’s goin on with all that work nearby? Them ponies building sumthin?”

Before Twilight could reply Pinkie popped up from under the table. “Who’s building something?” She had a tray of sweets on her head and causing Twilight to jump at the sudden appearance of the seemingly random pony. Pinkie set Twilight and spikes tray of food down before grinning between Applejack and Twilight.

After getting over the slight shock of Pinkie's appearance, Twilight decided to answer, “Well, there are some ponies that bought a piece of land and immediately started building a… well I don’t know what they’re building and that foreman wasn’t too keen on sharing.” Before Twilight could continue she was interrupted.

A loud gasp escaped Pinkie’s lips, “Do you know what this means?!” She jumped on two legs while squeezing her face with a broad smile.

AJ piped up, “Let me guess. A pa–”

“A party!” Pinkie shouted causing the other customers to cringe turn their heads to them in annoyance.

“We’ll have a party for the working ponies. Ooo, and then a party to celebrate the building of whatever it is they’re building!” She let out another gasp. “Then we can have a party for its completion and another party for the pony that will move in there!” She was jumping with joy. She didn’t get a cutie mark of three balloons, two blue and one yellow, for nothing.

Twilight quickly shot down Pinkie's enthusiasm. “I’m sorry Pinkie, but you’re going to have to hold out on some of those parties. Those ponies are very busy and have a deadline to meet.”

The hair of the pink pony sagged a little bit as she stopped bouncing, but quickly perked up again. “Well we’ll just have to have those parties after they’re done!” She found the spring in her step again and started her joyful jumping once more.

AJ, curious about the project poked for more information, “So, when do they have to a git’r done?”

“A week,” Twilight answered plainly.

The two other mares just stared and Applejack had to strain herself from shouting, “A week?! That there is crazy. That’s like me when I tried to buck the all apple trees at our farm all by myself.”

“I agree, but maybe we’re making a big deal out of nothing. Maybe this project isn’t as big as we think. They could just be building something really small like storage unit,” Twilight replied trying to be reasonable and logical to the situation.

The two mares agreed with her and they continued to have idle conversation till just a bit before noon as Twilight and Spike ate their meal. It wasn’t too long before Applejack had to leave back to the farm and Pinkie had to start tending to the customers coming in for lunch. Twilight said her goodbyes to her friends and trotted out with Spike on her back. He had finished his comic and was paying more attention to his surroundings now.

A short trot later and they came up to the intersection that branched off to the construction that was going on. She could see some other ponies were gathering around it with same curiosity as she had shown earlier. It was then she noticed a very upset purple mane alabaster unicorn with three diamonds on her flank and long eye lashes, followed by a very timid looking yellow pegasi with very long pink hair and butterflies for her cutie mark.

Twilight trotted up to her friends who were walking away from the site and she started to catch the end of their conversation, “…so rude!” Rarity, the alabaster pony, said in a very high society like manner to the timid pegasus known as Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was the first to noticed Twilight and in a barely audible voice called out, “Oh, hey Twilight!” She smiled, hiding behind part of her mane.

Rarity looked toward Twilight, now that she had been pointed. “Oh heavens Twilight, don’t go down to see those uncouth workers. Such horrid manners they have. All I did was ask them about what they were doing and that foreman practically bit my head off!” Rarity was a bit of a drama queen. but she was a bit spot on for once.

“I got the same treatment, though I think it’s just the stress they’re under and...” Twilight stopped talking to look down the road to see all the ponies that gathered around and she continued, “...And the fact he keeps getting bothered by everypony.”

Fluttershy spoke, but was barely heard, “Oh yes, I feel so sorry for those ponies. They look like they’re being worked to the bone and that unicorn leading them is really scary.” She huddled down somewhat afraid that said unicorn was nearby.

“Well, I suppose a week is a bit of a stressful deadline,” Rarity lamented. “Doesn’t excuse their boss’s behavior,” She harrumphed as she thought of that red head unicorn.

“I’m sure he’ll be a much more rational pony once this is all done and over with.” She smiled and then noticed the time. “Oh, I need to get back to the library! We’re still supposed to be open today.”

Rarity nodded, “Oh by all means dear, don’t let us hold you up!”

“Bye Twilight!” Fluttershy waved meekly.

“Come along Spike. Spike?” She turned around to look at him and saw him in a love struck daze as he kept his eyes on Rarity. She shook her head and laughed. “Say goodbye Spike.”

Spike simply nodded, “Bye Rarity…” He said with a tentative wave.

Rarity just giggled and waved back before proceeding with Fluttershy to the spa.

It was only a little while later when Twilight and Spike reached their home and town library. As Twilight opened the door Spike hopped off of her and proceeded in. However, as they entered Twilight found a package that had been slipped through the mail box. She picked it up with her magic, a faint pinkish aura surrounding it as she lifted it up and carried it over to the library desk. “Let’s see, what do we have here,” she said to no pony in particular as she began to neatly unfold the package. Spike walked over, intrigued to learn what was inside their delivery.

As Twilight unwrapped the brown paper her eyes lit up. “Oh, the latest Daring Do novel!” She beamed at the book.

Spike then asked, “What’s it called?”

“Daring Do and–” Twilight was interrupted as the front door slammed open and a blue blur mixed with rainbows came rushing in and stopping before Twilight.

The cyan coated pegasi with an unusual rainbow colored mane and cutie mark of a cloud releasing rainbow lightning hovered above her with a huge grin. “Hey Twi, did the latest Daring Do novel come in?”

Twilight chuckled at her friend, Rainbow Dash, “Yeah, it just got here.” She lifted the book in front of her with her magic and Rainbow Dash grabbed it in a flash.

Dash then read out the title, “Daring Do and the Legendary Forgotten Ruby Temple of the Undead Cursed Abysmal Vampires.” Dash’s eyes sparkled at the title.

Spike on the other hoof commented, “Gee, I don’t think that title is long enough.”

Rainbow Dash blew raspberries at Spike. “It’s an awesome title!” She then looked at how thick the book was, “Wow, I don’t think any of the others were this big.”

Meanwhile in Manehatten a black unicorn in a bar suddenly shouted out, "That's what she said!" This caused it's patrons to be very confused and even the unicorn Deimos was unsure why he had such an outburst.

Back in Ponyville library Spike chuckled out, “Big book for a big title!”

“Anyway thanks Twilight! Can’t wait to dig into this.” Rainbow was out the door before Twilight could even protest. She let off a sigh as she had really wanted to read that book as well.

Spike gave her a pat. “Don’t worry, she’ll get done with it eventually.” He placed his comic on the counter and then asked, “I’m gonna take care of my chores Twilight. Need anything from me before I get started?”

Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. “Oh, I’m fine. Once you get done you’re free for the rest of the day.” This got Spike to grin at her as he rushed off upstairs to take care of his duties.

Once he was gone Twilight looked down at the comic and then looked around. She lifted the comic up with her magic and opened up to the first page. She wasn’t too open about it, but she enjoyed some of Spikes comics as well. She just wished he read more of the libraries books and wanted to set a good example to expand his reading beyond comic books. Twilight smiled lazily as she began to read through the latest Batmane story.

Night fell and the streets of Ponyville began to empty. A cart filled with a large box was making its way to the construction site that had just started that morning. The carts drivers were taking the long way around avoiding going through Ponyville as they made their way to the site and it’s tired foreman.

The unicorn foreman yawned as he was eager for his shift to end. He had to deal with so many annoyances today. The mayor kept bugging him about permits that had already been taken care of. Then there were the curious locals he had to keep shooing away. The worst of them being the pink menace that wanted to throw him and his crew a party. Utterly ridiculous was what he thought of the notion. What sane pony would even do that?

He looked before the work that had been done that day; they had cleared the land and had managed to dig out part of the basement. At least they managed to dig out the part that was most important for the night job. He noticed the cart being dragged by a unicorn and a stallion as it pulled up to the site. He smiled at the dark blue pony that would be taking up the night shift so he could rest. More unicorns would eventually show up so he would have more breaks in the days to come, unless they ran behind schedule.

He proceeded to help the dark blue unicorn carefully lift the box down from the cart and with the help of the earth pony they pushed it close to the dug out basement. The other workers were still digging without rest, but after a glow from the horn of the red mane unicorn and the crew cleared out of the section.

The three checked around to make sure none of the locals were lingering. The dark blue knocked on the box and opened a small slider before he spoke into the darkness, “You ready?”

A hiss came back, “Yesss, we is ready!”

A nod to the other two and the dark blue one sidestepped the box before they slid it open. Three large shapes rushed out into the ditch. They had overly large arms and stood on their feet, somewhat like gorillas, and wore jackets, but their faces were of the canine variety. Most ponies knew these creatures as diamond dogs.

One sniffed the one of the nearby pony workers, who hadn’t even acknowledged them as they continued to work. He then asked, or rather stated, “Theys smells funny.”

The red mane unicorn trotted over and as he handed over a secret blueprint and couple of gems as part of their payment, he whispered, “Undead tend to smell. Now get to work. We have much to do!”

The diamond dogs nodded and began to dig at a spot that had recently been marked. Meanwhile the red mane unicorn walked over to the dark blue one and hoofed over the plans. “Good luck,” he yawned out as his shift ended.

He trotted off to where he would be staying the night and muttered to himself, “It’s going to be a long week...”

Author's Note

UPDATE 7/4/2016:
Removed "(Updated)" from the chapter title.

UPDATE 3/8/2014:
- Cleaned up the chapter and fixed grammatical issues.
- Added one small new scene involving Deimos. Very minor and only for comedic purposes.
- Remembered how much fun I had writing Pinkie Pie's intro. XD

NOTES:
- A fairly quiet chapter. Just introducing the mane six while bringing in a few, somewhat miniscule things and the darkness that is creeping into their lives.

Ch7: The Long Week

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch7: The Long Week

Sunday

For most of the citizens of Ponyville, it was a normal Sunday like any other. The thing about Sunday’s was that they have the uncanny power of being quite boring. Even though for most it was a day off, it stood within a strange dead zone between the oh so fun and joyous Saturday and the dreaded and loathed Monday. The citizens went about the day with a slight smile on their face, not as big as they had the day before with the knowledge of what awaits them tomorrow poking them in the back of their minds. Sure they were happy to not work on such a gorgeous day, but they all knew it wouldn’t last.

Some wished for the weekend to last forever, such as the little colts and fillies that had school the next day. For others they wanted this day to keep lasting so they could avoid returning to their jobs and spend more time with their friends, families, or simply doing what they loved. However, a few just wanted the day to simply end so they can begin getting the upcoming week done and over with. Like pulling off a band aid or finally receiving the shot when visiting the doctor’s office. It’s not so much the shot itself, but the anticipation of it coming.

On this particular day there were some ponies whose train of thought was not of the day ending, but instead the week. Every second, every minute, every hour caused the foremen of a little construction project to look more nervous than he did just a moment earlier. One could almost see wrinkles and gray hairs start to sprout from him as the stress of their deadline start to take its toll.

From a less experience individual or even an experienced one, their progress was looking fairly good. The ground work had been marked, the entire basement area dug up, which was very large allowing for plenty of storage, and it wasn’t even noon yet. They already were building the new structure from the bottom up and their progress looked admirable.

That was until one learned of some minor details. First of all most didn’t know they had worked throughout the entire night. The townsfolk figured they made all this progress by working only from morning till late in the evening. If they knew about them working all night, their progress didn’t impress as much. That would be the end of it unless they had the blueprints for their work. Not that anypony would. No citizen or government official would have any knowledge of the entire project plan except possibly the basic approved blueprints.

The true blueprints would reveal so much more. Everypony would only see what looks like to be the foundations to a basic house or possibly shop. But there was so much more to it than that. At that very moment construction was being done deep underground as quietly as possible. Work that certainly wouldn’t be approved, at least not without jumping through many legal loopholes and cutting through more red tape than streamers found at one of Pinkie Pies parties. Well… maybe not that much red tape, but close.

The secret underground was what was causing the most stress between the foremen. They trusted that the diamond dogs they had digging could get it all done, but there were a few things that stabbed their minds. One being they sill had more work to do below once everything was dug up. Secondly, dirt still needed to be removed from below and spread out of the way while being inconspicuous. They didn’t need ponies wondering why so much ground had been dug up for such a seemingly small house. However, of all the things that worried the two unicorns the most was the unknown progress. They could only safely check on all work being done below at night. Checking during the daytime was risky especially with curious ponies still wandering by to watch.

The red haired unicorn was thankful that they at least kept their distance and were no longer berating him with their insufferable questions. The gawkers were still talking to each other, discussing what all this was about. They threw out speculations and debated away at the possibilities. It was annoying, but was much more tolerable than the previous day.

The foreman was glad to have the background noise to help distract him from the work below. He knew the earth pony that had arrived with the diamond dogs was down with them, making sure they didn’t screw up, regulate their breaks, provide aid when he could, and remind them of the pay cuts they would receive if things didn’t happen on time.

Normally the dumb mutts would start to threaten them in return, but because they all were being paid by the same employer if a pay cut happens everyone loses a cut, regardless of how well one particular group performed. It somewhat encouraged all to be at their best while also making sure everyone was doing their part.

A long heavy sigh erupted from the unicorn in a futile effort to evacuate all the stress being pent up in his body. He wiped some sweat from his head as the day continued to drag on.

Monday

Mondays were always a drag for most. Usually a bit busy or seemed busy with the long week ahead of them. Others, who enjoyed their jobs, were able to tackle the day with a smile. Unfortunately, for one of those individuals who loved her work, today was just not meant to be thrilling.

The alabaster unicorn with a stylized purple mane, Rarity, sat behind a counter within the Carousel Boutique surrounded by dresses and mannequins all around the shop. Materials lay around here and there such as needles, threads, cloths, and gems. Overall, everything was kept fairly tidy.

It was a slow day unfortunately and Rarity made the most of it by reading the latest in one of her fancy romance novels finally finding the time to enjoy it. Still, she was feeling down from the lack of customers and inspiration. It happened from time to time, but didn’t make it any more enjoyable than any of the other times.

The slow day couldn’t really be blamed; there simply wasn’t any exciting balls, galas, or parties in the near future (excluding the parties of a certain pink pony). Add onto the fact that she was in a town that had a great negligence of wearing anything, but the bare minimum, what could one expect?

Inspiration on the other hoof was something she could do something about. Rarity was hoping to be struck by her artistic talents as she read her novel, but to her dismay her mind remained a blank slate with not a single sketch or drop of color touching it. This was disheartening to say the least, but that didn’t keep a smile from tugging at her lips as she let her book carry her mind into another world.

At the current point in her book, two friends, both mares, were attending a small masquerade party. Unbeknownst to anypony at the party, the two were secretly lovers, but were they were in an arranged marriage with two other stallions. The marriages would end a feud between families while creating strong ties that would help benefit the community. They were taking advantage of the masquerade to spend time with one another and give into their desires for each other one last time before they must be betrothed.

One of them wanted nothing more than to make this night special before they sacrificed their happiness for the greater good. The other, however was not so willing. She wanted to do good, but sacrificing true love wasn’t worth it for what greater good could there be other than to find purest love in a harsh and unforgiving world?

Oh, how scandalous and tragic! Rarity thought with a small sigh. Inwardly she was raising a hoof to her head, leaning back with her eyes rolled up and letting off her overly dramatic sighs while falling back on an imagined fancy red sofa.

Her thoughts then began to wonder what it would be like to have a masquerade dress, but there were rarely any masquerade balls. Though it would be nice to have one on hoof. Rarity smiled as ideas started to form and began to wonder if she made her own line of masquerade dress that if they became so popular, the noble ponies might start to throw masquerades just as an excuse to wear her dresses. She found herself beaming at the thought as she set her book down and began to get to work.

Tuesday

A door swung inwardly to a dark, dank apartment. The only light was that which poured from the outside window. The lights of Manehatten were always a constant in the night, which is why the curtain business was so lucrative in this city.

The same door slammed shut as a pitch black stallion rubbed his throbbing head. His eyes scanned the room as he pushed his black mane out of his good eye while rubbing the swollen one tenderly.

The apartment had only the basic necessities. A table with two chairs, a sink with a cabinet above it, a fridge sat just to the side of the sink and on the other side of the room was a bed and a small bathroom next to it. Nothing else was here and it was all that this stallion needed and the only things he wanted to have here at the moment.

His cold, dark violet blue eyes scanned the room one more time before sighing and locking the door behind him. He then slowly made his way over to the fridge, wincing with each step as a bit of pain shot through him, causing a migraine to overtake his train of thought. His unicorn horn glowed with the violet dark purple energies as he opened the freezer and used his telekinesis to pull out an ice pack.

He winced as the cold bag touched his forehead, placing it mostly on his right eye. As the initial frosty pain subsided he let off a slight moan as a numbing relief overtook him. Licking his lips he pulled out some cold water he had ready and drank from it greedily, the chilling liquid easing his parched throat and drowned his anxieties.

A quick stretch and a crack of his neck occurred just before he started to complain out loud, “Geeze that was one mean left hook!” He drained the rest of his water and tossed the plastic in the sink. “I knew he could hit hard, but that felt like a wagon ran me over.” He limped over to the bathroom and let a soft glow erupt from his horn as he examined his bruised body and black eye that he had been covering with the ice pack.

He sighed at the damage, “Look at your self! Got the snot beat out of you by some caped hoodlum. You knew what he was capable of, but you still got too cocky! You were lucky to get away.” He rubbed one of the bruises and tensed up at the touch.

He shook his head. “You were on top of the world, making a real name for yourself and then you finally decide to play fair and what does that get you? Well its right in front of you!” he snarled out at his reflection.

His eyes trailed down to the sink, his breathing heavy and exhausted as he continued his little monologue, “You’ve got nothing now. Got dumped by your marefriend–” he cut himself off and then pointed a hoof at his reflection. “No! You dumped her! That’s how she’ll remember it and you made sure of it.”

A bit of sadness entered his eyes. “You’re falling down to rock bottom real fast.”

“And your talking to yourself,” a voice called out from behind.

“Yes, and you’re talking to your…” His eyes went wide and he turned around to find two stallions and a mare watching him. All three were unicorns. The two stallions looked like they could have been brothers. Dark green coats with pale white manes and the mare was a yellow with light green hair. However, one couldn't be sure if those were their true coat and mane colors. He could tell there was something very off about the stallions, but his attention focused on the mare who looked fairly bored.

The trio were wearing black robes with shades of dark purple and sickly green within. Obviously they were very well trained magic users. The black stallion was unimpressed. “Who are you and why should I care? And how did you get in my home for that matter?!” He nearly shouted, but restrained himself due to the thin walls. He tended to have complaints about noise, though it wasn’t from shouting. Usually it was... moaning.

The mare answered and then got straight to the point, “Magic. Now, Deimos we have a proposition–” she was quickly cut off by the one known as Deimos.

“How’d you know my real name?” He buzzed out with a bit of irritation.

“Please hold your questions. I’ll gladly explain any relevant inquiries you may have,” her reply merely got her a cold glare, but she ignored it. “We are from the Shadow Council and we have a job for you and from the sounds of it, you sound very available.”

Deimos strutted over to her, holding back his pained tears as he cockily answered, “Oh yes, I’m very available babe.” He winked causing the mare to blush a little bit, but give him a cold glare.

“Funny, weren’t you just talking about a marefriend?” She retorted, which caused him to back up slightly.

“Marefriend? What marefriend? I don’t have a marefriend. I’m very single and available as you put it.” He gave her a wide grin and she just frowned at him.

“Right…” She cleared her throat and continued, “Anyway, we have a job for you. We need you to keep a close eye on a certain unicorn to make sure he stays out of trouble while reporting back on his secret research. Somepony has very special interests in him and would prefer him to stay out of harms way.”

Deimos cocked and eyebrow. “And your wanting me, why? I know I have talents that would make it easy to get close to him, but don’t you have spies, assassins, and like ninjas to do this kind of stuff?”

“Yes, but we feel that you would be better suited. We believe he wouldn’t feel as threaten if he was aware of your presence than if one of our special operatives was watching him. Besides,” she trailed off for a moment as she pulled out a manila folder with her magic and floated it over to him. “We think you’ll take a special interest in this one.”

He grabbed the folder with his own magic and opened it. “So, I don’t have to be sneaky about this is what your saying?” He grinned coyly as she never said he couldn’t be seen or straight up walk up to his target.

She fidgeted under his gaze. “We would prefer a bit of subtly and the avoidance of any confrontation.”

Deimos chuckled, “And I’d prefer to do neither of those thing.,” He proceeded to examine the folders contents as the mare just gritted her teeth at him. He scanned through each document, containing a picture and some basic data about them such as height and age. “Let’s see, a spirit, that will be fun to deal with.” he then let off a whistle as he got to the red head mare, “Oh baby! I wouldn’t mind having her as a minion… oh,” he frowned as he read. “She’s one of them bloodsuckers!” His tongue stuck out in annoyance, “And finally we have…”

A wide grin spread across his face as he started to laugh whole heartedly. “Julius Grave! I haven’t seen him in years. Man we’re gonna have to catch up. So much to reminisce and so many stories to tell!”

“You’re not going there to catch up with him! You’re there to make sure he stays out of trouble and learn of anything useful he’s done over the past few years.” The mare’s temper for him was reaching its limits.

He waved a hoof dismissively. “Yeah, I know. I’ll do it, just to get away from this city and to meet up with an old friend.”

“Good to hear. We’ll need you to get to Ponyville by sometime next week. We’ll contact you when we want an update.” She finally cracked a smile, glad to be done with the fool.

“Alrighty, but there is one thing I should tell you before you go,” he started as he got close again, causing her two body guards to sneer at him as the mare looked into his eyes wondering what else there could be to discuss. “That’s a lovely cloak you have.” The mare was taken aback by the compliment, but then it was quickly followed by a more crude remark, “I’d bet it would look even better on my bedroom floor!”

Last thing Deimos remembered was having the mares right hoof get more in touch with his left eye.

Wednesday

Celestia rubbed her temples while lifting her crown lightly above her head with her magic. She let out a long sigh as she let her tiara rest lightly atop her head. Tired eyes peered down at the piles of reports and an ink bottle before her. She then turned her gaze away wanting to do nothing more than to look at something else that wasn’t made up of wood or ink.

She was in her private study, lying down on a large purple pillow with gold trimming while a soft glow of an evening fire warmed her. The whole room was made up of purples and blues, the hardwood floor decorated with many shapes, symbols, and patterns that served no other purpose than something interesting to look at. A potted plant sat on a small elevated table and not too far from the table was a rug hanging on the wall that depicted the night sky in shades of blue.

Celestia forced her pupils to meet the piles of reports before her again. Things had been very hectic and had quickly spiraled out of control after the events with the necromancer known only as Shop Keep, if that was even his real name. First her absence caused a slight panic among the nobles when she was late to court. She had slept in at the behest of her advisers so she wouldn’t be so exhausted. That would have been the end of it if there weren’t so many other problems showing up. Strange tidings to the north, crime sprees in Manehatten, the unsuccessful search for Shop Keep, and then there were a couple of disappearances.

The last thing was what was worrying her. Over the last several days some important contacts that were keeping tabs on either potential dark magic users, unscrupulous individuals, or had infiltrated some levels of Darkmoon Covenant had gone up and disappeared without a trace. And Celestia couldn’t help, but feel that it was all her fault. She had blabbed her knowledge to Shop Keep, never once thinking he’d be foolish enough or even capable of escaping while he was in her presence. They were never able to figure out how he did it, they guessed his wife might have aided him somehow, but that was only speculation at best.

She thought they would have found him by now, but no pony had seen or heard of him since he escaped that small town. Either he disappeared from the face of the world or ponies weren’t talking and feigning ignorance. The former seemed more likely at this point. She bet he was somehow involved with all the disappearances, but not directly. Possibly he got the information out about her knowledge, but she doubted he could know so many individuals to spread out so far.

There was a knock at her door and Celestia straightened her neck before hiding some of the more sensitive reports under the many stacks of paper. She cleared her throat and answered in her gentle regal voice, “Come in!”

The door cracked open and an alicorn slid right in. She was almost as big as Celestia and wearing a black tiara and regalia emblazoned with a silver crescent moon. Her coat was a dark midnight blue and her flank was marked with a black splotch that also had a silver crescent moon making it resemble the night sky. Her long mane and tail flowed much like Celestia’s, but instead resembled more of a blue night sky dotted with many specks of white that looked like stars.

Shutting the door behind her she unfolded her wings in delight, “Good evening dear sister! We hope thou art enjoying our night,” she spoke with traces of an old equestrian dialect. Something Celestia adored even if it was archaic.

She gave her little sister a smile as warm as her sun. “It is wonderful that you came to visit me Luna. Your night is as beautiful as always and brings me insurmountable joy!” Her smile broke as she partially lied on her last sentence. She had yet gotten to see Luna’s work as of this night, but she didn’t doubt for a moment that it wasn’t beautiful.

Luna face brightened up like her moon brightened the night sky at Celestia’s compliment. She trotted over with glee and laid beside her sister, giving a playful nuzzle as they each embraced the others comfort. “What keeps thou so busy tonight, dearest Tia?” She asked, using Celestia’s nickname that was only appropriate to use by… well only Luna.

“Oh, just the usual complaints from the nobles dearest Lulu. If I could harness all that steam they let off we’d have a never ending renewable energy resource.” Luna giggled at the joke. Celestia almost rarely saw Luna without a smile anymore. She was so much more cheerful these days, actually feeling appreciated for her night sky now and Celestia was thankful for that. The only problem now was her inclusion with the royal duties. She had been able to lighten Celestia’s load since her return from banishment, but it was still hard for the ponies to accept her as a co-ruler. However, Celestia was sure that in time everypony would be as comfortable going to Luna as they were with her.

She turned her head back to the reports and found herself thinking of the reports that were currently hidden. Specifically the one about the necromancer. They had discovered he was part of cult called the Children of the Night who had worshipped Luna or rather her envious persona, Nightmare Moon. She had been aware of the cult before Luna even returned and after her sister had been freed she did everything she could to keep that cult and any information about it away from her. She greatly feared the ramifications should Luna ever come in contact with their members.

Celestia was interrupted from her thoughts by Luna, “Sister, art thou well?”

Luna received a nod and a response, “You don’t need to stay with me, Lulu. You should enjoy your night.”

To Celestia surprise, Luna nuzzled her neck and closed her eyes. “We already are.” Celestia then craned her neck to embrace her sister’s comfort, a tearful smile spreading across her face.

Thursday

Detective Details stared out of his window and the quickly moving landscape, listening to the wheels move along the steel of the railroad tracks. Across from him was Giant Wall who had his eyes closed, but looked a bit irritated. Next to Giant Wall sat a pegasi mare in the usual soldier uniform of gold armor and a white coat. To Details' right was another unicorn, also part of the Equestrian Army. The yellow stallion was feeling a bit out of place.

They were on their way to Manehatten, their fruitless search for the necromancer lead them to start expanding to the further towns and cities. All of them were exhausted and were missing their homes and families. Giant Wall was bothered by how long it was taking to find one stallion and that not one single lead had been found. He was doing everything he could to control his rising temper and dwindling patience.

Details was also quite upset with the turn of events. He felt like he had failed everypony when he was unable to find anymore clues as to where their target could have galloped off to. He looked at the disheartened faces of the group and an idea came to him.

He perked up and gave them all a stupid grin. “I think I got something that will lighten the mood!” They all looked up to him expectantly. He used his magic and pulled out a small black box that could fit in his hoof as he announced his cure for their stress, “A nice cup of tea!”

They groaned and Giant Wall’s eye twitched. “Tea? That’s your idea?! The only thing that will make me feel better now is the news that we have caught this nuisance of a unicorn, can head home, and the chance to buck him in the face!” He gritted his teeth as he seethed with anger.

Details waved both of his hooves in the air defensively. “Easy big guy! I know we’re all not in the best of moods, but I assure you this tea will be just what the doctor ordered.” He got up and then peered out into the hall where he asked a service mare to bring some hot water and tea cups. He then retreated back to their private booth and sat back down with the rest.

“What’s so great about this tea?” Giant Wall muttered as he wanted to get his mind off of things.

Details just winked at him. “Oh, you’ll see!”

It wasn’t too long before their door opened and their server pushed in a little cart with a glass pitcher of hot water and four tea cups with little plates under them. Detail pulled down the blinds to keep the sun from getting in as their waitress left the cart with them and wished them a good day.

Details carefully opened the black box with his magic and a faint blue light emanated from within as he brought the cart closer to him. He reached in with his telekinesis and pulled a glowing blue petal. Giant Wall’s eyes widened. “Wait, is that one of those flowers you bought from that nec… err criminal?” They weren’t supposed to mention that the pony they were hunting was a necromancer in public areas or places that could easily be eaves dropped. The other two soldiers stared at the glowing petal in worry, not trusting anything that could have belonged to the hunted unicorn.

Details smiled and doused their worries, “Yes, I did buy it from him and he actually left it in his shop when he was expecting me to pick it up. Anyway, the petals aren’t dangerous. You can purchase petals of a Death’s Rose even from within Canterlot.” The knowledge that it wasn’t an illegal item put their minds at ease, but the name of the flower did not.

He let the petal fall into the pitcher and they could see the petal slowly dissolve and turn the water into a thick blue color, “It’s going to taste a little plain, but it will be the best cup of water you’ll have ever had!” He poured each of them a cup and magically lifted the cups to each to them before getting his own.

Giant Wall stared down into the scentless cup of glowing blue water, scrutinizing it till he finally gave a shrug and took a careful sip. His pupils dilated and he went from being tense and rigid to a peaceful and relaxed state. His muscles eased up and he leaned back as his whole body released every ounce of stress from his body. A small smile crept on his face and his eyelids drooped lazily as he let out a pleased sigh, “Whoa…”

Details let out a hearty chuckle with a smug smile he said, “Told you! It’s a special tea known as Blue Rose Bliss. It’s usually mixed with flavors, but gets the job done even with plain water. Best stress relieving drink you’ll ever have.” He then took his first sip and he quickly began to mimic his compatriot’s easy going state. The other two soldiers followed suit and the pent up anxieties began to leave the room.

The mare pegasi peered up from her drink and questioned Details, “Why haven’t I ever heard of this stuff? This is wonderful, I’d have one of these everyday if I could.”

Details frowned only slightly before his faint smile returned. “Well, the petals are slow to harvest and the flowers are incredibly rare. It also doesn’t help that most ponies that get a hold of the petals tend to sell them for overly exorbitant prices. Good luck finding somepony selling it, let alone being able to afford it.”

“Well that sucks. I could think of many times when I could have used this. So, what else can you do with those petals?” Giant Wall asked as he took another relaxing sip.

“I know it has some magical uses, but I’m not too familiar with what those are. I just use it to make one of the two teas,” He explained and took a bigger sip this time, causing his smile to grow wider as he felt like he was floating on a cloud.

“What’s the other tea?” Giant Wall asked again as he finished his cup and carefully poured another for himself. He didn’t feel like he was gripping hard, but the pitcher remained firmly in his hoof.

Details' face become somber and he answered, “The other is called Eternal Bliss.”

The mare’s wings quickly opened up with excitement. “Sounds wonderful! I’d love to try some of that.”

Detail gave her a cold glare causing her wings to droop and shed away some of her joy. “No! No you do not. Eternal Bliss is only ever drank by somepony who no longer has the will to live.” They all stared at him with their mouths agape.

The mare hesitated to ask as she struggled to find the energy to stop staring with her mouth open at him. “You mean… it–”

He cut her off quickly, “Yes, it kills whoever drinks it. Thus, granting them the eternal bliss that is death. I heard it's supposed to be completely painless and the most pleasant way to die. Only problem is that the ingredients are so rare and expensive you’d never be able to get it. It’s pretty much reserved only for the incredibly wealthy and incredibly depressed.” He shook his head at the foolishness of trying to kill oneself if they were so well off.

The unicorn next to him leaned in and lazily stated, “You sure know a lot about this tea,” he observed as he finished his cup.

Detective Details looked at each and every one of them before he confessed, “I once tried to make the tea for myself.” All their faces fell as worry started to fight its way out of the stress relieving tea. Details waved his hoof dismissively at their concern. “That was a long time ago. I’m well passed it now and I’m far happier now.” He gave them all a wide smile and offered to pour them some more tea. They all returned his smile and held out their cups as their minds returned them to more cheerful thoughts while the train carried them onward.

Friday

It had been a fairly uneventful week for Twilight and her friends. Just the usual stuff, another party from Pinkie Pie, Rarity trying to dress Rainbow Dash in the most frou-frou dresses imaginable, Applejack dealing with the antics of her sister and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Rainbow still reading through the latest Daring Do novel, and Fluttershy accidentally causing an invasion of Monarch Butterfly’s that nearly took over the entire town. You know, a normal week for them.

Twilight was currently checking out the progress of the new construction project that had started nearly a week ago. Fluttershy and Applejack were currently there while Spike was with Rarity at the Carousel Boutique helping the fashionetta with a new dress line.

The fairly large house before them was nearly done, with mostly just painting needing to be finished. A little while ago an inspector had just finished examining the structure and approved it on the quality and safety. The girls had gotten a chance to stop him to ask what it was like in there and he confirmed that the entrance was very much built with a shop in mind. The crew was even starting to bring in boxes filled with unknown supplies. This now lead them to wonder, what kind of shop was it going to be?

Applejack looked the nervous of the three as she looked onward at the two storied home which was a mixture of purples, blues, and a bit of green. She was the first to speak up, “I’m not likin’ it.”

“The colors?” Squeaked Fluttershy as she stood a little further away from the building and its crew than her friends.

“No, no, I’m talkin’ about it bein ‘nother shop. They ain’t tellin’ us what their sellin’. What could it be that they need ta keep it a secret?” She shuffled around a bit then started to jump to conclusions, “What if they gonna sell some fancy shmancy imported apples?!”

Twilight patted Applejack on the back. “Oh AJ, no pony will want any other apple than the best in town and that’s always been the Apple family’s apples!”

She took a deep breath a sighed with a nod, “Yeah, yer right Twi. Dunno what I was thinkin. We got the best darn tootin apples in all of Equestria! What do I have to be worried about?” A grin formed on her as she pushed her Stetson up slightly.

The red mane foreman, who was now looking a lot happier, scoured through the plans to make sure he hadn’t missed a thing. If even one thing was forgotten they could expect a major pay cut regardless of how small it was. As he thoroughly checked, double and even triple checked the plans a butterfly landed before him. Seeing the winged insect sparked him to immediately crush the defenseless creature from underhoof. The result was the spread of gore and a very audible shriek followed by the fainting form of Fluttershy.

Her friends were immediately to her side trying to wake her up. They weren’t happy by this, but they understood why he would act that way. The butterfly invasion had really put them behind schedule and had made the red mane unicorn a nervous wreck. It took him better part of two days to get the twitch out of his eye, but through perseverance and a bit of luck things were going to be completed just in time.

Twilight and Applejack started to carry Fluttershy home, both looking back one last time and wondering what was in store for them and the town.

Julius rubbed his shoulders as he traded places with Femme for pulling their trailer. He stretched out and stared up into the night sky as he gave a crack of his neck. He was given Ecto’s dream catcher and he slipped it on. From within the odd artifact Ecto could see out into the world while remaining unseen. Julius and Femme might be able to wander about without a care as to who sees them, but ghost certainly can’t. Femme was also in disguise, able to hide her wings and have a less pale color coat more closely resembling manilla instead of white.

What happened next was the beginning of an ancient ritual that had taken place over the past week as they had traveled the road. “Are we there yet?” Ecto chirped from the stone within the dream catcher.

“No,” Julius deadpanned.

Not five seconds later Ecto asked again, “Are we there yet?”

“No…” Femme responded in the same monotone voice Julius had used.

Thirty seconds later. “Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No…”

“Are we there yet?”

“No!”

About a minute later this time. “Are we there yet?”

“NO!!!!” Julius and Femme answered in an angered unison.

“Are we–”

Julius cut her off this time, “Ecto! For five minutes! Please. Be. Quiet.”

And for a beautiful moment in time there was peace and tranquility as they traveled along the road, uninterrupted. Only the quiet and beauty of the night was there to disturb them and neither Julius nor Femme minded that. Then after exactly five minutes on the dot. “Are we there yet?”

“Ecto! We’ll get there when we get there so stop asking! Just… find something else to do.” Julius was so annoyed and desperate to just have some peace of mind and much to his joy Ecto stopped asking if they had arrived.

There was some very audible bored sighs from Ecto. A bit annoying, but far more preferable than her constantly bothering them with the same inane question over and over again.

She sighed a few more times before a thought came to her head and she started to sing, “It’s a small world after all…”

“Aughh!” Julius screamed out as he covered his ears. “Are we there yet?!”

“Yes!” Femme elated as she pointed to Ponyville and the Everfree forest off in the distance.

Julius let out a long hysteric cry, “Oh, thank you sweet Luna!” He then began to gallop with Femme in tow. They were taking the long way around town to enter from the side closest to the Everfree forest, a necessary precaution as they wanted to hide their trailer and get to their new home with as little attention as possible.

As they finally approached the forest’s edge they were stopped by two unicorns, an earth pony stallion, and a bunch of other ponies dressed as construction workers. The dark blue unicorn who had acted as the night foreman stepped forward, “I’ve got a cave for sell. You interested in buying?”

Julius had to think for a moment before he remembered the correct response, “As long as it’s dark and has a bed I couldn’t ask for more.” He held out his hoof and the two shook it.

The red mane unicorn yawned, “I’m out of here, I’ll meet you at the rendezvous once your finished here.” He and the earth pony trotted off leaving the crew with Julius and company.

The unicorn cleared his throat, “We’ve been expecting you and we have a place ready to hide your vehicle and a secret entrance, one of many, into your new abode. I think you’ll find it to be the highest of standards.”

Femme was a bit wary, “Why are we being given such luxury?”

The blue unicorn simply shrugged. “I don’t know and it is none of my business. I can only assume you have some very good friends. Now, if you will please follow me.” He motioned with his hoof as he lead them and the other crew members to a spot at the edge of the forest, but far out of view of the town. He revealed a large wooden shack that would only show itself by activating a stone with a hidden magic seal on it and saying a password that they could change at a whim.

Hiding their trailer inside the shack they were pointed to an ordinary rock, but pushing in the right places revealed a secret underground path “This is one of the entrances to your underground base located just below your home. I’ve left you with a map that holds all routes and escape tunnels.”

“Great! We’ll just need to unload, though it’s going to take awhile.” Julius looked to his trailer and sighed, thinking of all the things to unpack and how long it would take.

“Oh, allow your servants to help you with that,” The unicorn chimed in, causing both him and Femme to give him a blank stare.

Femme quickly questioned him, “Our servants?”

With a wide grin he motioned to the large crew and gave them a nod and they all began to take off their hoods, safety goggles, and masks to reveal a pony bone head on each of them. Julius jaw dropped as he realized all of them were undead and the blue unicorn gave a chuckled. “These here are the ones who helped build your new home and will continue to serve and guard you. They will patrol your underground routes and do anything thing else for you if need be, but I trust you won’t have them go out in the broad daylight? At least not without some sort of disguise,” he warned sternly.

“Yeah… sure, absolutely,” Julius replied, dumbfounded by how much special treatment he was getting. He began to wonder who he knew that could possibly pull so many strings to get him a new home and all of this protection. As he pondered all of the possibilities the undead began to unpack their carriage at Femme’s order. Ecto Burst had also left the safety of her dream catcher to greet her fellow undead, even though they were fairly mindless.

Femme gave him a nudge and kiss on the cheek, “A good start, wouldn’t you say?” she smirked and rubbed his goatee, causing him to curse under his breath for forgetting he still had the little beard.

He smiled back at her though and pulled her in for a close hug, “Yeah, I think its great start.”

Saturday

Twilight looked up from her breakfast of oats to the sounds of knocking on her door. Her ears perked up and she scooted out from the table and cantered over to the front door. Spike was eating a bowl full of gems and hopped down from his seat while taking the bowl of dragon food with him, taking another bite every few steps as he ran over to Twilight.

“Spike, you really shouldn’t eat while running,” She berated him with a motherly tone as she opened her front door. It was Rarity and Pinkie Pie and they looked very excited.

Spike swayed back and forth as he got lost in the eyes of his crush, Rarity, who was smiling brightly, but at Twilight. Pinkie on the other hoof was bouncing up and down, grinning like a fool with her eyes closed. “Twilight, Twilight! You’ve gotta come see! You’re not going to believe it!” Pinkie got right up into her face, oblivious to Twilight's discomfort.

Rarity thankfully pulled the party pony back, giving her some space. “Oh yes darling. You of all ponies will appreciate this!”

“Appreciate what?” Twilight queried, wondering what could possibly have gotten the two so excited for her.

“Ooo, ooo! You know that super secret shop that was being built, but wasn’t really a secret because everypony knew about it, but no pony knew what they were building because they wanted it to be all a surprise and stuff. Which I can totally get because I throw surprise parties all the time and everypony loves surprises because that never see it coming and it makes them so happy and I love seeing everypony smile which is why I throw surprise parties and stuff. Anyway that new shop is a….” Pinkie’s rambling was cut off by Rarity’s hoof.

The alabaster pony smiled sweetly at Pinkie and suggested, “Pinkie, don’t you think Twilight would want to be surprised as to what new accommodation our lovely town has acquired?”

Pinkie gasped, “Your right Rarity! I can’t believe I almost ruined the surprise! What are we waiting for? I want to see Twilight's face when she sees it!” The pink pony jumped for joy as she started to bounce away from the library.

“Seriously though Twilight, you are going to want to see this,” Rarity said reassuringly.

“Just let me clean up breakfast and I’ll be right out,” replied Twilight as she and spike (after dragging the love struck dragon away from the door) started to clean the dishes of their breakfast up. It wasn’t too long before they were trotting along side Rarity to check out the newest shop in town and the surprises that awaited inside.

Author's Note

UPDATE 7/4/2016:
Removed "(Updated)" from the chapter title.

UPDATE 3/9/2014:
- Another late night update. Cleaned up the chapter and I'm nearly done with all the chapters I need to fix.

NOTES:
- Was meant to be a bit of a filler chapter, but I managed to put a little bit of important information in it.
- This chapter style was a good way for me to catch up on all characters we previously met instead of devoting an entire chapter to them. I also introduced another important character. We’ll get to him soon enough.
- Small retcon. When I wrote this chapter I was still deciding on names for the different divisions of these underworld groups. I took out the part where the mare didn't know what Shadow Council's true name. It was only there cause I hadn't chosen a name yet. Also I took out a few other small things. As you get further you'll see more defined names of groups of individuals.
-Was also gonna retcon the warlock mares coat color, but thought it be easier to say she was in disguise.

Ch8: Welcome to Ponyville

Author's Note

Updated 11/2/2014:
I finally proofread and edited the whole chapter! I hope I didn't miss anything. Added a few things here and there. Made Applejack a bit more suspicious of Julius and what not. I took my sweet time on this. Sorry for the long wait!

Update 5/22/2014:
Still doing updates, but finally picked it back up again. Not even halfway through. Just a bit of laziness on my part.

Update 3/31/2014:
A few more fixes and improvements. I still have a lot of work to do.

Update 3/15/2014:
In the middle of updates. More to come, this will be a bit slow going.

Ch8: Welcome to Ponyville

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch8: Welcome to Ponyville

As ponies stood outside the newest addition to Ponyville, it was met with mixed reactions. Many were disappointed with the new shop and had gotten all excited for nothing. Others thought it was a bit of a waste and couldn’t see it being very profitable. A few looked at it with mild interest and wondered if it would bring in new ponies who would want to live in their town. The unicorn population pondered about the new shop and began to think this would be an opportune time to maybe explore their magical abilities that they had neglected when they pursued carriers that dealt with their cutie mark instead of their latent attributes.

Overall, everypony looked on at the structure of purples, blues, and greens with a bit of bewilderment. Over the doorway was a sign with a tilted tome and the words, “Magic Shoppe” written on it. Most of the crowed scratched their heads and thought who in all of Ponyville could ever make use of such an establishment?

The obvious answer came in the form of what one would call a very high pitch squee and suddenly it seemed like the shops business would be booming. The source of said squeal was a lavender unicorn bouncing up and down on her hind legs while pressing her fore hooves against her mouth in a futile attempt to contain her excitement.

Twilight was so happy and excited at this new addition she didn’t noticed all the stares she was getting from some of the town's ponies. Next to her Pinkie Pie was bouncing along with her with her patent grin that spread across her entire face. On the other side was Rarity who just smiled brightly at her friend, expecting this kind of reaction from her. Spike stood in front of them, looking at Twilight instead of the shop, finding her reaction to be funny and was trying to quell his own giggle fit.

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were also with the group. They had been waiting for them while Rarity and Pinkie Pie was getting Twilight. Applejack was relieved that it wasn’t new competition against her apple farm. Fluttershy hid behind her mane and was feeling embarrassed for Twilight and all the stares she was getting. Rainbow Dash, after being disappointed at what the new place was, picked up where she had left off in her Daring Do novel. She was only about a third of the way through it now, much to Twilight's annoyance.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!” Twilight incoherently rambled as she made her way to the front of the crowd. Her eyes were on the “Closed” sign that hung on the inside of the door. She noticed that she couldn’t see in beyond that sign and that all the windows had their blinds closed and seemed to even be tinted. She hoped they would open today; perhaps they were closed on the weekends? Her mind considered the possibilities of why they weren’t open yet as her friends approached from behind her.

“Are they even open?” Fluttershy inquired as she looked behind her at some of the dispersing crowd.

“Pfft, that jerk made such a big deal getting this place built by today and they’re not even going to open?” Rainbow Dash said as she looked up from her book. She was flying a few feet off the ground and never did liked walking when she had the choice.

Rarity then voiced her opinion, “Perhaps they’re still setting up or maybe they’re expecting some supplies? Could be planning to open on…”

“Oh look!” Pinkie Pie bounced as she pointed at the shops sign. It was being turned around to say “Open” on it.

Twilights eyes literally sparkled as she eagerly reached out for the door…

Femme Fatale flipped the magic sign over to open. She wasn’t expecting anypony to really visit except maybe a few curious townsfolk. Back at their old shop they never got customers. Only reason they made money was because they shipped out orders. They were more comparable to a warehouse than an actual shop.

As she trotted to the counter she had a very gracious smile on her face. After Julius, Ecto, their new servants, and her finished packing away everything and setting up shop, she and Julius found a nice bed down below and “celebrated” their new home. She was absolutely glowing and humming out a little tune because of this.

Femme let out a dreamy sigh as she picked up her romance novel about two mares in love with each other, but were being forced into an arranged marriage with two other stallions for the good of the community. She was deeply enjoying the book when all of the sudden she felt as a disturbance within the force or rather her personal space. She looked up to see only pink and an all too cheery voice shouting, “Hi!”

“Augh!” Femme screamed out as she fell out of her chair.

“Are you alright?” The pink menace asked as she looked over the counter while scratching her neck.

Before Femme's close encounter of the pink kind, Twilight was making her way into the shop with her friends tailing behind. She was quite surprised to find that it was very dark and if not a bit dusty. It was quickly noted that there was a sign right in front of her that said, “Shop contains materials sensitive to light. Please keep the curtains and shades closed. Thank you, the Management.”

Twilight had no reason to doubt the sign and thus began to make her way to the counter where a red head mare was reading a book. She looked around as a wide smile erupted on her face from all of the materials, books, and scrolls they had at their disposal. What made that smile even wider were the prices. It was all so much cheaper than supplies ordered from Canterlot. Also, add onto the fact she wouldn’t need to pay shipping charges for anything she bought here.

She looked back to the mare at the counter and Twilight's face grew very grave as she noticed Pinkie was now right up in the mares face. Before she could stop her a loud and surprised yelp echoed through the shop as the mare fell over.

Down below in the hidden lair of the magic shop, Julius stirred slightly in one of the guest bed. Somewhat of an oddity considering his reclusive lifestyle. He had been up most of the night having "fun" with Femme, but he still felt pretty well rested. He stretched out and noticed something was a bit off. Julius felt some metal around all of his hooves and noticed he was sprawled out. Attempting to get up, he found that he couldn't move his hooves more than a few inches. Slowly opening his eyelids, he looked around and noticed that he was bound to the bed's four posts with metal hand cuffs. What worried him more was Femmes absence.

Julius groaned out in annoyance, “Not again!” He pulled at the posts and then shouted out, “Femme!” He waited a moment and yelled again, “Femme!!!”

To his relief Ecto floated into the room through one of the walls. She was looking very tired for a ghost and even had bags under her eyes. “Oh, thank Luna! Glad to see you’re up Ecto… uh… are you alright?”

She yawned and while covering her mouth. “Yeah, just didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Sorry to hear that, but listen would you let me out? Femme forgot to unlock my cuffs again.” He smiled at his hope for freedom, but he only got an annoyed look from her.

“Like how you forgot to sound proof the room last night?” She deadpanned.

“Right, like how I forgot to… oh…" He grinned sheepishly at her with a nervous laugh.

“Well, I’d be glad to help.” She smiled at him and he returned it, thankful she was forgiving him. “But I seem to have forgotten to get enough sleep last night. Let me just go get that and I’ll let you out in a jiff!” She added on as she floated out of the room.

Julius jaw dropped and he groaned. “Ecto! Get back here or you are grounded missy!” He let out a long drawn out sigh when she didn't come back and then looked at his bindings. “So, time to see if I learned anything from my escape artist classes…”

Femme suddenly felt like she forgot something important, but disregarded it as she got up off the floor to glare at the devil wearing pink. It was then Rarity came up and began to apologize for her, “I am so sorry, Pinkie gets a little excited and little too friendly at times,” she said with a harsh glare at Pinkie.

The angry mare suddenly found her rage melt away as she caught eye of the lovely purple mane unicorn. She quickly got right up to Rarity and was batting her eyelashes at her, unable to resist flirting a bit. “Oh, it’z no problem! It vould vee my vault zat I vasn’t paying attention,” she said in an unfamiliar, foreign accent.

Rarity got so distracted by her accent that she didn't notice the little hints of interest she was getting. Twilight was the first to bring up the accent, “My, that’s an interesting accent. I don’t believe I’ve heard it before.”

Femme had a quick flush of red as she noticed that it wasn't just Pinkie and Rarity in the room. She took note that the lavender unicorn was pretty, but Femme was having eyes elsewhere at the moment. She did turn to Twilight though and spoke in a normal Equestrian dialect, “Forgive me, I sometimes slip into my ol’ Trotsylvanian accent.”

At the mention of Femme’s home country, Rainbow Dash perked up from her novel and eyed her with suspicion for a moment before quickly disregarding her wayward thought. Her eyes fell back to her Daring Do book.

“Isn’t that far up north?” Twilight inquired as she took notice to Femme’s red eyes, but more importantly her lack of horn.

“Why, yes it is. Beautiful old country.” She nodded again to Twilight as she glanced at all the mares in the room. She noticed Applejack’s eyes scanning the various books they had while Fluttershy was examining the ingredients in stock, such as herbs that could be used for medical purposes.

Twilight didn’t mean insult or to change the subject, but she felt the need to ask, “I couldn’t help, but notice that you’re not a unicorn.” This earned her some odd glances from some of the other mares.

“Gee, what gave it away? Was it the lack of a horn?” Femme replied with some annoyed sarcasm.

Twilight waved her hooves defensively. “No, I didn’t mean anything by that. I-I-I was just wondering why an earth pony is working in a magic shop?” She smiled sheepishly not meaning to offend her.

“You don’t need to be a unicorn to sell things. But if it makes you feel any better, shop is owned by a unicorn. Lazy bum is probably still sleeping in,” she joked with a little chuckle, putting Twilight a little more at ease.

Meanwhile Julius was blindly trying to pick a lock using a bobby pin and his magic while his eye uncontrollably twitched in frustration. He occasionally growled out in annoyance at his failed attempts of getting free.

Back with Twilight in the gang introductions were now being done. “Anyway, I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is Spike,” she said, nodding to the purple dragon on her back. This caused Femme a great deal of intrigue since it wasn't often one saw a dragon. Twilight then began to introduce her friends.

“Rarity.”

“Charmed!” She shook Femme’s hoof delicately

“Pinkie Pie.”

“Hiya!” Pinkie grabbed Femme’s hoof from Rarity and shook it violently. Femme had to forcefully pull it away as Pinkie was practically shaking her whole body. Pinkie was also starting to get a bit of a rash from all the scratching she had been doing since entering the shop.

“Applejack.”

“Howdy partner!” Applejack tipped her hat to the stranger.

“Fluttershy.”

“Meep! I mean, um, hi!” She waved meekly from behind her mane.

“And Rainbow Dash!”

“Yo.” She waved a hoof while not looking up from her book. Twilight frowned at this, but would chew her out for it later.

Femme cleared her throat. “Vell, I am Femme Fatale,” she said all of this in her Trotsylvanian accent, giving them a sultry smile which might have been a bit more friendly than it was meant to be. It caused a few of them to blush and Femme chuckled inwardly.

Twilight broke the ice and started to gush, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to have a magic shop in town! I used to have to order everything from Canterlot, but this will be so much more convenient!” Twilight’s face was stretched out by her large smile.

“So, you’re going to be a regular customer?” Femme asked while raising an eyebrow.

“Of course!” Twilight answered with glee.

“That’s… great!” Femme replied while putting on a fake smile. Great, now I actually have to work instead of catching up on my novels...

Julius shook his right fore hoof as he finally managed to unlock one of the cuffs and he grinned at his success. He pulled himself up so he could get a better view as he worked on one of the cuffs on his hind legs. To his great surprise, the cuff on the right leg came undone almost instantly. His smile brightened and cheered out, “I still got it! I could have been a locksmith if this magic career hadn’t worked out!”

He decided to go for the left hind leg next and he got that unlocked almost as fast as he got his other leg. “I’m on a roll!” he cheered again as he spun himself around into a more comfortable position while he telekinetically brought his tool of freedom to the last cuff.

Julius in the next few moments learned something very interesting. The sound of a ponies’ spirit breaking sounds exactly like a bobby pin snapping.

His jaw dropped as he stared at the broken pin. This was followed by a roar of agony at the last cuff. “Why did she have to get the magic proof cuffs! I could have been out of here if could use an unlock spell on these!” He proceeded to attempt to use the broken bobby pin to crudely attempt to unlock his last brace. This was easier said than done as he had to get the two pins to work together while splitting his magic to manipulate both of them.

He sighed in frustration as he began to work…

Femme stared at Pinkie with concern as the poor pink pony proceeded to scratch her neck more and more. Her friends were browsing, even if most of them couldn’t use anything from the shop it was still interesting to see what they had lying around. Pinkie came across a little cactus and to Femme’s surprise, or maybe she was surprised that she wasn’t surprised, the Pink pony began to scratch her neck with the cactus letting off sighs of relief.

“Are… you okay?” Femme finally voiced out causing Twilight and the others to notice Pinkie’s distress.

“You okay there, Pinks?” Rainbow Dash floated over, putting away her book to examine the rash growing on her neck while keeping her distance to avoid the prickly plant being rubbed profusely against her neck.

“Oh dear, I think she might be having an allergic reaction,” Fluttershy said meekly as she tip hoofed over to the other side of Pinkie also keeping her distance from the makeshift neck scratcher.

Rarity pulled the cactus away from Pinkie with her magic and suggested as Pinkie went back to using her hooves, “Dear, I don’t think you should be using this nice mare’s merchandise to take care of your neck woes.” She tried to smile brightly at Pinkie, but the pink mare's gritted teeth and irritated frown made It hard to do so.

“Don’t worry girls,” Pinkie tried to reassure them with a forced laugh. “It’s nothing really! Just my Pinkie Sense!” At the mention of her Pinkie Sense the others started to look worried. Femme however, just looked confused.

“That thar means… uhh…” Applejack pondered for a moment and muttered under her breath, “Itchy neck… itchy neck… itchy neck… uh, RD?”

“Oh, that means… wait… what does that mean?” Dash was at a lost as well and she was the most familiar with her quirks.

“How about we let Pinkie tell us?” Twilight suggested as she nodded to Pinkie Pie, causing the others to look at her for an answer as well.

Pinkie looked around nervously for a moment and then admitted, “I-I-I don’t know what itchy neck means." She scratched harder and faster. “This is a new one for me,” she lamented and frowned wanting the itchiness to stop.

There was a cough from behind them as Femme walked up to the group of friends. “Excuse me, but… Pinkie Sense?” She pulled out a little tube of cream and hoofed it over to Pinkie who quickly poured some into her hooves and started to rub it around her neck, sighing and letting her tongue loll out as the itchiness numbed and a delighted smile returned to her face.

“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed. “Well Pinkie Sense is… well… it’s this weird feeling Pinkie gets when something is about to happen. Kind of like a warning,” Twilight explained before Dash jumped in to further elaborate.

“Yeah! Like twitchy tail means something is about to fall, or her knee gets pinchy something scary is about to happen, oh and look out for doors when her ear flops, then eye flutter, then knee twitches.”

Femme just stared blankly as her mind attempted to try to comprehend the ludicrousness of such a claim. Twilight spoke up before Femme could fully process this information, “How do you remember all of those?”

Rainbow shrugged, “Eh, you hang out with Pinks a lot you just start to pick up on them.” This received a wide smile from Pinkie who was scratching a lot less now.

“Hey can someone bite my neck?” Pinkie randomly asked which illicit stares from the whole group. She looked around for volunteers then turned to Femme. “Hey Femmy! Mind biting my neck?”

Femme came out of her stupor in surprise. “Oh, that’s very sweet of you, but I already ate.” Now all eyes were on her instead and she shifted uncomfortably as a bead of sweat formed on her brow before she elaborated, “You know, because she wants me to bite her? It’s a joke?” She started to sweat a little bit more.

They all stared at her for a few moments before Pinkie giggled out, “Oh, that’s a good one! I should use that next time somepony asks me to bite them. Not that many ponies ever ask me to bite them, but you never know if somepony would. Always great to have a good one liner to an odd question like this one time... itchy neck! Itchy neck! Itchy neck!” Pinkie’s rant was thankful interrupted by her need to scratch. “Somepony chew my neck, hooves aren’t good for scratching!”

Julius stuck out his tongue and bit it lightly as he poured all his concentration into getting the last cuff that bound him to the bed. Sweat dripped down his face as he closed one eye in a futile attempt to see better as he worked on the tiny keyhole. The twitch in his one opened eye started up and it got worse as his anger began to boil over. His ears flipped and wiggled erratically while he gritted his teeth and growled out.

As his frustration and rage reached its peak, his horn erupted in a black aura. Finally no longer wanting to deal with this nuisance he unleashed his dark magics in the form of rage causing the whites of his eyes to become red as he channeled it into the magic resistant cuff. With the extra power he was able to pierce through its magical defenses and finally cast the simple unlock spell.

With a quick snap the latch unlocked and released his hoof. He gave it a little shake, as he took a few deep calming breaths to subdue his temper. With a more level headed form of thinking he smiled contently and stood up on his haunches as he raised his front hooves in the air with a huge smile. “Victory is mine!”

At that very moment Ecto floated through a wall and into the room. “Okay, got a quick nap. So, I’ll go ahead and let you–” She paused as she noticed Julius was now free. “Oh, you got out! Well then, I’ll just be heading back to bed. Toodles!” she cheered out as she passed back through the wall she just came through.

In that instant, Julius rage came back with a vengeance due to the universe timing that all too perfectly.

A fun fact about some unicorns is that there’s a few who, when angry enough, under enough emotional distress, or who practiced powerful dark magics, will actually change coat color and their manes and tails will actually catch on fire. This is believed to be caused by their magic being burned like fuel by their emotions. It’s also thought that Celestia and Luna’s manes worked similarly to this except without the need for the other listed requirements. Not many studies could be done on this due to the sheer amount of magic to trigger it and the rarity of finding unicorns that had this ability. Trying to study the two princesses manes was out of the question as most who even studied this would be far too afraid to touch royalty, let alone ethereal hair of a goddess. Also, it didn’t help that the one time that a researcher decided to touch Luna’s mane without permission ended up with him getting slammed against a wall… that was fifty feet away… by her using only the Royal Canterlot Voice. He ended up with a few broken bones and was partially deaf for a few days.

This now leads us back to Julius. There were only two unicorns in Ponyville that could pull off this feat. One was a certain infamous lavender unicorn and the other was Julius. His once grey coat turned pitch black and his mane and tail began to burn, turning into a blue flame fueled by his currently boundless rage. Even his very eyes seemed to be inflamed with blue fire and with a roar he yelled out while shaking the very foundations of his lair, “FEMME!!!”

He began stomping his way out of the room, the effects of his transformation quickly receding. Thankfully these scary transformations usually never lasted that long with unicorns. Usually...

Femme was watching the girls restrain Pinkie from scratching her very irritated neck as Fluttershy rubbed more ointment to subdue the itchiness. Pinkie had refused to leave until she figured out what causing this particular Pinkie Sense to trigger. So, the least her friends could do was make sure she didn’t scratch her neck raw. Thankfully once the ointment was on she started to resist the urges once again as it cooled and numbed any itchiness she felt. This finally allowed her friends to let go of her so she could calm herself and think.

Pinkie perked her ears up and so did Femme a moment later as they heard the sound of stomping. The others also noticed it as it got really close and the door to the back rooms slammed open when a unicorn with a violet and black tipped mane with a little goatee stood there, seething with anger. His teeth were clenched and each breath seemed to exhale that rage out into the shop, causing a few other curious customers to back away slowly

Fluttershy let out a cute squeak as the others backed up from the side of the counter. Femme however, just smiled and greeted the fury that had erupted into the store, “Morning sleeping head!”

This reaction caused him march over to her and get right in her face, glaring daggers into her eyes. She didn’t even flinch, even when he poked her accusingly with one hoof. “Femme,” He said barely controlling the volume of his voice. “I don’t mind your bondage kink. In fact I find it pretty fun. There’s just one little thing,” he said with a very forced smile while his eyes did not lose any of their fiery anger. “I would appreciate it if you would remember to unshackle me in the morning! I spent all this time trying to get myself out with a bobby pin!” He pressed his muzzle against hers as he continued his death glare.

Unfortunately for Julius she was unaffected by his intimidation tactics. She merely backed up to give herself some space and chuckled. “That’s what I forgot! I knew there was something I missed. Don’t just hate it when that happens?”

“Well what do you have to say for yourself?” Julius asked with an accusing hoof swearing she had done it on purpose.

She merely smirked and pointed a hoof at the Bearers of Harmony, “Julius, have you met our first customers?”

The stallion blinked away his anger to make way for confusion as he turned his head to see the six mares and other customers gawking at him. He didn’t exactly have the most appropriate conversation just now.

Fluttershy was trying to hide behind her pink mane in embarrassment for him. Applejack suddenly found the ceiling and floor more interesting, while Twilight’s mouth was agape with a flush on her own face with Spike just scratching his head not fully grasping what he had just heard. Behind them Rainbow Dash was just hovering and looking up from her book to give him the sliest grin he had ever seen. Rarity on the other hoof was covering her mouth to hide her incredibly wide smile from what would later be some very juicy gossip that had just landed at her hooves. Pinkie to Femme’s surprise, but not to anypony else’s was eating a bag of popcorn while occasionally scratching her irritated neck. Femme swore she hadn’t brought that in with her.

Julius looked at the group and his face flustered while his pupils dilated. He then slowly proceeded to back up out from the front of the shop, closing the door with his magic. Femme just smiled at the group while Rainbow fell to the floor laughing her plot off at the spectacle.

“Well darling, that was a very interesting moment,” Rarity stated, breaking the silence. “Was that dashing stallion the owner of this shop?”

“You would be correct and do you know what the best part about of this is?” Femme giggled out as she gained on a malicious grin.

“No… haha… what?” Rainbow asked, wiping a tear from her eye as she pulled herself off the floor.

“It’s about to get even worse for him,” she said looking at the clock and at the top of the hour she called to the back, “Oh Julius!” She said in an almost sing song voice.

There was a slight pause and from the back Julius mumbled back to her, “What?”

“My shift is over,” Femme replied and a very loud groan of annoyance echoed from the back of the shop sending Rainbow and even Pinkie Pie into another fit of giggles.

Julius was now at the front of the shop while the mares continued to browse its contents. Femme had retired to the back and thankfully her new friends had decided to give him some space after the awkward silence that happened after he returned. What was very lucky for him was that Pinkie Pie had chosen to ignore him as she sought out the source of her new Pinkie Sense. This left Julius to wonder why there were pegasi and earth ponies in his shop to begin with.

It wasn’t until he looked down from behind the counter that he noticed Spike, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he stared up Julius sizing him up. Seeing a dragon was rare occurrence and seeing a baby one was even rarer. He began to rub his hoof under his own chin, a small smile plastered on his face at this chance meeting. Though he felt a bit of unease as he was being judged by the little purple dragon.

Spike then broke the silence by snapping his fingers and grinned. “Nice goatee!”

Julius brought his hoof further up his chin again and swore silently as he realized he hadn’t gotten rid of the bit of hair that had managed to stealthily grow on his chin during his time in disguise. His eyes crossed as he tried to glare at it without any success. He then focused his gaze back at the dragon and sighed out, “Uh, thanks…” He rubbed the back of his head and then proceeded to make himself seem busy by going through a binder with items in stock. Spike soon took the hint and let him be.

It wasn’t long before he heard a bit of an annoying buzz in his ear. Took him a moment to realize the buzz was actually the rapid flaps of Pegasus wings. He looked up to see the cyan pony Rainbow Dash smirking at him. She had decided to take a break from her novel to pester the shops owner. They just stared at each other for a moment before Dash asked, “Sooooo, bondage huh?”

Julius winced and then scrunched up his snout in irritation, “I am not having this conversation,” He stated firmly.

Dash shrugged if off before going back to her book, “Your loss….”

He didn’t give any thought to her statement as Fluttershy came up to the counter and placed the items before him, “I’d like to buy these… if that’s okay with you,” She squeaked out very quietly. He saw that the items were of medicinal use and he could see why somepony that didn’t use magic would want them. He rang her up and that was the end of that. Neither of them were eager to talk.

Julius continued to just watch the shop his eyes going to the mare in a stetson. Applejack was just browsing trying to make sense of some of the book titles on the various shelves. A few more customers had entered as well to browse his goods. He wasn’t used to having customers like in his old town. It was a nice change of pace from the boring droll of just sitting around and doing nothing. It was then the cowpolk mare decided to come up and make idle conversation.

"So, howdy neighbor! Where you from?"

Taken aback by the friendliness of the mare he then had to take a moment to recall what his background story was. Once he remembered it he then replied as he gave her the need to know basics, "I'm from a small neighborhood in Detrot, torn down sadly after the recent recession. I've traveled here and there while living abroad. My previous residence had a poor market so I decided to move where I could find more customers of the magical variety. Canterlot is too expensive to open up shop so I chose the close town of Ponyville where I can ship things up there while being in more affordable living conditions." Julius smiled as he remembered everything perfectly. It gave just enough to satisfy and thanks to a lot of neighborhoods being torn down in Detrot no one would be able to appropriately track down residences to confirm his story.

However, Applejack stared at him like he grew a second head and then a third one after that. She could have sworn he had just lied to her. Being the element of honesty she could discern a lie easily, but Julius had said everything with such a straight face and the fact there shouldn't be a reason for him to lie, she was wondering if she had just imagined it. Before she could possibly inquire further a shadow overtook her and Julius.

Julius looked up to see a pinkish aura surrounding a stack of thick books that was about the height of a pony. The pile was neatly placed on the counter and Twilight peaked from behind them with a grin. “Just a bit of light reading.” Julius returned the smile as dollar signs appeared in his eyes. He was also a bit happy to see somepony so enthusiastic about magic. If she become a regular he might actually have money to spare for a change.

Spike then muttered something from beside Twilight, “It’s only light reading cause you don’t have to carry it.” This earned him an annoyed glare from the lavender mare.

Julius was quick to ring her up with a wide smile. “Thank you, come again.” He gave a little wave as she started to pack some of the books in her saddle bags while Spike was forced to carry a few himself. It was then his last customer of that particular group came up with single book.

Rarity set the book titled, “Precise Levitating, Advance Guide to Knitting and Sowing,” down onto the counter. She was still holding in her mirth from the earlier events and she started to make small talk, “So, you two seem like a fun couple. How long have you been together?”

“We’re not dating. That will be 7 bits,” Julius answered after finding the price for the book.

“Married?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nope.”

“Then… what was that all about earlier darling?” Rarity was perplexed by the situation now. Even Twilight and Rainbow Dash were intrigued by this revelation while Fluttershy and Applejack sought to get away from anymore gossip of one’s private life.

“Uh, ever heard of friends with benefits?” Julius replied with a bit of hesitance and a flush of his cheeks.

Before any of them could respond with either a sound or a face, they were quickly interrupted by an insane pink pony. Said pony grabbed Julius by the collar of his robes and pulled him right into her face, “Alright, where is it?!” Pinkie shouted at him through gritted teeth. Her eyes were distant and void of sanity.

“Pinkie!” Rarity gasped at this sudden outburst.

“What’s causing it? Where is the source of my itchy neck?!” Julius cringed under Pinkie Pie’s unusual question.

“What?” Was all he managed to say as he stared with his mouth agape at the pink terror.

“Hey, easy Pinks!” Dash called out as she reached over with a hoof.

“Uh… Pinkie,” Twilight started, causing the crazy pony to turn her head almost completely around causing her to shutter at this owl like maneuver. She then continued with some unease, “I haven’t seen you scratched your neck in awhile.”

Pinkie suddenly released her grip of Julius and then rubbed her neck. “Oh… huh, it no longer itches. Wonder what caused that?” She scratched her head in thought then looked at Julius and gasped, causing him to hide behind his counter in fear, “I need to get to Sugarcube Corner! See you and Femme tonight!” A pink blur rushed out of the shop, kicking up dust and causing some bottles to spin, but remain in their place.

Julius dared to peak from behind his counter. “Uh, what just happened?” he muttered in bewilderment.

Hours later, the sun was beginning to set on Ponyville. The rest of the day had been mostly uneventful. The magic shop was occasionally visited by curious ponies and a few unicorns looking to dabble in magic. Twilight and her friends left without saying much to the shops owner, not wanting to make him any more uncomfortable after the events that had proceeded Pinkie's outburst.

Julius was now just lounging about; no other ponies with him except Femme who had decided to give him some company now after a nice long power nap. She was reading her saucy novel again while he just stared absent mindedly at the door. For a quick moment he took a look at Femme who had taken to disguise herself since they had arrived at Ponyville. Only a very small change; her coat was now a light manila color instead of the pale white it had usually been. Actually, Julius had seen her with this coat color before and wasn't sure which one he liked more. Regardless he still thought she looked lovely.

His eyes started to trace her curves; she was quite thin and very tall with long slender body that could easily be that of one of Photo Finish's models. He was barely her height which was always slightly intimidating. He then wondered what one his old friends would say about her. On second thought, he’d rather not think about what he would say. Guy had always been real pervert.

Looking at her cutie mark of a blood red thorn rose, he wondered how she had even got that. He knew what it meant, but she never told him how she had acquired it. Not that she wouldn’t, he just never bothered to ask. The mark was truly symbolic for her and he always admired that.

Her plot gave a little wiggle and he suddenly looked up to see her with a sultry smile and looking at him out of the corner of her eye. Seemed he’d been caught and slight blush came across his face as returned his attention to the front door. A small smile tugged at his mouth and he occasionally glanced back at her.

Before things could escalate further they heard the door open. Femme became quite miffed at the interruption, but her mood quickly shifted to one of delight as she saw Twilight enter the building, this time without her assistant, Spike.

The Lavender mare trotted up to the two of them. “Hey there Femme and… umm… I’m sorry what was your name again?” She smiled sheepishly.

“Julius,” He answered with slight nod. The studious mare of magic was to his liking. They never got into any conversations of magic when she had visited, but he could easily see her interests in it from the vast array of books she had purchased.

“Well Julius, I’d like to treat you and Femme to a treat at Sugarcube Corner! Think of it as a little welcome to our humble town.” Her face beamed with a friendly smile.

Femme interrupted her glee with a question, “What’s Sugarcube Corner?”

Her question was quickly answered by Julius, “Some kind of bakery from what some of the customers told me. Highly recommended from what I heard.”

A smile tugged at her lips, “That sounds like it could be fun.”

“Right! Then let’s go!” Twilight eagerly started towards the door with a bit of a skip to her steps.

“Wait, right now?!” Femme said with a bit of surprised urgency. This caused the unicorn to stop dead in her tracks and she looked back with her ears drooping.

She looked guiltily at them as though she had done something wrong. “Yeah, i-i-is that a problem?” She stuttered out, afraid she might have offended them.

“No, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just…” She turned her head to Julius and he looked back, the two sharing a silent conversation with each other.

Julius got the hint and picked up where she left off, “We still need to look after the shop and help any customers that wander in.” Twilight looked to the ground with a bit of disappointment. “Although…” Julius quickly added and her ears perked up with a faint smile.

He trotted around the counter and up to the front door. He barely opened it and stuck his head outside to look around. The streets were fairly empty which he found slightly odd, but his attention turned to the darkening sky as the suns beams were leaving the world, slowly.

He backed up into the shop, closing the front door. He gave Femme a nod and smile, causing her to look more cheerful. “Well, I suppose we can close up early, just for today.”

Twilight clapped her hooves in delight. “Great!” she answered when a thought came to mind. “Wait, how late are you open anyway?” Her brow furrowed at the thought of their shop being open for anymore than another hour.

“I’m a bit sporadic on times, but I’m usually up and open all the way past midnight most of the time. I’m a real night owl,” he replied as he passed Twilight, if he had turned around he would have seen an excited smile from a mare who had to deal with inconveniences of closed shops during late night studies.

“If you don’t mind I need to check on something before we go.” Julius didn’t wait for her to answer and trotted off to the back. Femme made her way over to Twilight and they decided to wait in front of the shop.

Twilight was quick to exit, but Femme made the same motions of Julius before as she exited. Examining the streets and then the sky. When she started to see a few stars poking here and there she grinned and trotted out. She let out a nice sigh as the cool night breeze brushed her frame.

It wasn’t long before Julius came out, locking the shop as he did. He was still wearing his robes as always, he’d had the habit of wearing them for so long they were practically apart of his skin. He sidled up to Femme and whispered, “Was just letting Ecto know where we’d be.”

Femme nodded and the three ponies began to trot off to Sugarcube Corner.

Approaching the delicious bakery, Julius noticed something off about the place. For one the lights were off and secondly the lack of ponies in the streets seemed a bit odd even at this hour. He leaned over to Femme, keeping an eye on their destination and Twilight who was in front of them while whispering, “Hey Femme, do you suddenly have a sudden sense of dread?”

Thinking for a moment, she took a good hard look at the bakery designed out of fake sweets then gave her insight, “Now that you mention, yeah. I suddenly feel a little uneasy. But it must be our imagination.”

“Yeah, our imagination…”

The three finally reached the front door and Twilight opened and stepped into the near pitch black room. Femme and Julius glanced at each other with unease before they both slowly walked in together. The moment they were in the lights suddenly all came on, blinding them for a quick moment before almost all of Ponyville was shouting at them, “SURPRISE!!!”

That night Ponyville learned a few things about Julius. One, he didn’t like very high adrenaline surprises. Two, he has an amazing reaction time that Rainbow Dash would be jealous of. And finally, his ability to absorb what exactly is threatening him is tad bit slower than his reaction time. This makes all the difference.

As soon as it all happened and they were shouted at by many ponies Julius shouted right back, “IT’S A TRAP!!!” He immediately wrapped his hooves around Femme’s neck and his horn glowed with an intense violet aura before time and space distorted around them and they were encircled by a black and purple sphere before it collapsed on itself leaving not a trace of them minus a few minor distortions and a dumbfounded party of ponies.

Out in the streets a few bolts of violet electricity discharged from a fixed point in space before expanding rapidly into a sphere about the size of two ponies, soon leaving Femme and Julius there in its wake. This all happened in the manner of less than half a second. That included the casting of the spell and it finishing off and leaving them where they were now.

It was about a few decimals of a second later that Julius’s thoughts started to catch up to him. “Femme… did I just panic and warp us out of a surprise party?”

Femme just looked over at him and deadpanned, “Yes Julius, yes you did. Mind telling me where you dropped us off?”

Julius let go of her neck and chuckled nervously. “Well, I didn’t have a destination in mind so we could be all the way at the other end of Ponyville or–”

“Or we could be just a few feet away from Sugarcube Corner,” Femme interrupted as she turned around to see they weren’t that far from the entrance.

“Yes, that too is a possibility...” Julius added as he got a bit embarrassed at how his spell didn’t go off quite as intended. Though it was probably a good thing in this case. He was also thankful that when he reacted with a fight or flight instinct that his choice hadn’t been fight. Otherwise… well he didn't want to think about it.

“Whoa, great trick! Do it again!” Pinkie Pie called as she peered out from the entrance. She was quickly joined by Twilight who now had a growing curiosity about the spell Julius had just cast. Most would think he had used an odd looking teleport spell, but Twilight recognized that it most definitely was not, even if it had the same desired effect.

Femme was quick to go back inside, while Twilight and Pinkie made way for her as Julius quickly tailed her, his face completely flustered. He chuckled lightly to try and cover up his embarrassment as all the guests just gave him odd stares.

“Uh, sorry I’m… uh, a bit jumpy.” His face just got redder as he explained himself, but thankfully the guests were quick to forgive and dismiss the odd behavior. They’ve seen stranger things.

Back at the new residence's secret underground lair, Ecto was having her own kind of party. A large white mat with polka dotted colors of red, green, blue, and yellow were laid out. On top of said mat was four skeletal ponies entangled with their hooves placed on various colors. Two of them actually had a leg actually detached from their bodies, but was still able to move the limb at will.

Ecto spun a little arrow on a small square board and a grin stretched across her ghostly face. This smile was eerily similar to a certain pink pony. She then looked at one of the skeleton ponies and it looked back at her with its eye sockets glowing with necromantic magic. “Okay Kenny, left forehoof green!”

The skeleton known as Kenny did a quick hop with its left front hoof and placed it on a green. A very difficult feat since it was one of the skeletons with a limb somewhere else on the mat.

They were playing Twister: Undead Edition (not officially sold by the Miltrot Bradley Company). It played like normal twister, but with an extra rule. The players may detach one limb and use it to reach whatever dot they needed. However, they could only keep one limb detached at a time and they can’t fall over as per the usual rules. It also was pretty difficult to reattach a limb without an extra set of hooves.

“Right hind hoof yellow, Kyle,” Ecto said after giving the arrow another spin. The one skeleton looked at the other that was currently in its way.

“You can do it Kyle!” Ecto cheered on as it struggled and kept looking at the other undead. One could almost swear it was glaring. Come to think of it, it was actually narrowing its eye sockets into a glare like stare. How it did that was any ponies guess. The undead skeleton made a few chattering noises with its teeth at one of the larger ones.

“Hey, be nice!” Ecto called out like a mother hen.

Kyle just looked at her as it kept chattering in it's guttural speak and glaring at the larger skeleton in its way.

“He’s not fat, he’s just big boned!” Ecto replied back to him. Though it sounded like they were just making noise, fellow undead could understand one another. Ecto then went on, “Besides, none of you have any fat or meat on you. You’re nothing but bones!”

This odd argument would continue on for awhile…

Back at the party Femme and Julius were getting dizzy from a whirlwind of introductions and greetings in the form of puffy pink tornado. Names and faces were quickly passing through their vision as Pinkie Pie kept naming them off one after another before quickly pushing them to a new pony to meet. “Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, Caramel, Applejack, Spike, Nurse Redheart, Twilight Sparkle, and Pinkie Pie!” They were suddenly pushed to be right in front of the mare staring at her smile. “Oh wait, I guess you already know me,” She said in thought before they were spoken to from behind, “Well that’s everypony!” They looked back to see Pinkie now standing there. This caused both of them to do a double take as they looked back to where she had been only to find empty space.

They kept looking between the two spots until they finally looked to each other, Julius scratching his head with a hoof and Femme shrugged with no explanation as to what they had just witnessed.

“Well, now that’s done we can start have fun!” Pinkie cheered as she scratched her neck slowly. Femme immediately took notice to this.

“Your neck still bothering you?”

Pinkie opened her mouth to answer, but then her eye shifted to her hoof scratching her neck and her pupils dilated. With a small gasp she spoke quietly, “Itchy neck…” Before either of the two guests could say anything she was gone in a flash, kicking up dust as she left. This left two newcomers to their own devices. Femme decided to socialize while Julius went to the snack table to raid some food.

The manila mare with crimson red hair smiled with both her mouth and eyes at those ready to greet her. The few stallions that lived in Ponyville were eager to meet her. Especially when she had what some may consider a super model body comparable to Fleur de Lis or Luna. She might have had a few extra healthy pounds, but she was a real looker.

“Wow, how did that unicorn end up with a mare like her?” One stallion whispered to another.

“I hear she’s single!” Another replied.

“No, I heard she’s with that Julius guy.”

“Actually, I think they’re only friends.”

“I heard from a very reliable source that they’re friend with benefits and they’re in an open relationship!”

“I don’t consider the town gossip to be a reliable source of information.”

“Come on, Rarity has been right before!”

“I call dibs!” That one came from a mare and caught quite a few stallions off guard.

Femme loved the attention and she relished the feeling of being fawned over. She gave a sultry smile as she started to come up to a very large red stallion with a straw colored mane and a cutie mark of a green apple with its core showing and large yoke around his neck. Big McIntosh was sipping on his punch and didn’t notice Femme till she past right in front of him, her tail whipped up and lightly brushed his nose, letting him catch her scent and his attention.

“That’s sum mare,” Caramel whispered to him.

“Eyup!” Big Mac replied as he continued to watch her with his jaw hanging.

Applejack scowled from across the room at what just happened. She didn’t care if Femme was sexy. Okay she was a little envious of it and felt a little more self conscious much to her disdain. She didn’t mind if she was strutting her stuff. Actually she did, but she wouldn’t say it out loud. She kind of envied that level confidence. However, she did not appreciate teasing her brother like that. She wouldn’t want that kind of lewdness into her family. Granny Smith would have a cow if Big Mac brought her in. Not to mention her relations to Julius. Something just seemed off about that stallion and she could have sworn he kept speaking lies whenever he talked about himself, yet every time she kept second guessing herself when she though he was.

It was then Applejack noticed she wasn’t the only one who was having ill thoughts about Femme. Looking around she saw quite a few other mares with hints of annoyance and jealousy. It escalated to those who were married and caught their spouses eyeing the mare.

“Who does she think she is?” Golden Harvest, a yellow mare with orange mane and carrots as her cutie mark said to her. She had noticed Applejacks distaste for Femme as well and assumed it was for the same reason as her, though it was mostly just for hitting on her brother.

Two pegasi, Cloudchaser and Flitter, quickly joined in, “Yeah, she just waltzes in here like she owns the place and thinks she can have anypony she wants,” Cloudchaser was the first to speak.

Flitter then voiced her concern although a bit more meekly than Cloudchaser’s bravado, “I hear she sleeps around with that shop keeper. Bet she does it to get extra pay.”

Applejack furrowed her brow at the responses. “Now listen here, no reason to go judge a barn by its cover,” before she could say more Rainbow Dash landed nearby with a cup of punch in her hooves. She took a sip before speaking.

“I think you mean book Applejack. She doesn’t seem that bad, although…” Rainbow trailed off for a moment. The others leaned in eager to hear more, but when she didn’t say anything Cloudchaser urged her to go on.

“Although what?”

Rainbow looked back at them and then hesitantly answered, “It’s just… well does something seem… off about her?”

“You mean how she’s trying to be the center of attention?” Golden Harvest answered.

Applejack then made a quick jab at Rainbow’s expense, “Wouldn’t that make ‘er Rainbow there?”

This earned a cold stare from Rainbow before she tried to elaborate, “No, I mean something that’s not obvious or can’t be seen. Like there’s something more to her that we’re missing. Something… I don’t know,” Rainbow sighed in defeat in her effort to explain herself better.

"I get more of that from that Julius feller..." Applejack muttered under her breath.

“I know exactly what you mean Rainbow!” Rarity spoke, surprising the others as she trotted up to the lot.

“You do?” Dash turned towards her, hoping to have some pony explain these unnerving vibes she kept getting. Though she would never admit to that she was having them. Her pride wouldn’t allow it.

“Yes, it’s easy to miss, but once you see it everything becomes crystal clear darling!” Rarity spoke in her usual eloquent demeanor. “It’s very simple. What she has is confidence. Sure she has a body that escalates her attractiveness, but what speaks volumes is the confidence she displays. That makes it easy for her to garner so much more attention. I’d also like to add if all of you would have taken the time watch her more carefully instead of creating a little clique you’d notice that even though she has the attention of so many she has yet to make any attempts to straight up seduce them. She seems perfectly content with being noticed.”

The other mares looked to the ground a bit guiltily and Applejack spoke for them, “I suppose we were lettin some unkind thoughts get in the way of our judgment.” The others agreed glumly.

“All in all I agree with everything Rarity said. She was pretty dead on,” Femme said a bit smugly from behind them. This facilitated another startled jump from the mares as they turned to her. None ever heard her approach; it was like the times when Pinkie Pie would pop out of nowhere except she did it in a more subtle and calm way. In a way it was a even more unsettling for the group.

“Uh, how much did you hear?” Flitter asked casting her gaze away from Femme.

Femme smiled coyly. “I have very good hearing, so everything from the moment you started talking to Applejack,” This caused them to stare in disbelief. She had been on the other side of the room when they started talking and the party was by no means quiet.

“How good is your hearing, exactly?” Rainbow Dash asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Like a bat, but I think a demonstration is in order." Femme happily answered her question by naming off what she could hear, “There’s a stallion currently complimenting my flank, another is choking on something he ate too fast, a mare is saying to another how much she likes the hair of somepony named Flitter,” Flitter perked up at her name, “Twilight is talking to Julius about magic, the buzzer just rang in the kitchen, and I think I hear some light snoring from two sources… above me,” She looked to the ceiling wondering who’d be sleeping at a time like this.

“Uh, that’d prolly be Mister and Missus Cake’s kids,” Applejack said with her mouth hanging. She wasn’t the only one stunned by all the details.

“Oh, that makes sense, but yeah, my hearing is pretty good,” She said as if it was no big deal. She just continued to get odd stares.

“… then she grew large butterfly wings and was able to fly!” Twilight announced with glee to Julius who had been listening to some of the more unique magic’s she had casted in her time in Ponyville.

“Fascinating! I’ve heard of such a spell before and wondered why it wasn’t more widely used, but from the way you described it that spell is far too taxing to be worth casting. Add onto that that the wings aren’t very durable it would be a risky way to travel,” Julius commented on the spell and then added, “There’s got to be a more efficient way to cast the spell or a way to get more satisfying results.”

“I have looked into it, but short of turning oneself into an alicorn, which is a neigh impossible feat, the spell itself is designed too inefficiently. I believe a different approach would be needed to get the right results,” Twilight furrowed her brow as she thought back to the spell and other possible ways to implement it.

Julius was quick to agree, “That’s a very distinct possibility. I’d have to see the spell myself, but it’s very likely it was initially made with a brute force approach to get the desired effects.”

“I’ve reached the same conclusion. Though I think some of the approaches were very innovative.” Twilight then remembered something and got excited as she spoke, “Oh, I just recalled, the Cakes have a unicorn foal that can fly by using her magic to telekinetically lift herself up!”

Julius coughed up little of his punch. “That’s amazing! Must be some real raw power behind that one.” He then tapped his chin in thought cursing once again that he forgot to shave his goatee. “I suppose if one’s mental capabilities were strong enough to lift more than their own weight a unicorn could fly at a whim. Though the mental concentration and the rate one could move at would be a bit limiting.”

“Also mental exhaustion could leave one to pass out. With physical wings you could merely slow down and take longer strokes, but with magic you’d need to maintain the same amount of exertion to keep yourself up in the air,” Twilight said finishing his train of thought.

“Yes, most definitely. Still, would be a useful skill to have in a pinch.” He smiled and mused at the thought of flying with his own magic.

Twilight then decided now would be a good time to ask, “That spell you used when you first came in. It was some form of teleportation, but I’ve never seen it used in such a way. What kind of teleport spell was that?” She was very intrigued and eager to learn more about it.

Julius got a bit nervous. How was he to explain that he had used a form of dark magic to perform an alternative form of teleporting? He really didn’t need anypony snooping around. With a swallow he started to think up an answer, “Uh… well you see….”

Before he got any further he was slammed against the table by a very disturbed Pinkie Pie with a disheveled mane and twitching eye. She was scratching her neck with her one free hoof. She narrowed her eyes at him, “What is causing it!”

“C-c-causing what?” Julius stammered back.

“My itchy neck! I know you’re the cause of it so spill the beans!” She was right up in his face making his ears drop back as he tried to pull away from the insane mare. This got Femme’s attention and she quickly rushed over to them. The whole party’s eyes were on Pinkie now.

“Whoa, what’s going on here?” Femme reached out a hoof to Pinkie, but quickly retracted it after quick death glare from the pink horror.

She still answered her question, “I know he’s causing this Pinkie Sense! I want to know what it means! What is causing my itchy neck?” She yelled into Julius’s face.

He just stared dumbfounded at her. “What?”

“You heard me!” She almost roared back.

Twilight then tried to calm her down, “Pinkie, you're scaring him. He’s a guest and you threw this party for him. You shouldn’t be making him feel uncomfortable. So what if your neck itches? Nothing bad has happened because of it so maybe it’s not a big deal?” She smiled sheepishly at her when Pinkie turned her glare to Twilight. However, it quickly melted and she back pedaled away from Julius.

“Y-you’re right. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have acted like that,” she said while tapping her two front hooves together and looked down at the floor in shame.

Julius got off the table and reassured her while keeping his distance, “It’s fine. Just a misunderstanding, right?” He gave her an uneasy smile, but really he wanted nothing more to do with this pony if he could help himself.

Her bright smile warmed up a bit and she cheered out, “Yeah! Let me get you something to make up for it.” She pulled a tray of pink frosted cupcakes with pink and yellow sprinkles covering them out of nowhere. Julius wondered how she did that and when he looked around for someone to explain it all he found was everypony else as bewildered as he was.

Cautiously, he took a cupcake with his magic and out of some paranoia he cast a spell to check for poison, which turned up negative. He shrugged and took a bite; Pinkie leaned in with anticipation for his verdict, still scratching her neck with a free hoof. After a few bites he smiled as he swallowed. “Delicious!”

Pinkie’s face lit up with her impossibly wide smile that seemed to be larger than her face. She quickly turned to Femme. “Ooo, Femmy! Have one!”

Femme looked at the cupcakes like she was being offered a rotten apple. “Uh, thanks, but no thanks. I’ve already ate– mmph!” She was interrupted by Pinkie stuffing nearly a whole cupcake into her mouth. She struggled to chew on it and then finally swallowed and gasped for breath. Pinkie leaned in waiting for her opinion. She struggled to smile at the pony and meekly said, “Delicious...”

Pinkie quickly bonded off to offer the cupcakes to the other guests and Twilight followed her to make sure she didn’t go crazy again. Meanwhile, while everypony went back to doing their own thing and nopony was looking at them anymore, Femme grabbed Julius’ punch he had been holding with his magic and poured the liquid into her mouth. She swished the drink around in her mouth a bit before spitting it back into the cup, “Blech!” she stuck her tongue out in disgust before giving back his drink. It was then Julius' turn to be disgusted.

Julius set aside his drink and got close to her to whisper, “I thought you said you ate already?”

“I did, but not enough to make everything stop tasting like ash.” She shivered in disgust as the taste lingered in her mouth.

“Listen, it might be a good idea for us to leave before that Pink mare causes anymore trouble for us,” he suggested. Julius never really had been one for parties or social events anyway.

Femme pouted, but then sighed out, “I’m inclined to agree. You really think we can sneak out?”

“We can certainly try,” he replied as they started to slowly make their way past the other guests and towards their freedom. Alas it was not meant to be as soon as they were just a yard away from the door Julius was grabbed and spun around to the center of the cake shop. The entire world blurred into an array of colors around him before he eventually stopped, trying to regain his balance and sense of direction. Soon, everything went dark as he was blindfolded.

“Time for pin the tail on the pony!” Pinkie cheered out. Julius cringed as he heard her voice in his ear. He was smacked on his plot to move forward as a pin with a fake pony tail dangling from it was placed in his mouth.

He awkwardly stumbled forward and bumped his nose against the wall that held the picture of the tailless pony. After a moment of rubbing his nose he sighed inwardly and pinned the tail on just to get it over with. Removing his blindfold to find that he had placed it far above where the plot of the pony was. There were a few laughs, mostly from him bumping into the wall earlier.

With a shrug he moved off to the side as he continued to recover from the spinning world. He was greeted by a pat from Femme before she was quickly pulled away and spun around similarly to how he was. Julius couldn’t believe how fast Pinkie could spin her around and started to get dizzy from just seeing it happen to Femme.

She too was blindfolded and had the pin placed in her mouth by Pinkie Pie whose neck was looking raw about now. Unlike Julius, Femme took the pin out of her mouth with a hoof and then her ears twitched in various ways. Her mouth opened for a moment. Some ponies thought they could hear something as few rubbed their ears in annoyance. Femme smiled as the dizziness wore off and she got her sense of direction. She put the pin back into her mouth and trotted forward before stopping just before the poster. Her ears perked around a bit more before she made an educated guess and stuck the pin in, nearly getting it right on the target.

“Whoa, nice job!” Pinkie Pie cheered as she bounced over to Femme as she removed her blindfold. With a toss of her mane she trotted victoriously over to Julius.

He just smirked knowingly at her. “You cheated.”

“No rule about seeing with your ears,” she retorted.

“Umm, excuse me,” a voice at nearly whisper said to them from the other side of Julius. They turned to see Fluttershy nervously rubbing her leg as she talked to them. “You can leave if you're starting to feel uncomfortable… if that’s okay with you! I-I know Pinkie can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.”

“You’re… Fluttershy, correct?” Julius responded to her. She let out a quiet meep in response before nodding at them. Julius then went on, “Twilight mentioned you take care of the animals and live near Everfree Forest. Am I mistaken?”

“Oh no, I do. I just love being near all my little woodland friends.” She perked up as the subject changed to something she was more comfortable with. “The Everfree can be scary, but as long as I don’t live in it I’m fine.” She gave her best confident smile that radiated a tender softness.

“Well, that’s an interesting lifestyle I bet.” He then looked to Femme and then back to Fluttershy. “It’s good to know we can leave cause I’d hate to be around if she were to blow up like that again.” Julius stole a glance at Pinkie out of the corner of his eye. She was spinning another random pony for the game and wasn’t looking at them for the moment.

“Oh yes, I’ve never seen her act like that towards somepony new before. It was very scary,” Fluttershy noticeably trembled as she said this. She then quickly regained her nerves. “It was very nice meeting you. I hope you enjoyed the–” Fluttershy yelped as Pinkie grabbed her and gave her a big spin like she had done the others.

Julius and Femme nodded to each other as they quickly and quietly sneaked out, leaving the party of the crazy pink pony behind.

When Femme and Julius got home they locked everything up and were about to descend into their lair. Julius took a moment to ask Femme something, “How’s your supplies?”

Femme looked away from him. “Fine, just fine.”

“Femme...” He looked down upon her wanting the truth.

“Okay, it’s a little low, but I already ordered some more and we should get the supplies before I run out,” she reassured him.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Alright, but if it gets dangerously low you tell me immediately. Got it?” He gave her a hard stare before she promised to let him know should she need more.

With that they descended into their home away from home. Julius decided to go to bed early after the exhaustion of the day while Femme decided to check on their food and get a little snack. They both stopped on their way to their respective destinations to give odd looks at the jumbled up undead skeletons that were now entangled into a giant mess of bones. Ecto smiled sheepishly at them, but somehow this now seemed normal and both carried on to their respective destinations.

Femme wandered to a fridge that was kept in a private room that was set aside just for her. Inside was a bunch of plastic bags, but she grimaced at how few there were. She picked one up; the cold clear plastic carried a dark red liquid inside of it. If she ran out, she would have to do something risky that could seriously jeopardize their cover.

“You're running low,” Ecto called from behind her causing the mare to jump and put the bag back in the fridge and close it shut. She turned back to the ghost that hovered before her.

Femme cast her gaze to the floor before bringing it back to her spectral friend. “Yeah, I am, but a fresh supply is coming in!” She tried to put on a reassuring smile, but she was a bit worried too, “I’m sure it will arrive in time. Don’t worry Ecto!”

Ecto didn’t seem too sure, but she gave her wide smile that was now very similar to that of Pinkie Pie’s in Femme's eyes. Still, it put her at ease as well. Ecto then remembered the undead servants, “Oh, I better help those guys out of that little mess I got them in! Take care and have a good night Femme!” She waved at her then sped off phasing through the walls.

Femme smiled back at where she disappeared to for a little while before turning back to the fridge. She opened the door and pulled out one of the bags filled with the red liquid. Marked on the bag was a bunch of letters followed by a plus sign and a minus sign. The letters were that of A, B, AB, and O; the A was circled in black marker and the plus sign was circled for the other two.

Femme closed her eyes for a moment and then gave into her hunger. Her eyes shot back open and were practically glowing. A hiss left her mouth as two of her teeth extended into sharp canines and she pierced the plastic bag with her newly grown jowls. The smell and taste of iron filled the air as she began to drink the bag filled with blood.

Ch9: To be Normal

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch9: To be Normal

Deimos groaned out as he weakly trudged through the grassy fields on his way to Fillydelphia. He would occasionally curse under his breath with every few steps he took. As luck would have it, a huge investigation was underway in Manehatten which caused security at the train stations to be heightened. Checkpoints were a little more lax exiting the city on hoof and was the only way he could get out without getting the second degree from members of the royal guard and local police.

So, what did this all mean? This meant he now had to walk all the way down south to Fillydelphia and then hop on a train there to get to Ponyville. This meant he was going to be very late and most likely piss off a lot of short tempered ponies. Although he was very sure that was going to be inevitable, but he was hoping to push it off for as long as possible so he wouldn’t have anypony breathing down his neck, at least for a little while. Sadly that was not meant to be, though he at least had the courtesy to let the Shadow Council know why he was going to be delayed, but he’d bet his horn they’d still throw a fit.

“At least it can’t get any worse,” he muttered to himself as he stepped over a squash. Cutting through a farmer’s field might have been the shortest distance, but the ground wasn’t exactly made with walking in mind.

There was then bright flash followed by a loud boom. He winced slightly and looked up as rain began to pour all over him. He brushed his green mane out of his eyes and growled at the top of his lungs, “Damn you karma!”

“Sorry!” A voice meekly and unexpectedly replied as a pegasus mare peaked out from the cloud above. Coincidentally, her name was Raining Karma.

Huh, Karma’s pretty cute. Deimos let a small grin spread on his face.

It had been a few days since Julius and company had arrived at Ponyville. During this time Twilight and her friends went on an important mission to the Crystal Empire. Of course anypony in Ponyville didn’t know why they left nor did they question it. It hadn’t been that long before they returned and went back to their same old routine, but with Julius’s very private and hermit like lifestyle he’d most like would never hear of this exploit. At least, not all of the details.

Julius recently found out that he now got Silent Whispers, an underworld newspaper that was delivered to those within the secret organization better known as Darkmoon Covenant. It had all the latest news from breakthroughs on dark magic, to the recent obituaries including ones involving the various assassin guilds, then there was political updates, also just general news of interest, and most importantly messages from the Dark Lord, the leader of this whole secret underworld. Well, one of the leaders. He was specifically the go to pony for dark arts, with a specialty in necromancy. However, it was wildly seen that he was at the top of the political ladder besides a very special somepony who had a place reserved right at the top. Of course it didn’t help that Luna didn’t know she had her own seat and was by all means considered their leader, queen, and empress. Celestia was damn sure not going to let her know. In her defense she thought such a position would cause the power to go to her head and maybe overthrow her kingdom. Also in her defense, she was probably right.

Julius was currently levitating a copy of the Silent Whispers in front of him, reading the front page with some mild interest while drinking some black coffee with lots of sugar added to it. He sniffed the concoction letting the aroma overflow his senses as he took that first sip. Gently setting it down as he began to read his paper.

Crystal Empire Returns

Huh, didn’t know it left. Julius thought as he took another sip from his brew.

Recently the Crystal Empire finally returned after a1000 year curse wore off. This curse had been placed on the Empire by its former ruler, King Sombra, as a last insult to the Equestrian diarchy after they banished him to the shadows.

Some of you might be familiar with the name as he was once a member of our coven in the early years of Darkmoon when it was still in its infancy. However, his enslavement of the crystal empire, which had been one of the best route trades during that time, caused the whole covenant to quickly separate and disown him. It didn’t help that he had also enslaved some of the Crystal Ponies that were actually members within our circles. It became so bad that the ruling Dark Lord of that time requested in secret help from not only the Empress of the Night, but also from the White Queen herself!

The two princesses then banished King Sombra, but in act of spite he proceeded to cast a curse that made the entire Crystal Empire disappear. This was a terrible blow to both Equestria and Darkmoon.

The empire has now returned with all of its original citizens who seem to have been in some form of sleeping stasis. Unfortunately when the kingdom returned so too did King Sombra in the form of a living shadow. This caused residents outside of the kingdom's walls a great deal of concern, but the old king was so focused on trying to reclaim the empire that he ignored all others that lived within some distance of the kingdom.

Alicorn Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was sent to the empire and proceeded to protect the kingdom with a powerful ward that kept Sombra at bay. Even with the help of her newly wedded husband Shining Armor to aid her, they weren’t be able to keep the old dark unicorn at bay.

The White Queen once again sent out the Elements of Harmony to do her bidding and attempt to save the kingdom…

Bah, Elements of Harmony. Thanks to them, Nightmare Moon didn’t take out Celestia. Julius thought bitterly as he took another sip of his brew.

…but to everypony's surprise, even when Sombra finally penetrated the kingdoms barriers the day was saved by a baby dragon who managed to snatch the Crystal Heart (A sacred artifact that protects the kingdom) away from Sombra and, according to eye witnesses, Shining Armor threw his wife at the baby dragon and proceeded to transport him to the center of the kingdom where the heart was reactivated and obliterated King Sombra. It is currently unknown if throwing alicorns constitutes as a lethal weapon, but is currently assumed to be.

It was quickly learned that Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is also the princess of the Crystal Empire. This has lead to much outrage amongst our members due to her closeness to the White Queen. It is unknown at this time if this will be a threat to those who live in the far north and if assassinations should be carried out. Precautions are currently being made.

It is also unknown whether or not that King Sombra is truly dead due to the circumstances of him being transformed into shadows. He could merely be reduced to magical particles and taking his time restoring himself in preparation for another assault. This is currently just speculation by various magical sources and his existence may truly be at an end.

With the empire’s Crystal Heart brought back, the kingdom has also magically removed the snow of the land. This has resulted into some more problems to the inhabitants that had lived there before the empire’s return and animals more adapted to snowy plains are now retreating farther north to more familiar environments. Residents are also complaining because most chose to live there for the seclusion and being able to hide more easily within the snowy covered fields.

A poll was taken from some of the residents and from others in the covenant for their opinions.

32% find the removal of the snow to be a threat to their safety

27% welcomed the warm weather and looked forward to not bundling up

22% were indifferent.

and 19% said they would kick King Sombra in the balls.

Julius wondered how that last option would even make it onto a poll and shook then his head, personally knowing a few ponies that would actually choose or even suggest that option.

We also talked to a few residents to further explain their opinions.

“I have counted on the snowstorms to hide me when I’m working outside. Now, I’m going to have to be extra careful. As if my work wasn’t stressful enough!”
- A young Dark Magic Apprentice

“I’m actually enjoying this. I thought I’d never get to live in warm weather again.”

- Retired Dark Stalker

“It doesn’t change much. My husband continues his work away from home and I continue to watch the kids.”

- Mother of two

“Oh yeah, right square in the balls!”

- Violent Warlock

It seems only time will be able to tell if the Empire will have any positive effect at this moment. We will continue to keep our readers posted in the future.

- Unknown

Like always, the authors of every article were left anonymous in order to protect their identities.

Julius took a bigger swig of his cooling coffee, not sure what to make of this. It wasn’t looking good, but he would just have to hope for the best as this was all out of his hooves now. He then let out a great big yawn as another headline caught his eyes. This one caused a bit of worry just from the title.

Communication and Trade Routes Shutdown

In a shocking development, the Darkmoon Covenant has completely halted all forms of mailing and communications through their usual networks. This will be started after the release of this paper and should be in the effect by the time you, our readers receive it.

The Dark Lord assured that this is nothing to panic about as it is only temporary as they make improvements behind the scenes to make adjustments to the magical mailing system, connections, and organization with those that handle these systems. These upgrades are a major overhaul and because of the extensive work the system must be shutdown. As a result of this the trading routes are also being halted momentarily due to importance these networks are to avoiding the suspicion of any of Equestria’s law enforcement or that of other entities.

Unfortunately this means shops and businesses owned by members of the Covenant will be unable to receive materials and other goods that are normally shipped through these secret routes. Owners will be forced to make due with what they have until trade opens up again or restock from other venders.

Sadly it isn’t just businesses that will be affected. Practitioners of the dark arts or others with more frowned upon lifestyles will be hard pressed or unable to retrieve goods and services that aren’t legally sold or easily acquired outside of countries within Darkmoon's territory. It is recommended to our readers to avoid any attempts to acquire such goods that aren’t directly provided by the Covenant.

It is currently unknown how long everything will be shutdown, but it’s currently predicted that it will be at least a week. An update is expected to go out then if the systems still aren’t up and running. The Darkmoon Covenant has already made an official apology for this inconvenience, but says that it is a necessary evil.

Julius chocked a bit on his coffee as he had just taken a bigger gulp than he had meant to. The trade routes were how they got their supplies. Besides restocking of goods that rarely sell thus making his shop more of a glorified warehouse, they also provide him with invaluable materials for his research. However, it wasn’t an ingredient or book that he was worrying about. The most important item they restock him with was… fresh blood.

Ecto Burst and Femme Fatale were enjoying a nice morning breakfast together. Ecto had taken the time to bake some fresh cookies and was happily eating her work. Femme on the other hoof was having some blood mixed with red wine to take the edge off before her midday power nap.

She watched with curious interest as each bite Ecto took of the cookies caused them to completely disappear once they entered her mouth. One would wonder how a solid object would remain unseen when entering a transparent ghost. However, none would complain because who wants to see somepony chew their food?

Femme casually sipped her wine, letting the mixed taste of iron, alcohol, and fruity flavor linger in her mouth before she swallowed. She barely felt the alcohol yet, but by the time she would finish her glass she’d be relaxed and tipsy. It was a nice feeling to have before sleeping.

The clip clop of hoofsteps echoed from down the hall at a galloping rate. Julius soon rushed into the room, sliding as he braked against the floor to turn to a certain fridge, a newspaper floating behind him encased in his magic. This frozen storage unit held Femme’s supply of blood and before she could even protest, Julius opened the container to see how much blood she had left.

His eyes became wide as dinner plates and he turned to her and Ecto, his face a mixture of horror and anger. He trembled and he didn’t blink as sputtered out, “That’s all you have?!”

Femme looked guiltily at the floor for a moment before returning his gaze. She frowned at him and finished her wine, knowing she'd need the elixir to help get her through this conversation. She stood up and walked slowly over to him as she did her best to reassure him, “I didn’t want you to worry. I’ll be fine though, we’ll get our supplies in a few days and everything will be all good.”

Julius shoved the newspaper in front of her and pointed at an article with his hoof. A scowl on his face as he tried to contain his frustration. Femme peered over the article and read the title out loud, “New medicine allows stallions to last longer in bed.” She gave him a smirk and said, “I know you’ve been a little off your game lately, but I figured you’ve just been stressed. Though a little extra boost would be nice…”

Julius did a double take as he looked at the article he was currently pointing too. Realizing his mistake he flipped the page over, pointing to the correct one. “No, no! Not that one, this one!”

Femme quirked an eyebrow while Ecto giggled at the two of them from the table, eating another chocolate chip cookie. As Femme started to read the article she took the newspaper in her hooves and then looked to Julius. “Oh…” she managed to get out as her breathing became more labored as a mountain of stress was dumped onto her shoulders.

Ecto hovered over to them and took a peak at the article. She quickly understood how grave the situation was and started to rub her back. The touch was a bit chilling to Femme, but still comforting from the semi-physical contact.

Taking a few deep breaths she tried to calmly reassure everypony, “It’s okay! I can handle this. I just need to carefully moderate how much I drink. I can make it last a week!” The doubt in her voice was clear and as she more or less was trying to convince herself more than either of them.

A grunt rumbled from Julius. “Oh… bite me Femme!”

She pouted at him and responded, “Now there’s no reason to be rude!”

Julius shook his head. “No, I mean bite me. Drink my blood. If you’re gonna try and make this all last we have to make sure to put off the need for you to hunt as long as possible.”

“Julius, there’s no need to resort to that yet. You really don’t–”

She was quickly interrupted, “As the head of this household it is my job to worry about all of us. So, suck me dry!” He pointed to his neck with his hoof.

“I really appreciate that you're doing this, but…”

“No buts! Quit being a pansy and suck my blood already!”

Ecto giggled at that last statement and Femme let out a defeated sigh as she relented with a roll of her eyes, “Well, if you insist, I’ll drink your blood, but only because it will make you stop worrying.” She grabbed Julius’s hoof and started to lead him out. “I want to sleep after this so let’s do this in my bed.”

“Remember to sound proof yourself this time!” Ecto requested know full well that meal in bed wasn’t going to be only thing happening. Though she didn't know what that other thing was. All she knew was that it was loud, weird, and that she should never walk in on it happening. At least that's what they always told her.

Julius waved his hoof dismissively as he responded, “Yeah, yeah!”

About an hour or so later a groan left Julius’s mouth as he took a sip from his black coffee that was now overloaded with sugar. He lifted another of Ecto’s cookies to his mouth and bit down on the sweet treat. He was now at the front counter in the shop, rubbing at the patch on his neck while staring out, a little bit delirious.

Femme had drained him very dry, leaving him almost empty and unable to make a coherent thought. Thankfully that big meal would keep her satisfied long enough to at least make it to the end of the week. Though this meant Julius would be having a really rough day today. Hopefully it will be a quiet and uninteresting day. However, if he had any knowledge of Ponyville’s track record he would know that this town was anything, but quiet and uninteresting.

He shivered slightly and started to walk to the front of the shop. Seeing as how he didn’t have any customers at the moment, he could just wait outside and enjoy the warm sun until somepony comes along to browse.

Shielding his eyes with a hoof as he trotted outside, he let out a mildly happy sigh as the warm rays bathed his coat. Taking a seat just next to the shops door he proceeded to drink his coffee and just enjoy the serenity of the day.

“Fun! Fun!”

Julius heard the words repeated over and over again. Pinkie Pie soon entered his vision as she bounced along while singing out the words and proceeded into town. He shrugged and took another sip of his sugar filled brew, glad that the mare had chosen to ignore him.

“Fun! Fun!”

He looked up again to see Pinkie Pie bouncing before him again and entering town. “Oh, hey Pinkie,” He called out meekly and ignored the sense of déjà vu, finding it more weird that he even bothered to say hello to the crazy mare that hadn't try to shake him down not to long ago.

“Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!” Two voices called out in unison.

He looked down the road and watched as two Pinkie Pies bounced together while chanting those words over and over again as they entered town. Julius, in his delirium, just shrugged and drank more of his coffee.

“Hey Julius!” The real Pinkie Pie called out. He never even noticed her gallop up to him. “Have you seen a couple of me’s go by here?”

“Huh?” His eyes were distant as he tried to focus. “Oh yeah, they went that away,” he said as he nodded his head towards town.

“Thanks!” she cheered out and rushed off in a blur of pink.

A few more sips of his coffee and a thought finally occurred. Wait a second… something’s amiss.

It was then he started to hear many familiar voices calling out the word fun over and over again. Turning his head towards Everfree he saw many Pinkie Pies bouncing along towards him. Sadly it took a few more moments for his brain to finally kick in.

Good thing he had been holding his coffee mug in his hooves instead of his magic otherwise he might have just dropped it as the realization hit him like a train. “Oh dear goddess they’re multiplying!” He shouted out as his pupils dilated and he rushed into his shop and locked the door. The door was magically barricaded with everything that wasn’t nailed down, including the kitchen sink.

Proceeding to the upstairs bedroom, Julius peered out cautiously at all the Pinkie Pies wandering around. He dared to open the window to get a better look outside. Feeling lightheaded from the lack of blood he got some sense of vertigo from being high up as he then tried to concentrate till his head stopped spinning.

“Hey!” A voice from directly in front of him yelled, trying to get his attention. The sudden noise caused him to jump and hit his head on the window. He cursed softly and then rubbed his head in agony.

Looking up he could see Rainbow Dash hovering before him. “Hey, not sure you noticed, but we’re overrun with Pinkie Pies.” She waved her hooves for emphasis. “Everypony is meeting at town square.”

“Well, I’ve kind of already barricaded myself in,” he retorted really not wanting to leave the supposed safety of his home.

“Including the backdoor?”

“Yes, including the…” Julius facehoofed himself. He completely forgot about the backdoor. “I’ll be down in second,” he replied with a defeated sigh.

It didn’t take him long to come out back. He quickly locked it again as Rainbow Dash flew down to him, but continued to hover in the air, “Isn’t that mare... uh... Femme coming?”

“She’s sleeping; I’d rather not wake her," he responded as the sense of vertigo and delirium came back again.

“In the middle of the day? What kind of pony sleeps in the middle of the day?” The irony of Rainbow Dash’s statement was lost on both of them. Julius had no idea Rainbow napped throughout the day and Rainbow Dash didn’t know what irony or hypocrite meant.

“She likes to stay up late so she sleeps during the day.” In Julius' defense, that was partially the truth. Julius started to take a few steps forward, but stopped and rubbed his head as he felt his dizziness return once again.

“You okay?” Dash inquired noticing his shot motor skills. “You look kind of pale.”

“I’m fine,” he lied and pushed himself forward. Dash noticed his patched neck when he rubbed a hoof along it.

“Hey what happened there?”

He cursed her for not staying focus and decided with another half truth. “I got bit,” he answered and continued forward to the front of his shop then started to make his way to town square.

“By what?” Rainbow Dash flew right next to him.

He had to resist groaning at her curiosity. “A bat, now enough about me I think we have more important things to deal with!” He forced himself to gallop even though it was very exhausting to him. The only reason he told her it was a bat was just in case some pony decided to look at the bite mark. If Dash had been more astute she might have forced him to go to the hospital and get him checked for a disease with how lightheaded he had been.

As Julius galloped ahead Rainbow Dash stopped and reached into her saddle bags to pull out her latest copy of Daring Do. She flipped open to the chapter she recalled reading. “Let’s see… shuns the day, distaste for normal foods, very alluring, and a living minion. Could it be?” She looked at Julius and back to his shop. She kept telling herself it was all just coincidence, but every time she looked back she was filled with a sense of foreboding.

Vinyl Scratch only came out at night and slept through the day cause of her work. She had seen Femme Fatale hadn’t liked Pinkie Pies cupcakes during the party, but hadn’t said anything. It was possible to maybe not to like cupcakes, but seeing as it was Pinkie Pies cupcakes that seemed impossible. As for alluring, well the party confirmed that with all the stares she got. Almost every guy was staring at her. I guess I can’t blame them. She does have a great plot… She shook her head trying to remove the thought she just had. Her concentration then returned to Julius. He was alive and he was dominated by her if she was to go by their first conversation. Could Femme Fatale be a…

“Fun! Fun!” A bouncing Pinkie Pie passed by. Rainbow Dash shook her head again, realizing what was more important right now. She put her book back in her saddle bags and then sped off to the town square.

As Julius left from the quick town meeting, one he barely had any focus for as he quickly summed up what information he was able to latch on to. One, Pinkie Pie had somehow magically cloned herself. Two, There were now a few dozen Pinkie Pies causing havoc around Ponyville. Lastly, they needed to get rid of them. He wasn’t sure, but he thought Twilight was looking into some way of removing the pests, but his delirium started to kick in and thought a giant plum was saying all of that. At least it looked like a plum, but he was fairly sure it was Twilight or Cheerilee or Berry Punch. It was hard to tell.

He groaned out in as he trotted back to his shop. Could he probably solve this problem? Most definitely. Could he do it without resorting to violence, murder, or questionable disappearances? That was kind of restrictive, but he could probably do it. Was he going to help? Hay no, he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself and he didn’t care about anypony in town besides those that reside in his own home. Besides, he had more important things to deal with, like blood shortage Femme currently had.

“Fun!” A Pinkie Pie clone yelled into his face causing him to jump and cringe. He growled at her as she continued to shout the word over and over in his face. If this copy mare suddenly disappeared he doubted anypony would notice nor care.

He then blinked a few times, drowning out the annoying chant of the Pink abomination. The cogs in his mind started to slowly churn as an idea came to mind and a wide malicious grin came onto his face. He was very sure it was a good idea and that his extreme lack of blood was not affecting his thought process at all.

With a sly and charming smile he asked, “Hey Pinkie clone, would you like to have some fun?”

She gasped excitedly. “Fun! Fun! Fun!”

“Yes, just follow me…”

The pink duplicate was lead into Julius’s shop from the back door, bouncing with every step. She peered around as he locked the door and she just kept jumping in place eager to have some fun.

“Wait right there,” he motioned for her to stay put and slipped into a side room. He quickly returned with white rag. “We’re going to play a very fun game.” She started to dance in place as her smile widened. He smiled right back at her as it became more sinister. “It’s a guessing game and if you win you get a prize!”

The Pinkie cloned gasped at the notion of there also being prizes involved with this game. “Fun! Fun!”

He floated the rag into his hoof. “All you have to do is tell me what this rag smells like. Make sure to take a deep breath. Don’t want to guess wrong, do you?”

She bounded over and started to lean into the rag he held, her nose cringed at the strange smell it emitted. Once she was close enough, Julius grabbed her from behind her head and shoved her snout into the rag. It’s stench over powering her senses.

For a moment she struggled, but after a second her movements slowed as Julius shushed into her ear, lightly stroking her mane as she became unconscious. When he was sure she was out like a light, he tossed the rag that he had poured chloroform on into the nearest waste bin. It always made the best anesthetic.

He lifted the sleeping mare onto his back and his knees buckled for a moment at the sudden weight. He wasn’t in any condition to be carrying anything around, but this had to be done. He then began his short trek to the underground lair.

A yawn escaped Femme Fatale’s lips and she stretched within the confines of her unusual choice of bed. At least, unusual for a pony. She was lying on very soft, bright red, and silky fabric with the same material covering a very fluffy pillow with a blanket that now covered her. It was very dark, but her night vision destroyed any problems that might have cause.

She reached up towards the red that covered the low ceiling and everything that surrounded her. With a light push, she removed the lid of the coffin she had been napping in. It was an annoying cliché and stereotype for vampires to sleep in coffins, but she found the confined spaces to be cozy. Though, she wouldn’t just sleep in any old coffin. If you gave her a coffin just made out of wood she would rather sleep in a bed. But give her one of those high grade caskets that were like a glorified death bed that the rich loved to bury their deceased in and she would sleep in it all day. She didn’t know why the nobles bothered to bury their dead in those things, but she wasn’t going to complain about the existence of such a comfy resting place.

Stepping out of her coffin/bed she stretched out, but if one were to look at her as she was now, they might not recognize her. Though her mane and tail remained the same color, her coat was now pale as the moon. Two sharp canines jutted out from her lips and her eyes had an unnatural glow to them. The most striking change was the two black bat like wings that erupted from her back. She was now comparable to a succubus from Tartarus and one wouldn’t be too far off on that guess considering her special talent.

A few cracks from her back and she was up and running again. As her head lazily turned to the side she noticed Ecto floating there lost in an oblivious thought. Femme let out a long yawn and then finally acknowledged the ghost, “Something the matter dear?”

Ecto perked up realizing Femme was awake now. “Oh, you’re up! How’d you sleep?”

“Like a baby bat,” she answered with a flutter of her wings.

“That’s good, uhh,” she paused for a moment and then asked, “Hey Femme…”

“Yes?”

“Is it bad if I saw Julius brought a pony down here?”

She just stared at Ecto like she had grown a second head. “That depends. What condition was the pony?”

“She looked alright. She might have been sleeping or dead. I didn’t really check,” she replied with an added a shrug and rubbed the back of her head.

“So, the mare looked alive or recently died?”

“More or less.”

“What did this mare look like?” An etch of concern growing in her voice.

“Well...” Ecto looked thoughtful for a moment. “She was really pink with hair that reminded me of cotton candy. Yum!” She licked her lips and then remembered something else. “Oh, and she had balloons for a cutie mark. Do you think she likes to party?” Her face brightened hoping somewhat for a new undead friend.

Femme blanched more than she already was. “Oh goddess no...” She folded her wings against her frame and they suddenly disappeared as her coat turned from white to a more pale manila. This was followed by her bright red eyes losing their magical glow. From there she practically stomped off in search of Julius.

After a short trek Femme swung a door inward and stepped through. “Julius, I heard something disturbing… from…” The words got caught in her mouth as she looked at the scene before her.

Pinkie Pie was strapped down against a metal table with a needle embedded into her arm. Connected to the needle was a clear tube that lead into a familiar plastic bag. Femme could clearly see the red liquid flowing through it and into the transparent bag. The unwilling donor let out a low moan in her unconscious state.

Sitting next to her was Julius, ready to change the containers at a moments notice. He looked over to her and gave a friendly wave. “Hey Femme!” As if none of this was out of the ordinary.

It took her a moment to collect her thoughts as she absorbed this entire scene. Once she had gathered herself she calmly asked, “Julius… what the hay? I know you didn’t like her, but this a bit excessive!”

He waved his hoof dismissively, causing a wave of irritation to wash over her face. “Don’t worry, she's just a magical clone!”

Her disbelief in that statement was very apparent, but still she raised an eyebrow as she spoke, “You expect me to believe that load of BS?”

“Well, it’s true!” He stood by his statement.

“Okay, I obviously drained more blood than I should of. You are extremely delusional right now.”

“Pfft, am not!” He answered like a young foal.

“Oh really? Then tell me, what’s two plus two?”

“Ha, four!” He beamed as if he had answered a calculus equation with ease.

“Are you sure?” She grinned and narrowed her eyes.

Julius looked around nervously, his eyes darting left and right as he started to reconsider his answer. “Uh… five?”

She smiled at how cute he was when he wasn’t sure of himself... and an idiot. “It’s four Julius.”

He growled out, “You tricked me!”

“Yeah, I tricked you. It was sooo hard,” she emphasized with as much sarcasm into her last sentence. “Now, we’re going to unbind this mare and let her go. Hopefully she won’t remember any of this,” she talked down to him as if he was a foal and he looked guiltily to the floor in his shame.

Julius and Femme entered the front of the shop, dragging Pinkie Pie who was starting to wake up, but unable to focus. She even started to scratch her neck which the two of them now assumed to be some odd habit of hers.

Femme stared slack jaw at the front as all of the shops supplies were piled in front of the entrance, barricading it from the outside world. She looked at him. “What in the world… oh never mind it's too early in the day for me to deal with this. Just... put everything back!”

Julius swallowed and used his magic to quickly and efficiently return everything back to its rightful place. Femme was mildly impressed, but didn’t say anything as she was far to frustrated with how foalish he had been acting.

As the mare woke up Julius pushed her out front door and Pinkie Pie started to lazily walk forward. Femme took a peak at her from behind one of the curtains, wincing when some light almost touched her.

“I hope she’s going to be okay. I think somepony is going to noticed if she isn’t acting perky,” Femme said with a voice of concern, but as soon as she said that the Pinkie clone outside suddenly stood up straight and began to bounce away as if nothing had happened. Both Julius and Femme looked at each other then looked back to the mare hopping away, “There’s something seriously wrong with that pony…”

With a sigh Femme turned back to Julius. “Really though, you thought she was some magical clone and decided you could kidnap her to solve my blood problem? Whatever gave you that idea?!”

“YEE-HAW!” A shout from outside called out as a herd of Pinkie Clones were directed towards the center of town by Applejack.

Femme’s jaw dropped to the floor at all the copies she saw and turned to Julius who smiled cheekily at her. “Oh shut up!” she retorted and looked back to confirm what she saw. “I’m starting to get the feeling that we might be the normal ones around here.”

A great sigh was released as Deimos rolled off the pegasi. He turned to look at her, both their breaths were heavy from the excitement they had just had. Raining Karma blushed and leaned over for another kiss as her blue wings flared out. Deimos brushed away her light green hair that reminded him of the wind carrying leaves.

They were lying under a large oak, deciding this would be the best place to have some “fun” while escaping the rain. This definitely made Deimos feel like things were finally going his way.

Karma rolled the other way and started to nod off and Deimos traced her backside with his eyes while licking his lips. He then thought this would be the best time to have dessert.

A green flash emitted from behind the pegasi and she opened an eyelid and yawned out. As she turned her face became one of sheer horror as she stared into the maw of a giant manticore. She screamed and took flight only for the giant lions paw to pin her against the tree. She panicked, breathing faster and faster as she was gripped with fear.

The eyes of the manticore were completely blue with no irises. With a deep breath it let out a mighty roar at her making her faint. Noticing her now unconscious form, the beast let her drop and slump against the tree. It opened its maw as if it was about to bit her, but just kept it open. A magical energy started to slowly drain from her and into the strange manticore.

After a few moments it stopped its feeding. A green fire suddenly enveloped the beast and when it faded Deimos stood over the sleeping mare. He smiled lazily at her and leaned down, kissing her forehead and whispering, “Thanks babe, I really needed that.”

With that, he strapped on his saddle bags and began to trot along his merrily way while he whistled cheerfully. He knew in awhile she would wake up thinking it all had been a bad dream.

Unknown Location

A white earth pony stallion with a blue mane and tail was roughly tossed onto the floor of a blackened throne room. The floor was freezing cold and he was barely conscious. He looked back at his two captors, both cloaked in the blackest of cloths that hid every feature of the two ponies. They dipped their heads to hide their eyes within the shadows of their cowls, but they still managed to keep their unwavering gaze upon him.

He let out a low growl, but a voice that sent chills into his bones and his very soul caught his attention, “My, I never expected Celestia to so deeply infiltrate our little covenant. It’s quite impressive.”

The stallion turned to the source of the voice and his eyes bugged out and he began to back away only to be stopped by the two unicorns that had brought him here. He shook his head at the impossible creature that was before him. He averted his eyes, unable to gaze at it. How could such a thing exist? How could there be a… a what?

Suddenly confusion entered his face. He had seen something horrible that shouldn’t exist, but now he couldn’t even remember what it was. He turned to look at it again and fear gripped him at what he saw. Once again he turned away, but the very moment he did the memory of what he saw was gone.

“You need not to look upon me. You won’t remember ever remembering.” The voice was slowly approaching him, the clip and clop what he believed to be hooves echoed along the stone floor echoed the large throne room. This at least told him this thing was pony or pony like.

The stallion kept his gaze to the floor as the presence of the creature before him was almost overwhelming. “You’re… the Dark Lord?”

“That is correct.”

“You’re…” He swallowed as he tried not to cry at the thought of his friends and family. “You’re going to kill me.”

“If this was a repeated offense, I probably would. But feel fortunate that I need you to deliver a message to your dearest princess.” Every word he spoke carried a horrifying chill to it.

It was as if death itself was speaking directly to him. However, he was a bit relieved. He was going to get out of this alive at least. “And what would that message be?”

It leaned down to whisper into the stallion’s ear. He shivered at its cold breath as it spoke, “Tell her if she ever does anything like this again don’t expect any of her infiltrators to ever return to her. They will all meet a grim and agonizing fate. This is her first and only warning.” It backed away from the stallion and he nodded to it while keeping his eyes to the floor.

“Understood, I’ll let her know.” He visibly shook, looking forward to getting as far away from here as possible.

“Good, now...” It turned to the two cloaked unicorns and gave his final order, “...kill him.”

The stallion then dared to look upon Dark Lord, he was terrified of it, but he had to ask, “What?! But how I am I to deliver your message!”

“Oh, you’ll deliver my message still. You can’t deliver one while your dead, but,” It grinned maliciously at him, “You don’t nee necessarily need to be alive either.”

Before he could question the Dark Lord further a knife slit across his throat causing him to quickly bleed out. Once the last of his life left him a magical aura enveloped the corpse for a moment.

Slowly the stallion’s eyes fluttered open and he looked around in confusion. He felt strange, almost wrong. Like all the warmth had left his body, but he didn’t feel cold. “I’m… alive?”

There were a few chuckles from the two behind him. He shot them a glare as the Dark Lord answered his question, “No, not alive. But not dead either.”

The stallion’s eyes shot open at the implication and once again he stared at the Dark Lord, it was only then that he could feel the chill again, “You mean… I’m…”

“That’s right. Welcome, to the unlife. Go to your princess… and pray that she’s half as merciful as I. Surely her mercy extends to an… oh what does she call the undead? Abominations?” It chuckled lightly.

The stallion shook his head as the unicorns began to drag him away, the last of his tears flooding his eyes as the cold reality began to settle into his mind. He began to have second thoughts about returning as he screamed out in sorrow.

Author's Note

Finally proofread and fixed errors in this chapter! Took longer than I thought. I happy to report all chapters are now proofread from here on out. Only time I'd need to come back to them is to fix miscellaneous errors or to retcon or fact check things. Hope you enjoy the rest of my story!

Ch10: A Gift from the Grave

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch10: A Gift from the Grave

Julius stumbled into his shop, beaten, bruised, and covered from head to hoof in cuts. A bit blood leaked from his forehead as he fell to the floor with a loud groan. The moment Femme had caught the scent of iron she looked up from her romantic reading material and bounded over the countertop to make a beeline straight to Julius.

“Julius!” She shouted as she turned him over and shook him awake. She peeked under his robes and found that the bruises were everywhere.

He stared groggily up at her through slightly dazed eyes. One look at Femme and he could tell that she regretted feeding on him earlier, thinking that he got in this state from drinking too much blood, causing him to get a bit delusional again.

“What happened to you?” She asked softly in a concerned tone.

Julius brought his hoof to his head to rub it, but ended up sending a shock of pain from the bruise near his horn. Femme couldn’t begin to imagine how he got like this. This town seemed so safe… well the inhabitants seemed safe… then again there was some crazy ponies in town. Okay never mind she wasn’t too surprised by Julius state after thinking about it. Still, she wondered how he ended up like this.

Julius opened his mouth to answer only to let out a yelp of pain as he bumped his leg on a nearby table. Biting his lip for a short moment he did his best to look up at Femme, “I…” He had some trouble breathing and took a moment to get a few breaths in before finishing his answer, “I got in a fight….”

Femme was shocked to say the least, “A fight! I never would have imagined ponies would be so violent in this town! I’m gonna find that pony and-”

“With a library,” Julius cut her off causing her to stumble upon her vengeful thought process.

She looked down him scrutinizing what he just said. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

He groaned, “I got in a fight with a library.”

“You fought the town’s librarian?”

“No… the library,” He scowled, while answering in a serious tone.

“You fought all the ponies in the library?” She couldn’t imagine how he managed to piss off… okay she could maybe see him saying something pretty stupid, but she never thought he could piss off the inhabitants of an entire library.

“No, Femme,” he face hoofed, regretting the motion as pain exploded in his head.

“Then what do you mean?” She replied as she massaged the area he hit.

“I fought THE library?” He said with emphasis.

She blinked, “What?”

Earlier…

Julius had made his way to the Ponyville’s library that morning in search of, what else, a book. To his pleasant surprise his number one customer, Twilight Sparkle, was the town’s librarian. Unfortunately she and spike had to run to Fluttershy’s to practice a spell that required her animals. Thus, he was trusted to browse the library’s selection without worry. He wasn’t sure if it was because she loved his low prices or if it was because she wanted to be on his good side for even better deals. Neither possibility mattered to him for he had more important things on his mind.

Julius was in dire need of a book with information on the local fauna around Ponyville. Out of desperation to keep more blood in his veins after each of Femmes current feedings, he was planning to make an herbal tea that would hopefully curb her appetite. If he was lucky he could find all the plants around the surrounding area without having to use money out of his own pocket to acquire them. Besides, he enjoyed herb hunting. It was good exercise, got him out of the house, and he could make a bit of money out of it as a bonus by selling the excess materials.

Two books floated in front of him and he scrutinized the titles of each before putting them back. He began to reach out with his magic for another two books until he felt a rumble. His head twisted around to look around the library. There was nothing, but literature and a lone table with a horse bust on it. With a shrug he was about to go back to his browsing when he felt the rumble again.

“What is that?” He asked aloud to nopony in particular.

It was then one of the most unusual things happened to him. He started to fall up. Many things would enter ones mind if they suddenly started falling up. Things like; what the buck, holy crap, I’m falling, or in Julius case, something a little more audible.

“BUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKK!!!!” He screamed out at the top of his lungs as he descended to the ceiling or would it be ascending to the ceiling?

“Oomph,” He groaned out in pain as he landed on his back on the ceiling of the giant tree that the library was hosted in. Julius didn’t have long to contemplate what happened nor recover from the pain as a humongous pile books came tumbling toward him.

“Oh shi-,” His curse was cut off as the thick tomes came crashing into him and burying him under their heavy weight. His body twitched in pain before he struggled to pull himself out of his tomb of knowledge. He rubbed himself and discovered some bruises and paper cuts.

He looked around with his mouth agape as everything that wasn’t nailed down was on the ceiling. His eye twitched, “How… how? Who reversed the gravity?!”

After noticing an oddity out of the corner of his eye, Julius turned to one of the windows. An owl flew out, trying to prevent books from falling out of the highest window. His mouth then hit the floor as he saw that the sky was still very much in the sky, but he could also see the roots of the very tree he was in. It wasn’t the gravity that had been reversed, but that the entire tree had been pulled out and turned completely upside down.

He scratched the back of his head, ignoring the pain, “How did… how?” There was just no explanation for this. At least to him, if he had been outside he might have noticed a crowd of ponies near a very Great and Powerful mare where he would have seen the very tree he was in uprooted and turned right upside down.

Before he could further contemplate all that had happened he felt another rumble and a shift. Gravity was once again pulling up, or rather down and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as he started to tumble right back to the ground floor.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!” He shouted in vain as he flailed his four legs in the air before he slammed back into the ground. A pained grown escaped his lips before a part of his mind started to nag him about something important.

That important something came crashing down on top of him in the form of more books than necessary to get an obvious point across; being hit by falling thick tome really, really hurts.

As more bruises and paper cuts appeared on his body he couldn’t help, but ask, “Why? Why me?”

“Who?”

“Me.”

“Who?”

“Me!”

“Who?”

“Me da-,” He stopped his cursing retort as he realized Twilight’s pet owl, Owlicious, had been addressing him, “Oh…”

The little bird aided him in getting some of the books off of him, but only because he was trying to return them to their proper shelves. Still, Julius wouldn’t complain about getting all that weight off of him.

He was still lying there, groaning in pain, “Oh, goddess why? What did I ever do to deserve this? Why goddess? Why? Dear sweet Luna wh- oh hey, this book looks promising!”

Julius winced as Ecto dabbed another cotton ball of alcohol onto another one of his many cuts. An ice pack was resting magically on his head and his bruised eye involuntarily twitched as he looked between the ghost and Femme who were pacing back and forth in their lair.

“Let me get this straight,” Femme Fatale started out as she stopped in front of him and raised hoof, “You’re telling me the library flipped, then flipped again. Sending you crashing to the roof and back to the floor, correct?”

“Don’t forget I was crushed by books, but for the most part, yeah, that’s what happened,” He cried in pain as another cut was swabbed with the cotton ball.

Ecto dipped some more alcohol onto the cotton before voicing her opinion, “Well, that brings a whole new meaning to knowledge is power,” Her joke quickly earned a harsh glare from Julius.

Femme chuckled, “So, how exactly did that even happen?”

“Well,” Julius began as he braced himself for another sting of alcohol. He had to abandon his robes so Ecto could get to every cut, “As I limped back to the shop I saw this mare. Everypony was gathered around her and she was casting some very powerful magic’s. Think her name was Pixie, or something. Anyway, I didn’t stick around long- ow!” Julius bit his lip when a particular bruise was dabbed. After the pain subsided he continued, “As I was saying, I didn’t stay long, but I noticed this amulet around her neck,” Julius removed the ice pack from his head and then reached for a book from a nearby bookcase.

“An amulet? What does that have to do with anything?” Femme questioned as she trotted over to sit next to him.

Julius didn’t hesitate to answer as he started to flip through the book, “First of all, the spells that mare was casting seemed far too powerful for a normal unicorn. At least powerful for a spell that wasn’t dark magic,” Julius added the last bit not wanting to admit that anything could compare to the dark arts.

“Is that mare the reason there’s a giant dome around Ponyville?” Femme asked as she peered over his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

“A giant dome?” Ecto interjected before Julius could reply.

Femme was quick to catch her up, “Yeah, this giant glass dome has encased all of Ponyville. Like were being trapped under a giant fish bowl!”

“Neat! Does that mean were going to turn into giant fishies?” Ecto bounced on her wispy tail excitedly.

The necromancer and vampire just blinked at her before Julius answered slowly, “Nooo,” he grimaced as Ecto’s face fell in disappointment. He flipped another page of his book. “Aha!” Julius exclaimed as he found what he was looking for. With his hoof he pointed at the black necklace with a red gem and what looked like the upper torso of a black alicorn with red eyes, “This is what she was wearing!”

“Alicorn Amulet,” Femme read aloud. “Grants tremendous magical prowess to its wearer, but corrupts the user… well that can’t be good.”

“Right, that’s why I want that amulet!” Julius grinned triumphantly before wincing as Ecto dabbed another sore spot while looking at the page.

“What?!” Femme shouted, “Why in the world would you want that?”

“Were you even listening to yourself?” Julius retorted, “It grants immense magical powers. With a name like Alicorn Amulet, I bet it would put a pony on par with an alicorn!”

“Were YOU even listing to me?” She put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘you’ as she poked him with her hoof, eliciting a painful grunt as she hit a bruise, “The blasted amulet corrupts the user!

He shrugged it off, “Big deal. I bet it slowly corrupts so if I used in short bursts I could really make it last. Besides,” He said reassuring Femme with a broad knowing smile, “Not like I’m gonna put it on without trying to get rid of the whole, corruption thing,” He waved his hoof dismissively in the air, earning an annoyed glare from Femme.

Ecto read over the text and pointed something out, “Hey Julius, it says here the necklace thing can only be removed by whoever is wearing it.”

Julius shot his head back to where Ecto was pointing and growled as he read over it to make sure she wasn’t mistaken, “Bah, there’s always a catch!”

“Oh, that’s the catch? Gee, I thought it would have been the whole corrupts it wearer! But what do I know?” Femme said sarcastically to Julius.

Julius harrumphed, “Your sarcasm isn’t appreciated. But that little detail is a big problem. It’s going to make it a lot harder to get that amulet off of that crazed mare! I don’t want to imagine what she’s going to do to us and the rest of this town.”

Femme nodded, “Ah, I guess that is a good point. Better nopony wear that artifact than somepony we don’t trust. Got any plans?”

Julius rubbed his chin in thought, making him grown in pain and anger as he had a bruise around there and he still hadn’t shaved off the blasted goatee hanging from his chin. Closing his eyes he answered, “I’ll think of something….”

“Hehe, right square in the balls!” Deimos chuckled to himself. An old copy of the Silent Whispers was hidden within one of the local Fillydelphia news papers. He didn’t need anypony catching him reading one of the Darkmoon Covenant’s newsletters. It could end very badly for him if they knew of it. Even worse if they were a part of the Royal Guard.

Thankfully the worse was behind him. Took him long enough to reach the next major city after the fiasco in Manehattan. Unfortunately, for him, the guard was all over Fillydelphia as well, in search of the non existing pony named Shop Keep. He finally decided to just wait it out till security relaxed a bit and was able to get on board the train he was currently on.

Deimos took a moment to gaze out the window at the countryside quickly passing by him. Wouldn’t be long now before he got to Ponyville to stir up some trouble and find Julius. This brought a grin to his face as he looked forward to finally stop all this traveling. He was going to be incredibly late, but better late than never.

It was then one of the conductors stepped through one of the car doors and cleared his throat to address all the passengers in Deimos’ car, “Sorry folks, looks like we won’t be able to stop at Ponyville and will be forced to go on to our next destination.”

Deimos put down his paper and stared at him with disbelief, “What?! Why not!?”

The brown stallion in a blue uniform looked uncomfortably at him, “Believe it or not, a giant fishbowl seems to be covering Ponyville at this moment.”

Everypony in the car just gave him a blank look and Deimos voiced what was on all their minds, “Uh, what?”

“All Ponyville passengers will be reimbursed and given a free ticket back to the town when we reach our next stop,” He smiled sheepishly at everyone and was relieved when the passengers seemed to like that promise.

Deimos was fond of it too, but there was something else on his mind, “What is our next stop?”

“Los Pegasus!” The conductor answered without missing a beat.

Deimos eye twitched, Los Pegasus was located on the opposite side of Equestria from where he started. That was very unacceptable to him. He stood up and marched right over to the conductor, making him shrink away. His fear was palpable to him as he began to speak, “You expect me to believe we must travel all the way to the other side of Equestria just to turn around and come back because a giant bowl is encasing Ponyville?! You think I’m gonna believe that load of- holy crud Ponyville is covered by a giant fish bowl,” Deimos amended as he noticed the town outside.

All the other passengers looked on with equal surprise. This was definitely not something you see everyday. With this strange realization Deimos could only ask the most logical thing, “So… will there be any casinos near the station?”

A large sheet of paper was laid out on a table as Julius started to draw a crude blue unicorn on it with one of Ecto’s crayons. “Okay, here’s what’s up,” He started as he drew a gray unicorn and had both ponies blasting each with magic, “I’m a powerful unicorn and all, but taking on somepony empowered to unknown levels with an ancient artifact directly is well…” He drew an X over the picture, “stupid.”

“Are these poor drawings really necessary?” Femme asked with a bored and tired look.

Julius shot back an annoyed glance at her, “Well, they aren’t not necessary. Besides, I’d like to see you do better!”

Femme got a pencil and put it her mouth and began to sketch on the piece of paper. In just a few minutes she managed to sketch a lifelike bust portrait of Julius. She gave him a smirk as she dropped the pencil, “How’s that? Not bad for somepony using her mouth instead of hooves or magic.”

“Ooo, that’s really good Femme!” Ecto cheered with glee, “Do me next!”

Julius quickly glanced at the crayon drawing he was holding with his magic before looking back to Femme’s with disbelief. He only had one response, “Show off.”

He abandoned the crayons to stop himself from further shaming his terrible artistic talents and decided to go with a verbal explanation, “Alright, so direct confrontation is out of the question, especially when there’d most likely be witnesses. Can’t go throwing around dark magic in public,” he then smiled, “So, seeing as we can’t remove the necklace from her neck, we’ll just remove her neck from the necklace!”

Ecto scratched her spectral head, “What’s the difference?”

“Well, to remove the necklace normally would require it to be unhooked by her. However, my plan is to put this Pixie mare in a guillotine and slice that neck off!” He exclaimed as if it was the simplest thing ever.

This just elicited a jaw dropping stare from both Femme and Ecto. Femme chose to speak up as the voice of reason, “Okay, let’s call that plan B,” Trying to push that thought out of his mind, “Besides, where would you even get a guillotine?” Hopefully that bit of logic would make him come to a less brutal solution.

However, Julius just smiled, “Oh, we have one in the hall closet!”

Femmes jaw dropped further, “Why the hay is there a guillotine in the hall closet?”

A quick shrug and he answered, “Well, it was the only place we could store it.” This answer earned him another annoyed glare from Femme.

“Well that makes sense!” Ecto replied before Femme, thinking that was a perfectly good answer. Femme would be inclined to disagree.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Let me rephrase my question. Why do we have a guillotine?!” She had to restrain herself from yelling.

“You never know when you need a guillotine!” Julius retorted with a prideful nod as if he knew better.

“Moving on! Do you have any other ‘brilliant’ plans?” Femme wasn’t going to let the guillotine thing go, but there were more important things at hoof. She was getting frustrated and hadn’t got to go to bed yet. She was normally sleeping around this time of the day.

Julius thought for a moment, “I guess we could try and trick her to take it off, but don’t have a clue how we would do that,” He tapped the table with his hoof while stroking his beard as he started to brainstorm once again.

Ecto then decided to help come up with ideas, “What if I possess her and then take off the necklace?”

“Nah, that won’t work,” Julius then widened his eyes, “Wait, what if Ecto possesses her and then makes her take off the necklace!”

Femme glared daggers at Julius before Ecto started to speak with narrowed eyes, “Julius that’s… brilliant!” She shouted with enthusiasm then smacked her head, “Why didn’t I think of that!”

He chuckled, “That’s why I’m the brains here!”

Femme just shook her head. I expect this behavior from Ecto, but from Julius? I got drink less of his blood. It’s starting to make him dumber!

Alright, just need to go over the plan one more time. Julius thought as he slowly trotted through the streets of Ponyville. He still looked very beat up, but he could push through the pain. I just need to lure her back somewhere near the shop, keep her distracted, and then have Ecto posses her long enough to take off the amulet. It’s gotta be quick, we won’t have a second chance if she’s able to fight off the possession.

His thoughts were interrupted by a bunch of cheers as the dark clouds that had been gathering over Ponyville started to part. It was then he noticed that the glass dome that had encased them was now long gone. He trotted up to one of the ponies in the back of the crowd and tapped his shoulder, “Hey, what’s going on?”

“That nasty showmare has been stopped- good gracious!” He exclaimed when he turned to see how beat up Julius was, “What in Equestria happened to you?”

Julius just shook his head, “Never mind that, somepony stopped that mare on a power trip? What happened to the amulet?”

“Huh? Oh, I think it was given to Zecora.”

“Who?” Julius was still learning names and only bothering with names that actually mattered or associated with him regularly. Even then he hadn’t learned many names. But he got away with it by just talking to them like he knew them. Which he did, but if one were pay attention, they would notice he would never say their name. If this went on long enough where he felt like he should know them he would be listening for somepony to address that pony by name as it was less embarrassing than admitting he didn’t know it.

“She’s right over there,” The stallion pointed off away from the crowd and Julius saw something he hadn’t seen in awhile. Ponyville seemed to have a lot of rare things as it had been a long time since he’d seen a zebra.

The black and white striped pony with gold hoop earrings, gold ring neck brace, and an anklet made of, what else, gold. Upon her back sat a small brown wooden chest which contained what one might assume to be the amulet he so desired. She was walking away from the crowd, heading back to her home.

Julius rushed right over to her, trotting right up next to her. He didn’t have a plan, but he needed to improvise and figure out where she was going and how to get the amulet away from her. She was quick to notice him and spoke before he could get in a word edge wise, “Oh my, what a terrible bruise; herbs and potions I believe you could use!”

It took him a moment to process what she had just said. He noticed the rhyme, but brushed it off as a coincidence, “Well yes, I had a…” He thought back to the attack of the killer library, “a very nasty fall.”

“Allow me to make a salve you will treasure. Making it will be my pleasure!” She rhymed once again causing Julius to blink in disbelief at his good fortune.

He found his words again and replied, “That would be most kind. So, you’re herbalist?” He was trying to make small talk while he began to follow her while also hoping she might know where to find the plants he needed for Femme’s tea.

She nodded, “With herbs and potions I can work wonders; healing wounds from trips, falls, and blunders,” She smiled at him with both her mouth and eyes. Julius no longer had a doubt that she was rhyming on purpose. He found it odd, but charming as well.

“Well, I don’t suppose you can point out the best places to find some certain herbs while you help treat some of my… bruises,” Julius asked hopefully, his eyes glanced for a moment at her box before back at her. He definitely felt some magic coming from it.

“I will gladly, if you follow me; I hope you don’t mind a walk through the Everfree,” She chimed as they both started to head into the forest.

While most were be intimidated by the forest, Julius didn’t fear it as much. Sure, he would admit it’s very dangerous, but in all honesty he was beginning to think it would be safer for him to live in the Everfree Forest than in Ponyville. Reasons being, his paranoia would be well placed, you could actually tell who or what would try and kill you, he wouldn’t have to worry as much at hiding his spell practices, and the biggest and most important reason, no Pinkie Pie.

With Zecora leading the way, they would safely arrive at her hut while avoiding some of the more dangerous animals and plants like cockatrices and Poison Joke.

Julius had been more cautious of Zecora when they got deeper into the forest. Not that she had given him any reason not to trust her and it wasn’t because he was superstitious of her doing some kind of voodoo curse. He’d actually studied a few various necromancy techniques developed by some zebra witch doctors. Fascinating reads they were.

No, the reason he was very cautious was that his previous encounters with a zebra had been… less than friendly. Multiple attempts on his life had been made. These included, but were not limited to; stabbing, poisoning, breaking of limbs, pushed off a cliff, and at one point trying to drop a kitchen sink onto his head. He was lucky to get away from all of that (mostly) unscathed. To be fair on Zecora’s part and her race, this was all done by the same zebra. One he hoped to never cross paths with again.

Such malcontent never came from Zecora. She patched up his wounds while naming off various places nearby that he could find the herbs he sought. He only wished that he had been able to relax around her a bit more, but memories of that other zebra still haunted him.

When Julius said his farewells and taking note of where the chest with his object of desire was placed, he got ready to return to Ponyville. As he walked out of her hut decorated with her homelands tribal masks and pottery Zecora rhymed her last goodbye, “Come again and don’t be a stranger; as long as you don’t mind the danger!”

He smiled broadly back at Zecora and waved at her as she returned the gesture and stepped back into her hut, closing the door as she did. The very moment the door was closed his smile became more sinister and conspiratory. He looked around to make sure nopony was watching and turning back to Zecora’s hut to make sure she wasn’t spying on him. He then cast a spell on a nearby rock.

A beam blasted from his horn and left a small rune etched within the gravel. It was glowing blue for a moment before looking nothing more than a carving. It still let off some faint magic as intended. This would allow anything sensitive to magic, like a ghost, to be able to home in on it. Eventually it would fade away and not even the marking would be left. Unfortunately that meant he was working on a strict time limit. A long time limit, but he had to make use of every second so there would be plenty of time to spare in case something went wrong.

He started to rush off along the path he had taken with Zecora, his bruises and wounds were healing much faster and the pain was numbed thanks to the medicine he had been treated with. That zebra had practically given him everything he needed. The only way it would have been better is if she had personally handed over the Alicorn Amulet and asked him to get rid of it in her stead. Julius couldn’t help, but wonder if she was just too trusting or just a sap for wounded individuals. Either way, she could be a very useful asset.

Renewed with a sense of purpose, he galloped off back to his shop.

Julius rushed into his shop and weaved past Lyra Heartstrings as he skidded behind the counter. Femme just stared at his behavior before she began to scold him, “Where have you been?!”

“Notimetotalkkeepwatchofshop, bye!” He said so fast with a single breath that it took Femme a moment to process it.

After a few seconds she finally pieced together what he had said, “Wait a minute,” she began, but Julius was already long gone. Femme was working on a very short fuse at this point, “Graahhh!!!” She growled and slammed her hooves on the counter.

It was nearly night time and she was exhausted. She had been up for almost 24 hours now without any sleep because she had to watch the shop while Julius was busy with that blasted amulet. Her eyes were bloodshot, she was hungry, and her hair was a wreck from all of the stress. Rarity would have a fit if she saw her right now and probably chew Julius’s ear off for allowing a mares hair to reach such a disastrous level.

About half an hour later the sun was setting and Femme heard Julius rushing up the stairs from the basement. She stepped in the back and gave him a half lidded stare. She wasn’t really looking at him as much as she was looking through him. A moment later she noticed Ecto float up through the floor.

“Okay, I already went this over with Ecto, but I’ll get you up to speed now,” He nodded to Femme, “There’s a zebra that lives in the Everfree Forest and she has the amulet in a little wooden chest. I made a magical rune near her hut so Ecto can locate her,” He nodded to Ecto as he said this, “She’s going to go in… undetected!” He said this harshly to ghost and she shrank a bit and quivered under his gaze. His eyes softened and he turned back to Femme, “Then when she’s in she’ll replace the amulet with the fake I made-”

He was interrupted by Femme, “Whoa, hold on one moment. You made a fake necklace?”

“Yep!” He announced proudly.

“Let me see it,” She said with a frown, expecting something shoddy after seeing his poor drawing skills. However, when he pulled out the fake he had made she did a double take and rubbed her eyes. She had seen a picture of the amulet in the book and the one before her looked like a perfect replica, “You… made this?”

“Yeah, something wrong with it?” He was suddenly concern that his fake might not be enough to fool everypony.

Femme sighed and rubbed her forehead, “You're telling me… you can’t draw for crap, but when it comes to making a counterfeit ancient artifact you can make a perfect forgery?!”

“Yeah, is that so hard to believe?” He scratched his head wondering what was wrong with that fact.

She just stared at him with her mouth agape, “Forget it! I’m too tired to deal with this BS!” She stormed back to the front of the shop, leaving him and Ecto alone.

With a shrug Julius addressed his ghostly compatriot, “Alright Ecto, I’m counting on you. That amulet is probably going to be thick with magic so you will have some trouble phasing it through walls and objects. Just come in from one of our secret entrances and then come get me,” He paused for a moment, “And be careful.”

She gave him a cold ethereal hug, “Don’t worry master! This will be like taking candy from a sleeping dragon guarded by deathtraps and a lawn ninja!”

He just blinked. “Riiight … easy,” he was now having doubts.

Ecto just gave him a bright smile as she took the amulet and started for one of the walls to phase outside, “Yep, easy!”

Julius just stared at where she had disappeared for a few moments before trotting to the front where Femme was laying her head on the counter staring at nothing. He rubbed her back before asking, “How you holding up?”

“Tired,” She croaked with a severe lack of energy, “Julius…” She began and rolled her head so she could look at him out of the corner of her eye, “When Ecto gets that amulet I want you to lock it up and forget about it until a later time.”

“What? Why?!” He couldn’t believe she just requested that of him.

“Lately you haven’t been making very good decisions…” She picked herself up so she could face him directly.

Julius tried to dismiss it, “So, I’m a little low on blood? It’s not impairing me that much!” He knew very well Femme draining him was affecting some of his thought patterns, but he was aware enough to try and think a little more thoroughly… most of the time.

Femme just shook her head at him, “Your poor decisions started before that. Back at our old home. You’ve been very distraught ever since IT happened. I don’t want you to do anything that might jeopardize all of us and you.”

His ears drooped and he looked to the floor in shame, “But Femme….”

She reached our and rubbed one of his fore hooves, “Julius, please. For me?”

He looked up at her at the tired, but warm smile she gave him. He let out a long drawn out sigh, “Fine… I’ll just lock it up somewhere safe until then,” This response earned him a kiss on the cheek as Femme leaned into his chest and quickly dozed off to the sound of his heartbeat.

Zecora shivered in her sleep as a cold chill passed through her hut. She tugged at her blanket and pulled it further up to cover herself for more warmth. Though she was asleep, her mind still managed to ponder the eerie chill that seemed to cause it.

An odd green misty air flowed through her huts window, carrying with it a familiar, but fake artifact. The mist stuck low to the ground as its leading tip searched the hut for the small chest she had been told about. It took a minute of careful and quiet searching before Ecto managed to locate the chest.

She approached it and started to reform into a pony while keeping an eye on Zecora. When she reached to open the chest she unfortunately found it to be locked. Scratching her head for a moment she knew what she could do.

Using the end of her wispy tail she protruded the lock and started to fiddle with the mechanism. In mere moments the lock was undone with a loud click. He head shot back to where Zecora was sleeping, but to her relief she was still out cold. Keeping her eye on the sleeping form, she opened the chest and then turned her focus back to it.

Inside was the real Alicorn Amulet. She smiled brightly and hoofed pumped… only to knock a vase off a shelf causing it to shatter against the floor.

Zecora woke with a start and shot out of her bed. She turned to the source of the noise and rubbed the tiredness out of her eyes. She didn’t see anypony there, but noticed that there was a shattered vase.

Shivering as she got out of her bed she slowly walked over and brushed the remains safely over to the side so she could deal with it in the morning. It was then a glint caught her eye. She walked over and found the Alicorn Amulet on the floor.

She scrutinized it for a bit, wondering how it could have gotten out of the chest. Picking it up, she turned to place it back in its container, but found it already preoccupied. She reached in and pulled out the other Alicorn Amulet and just looked between each one in confusion, “This simply cannot be true; how did one become two?”

At that moment Ecto chose to strike. She reformed herself and dove for Zecora, entering the zebra’s body and causing a terrible chill to flow through her being as she yelped and tossed the amulets in the air.

Her eyes closed, but when they opened they were no longer the blue eyes most ponies would know, but were instead a sea green. The now possessed Zecora looked up and juggled the amulets as they came down before getting a firm grasp on them. The zebra spoke with relief in her normal voice, but with an extra one echoing shortly after each word, “That was a good stroke of luck; to be caught would really suck.”

She blinked for a moment, “Well, that was very close, but I wonder why I feel more verbose?” Not Zecora shook her head, “I simply don’t have the time; to scrutinize why I speak in rhyme!”

She looked down at the amulets and her face fell. She was no longer sure which was which. “Oh no, what should I do? If I pick wrong I am through!” Biting what was Zecora’s lip Ecto started to feel the body beginning to reject her, “This decision is insidious; I do hope master won’t be furious!” With that she tossed one of the amulets behind her.

Ecto then released Zecora and grabbed the amulet she had thrown and slipped through the window without being seen. Only thing she left was a very confused zebra wondering if she hadn’t been getting enough sleep.

“Psst, master!” Ecto whispered from the floorboards below near Julius. He was still at the front counter and Ecto was being careful not to be seen, “I-I got it and I-I put it on your desk.”

Julius looked around while keeping a still dozing Femme next to him. When he was sure nopony was around he turned back to Ecto, “Very good. I’ve decided to just simply lock it up and forget about it for now. Femme doesn’t want me messing with it and I’m inclined to agree with her. I haven’t been thinking at my best as of late.”

Ecto’s worried disappeared and she just gave him her award winning smile, “That’s great! I think that’s a very good idea. Prolly best just to forget about it forever then!”

Julius chuckled, “Sure, sure. Can you help me get this blood sucker to bed?” He motioned to Femme as he lifted her onto his back and started to make his trip down to their lair. It didn’t take them too long to tuck Femme in her coffin and for him to lock away the Alicorn Amulet. Ecto was acting a little nervous when he did that, but once it was safely locked up tight she wished him goodnight and retreated to her own place of rest.

This left Julius in charge of running the night shift of his shop. It looked like he was in for an all nighter. He would have to if he wanted to make it up to Femme. So, this left him to his own devices. Unfortunately he didn’t really get late customers too often and it seemed everypony was more interested in some presentation that he had no interest in going to.

He sighed at his front counter and tapped his hoof on it in boredom while he leaned on his other hoof. It wasn’t long before he switched up the position and just settled both of his front hooves on the counter and laid his head on them, while staring at the door. He was hoping somepony would come in and distract him from this isolated mundane shift.

A thought then occurred to him and he kept his eyes on the front door for a moment longer before looking at the counter in front him. With one last glance back at the front, he returned his attention to the counter. His horn lit up and the shadows being cast by the varies objects on counter began to dance, as if there was a violent flame nearby.

After a bit, bits and pieces of each of the shadows fled their owners and formed a dark dot a little bigger than the size of a bit coin, the country’s currency. Then from the blackness it began to shoot up and take shape. First it seemed to resemble liquid, but then it began to solidify and gain trace amount of features.

In a matter of moments it took the form of a stallion unicorn. It was completely black until it opened its eyes, revealing them to be glowing white and without pupils.

Julius began to feel a smile tug at his face and it grew wider when the shadow pony began to wave at him. Sometimes he had to appreciate the little things dark magic could do.

Twilight Sparkle wiped some sweat from her brow as she opened up the front door to her library. Spike stretched as he walked in before her and yawned out, “You were great out there. I think those ponies from Saddle Arabia were really impressed!”

“Thanks Spike! Trixie’s firework show also gave it a little more flare. I’m so glad she finally came around and is willing to admit her faults,” She paused for a moment as she thought about her exit, “Even if she still need to work a little more on being humble.”

“Yeah, reminds me of a certain Pegasus,” The little dragon chuckled as he let out another big yawn.

Twilight covered her mouth as she laughed lightly, “I think it’s time for somepony to get to bed.”

Another yawn from Spike confirmed it, “Yeah, It’s late and I’m still tired from cleaning up the library after Trixie uprooted this place. I’m surprised nothing was damaged,” He began to climb up the steps to their bedroom on the second floor, slouching and yawning ever few steps.

“Well, goodnight Spike. I’m going to be up a little longer and- oh no!” She exclaimed as she remembered something important.

Spike turned to look at her, perking up slightly, “What? What is it?”

“I was so busy with practicing for the ambassadors and dealing with Trixie I forgot to get some shopping done! I’m almost out of ink, could use some new quills, parchment… oh where did I put that list?” She started to look around trying to find her shopping list.

Spike dismissed her worries with a wave of a claw, “Eh, no point in worrying about it now. Shops are all closed anyway.”

“Ah hah!” Twilight shouted as she found her list, but then Spikes words caught up to her, “Oh right, nopony is open this late,” as she said that she perked up. “But I think I know one place that might be.”

The dragon scratched his head, “Who would still be open at…” His eyes widened with realization, “Oh no, Twilight, don’t tell me you're going to go to that magic shop?”

“Of course I am. Why, what’s the matter?” She sensed Spikes disdain for her leaving.

“Well, it’s just…” he rubbed the back of his head, “I just have a bad feeling about that place.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard you mentioned this. Is it the owners?” She trotted up to him. He was a head above her from standing on the steps so she had to look up at him.

“No, they seem nice and I like that guy’s beard, but I just get these bad vibes whenever we go in there. It might be because it’s close to the Everfree and I don’t feel comfortable with you going there at night,” He looked down at her with pleading eyes.

Twilight just smiled warmly at him, “Oh Spike, you have nothing to worry about. I’ll be fine. Besides, Fluttershy lives closer to that forest and you never get these vibes when we go to her place, do you?”

“Well, no…” He admitted.

“I bet it’s because they keep the place so dark. I’ll admit it is a little creepy sometimes, but that’s just instinct bothering you,” She deduced with her usual logic.

“I… I guess that makes sense,” He scratched his head seeing where she was coming from.

“Now, you go to bed and I’ll be back in no time. Okay?” She reached up and patted his head and then leaned up to give his forehead a kiss good night.

Spike blushed a little and then kicked up a little bit of dust while he looked to the floor, “Alright, just be careful,” He then started back up the stairs to their bedroom.

“Good night Spike!” She called out as she grabbed her saddle bags and some bits as she went out the door.

“Good night!” He called back with another yawn and finally went off to bed.

The streets of Ponyville were very quiet at night at this late hour. Deathly quiet some would say. Most ponies were in bed at such a late hour and those that were still out would be in another part of the town with late night bars and small clubs. However, in this section of town there was an eerie calm in the air.

Twilight had been out late before. Unfortunately those times were usually due to emergencies requiring her to rush out without much thought. Sometimes she was out to stargaze when she couldn’t get a good enough view from her home. This time though, there was no rush and this allowed her to actually take in the ambiance. Least to say, it was a bit creepy.

Being a very logical pony allowed Twilight to ignore some of her more instinctual feelings. It was easy to deduce that she shouldn’t be afraid. Shadows can’t hurt you, the wind was just moving air, and if it moved and was hiding in the dark, it was more likely more afraid of her than she was of it.

Unfortunately, that didn’t stop those nagging fight or flight instincts. Regardless, she pushed them down, but took heed of them and kept an eye out for anything unusual. Better safe than sorry, not that she was really expecting anything, though going to a shop at the edge of town so close to the Everfree would warrant to err on the side of caution.

When said shop finally came into view, Twilight released a relieved sigh. She then realized the night had her a little more worked up than she thought. Trotting up to the shop she began to worry that it might be closed, but smiled to find that the sign said they were still open.

She quietly pushed the door opened and stepped in, shutting it quietly not wanting to disturb any nearby residents. She weaved her away around the center table where the shop premiered some of their items or advertising some deal of the day. This was also where they propped their sign about light sensitive materials.

A bit of moonlight was pouring into the shop; the light from it was far less intense than the sun thus was fine to let in. Twilight noticed a dimly lit candle at the front counter and also found Julius laying his head on his fore hooves staring at something in front of him. He never noticed that she had walked in.

Curious and wanting to make sure he knew she was there, Twilight trotted up to the counter. When she got closer she noticed movement on the wood. Her jaw dropped a little as she saw what looked like black dolls moving via the magic emitting from Julius’s horn. She found it very odd for a stallion his age to be playing with dolls, but knowing Spike he’d probably claim them to be action figures.

On closer inspection she noticed something odd. There was no aura surrounding the dolls and unlike any normal unicorn that would have just been making these toys bounce or slide across the surface, these pony toys had full body movement. Their knees would bend, they would trot like a normal pony, and even their necks craning were anatomically correct. She even saw them occasionally blink.

To her, it was like watching a puppet master. Not an amateur, but a true master, who could make every movement matter and look very realistic. Julius however, was looking like a master of masters with the way he manipulated these dolls.

Twilight, thoroughly impressed, decided to make her presence known, “Wow, that’s amazing!” She said this with a cheery smile hoping he wouldn’t be embarrassed by being caught playing with toys.

Julius attention snapped up to her and his head shot up to meet at her eye level. His concentration suddenly lost, Twilight watched as the “dolls” suddenly stopped moving and then began to melt like a liquid, but as it returned to a liquid form it dissipated into a black wispy smoke leaving nothing behind.

She just stared blankly at where they had disappeared. She had never seen anything like that before. She had seen figures made of other materials before, like earth, crystal, and even water, but nothing in her mind even came close to describing the material she had just seen.

Twilight finally looked up at Julius and swallowed nervously. His face was a mixture of between being mortified and horrified. With the dim light she could see his pupils were dilated and he appeared a bit scary to her. If only she knew what was going through his head she probably would have been running now.

Julius thoughts were currently along these lines: Oh goddess, I’m gonna have to kill her. But how am I to dispose of the body? Maybe I can get rid of it in the Everfree? Or I could just knock her out and imprison her in the basement. Femme could use her as a blood source!

Suffice to say, Julius was in a bit of a panic mode. Normally he would have sufficient time to react appropriately, but this came upon so suddenly he wasn’t sure what to do. He was caught red hoof using dark magic there was no way he could….

“Are… you okay?” Twilight asked reaching out to touch his hoof. He blinked and his eyes returned to normal before he looked at her hoof and then back to her. It was then he saw innocence in her eyes as well as ignorance. She had no idea he had been using dark magic.

There was an awkward silence before he regained his composure, “Uh, yeah. I’m fine,” He tried to put on his best friendly smile which thankfully seemed to work.

She smiled softly back and noticed that his eyes were looking down. She followed them and saw she was still touching his hoof. She quickly retracted, probably faster than she should have and covered a little blush on her face.

Eager to get her thoughts away from anything that just happened he entered his normal shop keeper mode, “So, what brings you to my dank little store this late at night?”

Twilight blinked and then remembered why she was here, “Oh yes! I need a few supplies. You have some ink, quill feathers, and parchment?”

Julius nodded and turned to reach under the counter with his magic, giving her a good view of his healing bruises. She let out a gasp which made Julius return his attention to her as he brought the ink and quills up with his magic and set them on the counter top. Twilight then voiced her concern, “What happened to you? Did you get into a fight?”

It took a moment for him to understand what she was talking about, “Oh, the bruises?” She nodded as he said this and he explained, “Well, I decided to challenge the town library to a fight. What I didn’t know is that tree libraries can turn upside down. I also learned that getting hit by a hard cover book hurts. And after I learned that, the library decided to perform a little experiment. It hypothesized that if getting hit by one book hurts then getting hit by a giant pile would hurt even more,” He then let out a light hearted chuckle, “In conclusion, yes it hurts a lot more.”

Twilight covered her mouth in horror, “You were in the library when Trixie turned it upside down?”

Doing his best Big Mac impression, he answered, “Eyup!” After a moment he then asked, “Wait, her name was Trixie? Huh, thought it was something like Pixie Kirin.”

Twilight shook her head, “Nope, and I believe her last name was Lulamoon.”

Julius just blinked and scratched his beard, “How did I get Kirin out of Lulamoon?” He just shook his head and sighed at his confusion.

“Sooo,” She drew out the word as she tried to pull the subject to what had caught her earlier interest. “What was that you were just doing?”

Julius’s eyes started to look everywhere except at Twilight, “What do you mean? I wasn’t doing anything!” Normally Julius was a good liar, but a long day plus blood loss from Femme’s feeding coupled with the fact he was caught red hoofed performing dark magic was making his lying skills pathetic. Not Applejack pathetic, but still pretty bad.

Twilight continued to mistake his nervousness for being embarrassed. “You know, that magic with the dancing ponies. Can you show it to me?” She got excited and leaned in and flashed him a bright smile.

Twilight’s eagerness caught Julius off guard. He now saw that she wasn’t going to report him or try to blackmail him. All he saw was a mare with a thirst for knowledge. It was quite a refreshing site to him.

With one last paranoid glance his horn lit up with purple energies and Twilight watched with awe as the shadows began to move and leave the objects that casted them. Three black dots formed and sprung up as three unicorns. One was more masculine than the other two, while the other was more feminine and shapely. However, the pony shadow between the two was far smaller, what would be a filly or little colt. All three were unicorns, but didn’t have any other significant features.

Twilight found the white blank eyes a bit eerie, but was too fascinated by them to care. She leaned down with a mirthful smile and giggled when the three waved at her. After the quick greeting the child ran up and jumped right up on her snout. She let out a very Fluttershy-esque meep, but the initial fear was drowned out by her curiosity.

The shadow puppet felt like she was touching cooled metal. It was strange, but not unpleasant. She reached up with one of her hooves as she looked cross-eyed at the child and gave it a poke with her hoof. It was solid and still cold to the touch. Twilight found herself at a loss for words at this little creation.

With one last wave at her the colt leapt from her nose and landed safely with its family. All three gave a bow to her and disappeared into a wispy smoke.

Twilight laughed and clapped her forehooves together. “That’s amazing! You should show everypony in Ponyville that!” Her eyes lit up with an idea, “You could perform that trick for kids at the school! Maybe that will stop Snips and Snails from idealizing Trixie,” She added thoughtfully while tapping her chin.

Julius was less enthused with that idea as his eyes widened with horror and he quickly and forcefully shouted, “NO!” which caused Twilight to lean back a bit. Julius calmed down and cleared his throat, “Umm… I mean no. I’d prefer it if nopony knew I could do that and much less show them that I can.”

A tilt of her head showed Twilights confusion, “Why? Is the spell dangerous?”

Julius shook his head. “No, it’s not dangerous at all,” Unless I make it so.

“Well, what’s the problem then?” Twilight didn’t see why he would act like this. At first she thought it might have been stage fright, the thought of showing his skill in front of so many ponies, but that didn’t explain why he didn’t want them to even know about it.

If Julius had his head on straight he might have been able to play off a lie of having stage fright. This left him to tread close to some of the most dangerous waters of the Darkmoon Covenant, the truth. “Well, that spell is a bit… frowned upon.”

“Why?” Twilight asked while drawing out the word as she looked a little more suspiciously at him.

“Uhh… well,” Julius paused for moment as worked up his nerves, “It’s kinda, sorta, technically… dark… magic,” He smiled sheepishly as he started to break into a cold sweat.

“Oh,” Twilight shifted uncomfortably and then asked, “But it’s not dangerous?”

“No,” He replied, as Julius started to go through all the worst case scenarios of how this was going to end. Most of them ending with him burying her body in the Everfree Forest.

It was then Julius heard something he never expected, “Could you teach me that spell?” When Twilight asked that his jaw dropped. Had he been undead his jaw would have more literally dropped. It would have actually detached itself and been on the floor right at that moment.

He only came up with one response, “Wha?”

“Could you teach me that spell?” Twilight repeated with a slight smile. Julius was carefully examined her and could see that she was completely serious.

The sudden freedom of the stress of being caught made way for ingenuity. He started to think straight and carefully contemplated everything. He rubbed the front of his mouth with his hoof to make it seem like he was carefully thinking over Twilight’s request, but really he was trying to hide his devilish smile.

When he set his hoof down he was very calm and he answered, “I could teach it to you,” Twilights face lit up. “But I won’t,” and her face quickly fell.

“W-why not?” Twilight was deeply devastated at being denied the chance to learn a new spell.

Julius had this all planned out and he just needed to carefully play on her thirst for knowledge. “Well, I’d get into huge trouble for one. Teaching dark magic can earn big jail time. Learning it not so much, depending on what you’re learning of course.”

Twilight’s ears drooped at this revelation, but perked up when he spoke again, “However… hmm,” He was acting at this point and playing off very well now that he was in control of the situation. “One moment,” Julius went off to the back and was gone for several minutes. During that time Twilight got her supplies together and pulled out the bits that she would need to pay.

Recently the trade and supply route reopened within the Darkmoon Covenant. Unfortunately the amount of supplies and how often the supplies would be delivered was very limited now. This meant that Julius still needed to make ‘donations’ to Femme’s blood bank. Luckily, he was no longer in threat of running out of supplies because there wasn’t a very high demand in Ponyville.

It was then Julius returned with one of the recent things he got in his last shipment. He was holding a book with his magic and set it on the counter. “Years back I found this little book that teaches the basics and fundamentals of dark magic. Just a fun and fascinating little hobby I picked up,” He was lying about all that. Sure he had read an older version of this book many years back, but most of his magic was either learned from a master or self-taught and if Twilight was to draw the wrong conclusions who was he to correct her?

Twilight was staring at the book with fascination. Julius figured with her being a librarian she would be eager to read a new book and his theory was dead on. Twilight ran her hoof over the black book. It had a metal clasp to keep it firmly shut when one wasn’t reading it and on the cover there was a dark blue moon with some stars of similar color.

She looked up at Julius with her mouth opened and a smile, “How much?!” she shouted with glee.

Julius had to struggle not to smile and put on a sad frown as he closed his eyes, sighed, then scooted the book away from, “I’m sorry, but it’s not for sale and I’m afraid I can’t let you read it either.”

For Twilight, being told she couldn’t read something was like telling her not to breath. She let off a frustrated growl when she heard that. “Then why did you even show me the book?!” Twilight flung her hooves up in the air show her frustration.

“Well,” Julius began as he slipped the book under that counter, “I can’t legally sell or give you the book. It’s fine to own it, but as the laws are now I can’t exchange this book to anypony. However, I showed it to you in case you someday come across it. Maybe you’ll find it at some bargain book sale or in the trash,” Twilight winced at the thought of somepony throwing a book away, “But as long as you know what to look out for you might be able to get one of these books. Some ponies don’t know when they have something special,” He gave her a sly wink making her think that he managed to buy the book off of some ignorant merchant.

Twilight gave a sigh of defeat as she paid for her supplies and slipped them into her saddle bags, “I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye out then.”

“Aw cheer up, you never know- hey what’s that?” Julius peered over as her as he seemed to concentrate on something behind Twilight.

Twilight turned around and looked through the dark corners of the shop, but didn’t see anything, “Uh, what’s what?” She turned back to him.

“Thought I saw something, must have been my imagination,” He walked around the counter. “I’ll see you out,” Twilight nodded gratefully as he led her to the front of his shop. She was still feeling disappointed, but she figured she’d get over it soon enough. As she left he called out to her, “Stay safe, crazy ponies tend to come out at night!”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me!” Twilight gave him a short wave and then cantered off to her library.

Julius chuckled to himself and prayed to Luna that his plan would work. Just as he was about to go back into his shop he caught something out of the corner of his eye. He looked across the street to the nearest building with a lamppost. Sitting there was a mare. A pink mare.

This pony slowly raised one hoof and scratched her neck slow and intently while glaring at him. She stopped then pointed at her eyes then pointed to him and she whispered. Julius had no idea how somepony could whisper to another from that far away without the aid of magic, but he would swear on his grave that Pinkie Pie was now whispering as if she was right next to him. She just said one thing, “Itchy neck….”

With the speed to create a sonic rainboom, Julius slammed his front door shut, causing the sign to flip around and say, “Go away, we’re closed!” while proceeding to barricade his door with anything that wasn’t nailed down… again.

After getting his heart rate to slow down, Julius’s eyes widened at a realization, “The back door!” He leapt over his front counter and ran into the back rooms where he quickly locked the door and barricaded it with everything in that he didn’t keep out front. Catching his breath he sighed with relief and slowly turned around.

“Julius?”

“GAH!” Julius flung himself against the nearest wall as his heart pumped at a mile a minute. It took him a moment to realize that it was just Ecto.

“You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Ecto smiled and she started to laugh. Julius began to chuckle with her as he finally calmed down.

He wiped some sweat from his brow and Juilus asked, “So, why are you up?”

Ecto looked to the floor with a bit of embarrassment and shame, “I… I had a bad dream. I was wondering… would you read me a story?”

He just stared at her for a moment before Julius felt his heart fill with a deep warmth. Sometimes he forgot that Ecto was a child at heart and it was moments like this that he felt like he was her big brother or maybe even her father. It also made him feel guilty for sending her out into the Everfree and being so stern with her sometimes. With a warm smile he answered, “Sure, whatever story you want.”

Ecto’s face lit up like a beacon and she gave him a big hug. He shivered at her ghostly touch, but didn’t mind it too much. For just a moment he forgot all his troubles and enjoyed being hugged by one of the closest things he had to a family.

Twilight yawned as she entered her library. The brisk trot had tired her some, but she still had just enough energy to do a little bit of work before bed. She gently set her saddle bags on the nearby table and she opened them up and pulled out her fresh supply of ink and quills. However, as she took out her new parchments, she noticed something else was in her bags.

A gasp slowly escaped her mouth as she pulled out with her magic a very familiar looking black book that seemed to have “accidently” slipped into her bag. Twilights eyes lit up at the sight and she hugged the book tightly to her chest with a wide grin plastered across her face.

Twilight then opened the grimoire to the cover page and then read the title silently to herself, Fear Not the Dark….

Author's Note

Wow, I made you guys wait far too long for this. On the plus side I actually proofread my story this time!

Now, I was hoping to have my cover story finished by the time I got this chapter done, but my artist had some real life issues sadly. Still, I have a better temporary cover now than what I had been using. I'll probably be working on a chapter for Darkness Within the Twilight next since that has been receiving so many faves.

Next chapter will be a Twilight chapter with her exploring this history and powers of dark magic! Bet you can guess what the chapters title will be called.

Ch11: Fear Not the Dark

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch11: Fear Not the Dark

The greatest enemy of knowledge is ignorance, but the greatest threat to peace is knowledge.

Twilight reread that first sentence several times, letting its meaning sink in. She was inclined to agree with statement. It was the very first thing written down right after the books title, “Fear Not the Dark”.

It was a book filled with the fundamental basics for dark magic. This was a scary and thrilling thought for the young scholar. Inside this tome laid secrets that were kept hidden from the public eye. It was well feared, but the exact reasons were never quite clear. The simplest excuse was that it was dangerous. Which, was undoubtedly true, but if you were to ask why that was, none would be able to give you a precise answer. Sure, they could make educated guesses, but in the end that’s all they were, guesses.

This made the opening sentence all the more important. To venture further into this forbidden wisdom was to cast aside one’s own peace of mind. It would mean giving up blissful ignorance in exchange for understanding. One can never regain that once it is lost. However, Twilight knew she would one day be able to recover from what shocking secrets this grimoire had. With that, she began to plunge into the book, reading only by the magic emanating from her horn, safely within her bedroom.

She emitted only enough light for her to see without straining her eyes, but not enough to disturb Spike as he slept soundly within his bed basket. Twilight sat at the other corner of the room at her desk. The only other light source came from the moon and stars just outside her bedroom window. Her eyes carefully scanned each word, letting everything sink in…

Greetings! If you are reading this then you are a very fortunate or unfortunate individual depending on your outlook. Within this book contains a collection of knowledge on dark magic (sometimes called black magic) from varies powerful sorcerers, but do not be alarmed! You do not need to be timid or afraid of this book. There isn’t anything evil or corrupting contained within its pages. All it is is paper and ink, nothing more, nothing less.

You will find a rich history of dark magic along with a few simple spells. All these spells were carefully chosen to help those with magical talents better understand this foreign arcana and the history was provided so that any may make a fair and informed judgment about this magic. None of the magics provided are harmful and can safely be cast around others. With that in mind though, it is NOT recommended to cast these in a public setting merely for the fact that most tend to react negatively to such spells. This can net you in trouble with local authorities or possibly worse and we hold no responsibility for any punishment you might receive.

“Right… no casting in public. I can see why Julius was freaking out so much,” Twilight muttered to herself as she continued her reading.

We also suggest reading this book in a private place and while it isn’t illegal to own a copy of this book, it his heavily frowned upon and some countries will confiscate this tome should you be found with it. It’s also best not to take this on vacation either, as any book containing dark magic in it is considered a restricted trade good regardless of whether or not the book itself is not illegal in the country you’re entering.

With all that in mind, we offer you this one last chance to close this book, set it down, and be done with it. While we would love for you to continue, we also understand the knowledge and responsibilities, not to mention the legal ramifications can be overwhelming for most. Should you wish to have nothing more to do with this, all we ask is for you not to be judgmental of these arts when you lack the understanding.

Twilight scoffed, she wasn’t about to stop here just because of a few little warnings. Sure, it was a bit unnerving with the kind of trouble she could get in if she wasn’t careful, but Twilight wasn’t gonna let something like that ruin her pursuit for higher learning. Using her magic, she turned to the next page and read on.

Early History

There was a time when dark magic was more common. Almost as common as everyday unicorn magic. Of course there was a time when it didn’t exist, or more precisely, it had not been discovered yet. While the exact first appearance of these magics is unknown, the first known recording of its use was in the dark ages where war and fighting amongst all races was a part of everyday life.

It is, by popular believe, theorized that a unicorn first made the discovery of dark magic completely by accident. An act of desperation and fear drove this pony to cast an extremely powerful magic that had never been seen before. This is only a theory and there are many discrepancies and tales as to what brought about this epiphany. Some stories it is said the power was discovered mid battle while other say it was brought about through tragedy. All distinct possibilities, but it is conjecture at best.

Once unicorns realized how powerful dark magic was, they immediately began to use it to wage war and this was the first step to the unfair labeling of these magics. It is often believed that dark magic is destructive and that is an unfortunate truth. It is very capable of being dangerous in the wrong hooves. However, in its defense, we feel that even with its terrible applications in battle, it isn’t the most abused spell school to ever be applied to war.

Another spell that isn’t even dark magic was used in such a horrifying application it is a surprise that this spell is still even accessible today. A terrible insult to dark magics that are harmless by comparison yet still seen as evil witchcraft. This gruesome magic we speak of is called the Want It Need It spell and…

Twilight’s body froze up and she found herself unable to continue her reading for the moment. She was all too familiar with the Want It Need It spell after her little episode with being late for a friendship report. Frankly, she was dreading what this book was about to say next. How could that spell be used in war?

…you might be familiar with this spell or at least heard of it. Might even recall hearing about it being cast on a doll and causing absolute chaos within a small town near Canterlot.

“Is… it… is it talking about me?!” Twilight exclaimed and winced as she looked back at Spike to make sure he was still asleep. The little dragon was snoozing away and Twilight swallowed as she read on.

The spell causes an object to become very desirable to everypony who gets close to it except the caster. The range and strength of desire depends upon how much power is placed into the spell. Before we discuss this further, we need to get into another spell.

There was another commonly used spell in those days known as the Spark Bomb. This spell required a lot of power and multiple unicorns to cast. It created a giant ball of light that unleashed huge amount of energy that could destroy most small towns. However, it was ineffective in war as the power to just move the spell was tremendous and it was very slow even when you could move it. Because it was so sluggish, ponies could get far away before it even get within range of them. So, it’s only use was to just level towns, villages, buildings or clear roads.

Twilight felt her stomach flip as she saw where this was going.

This is where Want it Need It spell comes in. In a terrible act of cruelty this magic was cast on the Spark Bomb and all of a town’s ponies would find the bright ball irresistible and fight amongst each other to get near it. Once all the ponies gathered around it, boom.

Twilight’s eyes dilated, her mind’s eye suddenly replacing Smarty Pants with the Spark Bomb. All of Ponyvilles citizens gathered around it and then…

She shook her head, trying to erase that train of thought from her memory, but it was there to stay. She doubted she would ever be able to cast that spell again after reading that. Suddenly Celestia’s disappointment seemed far worse on that day. Twilight couldn’t help, but wonder if her mentor had known of this horrifying tactic.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to read on…

This spell was applied to more than just magic, it was used on traps, the sharp ends of weapons, and much more. The point of mentioning this is to iterate an important concept. Magic isn’t evil; it’s the ponies that abuse it that are. Thus you can take away that dark magic is merely a more easily abused school of magic for more destructive purposes.

Continuing on, dark magic was often used as a tool of war and helped unicorns dominate over the other races and help form their own kingdoms while being the only rulers. At first this was fine, at least for the unicorns, not so much for the other races. Unfortunately, the ruling unicorns of other kingdoms became power hungry and started to wage war with other kingdoms for land. Those with the strongest dark magic would win.

Eventually the kingdoms narrowed down to a few. War started to die down and there was relative peace. However, that didn’t last long. Nobles desiring power began to backstab each other and an internal power battle began for the throne.

In order to alleviate the problem, kings and queens started to ban dark magic amongst their kingdoms, making it so only the royal could learn the arts. It was a fairly smart move that helped lesson the likelihood of war while also ensuring they remained as rulers. Unfortunately, this had an unforeseen side effect the rulers had not anticipated. (Such as the weakening of their magic. Explained in a later chapter.)

During the time of the unicorns ruling, dark magic had been demonized and loathed by the pegasi and earth ponies. With the common unicorn unable to learn the banned magic, the strength of the unicorns began to wane amongst the races and cause even the rulers own race to look upon them with disdain; this began the stirring of rebellions. Thus the age old story began of noble knights fighting the corrupted kings and queens.

This was the birth of the classic archetype of a dashing knight fighting off an evil sorcerer started. This image became ingrained into every pony and when the heroes took up the reign of the kingdoms and were far fairer than their predecessors many began to assume that their leaders had been terrible because dark magic was evil and corrupted its wielder. This, of course, is untrue as their rulers had simply been corrupt from the beginning and believed themselves untouchable while the new ones had learned from their mistakes.

With the newly formed kingdoms, it was quickly decided that dark magic was an evil art and should be abolished. Thus it was made illegal to practice for all, but this is not where our history lesson ends even though some governments would wish you to believe so. Dark magic went underground and was practice in secret. Usually by societal outcasts, some who harbored ill will towards others and some who saw the value of these magics.

When it was discovered that these societies were thriving, leaders started to hunt down practitioners and have them executed. Rewards and bounties were placed on the heads of these individuals and it started the infamous witch hunts. These caused many innocent ponies to be killed for simply suspicion or the belief that they harbored these magic users. Ironically when the crackdowns began most of the real sorcerers had already abandoned society and chose to live away from others. Thus the paranoia that ensued resulted in mostly only innocents being killed during those times.

Twilight shook her head at this. If it was true then all of it was for naught. History makes fools of everypony and she was thankful the book wasn’t going into detail as to how these executions were carried out.

Eventually, it was realized that the witch hunts were counterproductive. So, each kingdom announced that dark magic had been purged from the lands. Of course some took it a step further to convince the populous, some found a scape goat to publicly execute saying they were the source of their troubles. It worked and ponies began to calm down and no longer accuse each other.

However, the leaders knew well that the dark magic was still thriving. In order to take care of this perceived problem without alerting their citizens, secret societies were formed to find and destroy any dark magic sects. Thus an underground war was fought away from the public eye.

Unfortunately, with the distraction of dark magic gone, kingdoms began to war amongst each other again over land and resources. This also had an adverse effect that many kingdoms never expected; the resurgence of dark magic.

While almost all history accounts have been lost during the Discordian Era or denied otherwise, the kingdom of Unicornia was formed thanks to dark magic…

“Really?!” Twilight nearly shouted after her reading that last sentence. That seemed to be a bit of stretch, but she would suspend her belief in this case to see where it would take her. Still, that was quite the outrageous claim.

In a moment of cleverness or possibly desperation, King Silver Tongue brought in dark sorcerers to help give him an edge in the war. He promised them full pardon and would allow them to reintegrate into society. They gladly agreed in hopes of finally being accepted and sought out to sabotage the kingdoms enemies.

While according to history, victory in the war was believed to be the result of brilliant tactics and the aid of Starswirl the Bearded in making revolutionary advancements in the field of magic, this is only half correct. If you were to read closely about the war in any modern history book, many historians would point out that it was also a stroke of luck that won them the war. Opposing sides had some unfortunate things happen to them, such as rampant disease, faulty ballistics, and unfortunate accidents to important individuals.

You can probably guess what we’ll claim next. The truth is none of these were the result of chance. All of it was done by dark magic. This gave a major edge to Unicornia and allowed them to claim every land to be under their banner. Though, later on the land would split between the three tribes it was still technically within their lands.

After the war ended all of the sorcerers returned to the kingdom, but were met with a terrible surprise. King Silver Tongue double crossed them and banished them from his entire kingdom. He denied any dealings he had with them and the only reprieve he gave them was to allow them to leave peacefully as long as they never returned. Outnumbered and surrounded, they complied and were exiled, but not before swearing revenge for his transgressions and empty promises. In hindsight, they probably should’ve seen that coming as most noble high borne in that time tended to be, quite frankly, complete pricks.

Twilight stopped reading to soak in what had just read. She couldn’t believe that unicorns could be so cold as to throw out the deal and then give them the cold shoulder. Would nobles really be so low? Twilight thought as she pondered the possibility. She didn’t have to think long after she remembered how stuck up high society in Canterlot was, along with the rude Prince Blueblood, and then finally the time where Rarity had to play the role of the spoiled Princess Platinum and she had to play her lowly assistant, Clover the Clever. Considering those things suddenly the claims of the book’s history seemed a lot more plausible. She sighed at the logic and continued on.

Now before we continue, we’d like to take a moment to talk about Starswirl the Bearded…

Twilight had to withhold a girlish squee at that very moment. Starswirl was one of her idols. She had read every available book that had transcribed his works. She was very curious as to what this particular tome had to say about one of her personal heroes. There was also a slight sense of dread that something bad might be said about him and she hesitantly continued.

…and his opinions on dark magic. It is believed he did practice or at the very least researched into dark magic, but not very deeply. There have been no known books of dark magic written by Starswirl. If there had been, they were either lost, destroyed, or have been hidden away by those who believe such works would tarnish his name. Other research pieces on dark magic have often cited Starswirl and given credit to research that they claimed were done by him. Of course, without any original copies these credentials can’t be determined as true.

Ultimately, of what little notes were left, Starswirl had been indifferent with dark magic. He never dismissed or condemned it, but he never quite approved of it either. We would like to provide you with one of the few recorded quotes he had on dark magic.

“Truly these blackest of magics have immense potential. It could revolutionize the world and study of magic, yet I see that this power brings out the worst in us. I’ve had the displeasure of seeing the greatest of minds driven mad in the pursuit of impossibilities; great leaders who descended into cruel tyrants; friends abandoned by their loved ones! Only somepony who would step into the abyss and not submit to their darker selves should wield this magic, yet I have never to meet such a pony. None have been worthy, not even myself.”

Twilight wondered if she would have been considered worthy, but decided to let that thought be put on the backburner for the time being. She’d like to think she would never succumb to such selfish desires, but she couldn’t help, but doubt herself as her eyes continued to scan the pages.

It is our opinion Starswirl the Bearded gave himself too little credit, but perhaps he saw something within him that he feared he might succumb to or perhaps because he lived in such a selfish time he doubted himself? We might never know. Regardless he was well liked by those of the dark arts because he gave them respect. He didn’t demonize them nor did he condemn their practices. Starswirl saw that it was not the magic that was dangerous, but the ponies who wielded it. Power can corrupt even the most seemingly pure hearted individuals and there are some ponies that should never have such terrifying power.

When the dark sorcerers were exiled from the kingdom they fled far to the north to form their own haven from Unicornia. However, they were the first to be hit by the windigos who were drawn to Unicornia by the hate and fighting amongst the three pony tribes. It was believed that they were nearly wiped out.

From there most of the history has been lost due to the reign of Discord or because it had been covered up by selfish means…

“Selfish means?” Twilight asked allowed, but much to her dismay the book didn’t elaborate.

...The last known officially recorded use of dark magic was used by King Sombra when he returned along with the Crystal Empire, but he was destroyed shortly after his return.

“So, that was dark magic he was wielding!” Twilight exclaimed in a hushed tone so she wouldn’t disturb her sleeping assistant. Her thoughts began to turn back to Princess Celestia and the strange spell she cast just before she went off to help save the Crystal Empire. The very same spell she used to find the secret entrance to where King Sombra had hid the Crystal Heart. Twilight hadn’t been completely sure at the time, but had suspected it had been dark magic. Now she had no doubt.

She then began to feel less guilty about reading the book and that she wasn’t doing anything wrong. If Celestia knew dark magic then surely it wasn’t that bad. Twilight had been a little afraid when her teacher had casted that spell to demonstrate Sombra’s power, but now she realized why she had never seen Celestia cast spells like that before. It was so others wouldn’t be afraid of her! She figured Celestia must have restrained herself from using such magic because it was so powerful and that there must have rarely been a need to resort to it.

Twilight smiled to herself in thought. It makes sense, though I wonder why she never taught me any of that magic before. Maybe it is part of those advance lessons she mentioned? Well then, I guess this means I’ll be reading in ahead. I bet she will be so proud! Really glad I got this book, helped me confirm that Sombra was using dark magic and…

Twilight suddenly stopped her train of thought. Something bothered her, but she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. She started to concentrate and think on what that nagging feeling in the back of her head was.

“Years back I found this little book that teaches the basics and fundamentals of dark magic. Just a fun and fascinating little hobby I picked up.”

Julius’s words echoed through her head and a realization hit her, “How... could he learn about dark magic from this book years ago when it covers events that only happened recently? He would have to have been lying to me or… hmm,” She wondered, but decided she would have to confront him about that later. Twilight was just too into her reading to think about anything else.

What is Dark Magic and How does it Work?

To the uninformed, dark magic is a very scary and odd entity. If asked to describe it, most would say it is a bunch of forbidden spells. Most high level mages would be quick to amend that statement and more accurately describe it as banned or illegal spells or schools of magic. (For our non-unicorn readers or beginner spell casters, forbidden spells are deemed either too dangerous or powerful that nopony should have access to them. Some of these spells are actually magically sealed to prevent them from even being cast.)

It’s not surprising your average individual would know so little, but the magical scholar would only be half correct in this case. While it is true that there are certain magics and spell schools that fall under dark magic, there’s actually another side to it. Dark magic is also a technique, in other words a different way of casting magic.

“An alternative way of casting magic, huh?” Twilight mumbled as she prepared her notes.

This form of spellcraft can be applied to any spell. So, in essence all magic is dark magic or rather it’s capable of being cast like dark magic. Even the basic telekinesis spell can be used with it. Which brings up the question, what’s the difference between a normal spell and a dark one?

At its core, dark magic is all about empowerment, increasing the potency or strength of a spell to new heights. If applied to a telekinesis, it would allow the user to lift far heavier objects…

That would have been helpful with the Ursa Minor. Twilight thought.

…Of course, it wouldn’t be a good idea to use it with telekinesis on a regular basis. Why, you may ask? The answer is best described with an analogy.

Let’s say you wanted to kindle a candle. Normally you’d light it with a match and be done with it. That is what it’s like to lift something with normal magic. Dark magic though, would be like trying to light the candle with a torch or an explosion. This would be complete overkill and a waste of magic.

On a side note, using dark empowered spells to do small, delicate tasks, like lifting a feather; is an excellent exercise for self-control and precision. We highly recommend such exercises even with normal magic.

Twilight nodded and turned the page to find an inked picture. It was of two generic unicorns without any outstanding features, except for their eyes and the first ones horn. The aforementioned pony’s horn was bubbling black with sparks of electricity while the one right to it did not. Both of the unicorns’ sclera was inked green with red irises and purple smoke trailing out at the edges of their eyes. Twilight remembered Celestia looking exactly like that when she was casting dark magic and Spike having the same look in his eyes when he was under the effects of Sombra’s door that showed anypony their worst fear.

Below you’ll see two ponies. The one on the left is in the middle of casting a dark magic spell while the one on the right is either under the influence of such a spell or prepared to draw on the energies needed to cast one. You can easily see why we don’t recommend casting in public as most would be easily frightened by such a drastic change. It’s completely understandable, as most cultures see black as a color of evil. Though, there are some who believe that black is good and white is evil.

As you can see, casting dark magic has a noticeable effect on the eyes, changing the color while a magical, smoky mist escapes them. Also, the horn doesn’t emit a unique color aura like it does for normal castings and instead bubbles with darkness. This is what dark magic normally looks like. We say normally because there are exceptions.

To get into detail, the eyes of a caster can take on many different colors based on how one chooses to fuel their dark magic. So, unicorn’s eyes can become green, blue, red, or even other colors based on their energy source. But, what is this energy we speak of? Well, first you need to understand how dark magic works.

Dark magic isn’t cast like normal spells, which should already be obvious. Instead it is receives its power from the casters emotion or the emotions of those around them. Now, don’t jump to any conclusions. It’s not what your first assumption is going to be. You’re probably thinking that you need to be angry or something in order to cast more powerful spells and while being angry can help some cast more efficiently, that isn’t how it works. It isn’t what you’re feeling, but instead what you’re feeding the magic.

In order to cast dark magic you need to fuel it with an emotion or two. Similar to burning firewood. Looking back at the picture of the two ponies, when one is using an emotion as energy for their spells they’re eyes began to change color to reflect the emotion being used. We can tell you right now, fear is being used by those two ponies which is one of the more common emotions that are sacrificed. The smoke escaping their eyes is the emotion being burnt away. We’ll get into more detail in just a bit. The more you can feed into it, the more powerful the spells you can cast. Often ponies that have lived hard, traumatizing lives have a much larger reserve to cast with. This is also why the kings of old became weak, they didn’t live stressful or sad lives and so their reserves of magic were far lower.

Getting back to the visual changes, emotions used change the color of the eyes, but there are exceptions. Normally when using dark magic specific spells the previously mentioned effects happen. However, in some cases mages will not show any of those signs and will look like their casting a normal spell. This usually happens for those who have become so intimate with the spell that they’ve attuned to it and are able to cast it like a normal spell. Casting it this way is more taxing and less powerful than using dark magic, but it’s far less tiring than it would have been when they first learned it. It also has the benefit of not being noticeable to those unfamiliar with such magics.

“Hmm, that explains why Julius didn’t look any different with those shadow puppets,” Twilight said, voicing her thoughts aloud while taking more notes. She loved every detail she could get and hungered for even more.

There is one final exception; some unicorns will start displaying their own unique eye coloration similar to how most have their own colored aura around their horn for normal spells. These individuals are not to be trifled with and are among the elite. They have dived so deep into dark magic that it has become practically a part of their very identity. These are masters and should be both feared and respected. The only time they’re eyes will deviate to the normal color state is if the emotion that they’re feeding into the spell is very extreme. Take that as warning to stay out of their way if you do see them like that. However, it’s extremely unlikely you’ll ever run across such an individual and even if you do it doesn’t mean they’re a bad pony. Still, it’s a good idea not to upset somepony who can possibly make your head explode.

“Noted,” Twilight deadpanned.

Returning to details of feeding your magic with emotions, we mentioned that energy is burnt away. When this happens, the emotion you’re using is semi-literally being destroyed within you. You will actually feel less of that particular emotion the more you use it. This is why fear is often used in battle so one won’t be afraid of the enemy. As a bonus, you would even start to feel braver.

Thinking back to Crystal Kingdom, when Twilight had cast dark magic for the first time she struggled and had felt off when casting. It had been a strange and scary thrill, but she hadn’t known that dark magic fed off of emotions and other feelings. She wondered when trying to mimic her mentor she had fed some positive emotions in the mix to cause that feeling.

Getting back to what had been mentioned about how one could feel braver, a small smile started to spread on her face. She imagined how fearless an army of unicorns would be if they did that in the face of adversity. She also thought about how better Fluttershy would feel if she could cast dark magic like that and not be afraid of the world around her. Twilight was quickly brought out of that line of thought as she read the next part.

Unfortunately, this can be a double edge sword. There are instinctive reasons why we have such emotions. Reasons such as self-survival or feeling empathetic towards others. Cutting off these feelings can be hazardous. Fear lets us make a flight or fight judgment call. While not showing fear in the face of adversity is good, the lack of it could prevent us from making a strategic retreat; have less motivation to run, or to fight with every fiber of our being. There’s a difference between being brave and being stupid.

This brings us to an interesting case with the adverse effects of dark magic or rather unintended side effects. These usually affect the perception of those around the individual rather than the individual itself, usually.

Because one begins feel less of one emotion, they feel more of another. Naturally, this leads to most casters to use negative emotions. Normally you wouldn’t want to be rid of joy or happiness and feel sad as that would be counterproductive to your performance. There have been exceptions, but that’s usually left up to the individual on case by case basis.

What most casters don’t usually realize or even think about is how others start to perceive them. Imagine any villain from any story where they were a practitioner of some dark art. More often than not, they would be overjoyed with killing or casting their destructive spells. This cliché is a result of dark sorcerers. In battle they rid themselves of negative emotions allowing them to perform at their peak, but as a result everypony around them saw a pony laughing and smiling at the destruction and havoc they caused even if it was to protect others. Most of these ponies were very sane, but that wasn’t what it looked like to everypony else.

Twilight hummed to herself, “That explains a lot of the traits every villain I’ve read about had.”

A word of warning that we urge you to take heed of. There have been, while very few, cases of psychosis because of improper use of dark magic. This was because these poor souls never thought that their very perception of how they should feel could be affected. When unicorns use their dark magic to be rid of one or more emotions they feel more positive ones, like joy. However, overuse of the same emotions doing the exact same task began to condition them. Slowly, but surely, they wouldn’t feel the normal emotions and would feel the positive ones WITHOUT the use of dark magic.

The most horrible cases this happened with were the ones that began to feel this way towards murder. This created some truly horrific psychopaths. Thankfully, if they could not be brought back to sanity they would be brought down by other dark mages if not by other individuals. We tell you this so that you or your friends and loved ones never go down this path. If you ever however unlikely as it may be, start to feel any effects similar to that, we suggest a few things: First, use different emotions when performing whatever spell or act. If that doesn’t help use the positive emotion you're feeling so you feel the negative one when performing the act. Finally, if all else fails seek psychiatric help and avoid using dark magic for the task if not all together.

The spells in this book shouldn’t result in such extremes, but if you ever dive deeper into this banned art we want you to go with this caution. There have fortunately been very few recorded episodes of such extremes and you should not be too worried about it happening to you, but it’s always best to err on the side of caution.

Twilight gulped, she hadn’t expected that and it made her more wary of what she was going into, but she believed as long as she was mindful about what she should feel than she should be strong enough not follow down that path. Twilight started to wonder if Julius had some tricks or ways to help prevent this or at least make her more aware if she was starting to have such odd shifts.

The scientific part of Twilight was very curios though. She had done a few research papers on conditioning. One such paper was on Ponylov’s Dog which she got an A on (of course). She wondered if she could perform a few experimentations on this, seeing if she could condition herself to have a change in attitude when doing something. Maybe Julius could help?

Twilight filed that in her mind for later and went onto the next section of the book: Dark Magic Schools and Spells. A small glossary was provided with a list of various different spell types and unique arts. She scanned through them, but scoffed when she read one that she found hard to believe was real at all: Curses.

Twilight didn’t believe in curses, not that she believed in them to begin with. Especially after what happened to her and the rest of their friends when she first got to meet Zecora. That little episode helped her prove to her friends that curses weren’t real and it was all in their head.
However, now here was a spell book in front of her, practically laughing at her ignorance and being contrary to her belief.

I’d love to see them try and convince me of this. She scoffed with an arrogant smile spreading across her face as she flipped to listed index page.

Curses

A curse, as you might be aware, is essentially a spell that causes bad luck to happen to somepony. This is the simplest way to explain what a curse does, but it’s also a very inaccurate one. The precise magical definition of a curse is a spell that subtly manipulates the world around the intended target or targets either directly or indirectly resulting in pain or misfortune upon a specified individual or individuals. In other words, what is perceived as bad luck.

To break down that long winded explanation, a curse is placed upon a pony or object. Their presence causes bad things to happen to those around them or just to themselves and can even only affect specific individuals. This all depends on how the spell was cast.

Curses have long been regarded for showing a level of intelligence in how they can make the smallest things happen to cause a far more noticeable result. Little things like having a pony decide to go left instead of right, maybe resulting in a door to slam in their face. A small pebble is “accidently” kicked making a rockslide to happen. The possibilities are limitless!

These spells are capable of affecting the world directly or indirectly. Indirectly is when they do something to the area around the target, while directly causes the target itself to make an almost involuntary action. This is usually similar to a knee jerk reaction and usually looks merely like a bout of clumsiness.

One of the major uses curses had in battle was that it made proud and well trained knights into clumsy oafs who suddenly found themselves far less effective than they should be. It gave a huge advantage to unicorns that had to deal with more muscle-bound enemies. Outside of battle curses were used more often than not for petty revenge. In fact, the old belief that breaking a mirror would cause seven years bad luck was started because a fool accidently broke a witches mirror so she put a curse on him and the spell lasted for about seven years.

Twilight actually chuckled a little at that last part. She felt bad for the poor pony, but it was funny how one little thing could be taken a whole another way. She also found it easier to believe in curses now that she had been given a more scientifically plausible explanation as to how somepony could be hexed.

This brings up an interesting thing about curses, and that is how long the effect can last. This is determined by two factors, how much power is used and how direct the curse is. Of course, more power will increase the length and how strongly the spell can affect everything around the target. The other thing is that the more direct the curse is on a pony, the shorter the spell will last. This has a far greater determination than how much power is used. The less direct one is with the curse the longer it will last. A curse can last an extremely long time, but that time is cut drastically as you get more and more direct.

The greatest masters of curses were always very careful with those last details and could easily fool ponies to believe they were only having bad luck without them ever suspecting a curse. If one is aware they have a curse on them, then they would seek to remove it. However, one of the ingenious uses was making it so that the so called bad luck for one pony turned into a stroke of good luck for the caster or somepony else.

With that all said, it should be noted that no curse spells are provided in this book, due to how easy it is to abuse them and having such spells in this tome would result in our readers to face far harsher punishments should they be caught.

Twilight huffed then sighed at the fact she wouldn’t get any curse spells to experiment with, but the reason was good enough that she would let it go. So, she turned back to index to look up more spell schools. The next one that caught her eye was one she had not heard of before.

Demonology? Twilight rubbed her eyes to make sure she had read that correctly. She flipped to the page and began to read quizzically.

Demonology

Demonology is both a school of magic and a study. It is the research of demons and delving into their magics and these sorcerers are often referred to as warlocks. This field of magic isn’t for the faint of heart and has legitimately been found to cause shifts in personality and mood swings. In other words, turns ponies into angry mares on PMS that can throw giant fireballs at you because you didn’t notice their new haircut and forgot that it was their mother’s birthday because honestly you just don’t give a crap about your in-laws…

I’m slightly offended by that statement and why does it now sound like I’m suddenly reading about married stallion’s thoughts?

Ironically the section on Demonology was written by a married mare who was a fillyfooler with a mouth so crude she could make a sailor blush. She was known for dressing provocatively in public and getting in fights with random ponies at the local bar and this mare had the uncanny ability to look feminine, but act more tough and masculine than the most hardened royal guard.

Due to her less than pleasant mouth, she had multiple editors. It didn’t help that every time they tried to censor her she would buck them right in the face. Thus they tried to keep editing to a minimal and some things slipped through in her writings because all the editors were K.O.ed by the end of the day. Thankfully this revision was able to get most of her foul language out. Mostly…

Demons, for you idiots who don’t know, are unique creatures or inhabitants that hail from Tartarus. Despite common belief, these bastards aren’t evil, but are inclined to be real devious bastards. It’s a cultural and instinctive reason that they act like this. If you want to go learn more then get off your lazy pansy plot and find some demonology books cause I’m sure as hay not gonna waste my time explaining them to you.

EDITORS NOTE: We’d like to apologize for the rudeness of our writer.

The art of Demonology is to either summon badflank demons from Tartarus or whatever pit they're living in to wreak havoc on the pussies around you or to just to serve your every nonsensical whim. The other thing one can do is use the demonic magics to cast their spells and even become part demon yourself while looking like the baddest mother bucker…

EDITORS NOTE: We have cut out most of this section due to the over use of foul language and insults to various religions, countries, races, and other special interests groups. We suffered many bloody noses because of these edits. YOU'RE WELCOME!

Because the pansies that put this book together have no balls and think Demonology is way too dangerous to give to your average pony, they have excluded any spells from that school. Bunch of bloody wankers…

Twilight just stared at the very short section on that school of magic with an appalled look. She could already tell some serious editing had gone into this and she didn’t want to imagine what had been written before. In fact, she prayed to Celestia she would never meet the pony who had written this book. Heck, she was hoping she’d never have to pick up a book written by that individual ever again.

Meanwhile, far to the north…

A group of ponies were trying to take down a powerful demon that had manifested itself. This black demon was known as the Shadowlord (because all the unique titles had been taken) and the fight wasn’t going in their favor. Currently one of their spellcasters was in a trance caused by the demonic figure; meanwhile a curvaceous unicorn was getting angrier by the second. This unicorn might have contributed to a certain book about Demonology with a less than pleasant tongue.

She shouted out at the entranced pony, “Grim, you dumb plot! Start making sense, you rotten corpse, or you’re gonna be sorry! Maybe I’ll rip your bones out, one-by-one! Or maybe I’ll put you in the goddess damn furnace! How can somepony with such a big, smart brain get hypnotized like a little bitch? Huh? Oh, Shadowlord! I love you, Shadowlord! Come over here and give Grim a big sloppy kiss, Shadowlord! Now pull your head out of your goddess damn flank and START BUCKING HELPING US!”

Meanwhile, back at the plot…

As for Twilight’s thoughts on demonology, she didn’t have much information to go off of, but she was okay with staying away from such magics. Especially if they started having her act like that disturbed pony. Normally this would have deterred a normal pony from reading more, but Twilight wasn’t a normal pony.

Flipping back to the index section, she scanned the pages until a new spell type caught her eye. One she had heard before, but was very curious as to what this book would have to say about it. Turning to the page number she quietly read to herself.

Necromancy

Necromancy is the art of raising the dead, creating creatures best known as undead. Undead come in many variations from physical to magical. This spell art also includes the manipulation of life force and reading this force. Essentially, Necromancers are the masters of life and death.

This has always been one of the more morally questionable…

MORALLY QUESTIONABLE?! Twilight thought, but nearly shouted out at what she believed to be such an outrageous claim.

…schools that have existed within dark magic. It can be argued that these spells can, under certain circumstances, be seen as abomination against life. However, it was originally conceived with only the best of intentions.

In the days of war when these spells were first created, soldiers would volunteer to be subjugated to necromancy so they could continue to protect their kingdom even in death. When they fell in battle those who agreed would be risen as undead by a nearby necromancer and then they would continue on fighting. Once the battle was over the fallen would be released and then given a proper burial. Slowly though, changes in policies began to shift.

At first, they weren’t too drastic and were seen as necessary. Such as undead soldiers serving till the end of a war before being buried. Later on it became mandatory for all soldiers to be risen should they fall. This then escalated into enemy soldiers being raised to fight for the opposing kingdom.

This was all intended as a means of self-defense, but it quickly escalated as a way of easily conquering other kingdoms and lead to some very vicious wars. This is what caused to necromancy to be seen as such an evil art which is far from the truth.

Due to the stigma against necromancy, giving access to any spells raising the dead would be irresponsible and illegal to boot.

Twilight rolled her eyes seeing as that was a no brainer. Still, she was getting peeved that so many spells were getting excluded from this book, really limiting what she could even learn or do. She was also getting the feeling that maybe dark magic really was too dangerous. That was until, she read what came next.

However, we have included a minor necromancy spell to show that this school did other things besides being a moral dilemma.

Twilight did a double take. They had actually provided a spell from one of the most loathed schools of magic in the whole world. Her sudden mood towards necromancy did a one-eighty. The opportunity was too great to ignore and she just had to see what spell they included within the grimoire.

Eagerly flipping through the pages to where it kept its spells, she found the one labeled as necromancy. She read the description of the magic with great curiosity.

Soul Sight

Allows one to see the very life force of any creature, magical or otherwise.. Remember, blood is life.

It was a very short description, but sounded very intriguing. Twilight hastily studied how to cast the spell. It seemed very simple for the most part, but the only trouble would be casting it with dark magic and casting it normally would be too taxing if not impossible with her current experience.

Twilight decided to concentrate on the memory of fearing that she had failed Celestia’s test when she and her friends had travelled to the Crystal Empire. Her horn bubbled with black energy as her eyes turned red and green with the purple vapor escaping from them. It was a quick cast that caused and odd thrill in her, Twilight felt a bit more courageous and confident in that moment as her spell unleashed.

At first, it seemed nothing had happened. She returned her gaze to the book to double check herself until she noticed a glowing pinkish purple smoke rise into her vision. For a moment Twilight thought she was on fire, but when she looked down she could see the vapor came from all over her. It was like an aura, but she could see it coming from within her body as if she was looking through an x-ray.

A smile tethered onto her face, but then she noticed something else that bewildered her. Within her walls a very light green light flowed like water throughout her room. She had to think for a moment before she figured out what she was seeing. It was the life force of the very tree she lived in.

Her jaw dropped as she gazed at the many streams that ran through her home like a ponies veins. It was one of the most amazing things she’d ever gotten to experience. Almost like looking at the heavenly bodies for the first time. Maybe not as grand, but it didn’t stop this experience from being any less surreal.

She just continued to gaze in wonderment before she saw what looked like a darker green ball of fire lying near her bed. Twilight had to concentrate for a moment before she realized it was Spike, snoozing into the night. She quietly trotted over to him and just watched him with fascination.

The fire just burned before her, calmly. Yet the wood was not set ablaze like fire normally would. Twilight didn’t have a clue what any of this meant exactly, but she couldn’t help that she had a new perspective in a very literal sense.

So caught up in her thoughts she didn’t notice Spike start to stir and yawn. “Hey, Twi,” He stretched out and turned to her while rubbing one of his eyes, “What’cha doin?”

“Oh Spike! Sorry, did I wake you?”

“Nah, I just felt like I was being… watched… is there something up with your eyes?” He asked while still rubbing his own as his vision was still blurry.

Twilight glanced at a mirror and noticed that the dark magic was still persistent within her sight. She quickly dispelled the spell and shook her head while blinking away the effects. The Soul Sight spell began to fade and her eyes returned to normal.

Spike didn’t seem to catch this and Twilight didn’t want him to get worried. She smiled at him as her horn lit up and put away book on dark magic into the desk drawer. Spike noticed this, but he was too tired to really care at the moment. She patted his head and chuckled, “I think it’s time I get to bed too. Have a good night Spike.”

The little dragon just yawned in response and snuggled up in his little basket bed while Twilight got under her covers. She would want to explore more of the book and that spell another time, but for now she needed her rest and didn’t want to draw anymore of the baby dragon’s suspicion.

Canterlot

Celestia popped a few joints as she stretched her wings. She sighed with relief as she got the knots out and let a satisfied half lidded smile trace her face. After finishing up with the dignitaries from Saddle Arabia she just needed to handle a few more small details before she could finally get some well-earned rest.

It was just as she finished her last duty of the night that one of her royal guards approached to her in a hurry and saluted. “Princess!” He shouted in the normal stoic expressionless face that was drilled into them through their rigorous training. However, that emotionless state vanished in an instant as he looked around cautiously before leaning into whisper to her, “Our spies from…” He paused looking around once more to double check that they were alone before continuing, “…Darkmoon have returned.”

As soon as she heard the word Darkmoon her eyes widened, “I wish to talk to them immediately!”

It took almost an hour for a private room to be put together with all her most important guards and individuals who were involved with anything to do with Darkmoon. It was on a need to know bases, and a special section of the guard was devoted to dealing with anything that had to do with that foul Covenant.

Along with the guard select ponies also got to know about the secret sect and help combat them in their own ways. Detective Detail was one of those few along with Giant Wall. The two had become pretty good friends over the past investigation, even if it had been pretty fruitless.

Detail sat at a long square table while Celestia sat halfway between. Wall, was standing still with the other guards, but not too far from the detective. Detail sipped at some strong coffee, his eyes drooping from being woken up at such an indecent hour of the night. He wasn’t the only one; several other ponies were sitting too drinking their own cups of Joe. Everypony sat on the same side of the table as Celestia while her guards were scattered

Standing at the other far side of the room were thirteen ponies dressed in very heavy clothing meant for keeping away the cold. It was understandable as they had to come far from the north past even the Crystal Empire where the world seemed to be in an endless winter.

Some of the more superstitious ponies didn’t like the number that had returned. They knew there were more, a lot more. It was a bit unsettling so few had returned and even fewer still managed to maintain contact with them.

One of the stallions within the group stepped forward. He had the natural colors of the guard, being white and blue, an envy to those who had to have enchantments to look the part. He seemed awfully timid as he approached the group. Most figured he was just nervous about giving his report before so many important ponies and guards.

Celestia nodded to him. “Go ahead,” she said with an encouraging smile.

He managed a small smile before he began, “I…” He coughed and cleared his throat while scratching the scarf that was wrapped tightly around it then continued, “I have a message from the Dark Lord.”

There were a bunch of murmurs and whispers amongst everypony. The fact that he was caught, brought before the Dark Lord and spared was nothing to snuff at. One pony spoke up, “You saw him? What did he look like?!”

The spy shuffled in place biting his lip while scratching his neck again. “I… don’t remember,” He admitted in defeat.

Detail looked at him quizzically, “How can you not remember?”

Before anypony could answer, Celestia filled everypony in, “The Dark Lord is an enigma with a most peculiar power. He, assuming he is even a he, can manipulate the memories of anypony that directly involve him or had his presence within the memory. So, he can choose what you can and cannot remember. Usually, he makes ponies forget what he looks like.”

Detail let out a long whistle before voicing his thoughts, “So, I could have had tea with him today and not even remember? Scary…”

“Yes,” Celestia replied, “He has been incredibly elusive and secretive. Previous reports say that not even the highest ranking members of Darkmoon know who he is. But we’re getting off subject,” She returned her attention to her spy, “What is his message?”

Everypony got a little anxious as he began to deliver the message, “He wanted me to deliver a warning. Should you try to infiltrate the Covenant again, your spies will meet a terrible fate without hope of returning.”

Celestia closed her eyes and nodded, “I’m surprised he even gave a warning and didn’t kill all of you right away,” She smiled at him even though he flinched slightly, “You’ve done well… are you alright?” She noticed his rising anxiety as he avoided her gaze.

“I-I-I’m fine!” he quickly replied in a slightly higher voice, “I’m just eager to get back to my family,” He once again scratched the scarf around his neck, a habit that was becoming more noticeable.

Celestia got up and walked around the long table to approach the timid pony. He winced as she approached him, a behavior she found most odd. She placed one of her golden laced hooves on his shoulder and he stopped shaking. Giving him her warmest smile she said, “I can’t thank you enough for the work you’ve done,” He started ease up at her words and relax, “You should go be with your family now.”

He was very eager to obey her words, but then her smile fell and she placed the side of her hoof against his forehead. With a frown she asked, “Are you well? You feel cold.”

A few coughs escaped him and he replied, “I might have caught a bug, but I’ll be fine. Just need lots of rest is all,” he gave her a sheepish smile and he scratched his neck again. Celestia kept her eyes on him and looked at the scarf around his neck. She just stared at it and waited and sure enough he scratched the area again and even tried to tighten the wool scarf.

Her horn lit up and a golden glow surrounded the scarf that covered him. His eyes widened to the size of plates as the pupils shrunk while he became frozen in terror. Celestia carefully removed the cloth. The aura quickly dissipated when she finally saw what he was hiding and she backed up in horror with her wings extending defensively.

Other ponies began to get a good view and they too were in shock. A large gaping cut had been sliced right through his neck, yet no blood flowed from it. A quick life detecting spell from one of the unicorn guards confirmed everypony’s suspicions as he announced the horrible truth, “He’s undead.”

Weapons were drawn immediately from all of her guards as they surrounded the terrified unliving stallion. They were ready to strike him down at a moments noticed, but unexpectedly Celestia’s voice rang through the hall, “Sheathe your weapons!”

All the guards looked at her with questioning confusion, but obeyed her orders when they saw the determined look on her face. They would not question her judgment and began to back away from the now former spy.

Celestia slowly approached the trembling undead pony with a look of pity. She let out a deep sigh and asked, “What is your name?”

“S-S-Silent B-B-Buckler,” He stammered out, his eyes still dilated in fear.

The next thing Celestia did surprised everypony there. She hugged him, wrapping her wings around him with his back faced to her causing him a sense of warmth and safety. He was stunned by this action, but started to ease up and relax. Celestia then leaned down and whispered softly into his ear, “You mentioned you have a family. Please tell me about them.”

Buckler complied and answered, “My wife and… my daughter. She’s been eager for me to return. And my little girl is turning three this month,” tears started to stroll down his eyes, a possibility only through the magic that kept him “alive”, he then went on, “She’s missed her daddy and I promised I’d be there for her birthday…”

Celestia smiled warmly at this as her horn started to glow, “I want you to close your eyes and keep those thoughts about your family. Don’t let go of them, no matter what.”

He nodded and did as she told, for a moment he was at peace. The thoughts of his family bringing him tranquility in this trying time. However, as quickly as that happiness came it was then snuffed out in an instant by a wave of pain that erupted through him.

Buckler coughed up what blood he had left in him and he looked down as the pain quickly vanished along with his remaining life. A gold spear of light was now pierced through his heart. He managed to turn his head to look at Celestia whose horn was still glowing gold. Fresh tears strolled down her cheeks and her smile very forced. It was one of the rare few moments where her façade faltered.

The spell was meant to finish him off quickly, but he had managed to linger on a little while longer after she unleashed it. The look of betrayal in his eyes broke the goddess’ heart as he whispered out with his last breath, “But… why?”

His vision faded and the spell binding his soul to undeath finally relinquished and his corpse fell to the floor silently. The ponies that had seen this remained silent and dipped their heads offering respect to the poor soldier. All of them except Detail, who began to trot around the table and to Celestia.

The distraught mare sighed as she wiped some tears from her eyes, “I was trying to make his last moments to be a happy one, but I couldn’t even grant him that. At least… it’s over now.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, princess,” Detail said as he trotted right up next to her.

She looked at him and noticed that he wasn’t even looking at the corpse of Buckler. Celestia followed his gaze to see he was looking at the twelve other spies that had returned with him. It took her a moment to realize that instead of weeping like the rest of them, they were cowering in fear like a cornered animal. Some of them were crying, but it seemed to stem from the very terror they were experiencing.

At first she didn’t understand why this was their reaction. That was until a terrible thought came to her. As she began to cast a spell, she quietly begged and pleaded to the universe for her to be wrong about this. Of course a certain necromancer would tell you, the universe isn’t kind to anypony. Not even a goddess.

After her spell was cast, all Celestia could do was close her eyes in despair. “They’re… they’re all undead,” she said, pointing at her once living spies with her regal hoof. Once she uttered those words her guards surrounded the group in an instant.

She watched as they closed in on the scared ponies before her eyes widened in realization, “Wait!” she began to point out specific ponies, “Him, her, and her! They’re still alive!” A bit of hope entered her breast that a few had been spared of any horrid inflictions.

A few guards nodded to each other and started to pull the still living ones out. The stallion left quietly along with one of the mares, but the other cling desperately to one of the undead stallions. As she was forcibly separated from him, who Celestia assumed to be her lover, the stallion tried to go after her, but one guard pointed an enchanted silver tipped spear at him and he cringed back while boring sharp canines at the guard. He was a vampire or a vampony if you wanted to be specific.

Just about any creature could be inflicted with the vampirism, also known as nosferatu. The word vampire was used to describe any being that had the disease. Due to ponies being the most common species of vampires, a slang term was developed to describe a pony who was a vampire which was vampony. It became very popular amongst Equestrian citizens. Thus most of them used the term vampony instead of vampire.

The three living were put off to the side, two of them comforting the one that had been unwillingly removed from the group. The mare crying her heart out and Celestia could only look at her with pity. She turned her attention back to the group as they were forced into a tight circle as they were surrounded by guards.

Of the undead, a few seemed to accept their fate and just laid down waiting for the blow to end their existence in the mortal coil. It didn’t stop them from recoiling or bare their fangs defensively when any enchanted silver weapon came close to them. That was an instinctive reaction.

Unfortunately, much to Celestia’s dismay, some were choosing to stand and fight. Their will to live, so to speak, was far greater than to be freed from the abominations they had become. They stood in a fighting stance, even willing to protect their kin who seemed to accept their end. It was ultimately a folly, they were surrounded by royal guards with Celestia herself ready to trot in and do the deed herself should it be needed.

Her knights were ready for anything, their weapons drawn and pointed threateningly at their former comrades. They wouldn’t be surprised, for they were trained for this and were familiar with how to combat these creatures. Nothing would get the drop on them… that is unless an attack came from outside the circle.

It was when one of the guards pointed his magic infused silver spear at the vampony again that the growl was heard. It was a low and threatening and resembled that of a dog. The pony turned his head and the last thing he remembered seeing was the sharp canines that aimed right at his unprotected neck. The scream that followed shook the room to its core and all were thankful that a dampening spell had been cast to prevent outsiders from hearing.

Standing defensively before vampony was what looked like a wolf, but not quite a wolf. While she had the features of one such as long fur, sharp teeth, paws, and a wet nose, the body shape was much more equine than any canine should be. It didn’t take long for Celestia and the others to realize that it was the same mare from before, but now as a werepony.

The name werepony was a bit inaccurate as it suggested one who would turn into part pony. However, like vampony, it was just a slang that evolved within the equine society.

Celestia felt her hope wane, she thought that Darkmoon had been merciful, but instead had given her the dirty work of finishing off her little ponies. She glanced at the other two ponies she thought had been spared where a few of her guards were already surrounding assuming the worst as well. She saw them look at each other before they quickly shifted into wolves’ right before her very eyes.

Another low growl was heard from the werepony who was now protecting her lover, blood dripping from her teeth as her eyes darted to and fro at her former allies. The guard at her paws struggled to keep breathing, he was probably infected, but if he was treated soon he wouldn’t become a lycan.

With a nod from Celestia, the bloodbath began.

To sum up the fight, it was a one-sided slaughter. The guards were better equipped, outnumbered them, and had a goddess on their side. Some of them were wounded, but they were well trained while their spy’s were not meant to see such combat. Eventually only the one werepony was left.

She was sitting and sobbing over the body of her now permanently dead lover. Her will to go on had disappeared. The guards were ready to deal the final blow, but were still cautious just in case her instincts decided to kick in. Before Celestia could give the final order though, the former pony spoke up with growl, “Why?”

Celestia perked up and got just a bit closer to her as she continued to wail out her sorrow, “Why couldn’t we have just been left alone? Why couldn’t you have let us go? What did we ever do?” her tears stained her fur and fell onto her lovers’ coat.

The princess sighed heavily as she gave an answer, “You know fully well that couldn’t happen. You both are monsters now, unable to completely control yourselves. You're just confused by your recent transformation,” Celestia approached hoping to end her with what little bit of pony she had left in her.

However, the goddess was taken aback by what was replied to her, “Monsters? Confused? Recent transformation?! I’ve been like this for three years you fat flank cow!” She looked up and her cold yellows eyes bored into her with terrible malice as she bared her teeth.

Three years?! Celestia thought as she flinched at the stare while subconsciously glancing back at her flank with a grimace. She’d been trying so hard to lay off the cake…

The mare wolf went back to sobbing, “He still loved me after I changed all those years ago. He’s been like this for half that time and I still loved him when he became this. We never hurt anypony… we never hurt anypony…”

Celestia carefully got closer, believing she was too far gone to be saved, “What about now though? You just attacked us.”

“Self-defense,” She answered as an excuse, “I wasn’t going to let them hurt him…”

“And how many more have you attacked or killed in so called self-defense? How many to keep the truth hidden?” Celestia said more adamantly.

The mare was silent at the questions and that silence told Celestia all she needed to know. She was ready to end this, but then the mare spoke up again, “They were right….”

“Hmm?”

“The Darkmoon Covenant. They were right about you,” Celestia couldn’t see it, but she smiled devilishly at her fallen lover. The mare chuckled out, “You are a‒” suddenly, like lighting she lunged for Celestia’s throat.

Thankfully for Celestia, the guards had been ready for such a thing and the wolf mare only managed to get herself impaled onto a spear. The princess just stared at her in horror as she wheezed out her last words, “–a monster…”

The last of the life left her eyes and her body slumped. She was carefully set down as Celestia tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. Her façade slowly returning as the room went silent for their fallen brethren.

“Captain,” Celestia ordered calmly, causing one of the soldiers to salute. She had hoped it wouldn’t have come to this, but now she saw no other choice. Desperate times called for desperate measures. “It seems Darkmoon is no longer going to ignore us. I never thought I’d need their help again, but…” She calmly inhaled and exhaled as she gave her next command. A command that caused the room to tense up, “Contact The Order…”

Author's Note

I had a lot of fun writing the history and the rules for how dark magic works. Wanna know what I didn't have fun with? Formatting! Oh god, what a pain. I wasn't sure how I would tackle about what was written in the book and Twilight's thoughts, but then realized they had the quote option over here on FimFiction. Love that, but still took a long time.

Next update might be me going back and editing my chapters I didn't proofread. Fix up some grammar add a scene or two. As for the next chapter were shifting focus to Deimos! About time you all got more intimate with that perverted bug in a rug!

Ch12: Fools 'n Ghosts

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch12: Fools ’n Ghosts

The world burned.

An all-consuming flame.

Nothing was spared.

Hope was abandoned.

Happiness eradicated.

Love consumed.

Innocence incinerated.

As the monster who controlled this inferno dealt the final blow, a child calls out in vain…

“MOMMY!”

Julius’ eyes shot open and his pupils darted in all directions. It was dark and his breath was quick and heavy. Sweat matted his coat as his heart raced at a mile a minute. After a few seconds he began to settle down as he started to recall where he was. He closed his eyes and took one last deep breath to calm himself before he opened them again.

“You okay?” A voice asked from next to Julius, startling him for a moment.

He turned slightly to see the glowing red eyes of Femme. His response was shaky at best, “Y-Yeah. Just… a nightmare is all.”

Femme grimaced, noticing the bags under his eyes and she leaned in to nuzzle him. “Which one?” she asked with concern.

Julius frowned at the question. It was bad enough to have a reoccurring nightmare, but it was even worse to have more than one. The answer he gave was quick and short, “The fire.”

No more needed to be said as Femme pulled Julius’ head under her chin and she began to cuddle and hug him in an attempt to soothe his fears. She held him like that for a few minutes until she started to feel one of her cravings. Soon Femme was at Julius’ neck with her fangs bared as she was prepped to take what she needed.

Julius was caught off guard at first, but didn’t fight her as he closed his eyes prepped himself. However, the fangs never came. He still felt her there, hovering over his neck. Her hunger was palpable and with her current diet the cravings were getting worse.

The slight hiss of her canines retracting caused Julius to open one eye as Femme breathed deeply to control herself. Not that he could see her that well with it being as dark as it was.

Femme looked at him and smiled as she got up to his ear and whispered sensually into it, “I’m going to go get myself a snack. You try and get some rest. If you’re not asleep by the time I get back… well… I know one way to tucker you out.” She giggled and Julius started to smile. There was no way he was going to fall asleep before she got back with a promise like that.

“Alright, I’ll try and… rest up,” Julius said as he closed his eyes.

Femme just smiled while she pushed the lid on the coffin askew, allowing her to get out. Say what you will about the creepiness of sleeping in one of those caskets, but Julius would be the first to admit that they’re pretty damn comfy, especially with a warm body next to you.

Leaving the lid open to allow some fresh air, Femme slipped out into the darkness of her room before she began to make her way through the halls to their kitchen. While her room was currently without lighting, the halls were lit with a soft blue light that matched the similarly colored walls and the simple carpet made up of blues and violets.

The halls themselves were empty except for the occasional skeleton patrolling or cleaning. They would give her a cursory glance when she got near before returning back to their duties. After a while one would barely notice that they are there.

It was only a few turns before she was in the kitchen that had only the base necessities along with the extra fridge that held her blood bags. She trotted past the round kitchen table that could sit up to six, but only had four chairs at this time and over to her freezer. She opened it up and reached for the nearest bag, not caring what she got. Honestly, she loved Julius’ blood more than anything she usually had. He was of the valuable O negative and that was always her favorite.

While most creatures taste was determined by their tongue, vampires were affected by their own blood type. Just like blood transfusions, where certain blood types are only compatible with other specific types, the taste of blood was determined in a similar way for vampires. Even though they can still drink any kind, they will have a preference to ones that match as those tended to taste better and while the scent was considered to be an aphrodisiac as well.

Femme was an AB positive which made her a connoisseur on taste and she always found that O was the best in flavor and most others would agree. As for the positive and negative it was like comparing red wine and white wine. It comes down to mostly personal preference and there are some who enjoy both or only like one or the other.

As Femme finished her musings, she turned around and was ready to bite into her snack until she caught an unusual sight. The chairs had been stacked on top of the table going one, then two, and then the last one on top. All of it perfectly balanced with absolutely no sign of it about to topple over.

She then jumped as the drawers and cabinets started to open and slam shut while a long moan echoed through the room. Femme just continued to stare at the spectacle until the walls started to bleed crimson blood. She was starting to drool when she saw that, only to be disappointed when she realized it wasn't real due to the lack of any scent.

With a grumble, Femme yelled out, “Ecto, will you stop with the bleeding walls?! It’s making me hungry!”

Everything halted and the walls returned to normal then Ecto’s voice could faintly be heard saying, “…Sorry.”

Femme sighed and was about to let go, but then she stepped into something green, clear, and slimy. She looked down and blanched at her hoof as she tried to shake it off. “Eww, yuck! What have I told you about leaving ectoplasm in the house? I’m gonna have to have a talk with Julius about this.”

There was childish groan from Ecto and Femme frowned as she trotted off with her bag being held in her mouth. Julius wouldn’t be too happy to find that she wasn’t in the mood anymore.

Well, Femme was right about Julius not being ecstatic. In fact, he was downright grumpy and irritable. Though that might have been because she dragged him away from bed to help her get the kitchen chairs off the table and so they could discuss Ecto. Speaking of the ghost, she was sitting in one of the chairs while Julius and Femme sat across from each other.

“We have to talk about this. I’m getting fed up with Ecto haunting the place,” Femme said as took a bite into her blood bag and began to drain it.

Julius stared half-lidded at her with his fore hooves on the table and his head resting on them. A cup of coffee was just a short reach from him with the words, “#1 Necromancer” written on it. He had yet to touch it though as he wanted to enjoy it with the pancakes an undead skeleton was fixing for them.

“What’s there to even talk about? She’s a ghost and you know as well as I do that haunting a place is just how they mark their territory. It’s an itch she gets sometimes and she needs to scratch it. No harm done. At least she’s not peeing on anything.”

“I can do that?” Ecto couldn’t help, but ask. However, her inquiry was quickly quelled by a hard glare from Julius and Femme before they returned their attention to each other.

“Yeah, well it’s starting to annoy me. She was making fake blood drip from the walls earlier and that was making me hungry and that’s the last thing either of us needs right now.” Femme had stopped drinking from her bag to say this and when she went back to it she was draining it even faster.

Julius sighed and turned to Ecto. “Ecto, do you promise to stop making blood drip from the walls?”

The ghost filly looked up at him and nodded while saying, “Yes.”

“There we go, problem solved.”

“Julius! It’s not just the walls. I’m tired of finding that ectoplasm lying around too and rearranged furniture. I want her to stop haunting this place!” Femme frowned at him.

Julius groaned. “Femme, I can’t just make her stop.”

“I know that. That’s why I’ve thought on it and I have a suggestion.”

“I’m all ears.”

Femme smiled at Ecto and said, “I think we, and by ‘we’ I mean you, should find Ecto her own place to haunt.”

Ecto let out a loud gasp and she quickly hugged Femme, earning a warm smile from her. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!”

The fanfare was cut short by Julius as he firmly said, “No.”

Ecto face fell and Femme glared at him with shock. “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“I don’t want her haunting someplace by herself. I want her to be where I know she’s safe. There’s nothing wrong with her haunting here.”

Ecto got doe-eyed on him as she pouted, but he remained stern. Femme just scowled at his stubbornness, but his mind was made up. She sighed and then asked, “Then what do you suggest?”

“I’m not suggesting anything. She’s been good with where she’s haunting now and I don’t see any reason to change that.” Julius smiled as the undead set the pancakes down in front of him and he began to stand up and head to one of the cabinets.

Femme turned to him as he passed by. “Don’t her antics bother you in the least? Wouldn’t it be nice to have her out of here once in a while?”

“Not really,” Julius replied as he started to open the top cabinets with his magic. “While it would be kind of nice to have the place to ourselves, this is why we have separate rooms.”

As the door swung open Julius found himself staring face to face with Ecto’s head. Her eye sockets were empty and pitch black with blood dripping out of them and her mouth hung open, unhinged from the jaw.

Julius screamed out, “Oh my goddess… we’re out of syrup! How am I supposed to have pancakes without– oh wait there it is, false alarm.” Julius pulled out the syrup bottle and shut the door while blissfully ignorant to what he had just seen.

Femme just gave him a deadpanned stare as he walked back to his seat and Ecto floated out of the aforementioned cabinet with a look of annoyance. “I’m starting to see why she doesn’t annoy you.”

As the ignorant necromancer began to dig into his breakfast and drink his coffee, Femme continued to try and persuade him of her approach. “I know we all have separate rooms Julius, but what if she haunts them too?”

Julius swallowed some of his food and then dismissed her with a wave of his hoof. “She knows better than that. Isn’t that right Ecto?” he asked this with a hard glare.

Not wanting to get grounded, Ecto nodded and replied, “Yes sir.”

“See?” Julius said with a grin.

“I’m not convinced, Julius.”

He groaned out and then turned back to Ecto. “Ecto, are you haunting Femme’s room?”

“No.”

“Are you haunting my room?”

“No.”

“Are you haunting the shop upstairs?”

“No.”

Julius’ eyes narrowed. “Are you haunting the dungeon?”

“Which one?” she asked with a cock of her head.

“The one me and Femme use,” Julius replied quickly.

Ecto’s ears perked up, “Oh, you mean your bondage dungeon?”

Julius closed his eyes and sighed. “… Yes… that one…”

“No, I stay out of that one. By the way, what’s a bondage dungeon?” She asked inquisitively.

“I’ll… tell you when you’re older.”

“But I’m older than you!” Ecto whined out.

Julius’ ears folded back at that remark. “When you’re more mature, then.”

“In comparison to you she doesn’t have far to go,” Femme quipped.

Julius just growled back at her for a moment before saying, “I think I’ve proven my point though. She’s staying out of the places she knows to keep away from. So, I don’t see a problem.”

Femme looked over to Ecto and asked, “Ecto, honey, are you haunting Julius’ study?”

Ecto swallowed nervously. “Umm… n-no…”

Julius nearly choked on his coffee and he coughed some of it up before he looked at her in horror. “Ecto…”

The little filly tried to sink in her chair and with some success since she could phase right through it. “I… might have done something in there…”

Julius eyes widened and he knocked his chair over while getting up and scrambling out of the kitchen, nearly tripping while repeating to himself, “No, no, no, no, no!”

He made a beeline down the hall to his private study where all his work and research took place. A few spells to unlock the door, which he would have to reinforce later to make sure a ghost like Ecto couldn’t get in, and he rushed inside.

Julius’ study space was very elegant when compared to most of the others he had used before. This one was a large room with plenty of book shelves, a back room with alchemy supplies, a skeleton model made from real bones, and a magnificent desk and chair made from mahogany. Not just any mahogany though, but it was made from the trees found within the demon realm that could grow over a hundred feet tall and could breathe fire! Also, it was a very fine material.

However, none of that mattered at this moment. The only thing that caught Julius attention was what was in the center of the room. Stacked neatly all the way to the ceiling was all of his books. They were perfectly balanced in the way that only ghosts seem capable of doing. Julius frowned at the sight, but sighed in relief at it not being as bad as he had thought.

Femme and Ecto walked in behind him. Ecto looked guiltily at him while Femme smiled smugly. “So, you sure you don’t want to find her somewhere else to haunt?”

Julius harrumphed and turned to Ecto. “Ecto, I keep some very dangerous stuff in here that could very well do you harm because they contain magic. I want you to stay out of here unless I give you permission to enter. Understand?”

Ecto looked to the ground and nodded. “I understand.”

“Good,” he said as he gave her an approving pat on the head and a smile. Julius turned back to Femme to glare at her once more and then trotted over to his books. “She stays here, Femme. Now I don’t want any more talk of this. I have to concentrate on making that tea to curb your appetite.”

Femme just sighed seeing that his overprotective stubbornness was going to win out. She smiled sadly at Ecto and gave her an apologetic hug at how disappointing all of this was.

Julius regarded the books until he found the one he had checked out of the Ponyville library and he carefully pulled it out and set the books back down on their pile. Satisfied with the book he turned back to the two of them. “I know this is a bit upsetting, but it’s for the best.”

“Can you at least think it over?” Femme requested.

“No Femme, my mind is made up.”

“But Julius…”

Julius stomped his hoof. “No Femme!”

“Uh, Julius…”

“No!”

“But–“

“I said no!” He stomped his hoof one more time and that was when he noticed the shadow looming over him. Julius glanced behind him as he saw the pile of books tumbling his way. All he managed to say was, “Ponyfeathers…”

Ecto and Femme winced as Julius was crushed under all of his books. They quickly rushed over and dug him out. As they got the final book off him and he once again had book bruises for the second time, he looked between the two of them and finally lamented, “I’ll… keep an eye out for some place she can haunt…”

A few hours later Julius was rummaging through the local forest. Not the Everfree, but close to it. He was examining a root with his magic before he stuffed it carefully in his herbal saddle bag. It was good practice to have a separate bag for collecting herbs along with multiple pouches and to wash it out after gathering.

As Julius picked up another herb he grumbled under his breath, “Stupid Femme, where am I gonna find some place abandoned?”

Julius trudged through some bushes before stopping and picking up another ingredient. Some of the things he collected were needed for Femme’s tea, but others he could use with his alchemy hobby and anything left over he could just sell for 100% profit. Unfortunately, even the thought of actually have some money to spare wouldn’t stop his sour mood.

“What does she expect me to do?” he continued to complain. “That I’ll just happen to wander onto some abandoned mansion in the woods?!”

A sigh escaped him as he continued to forage for more ingredients. At least he was having some pretty good luck with collecting ingredients. It was a somewhat nice change from his usual misfortune that always seemed to want to kick him while he’s down.

“I wish it was that easy…”

It was at that moment the universe decided to throw Julius a bone as he exited into a clearing. Before him was a torn stone wall and passed what was left of it was a decrypt, boarded up mansion with a yard that was overgrown with weeds and tall grass. It looked like no one had lived in it for years and nature had slowly reclaimed it. It was possibly the influence from the Everfree Woods which wasn’t too far from there, but to a much lesser effect.

Julius just stared blankly and dumbfounded at his discovery. His mind was trying to comprehend what had just happened. After a moment of thought he then yelled out, “And I wish I had a million bits drop right in front of me!” He looked up to the sky as he tapped his fore hooves together and grinned with a little ray of hope. However, nothing came of it and he was quickly disappointed. A sigh escaped him as he mumbled, “You only ever get one…”

With nothing left to be hopeful for, Julius approached the mansion to give it a closer look. As he suspected, no one was living there and it didn’t exactly say welcome. It was ominous, it was creepy, and it practically screamed “No Trespassing”. It… was… perfect!

Julius would have to discuss it with Femme and give the place a more thorough once over, but at a glance this looked like it was what they were looking for. With this they could get more space and keep Ecto happy while not undermining her haunting urges.

Now that that was out of the way, Julius could return back to his herb hunting…

Femme Fatale slowly licked her lips as she sat at the edge of her seat. Her eyes carefully graced every word of her novel with high anticipation as the story began to get more and more intense as the two lovers’ secret was becoming harder to keep hidden.

However, just as things were getting good, Femme’s ears folded back as they began to pick up the clip clop of hooves from outside. Of all the times for a customer to come in this had to be… the… absolute… worst!

Femme remained calm though, even as the door to the shop opened. Maybe they would browse for a while? Maybe they wouldn’t need her help? Maybe she would be able to continue to read her story without being inter–

“Excuse me!”

Dammit.

Femme put on a fake, faint smile as she set her novel down. It quickly became more genuine as she saw the lovely alabaster unicorn before her. She could only wonder what would bring Rarity here as she asked, “May I help you?”

“Oh, pardon my interruption, but I couldn’t help noticing what book you were reading. I had just finish reading that story not too long ago and I was wondering where you’re at?” Rarity asked with curiosity.

Femme had to blink in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting somepony to walk in who was interested in one of her trashy romance novels. This was a very pleasant finding. “Oh, well I just got to the night of the masquerade!”

Rarity clopped her fore hooves together. “Ooo, that’s such a good part! You will love it! That actually inspired me to start designing some dresses for a masquerade ball. Speaking of which…” Rarity took a glance around and saw what she had come to buy. She pulled out a book from one of the shelves with her magic and brought it over to the front counter. “I believe this is the book Twilight recommended me picking up.”

Femme examined the book and saw that it was on advanced techniques for sewing and dress making with magic. “So, you’re a seamstress?” Femme asked as she looked up the price of the book before Rarity could pay her.

“Why yes, and those Masquerade dresses are a little side project I’m working on,” Rarity answered while beaming with pride.

Femme sighed with a sense of nostalgia. “Ah, that brings me back to the masquerade balls back in Trotsylvania. Those were always so wonderful and romantic. I hope I get to go to another one sometime soon,” she swooned.

“Hey now, that gives me an idea! Why don’t I make you such a dress for the occasion?”

Femme gasped. “Oh, that would be lovely, but I simply couldn’t afford your services.”

“Who said anything about paying darling? This would be on me. I’d be happy to make something for you,” Rarity said, batting her eyelashes.

Femme licked her lips and smiled at those pretty eyes, but shook her head. “I-I couldn’t… I wouldn’t feel right if you did all of that for nothing in return.”

Rarity got a mischievous smile on her face. “Well, what if you did me a favor and you model a few dresses for me? You have a figure that I would love to use for a few designs!”

Femme giggled as she thought about it and it didn’t take her long to decide. “Well, I suppose I could offer my services in exchange for a lovely dress. It is a very… generous offer after all.”

“Excellent! Once I get back from a little outing how about you come to my boutique and I’ll get you fitted?”

“Sounds good, but do you mind if we do the fitting… after sundown?” Femme asked with a hint of concern.

Rarity looked at her queerly, but only shrugged. “Well, if that’s more convenient for you, I don’t mind.”

After paying for her book, Rarity started heading out. As she exited she called back, “I look forward to it. Wait till you see yourself in the mirror. You won’t recognize yourself!”

“Yes, I look forward to seeing myself in… the… mirror…” Femme suddenly frowned. “Oh… horse apples.”

“I can’t thank you enough for the help Zecora,” Julius said to the zebra shaman as he picked up another herb.

She smiled with delight as she picked up her own foliage. “Tis my pleasure, to help search for herbal treasure. I’m glad to help get your friend’s cravings sated, but based on the list of ingredients I suggest you stay hydrated,” Zecora grinned slyly as she said that.

Before Julius could ask what she meant by that he then heard the sound of a cart’s wheels begin to approach from the nearby road. Both of them turned to see a little white unicorn filly with a purple and pink mane pulling a wooden cart filled with a tower of luggage being led by Rarity. They were also accompanied by Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and two more fillies. One was a yellow earth pony with a big pink bow and the other was an orange chicken… no wait; it was just a pegasi with tiny wings. It was easy mistake to make.

As Julius contemplated if certain child labor laws were being broken, the three mares and the Cutie Mark Crusaders gave him and Zecora a wave which they both returned, although Julius’s was halfheartedly.

“Howdy Zecora and howdy… Mr. Grave,” Applejack greeted with less enthusiasm than she started with when she noticed it was Julius that was with Zecora.

Julius ignored Applejack’s despondent hello while Zecora greeted everyone. He simply went back to picking herbs when a thought occurred to him. He promptly stepped forward, quick to interrupt their friendly greetings.

“Excuse me, I hate to be a bother, but by chance do you happen to know anything about that run down mansion in the woods?”

“That old thing?” Applejack blinked and then answered. “It’s been there for years. Granny said some noble built it there a long time ago, but abandoned it for some unknown reason. Nopony’s bothered it ever since.”

Rainbow Dash then interjected herself into the conversation, “Yeah, well some ponies say the place is haunted!” She waved her hooves in the air in a lame silly show to be spooky. This got the three fillies behind them to whisper something between each other that none of the adults could really hear.

“Please, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Rarity said with a scoff at such nonsense.

Julius had to resist every urge to smile or snicker at their statement and how great that news was. If everypony already thought the place was haunted then what was the problem with a ghost actually haunting it?

“Say, why are ya so interested in that ol’ place?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow.

Julius was brought back from his thoughts. “Hmm, oh… no reason.”

Applejack narrowed her eyes as he face scrunched up and she rubbed her chin with her hoof. This caused Julius to stare at her indignantly. “What?”

“What what?” she parroted in surprise.

“Why do you keep giving me that look?”

Applejack became confused. “What look?”

“You know, your ‘I think you’re lying’ look,” Rainbow Dash quipped as she hovered in the air. “I see you give that to ponies all the time. Heck, I see you give me that look at least once a week.”

Julius stared at Applejack with a frown, maintaining the gaze without blinking. He waited patiently for some kind of response to be caught red hoofed.

Rainbow earned a glare from Applejack as she readdressed Julius. “Okay, fine, I think you’re lying and I think you’ve been doing it a lot. If you don’t mind me sayin, but I’ve been finding you mighty suspicious. Worst of all I’m havin trouble picking the lies from the truths and I’m not one for liking liars,” she got closer as she began to confront him finally. It had been bothering her for a while, but Julius and Rainbow finally lit the fuse.

Julius scowled and he stepped closer into a bush as he got into her face to return the stare down. “What’s it matter? So, maybe I’m interested in that mansion. What of it? It’s my business and I don’t have to tell you anything. Am I not allowed to have a few secrets or privacy as long as it doesn’t hurt anypony?”

Applejack averted her gaze downward for a moment as he made a decent point. He was right on what he claimed, even if she didn’t like how he tended to lie about a lot of things. However, by showing the slightest sign of submission Julius, being a spiteful pony, decided to make one last stab at her and rub salt in the wound. “But, if you’re so desperate for me to be honest then how about this? I think the food you make from your apples is awful.”

Applejack’s jaw suddenly hanged open and she actually gasped slightly at the blasphemy she just heard. The other ponies actually backed up a bit not wanting to be anywhere near Julius seeing him as a soon to be casualty. Meanwhile, Applejack was trying to figure out what was more shocking; the fact he made such a claim or that she didn’t sense him lying when he said it.

To her credit, Applejack took a deep calming breath and let out slowly as she narrowed her eyes at him and let the apple comment slide. “Fine. You make a fair point. However, there’s one last thing I’d like to say to you if you’ll let me.”

Julius just shrugged as he smiled smugly at her. “It’s not like I can stop you.”

“All I want to say is… your standing in poison ivy,” Applejack deadpanned.

Julius blinked and looked down at the brush with leaves, but then laughed, “Ha, that’s not poison ivy!”

“He’s right,” Zecora commented as she looked at the leaves. “It isn’t poison ivy and thankfully it isn’t poison joke. It’s actually just plain old poison oak!”

“Yeah!” Julius yelled into Applejack’s face victoriously for the worst possible reason.

“…”

“…Wait, what?” Julius looked to Zecora and then reexamined the leaves again before frowning deeply. He looked back to Zecora for help and asked, “Zecora, do you happen to have some of that medicine on you?”

“I’m sorry, but you’re in a rut. I left any salve back at my hut.”

His ears folded back and he looked at the other mares and asked, “Where’s the nearest pharmacy?”

“Other side of Ponyville, dear,” Rarity generously answered while pointing her hoof back to the town.

Julius sighed dejectedly. “Of course it is,” he commented dryly as he trotted out of the bush and as he went down the road, he would occasionally hop from leg to leg as he started to scratch himself.

“What a weird-o,” Rainbow Dash said as she watched him leave.

Rarity hummed. “He is a bit of an… oddball.”

Applejack just harrumphed and asked, “Do you think the food my family makes is bad?”

“Oh, of course not! I don’t know what he’s talking about. I think your apple fritters are absolutely delish!” Rarity said in her usual posh attitude.

“Yeah, your family’s cooking is awesome! Not as awesome as me, but still pretty close.” Rainbow Dash grinned.

Applejack smiled and then began to lead everyone into the forest, leaving Zecora alone to once again to go about her business as usual.

Author's Note

Finally finished up this chapter after having it mostly done for a long while! Bit of a filler chapter, but I'm setting up some exposition for later. Maybe you'll catch some of it?

I thought about adding a scene with someone spying on Zecora after everyone had left, but it didn't feel right to have so I cut it completely.

I liked how I finally was able to get something more solid in the story where it shows that Applejack and Julius dislike one another. I hope to expand on this in future chapters beyond just her able to faintly detect his lies. Hope you all enjoy!

3/17/2015: Fixed a few small grammatical errors that were pointed out to me.

Ch13: Lucky Cricket

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch13: Lucky Cricket

“Show me seven!”

Two red dice rolled and clacked as they spun across a craps table. They eventually slowed down to a stop, landing on four and three. This elicited a loud cheer from the gathered ponies that stood around the table causing the fellow casino patrons to momentarily turn towards the noise before quickly disregarding them and returning back to their own gambling.

Deimos clopped his hooves together as he chuckled while his winnings were passed over to him. His current disguise was that of a black unicorn with short, spiked turquoise hair and matching eyes, although they were partially hidden by some shades. He was also wearing a red tropical shirt with yellow flowers dotted over it that only went down to his midriff. Anyone would be able to see his cutie mark that was of two large, red dice and a skeleton key that would give a phallic appearance at first glance.

Deimos, or rather his current alias Lucky Locke, had arrived at the casino about a week ago, but after a lot of distractions and some procrastination, he finally decided to make his move and gamble away what little bits he had.

He started with a few warm ups, beginning with blackjack, slots, and then a lucky call with a roulette wheel. Eventually, he decided to draw in a crowd at the craps table where others could participate. The thing about casinos that he enjoyed so much was how much love and fear he could soak up in one place. First there was the terror as everypony would watch with anticipation at a risky bet. Then there was the euphoric joy that would wash over after a high stakes call was made and paid off.

Since he had been calling out everything correctly, more ponies started to make the same bets as him. This meant the joy they felt at their winnings kept on coming. However, they still felt a tinge of fear when he rolled the dice as they questioned how long his luck would hold up.

Around the table there was a wide variety of ponies. From nobles, to vacationers, all the way to the gambling addicts. Nopony was going to judge because it was all about the fun and excitement. Deimos even caught sight of Fancy Pants and his wife, Le Fluer, who he would sneak a quick look at her plot when neither of them was noticing.

Deimos grinned and reached out with his magic to pick up the red dice and dropped them into brown cup he had in his hoof and started to shake it around while placing his next bet. The casino had some strict rules with magic; rolling of the dice had to be done with only ones hooves or using the cup that Deimos was currently shaking. This was to prevent any potential cheating. The place was even filled with beefy security guards looking out for any horns lighting up or other familiar tactics. As per usual, the house always wins.

With a flick of his hoof he tipped the cup over and shouted, “Show me seven!” The dice landed with a one and six and the crowd cheered again while a huge grin plastered his face.

The dealer across from Deimos just looked on in disbelief. He never seen anypony so lucky with calls before and security had taken notice, but nothing appeared out of place as far as any of them could tell. Besides his ungodly luck that is. Deimos horn was never alit during rolls except when to place his bed and no other pony was lighting theirs in any way that looked out of the ordinary. There was no way he could be cheating.

But he was.

If there was one thing Deimos was really good at, it was charms and curses. That’s why he had waited so long to start his gambling. Deimos had to scout every corner of the casino to find where exactly he had to lay his curses to point everything into his favor. They had to be perfectly correlated so they would strike the charm to give the worse luck to the dealer and all the favor to him.

And what was this charm he had? Well, you might try asking him about his “lucky” shades…

Deimos looked at the small fortune he had amassed along with his faithful followers. Each of them was ready to make the same bet as him. All were eager to hear his next wager.

Everypony chattered and celebrated with the free drinks passed around by the waitresses while talking amongst themselves. However, it all came to a dead silence when Deimos held up his hooves asking for peace.

Time to go big!

He pushed every chip he had forward and proclaimed while maintaining his smile and confidence, “All on craps.”

Gasps could be heard across the table and the faith he had instilled was instantly shattered at the bet. Hushed whispers went through the crowd thinking him insane and that he must have been joking. No pony would be crazy to follow him on such a move. Getting two sixes was the highest payout, but also the least likely to happen. Some still believed in him, but they hesitated.

It would have continued on like that if it wasn’t for an enormous amount of chips dropped next to Deimos as some pony said, “All on craps.”

Deimos looked to his right to see a white mare with striking red eyes and a dark blue mane. She gave him a flirtatious smile and purred out, “Let’s see how lucky he really is, shall we?”

He tipped his shades to get a better look at the mare as his smile grew wider. Looked like Deimos was going to get rich and get laid on top of that!

With the sudden confidence shown a hoity laugh could be heard from Fancy Pants. “Why not?! I came here to have fun, so why not end this with a bang?” He pushed his chips forward and announced, “All on twelve then!”

Soon, the action was repeated. Everypony else began to join in. Some, being more cautious than others and not betting everything, but still putting it on two sixes. The dealers had to actually call for help to sort all the bets taking about ten minutes to get everything together and accounted for.

Once things calmed down, everypony turned to Deimos with nervous and eager smiles. They were all ready to make it big or go home!

Deimos gathered up the dice in his magic and placed it in his hoof before holding it out to the mare that had made the first bet after him. He gave her a cheeky grin and asked, “Blow me… I mean… them for good luck?”

She stared down at them for a moment in mild surprise before smiling and saying, “Sure, why not?” She blew ever so softly, tickling his fetlock as she did.

“Besides—”

Deimos put the dice back into the cup.

“—I think you’ll need it,” she whispered sensually into his ear.

Deimos’ eyes suddenly widened. As at that exact moment he felt it happen. His curses… all of them… broke. His guarantee was gone!

His mind raced, wondering what could have possibly gone wrong. They shouldn’t have dispelled this soon, but they indeed had broken. He had a million different thoughts for the explanation, but it all ended abruptly when he noticed everypony staring at him. He felt their fear steadily rising at they started to look worried when he had abruptly froze up.

All the terror slowly filling the room would have been great if it wasn’t for the fact that most of it was coming straight from him at that moment. He quickly gave everypony a nervous laugh and smile as he began to sweat bullets.

The whole party was getting anxious and Deimos shaking the dice much more than necessary wasn’t helping. He would have kept that up if the dealer across from him hadn’t coughed and spoken up. “Sir, please roll the dice,” he said with a deadpan stare.

Oh, dung beetles.

“Right, sorry!” he replied with his voice becoming a bit more high pitched. He gulped as he looked down at the table.

He finally slammed the cup face down and the dice rattled inside of it before coming to a silent stop; a move only allowed when using the cup, otherwise the dice would have to hit the far side of the table.

Everypony began to sweat as they stared unblinkingly at the cup. Deimos took a deep breath and grabbed the sides of the cylinder.

Well, here goes nothing!

He then let it out slowly and quickly yanked the cup up while closing his eyes. Everypony leaned over to peer at the dice as a deadly silence filled the room.

Deimos, slowly with trepidation, opened one of his eyes. He peered over the edge of his shades and then opened the other one as he looked down to see the dice.

Two sixes.

“T-Twelve…” the dealer stammered out.

The bubble of silence blew up in the form of a roar that would put the Royal Canterlot Voice to shame. Everypony hollered and whooped in sheer joy as Deimos began to laugh hysterically while shouting out, “I’m rich!”

In that same moment, the casino’s owner and a few investors’, who were having a lovely outing across town, experienced mild heart attacks…

What happened next was no short of chaos as money had to be dealt out and accounted for. When all was said and done Deimos, still laughing, announced to everyone, “And that’s all she wrote! I’m cashing out.”

He got a few pats on the back and congratulations as he gathered up all of his winnings. As he did, Deimos turned to the white mare beside him, taking in her curves and the green dress that covered most of her, including her cutie mark. He then asked with renewed confidence, “So, can I interest you in a drink?”

Oddly, he felt some annoyance from her as she gave him a half lidded stare and frown, but it slowly turned into smile. “Sure, why not? But only if it’s in my room,” she replied while rubbing her hoof across his chest.

Deimos’ ears perked up and his smile just continued to grow.

Jackpot!

Deimos and the mare he had met walked down the hallway towards her room. He strolled behind her, staring intently at her plot. They had cashed out their winnings just a little while ago and Deimos was lifting them up in a large sack using his green tinged magic.

The mare stopped just before her room number, 69, and flashed him bedroom eyes before opening the door and going in. Deimos eagerly followed suit into the dark room.

After he closed and locking the door, Deimos felt somepony grab him before he tossed across the room, slamming into a chair. He blinked for a moment as he saw the mare with two large robed stallion unicorns flanking her.

One was red with an orange and yellow spiked mane and flanked her right. The orange part of his mane fell over his right eye. Meanwhile, the other stallion was practically his double only with his coat being orange and his mane being red and yellow. The red of his hair covered his left eye instead. They were perfectly symmetrical.

Deimos blinked and then laughed. “Baby, if you wanted a foursome all you had to do is ask. Plenty of holes to go around, but I prefer a bit of warning first!”

The white mare sighed and rubbed her temples. “Deimos, please just shut up…”

“Hey, what’s with the… wait… how did you know my…” he trailed off as his eyes widened as he suddenly recalled his little meeting back in Manehatten. Oh, you’ve got to be chitin me! Not these goons again…

“So, Deimos,” she started out sweetly as she approached him, “how have you been enjoying your stay here in Ponyville?”

Deimos blinked in confusion before hesitantly saying back, “We’re… we’re not in Ponyville?”

“We’re not?” She feigned a gasp. “Oh, I see. Then Julius here must be here. Riiiight?”

He thought about lying, but decided against it as it was obvious she was toying with him. “No, he’s not here…”

She blinked continuing the little charade. “Really? If he’s not here, then where is he?”

“Umm… Ponyville?” He shrugged nervously.

The mare hummed for a bit. “Well then, that just leaves one little question.” She got close to him and stared half-lidded into his eyes.

He felt her anger spike as she began to shout, “Why… THE BUCK ARE YOU HERE?!” She finished with a wicket strike with her hoof to his cortex that was so hard with that he fell out of his chair and his disguise broke.

A green flame enveloped the unicorn leaving behind what would appear to be pony version of an insect with holes in its hooves. Most had come to know such a creature as a changeling.

The mare look disgusted by his new appearance and was relieved when he got up and reapplied his previous form before sitting back in the chair again. Deimos the changeling winced when he noticed the vein that was throbbing in her forehead.

“Mistress, please calm down!” The large, red stallion requested as he reached out to her with a hoof.

“Shut up, Scorn!” she snapped.

“No need to shout,” The yellow one then said.

“You too, Thorn!”

Scorn and Thorn wilted before going silent again. Deimos actually felt a little bad for them and huffed. “Hey, no need to shove this onto your incubuses!”

The twins blinked and Scorn asked, “How did you know we were incubuses?”

“Yes, know you did, but how?” Thorn added.

Deimos just smirked. “Because you just told me. Not to mention the… smell…” He winked.

The two blinked before symmetrically face hoofing themselves. The mare just groaned, trying to rub away the headache she was getting. “I forgot you’re actually somewhat clever…”

She took a few deep breaths and then stared down Deimos. “Now tell me, why are you here?”

Deimos looked around nervously. “Oh, you know… gambling?”

Glare.

“I mean, I got a little distracted!”

GLARE.

“I tried to get to get to Ponyville, but there was a giant fish bowl covering it!”

Confused, but no less terrifying and murdery, glare.

“Hey, I know what I said is true and even I don’t believe it! Don’t ask me how it happened, but train ended up passing the town up and heading here.” Deimos sighed and looked away.

Another loud frustrated groan left the mare’s lips. “You know what; I don’t care what your excuses are. All I want is for you to get to Ponyville even if you have to bucking trot!”

Deimos just snorted. “You know, I don’t see why I need to be treated like this. I bet you don’t have anypony else who can do this job. I think there’s nopony who can’t get close without alerting the Crescent Council and nopony who’s been as close to Julius as me. I think I’m all you have!”

The mare didn’t show it except for a brief moment of looking away, but Deimos could still feel the worry bleeding off of her. He then decided to press on.

“So, you know what?” Deimos began as he stood up and approached the mare, “I’m gonna take my sweet time and I’ll get there when I get there. So, if you or Shadow Council’s leader, Misery, has a problem with that…”

Scorn and Thorn suddenly looked worried and started to shake their hooves warningly towards Deimos to stop him. Meanwhile he started to poke the mare in the chest with his hoof.

“You can tell her to shut up and be patient. Otherwise she can shove her orders right up her plot!” Deimos finished.

The two incubus twins in disguise had eyes as wide as dinner plates and slowly backed away from the two. This didn’t go unnoticed by Deimos.

“Umm… you’re Misery… aren’t you?”

Misery’s death glare spoke a thousand words, but she condensed it down into all that needed to be said. “You better start groveling at my hooves begging for forgiveness before I turn you into a splattered mess on the wall.”

Deimos was quick to get down while squeaking out, “Sorry!”

Misery took a few deep breaths to calm her ever growing rage. “Just get to Ponyville and find out about that damn spell!”

Deimos raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so interested in a spell that you barely know anything about?”

It was Misery’s turn to raise her eyebrow at that. “You should know better than anypony. Julius Grave was trained by the top master of Darkmoon. The only Dark Master with enough power and influence that he has repeatedly declined the position of archmage and still has more sway than the current archmage could ever dream of!”

She then looked away and added, “Let us also not forget that he was even looked after by that bastard Shadow Nova!” she spat out the pony’s name with venom and a grumble before turning back to Deimos. “Do I also have to remind you of his previous service to Darkmoon?”

Deimos winced at that last bit and looked away while quietly replying, “No… you don’t have to remind me about that…”

“Whatever he’s come up with can’t be short of amazing. We need to know what it is, how it will impact Darkmoon, and how to react or take advantage of it before anypony else can. I don’t care what it is. It could be an evil sunflower with a soul or a flying toaster for all I care. Just find out what it is! Understand?” she asked with a bit more even tone.

Deimos stood up while rubbing his leg. “Yeah, I get it.”

Misery, finally calm, nodded. “Glad we have an understanding. Do you have any questions?”

“Uh, yeah just one.” Deimos then leaned in close to her. Misery leaned in as well as he asked with a big smile while waggling his eyebrows, “We still having that drink?”

Down the hall Fancy Pants and his wife were laughing while nuzzling one another. They were heading back to their room after a fantastic time down stairs when they suddenly heard a loud shout down the hall.

“SWEET GODDESS, MY BALLS!”

They both blinked before Fancy Pants commented, “My, somepony is having a fun time!”

Deimos groaned and rubbed his crotch while tears fell from his eyes. Misery stood above him with one hoof lifted while she gritted her teeth while trying to regain her temper. She scowled at him with a throbbing vein and sneered out, “Just… go.”

He picked himself off the floor and as he got up Misery added, “I’ll also be taking this as an apology for incompetence and behavior regarding your mission. Can’t believe you still won all of this after we broke your curses…”

When Deimos turned to her he gasped as he saw her holding his winnings from the casino. “Hey that’s…” he began, but was quickly silenced by the three other ponies snapping towards him to glare. “Okay, but I need something for the train and stuff! That’s all I had…”

Misery just rolled her eyes and tossed him a small bag of bits. Less than he started with when he entered the casino. This just caused him to frown and his ears to fold back.

“Now, if you don’t mind,” Misery began sweetly, “GET OUT!” she roared and didn’t even give him a chance to respond. She picked him up in her dark magic and tossed him out the door, locking it behind him.

With him gone she just let out a long sigh. Scorn and Thorn were immediately by her side.

“We’re sorry you had to deal with that mistress,” Thorn began.

“Yes, you shouldn’t have to deal with such scum like that during your time off,” Scorn said agreeing with his brother.

Misery just rolled her eyes at their concern. “Just shut up and pleasure me.”

“Yes mistress!” They replied in unison.

Deimos grunted as he landed in a puddle with his slightly larger bag of bits landed on his back. After he returned to the casino downstairs, he tried to get back at least a bit more money. Unfortunately, after his earlier showboating, security was watching him like a hawk and was eventually caught counting cards. Security then kindly asked him to leave. That is if asking was done in the form of tossing him out into the street like last week’s garbage… for the second time in one night.

He sat up and scraped off some of the dirt and grime off of him while turning back to the entrance of the place. Deimos then shouted out, “Oh yeah, well I’m going to go build my own casino, with blackjack and hookers!”

“Why not just go to one of the other casinos for that?” a passerby commented as they headed into the casino that Deimos just got thrown out of.

“Oh yeah, that would be easier…” Deimos said mostly to himself.

He got tossed out of six more casinos that night.

Author's Note

Kept you waiting, huh?

Is it at all obvious I'm not too familiar with the game of craps?

Ch14: Bugger All

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch14: Bugger All

Finally, after what felt like forever, Deimos had made it to Ponyville. The journey since his encounter with Misery hadn’t been easy at all. First the train broke down, then he decided to walk the rest of the way by cutting through the forest; only for the train to start up again as he reached the forest’s edge! After that he got lost for a bit, but eventually found some ponies that were camping and would be heading back to Ponyville eventually. If that one filly hadn’t been having Nightmares he’d never had located them with his empathetic sensors. He made sure to keep his distance as he followed them around for a few days.

Eventually, Deimos trailed the group to Ponyville and now he stood before Julius’ shop at the edge of Ponyville, not too far from the Everfree. He took a deep breath before he let it all out while whispering to himself, “Okay, it’s been a while, but here goes nothing. I wonder if he’s missed me…”

Deimos stepped into the shop; dark and a bit dusty as always. Yet to him, it was welcoming in an odd sort of way. He found a sense of comfort in the dingy store. He always enjoyed places like this and he was sure Julius did too. Something of an acquired taste, thanks to their service to Darkmoon.

His face lit up as he saw his old friend sitting behind the counter, still wearing that old, musty robe of his. Julius was currently reading a book, but looked a bit annoyed at the moment for some reason. Deimos felt it too, but wasn’t sure what it could be bothering him.

Oh hey, he grew goatee! Deimos thought as he approached his friend.

Julius grumbled to himself as he stroked the beard hanging from his chin. I’m never going to remember to shave this thing, am I? Wait… do I even have razors?

Before he could contemplate his little vendetta for facial hair any further, Julius felt a disturbance. He looked up to see a black coated stallion with turquoise hair grinning at him like an idiot. It was a little creepy, honestly.

He looked around his shop and back to the stallion a few times as the guy just continued to stare with that huge plastered grin. Finally, Julius decided to break the ice as he said tentatively, “Uhh… hi?”

“JULIUS!” the stallion shouted with glee as he reached over the countertop and gave Julius a big hug surprising the stallion in question.

“It’s been so long,” he continued while shaking the poor necromancer around in the tight hug.

It took Julius a few seconds to break from his shock and realize what was going on at that moment. He managed to get free and push the other stallion away asking indignantly, “Who the hay are you?”

The other blinked and chuckled. “Oh right, you haven’t seen this look before!” He quickly leapt over the counter and dragged Julius into the back of the shop, not giving its owner a chance to argue.

Once Julius was done being pulled around like a rag doll, the stallion checked around and cast a few spells out of caution so no one would be listening in. After that, he suddenly was wrapped around in green flames that quickly dispersed and revealed the changeling that he was.

“Hey buddy, it’s me, Deimos!” Deimos announced.

“D-Deimos?” Julius blinked as his mouth stood slightly agape.

“The one and only!”

Julius shook his head. “I… I can’t believe it. It’s been so long…”

Deimos held out his forehooves and smiled. “Come on give me a hug!”

Julius paused for a moment, but then smiled. He trotted right over and embraced Deimos in a big hug. Julius had to stop him from groping his plot for a moment, but they held each other tightly before Julius stopped the hug, asking, “So, what brings you here?”

“Oh, you know. I was in the neighborhood, heard you were here and I just had to visit!” Deimos said, waving his hoof dismissively.

A few nods from Julius and then he deadpanned. “In other words, you were sent to spy on me.” It wasn’t even a question, just a statement.

“Yeah, that obvious?” Deimos replied not really caring or trying to hide that much if Julius could figure it out.

“Considering that no pony except only high ranking members of the Covenant are supposed to know where I am; yeah, pretty obvious.” Julius shrugged and then asked, “So, who did I manage to piss off this time?”

“Eh, no one in particular. The Shadow Council are the ones interested in you this time.”

Julius cocked his head in confusion. “Wait, why are the warlocks interested in me? What’s Misery’s game this time?”

Deimos rolled his eyes. “Not really sure. She seems to just be interested in a spell you reported in that you’re working on. You barely gave any details and she’s off sounding alarms in desperation to be the first to know what you’re up to. Apparently your background warrants her to assume whatever spell your making has got to be something ridiculously good. A bit of a stretch, don’t you think?”

Julius looked away for a moment. “Yeah, I don’t think she’d be that interested in my spell…”

“As I thought! But hay, don’t feel a need to tell me what it is. Would be a good excuse to stick around for a while as I ‘try’ to figure out what it is!”

A smile crept onto Julius’ face. “Yeah, that would be nice. I’ve kind of missed you…”

Deimos smiled warmly, but then it dropped slightly as they both heard hoofsteps coming from the basement. A moment later, Femme opened the door. Her coat color was currently in her normal disguise of light manila and her wings were of course, hidden. She didn’t pay much attention to the current occupants of the room as she asked, “Hey Julius, have you seen my novel, Lunar Memory? I can’t seem to—“

“Hello, beautiful!” Deimos perked up.

Femme turned to the source while saying, “Oh sorry, didn’t realize we had— OH MY LUNA, IS THAT A GIANT COCKROACH?!” she finished while practically screaming it out.

Deimos looked at her indignantly before Julius quickly tried to explain, “Femme, this Deimos. He’s a changeling and that term is very offensive to his kind.”

She just blinked. “That’s a… changeling?”

Deimos huffed at her. “Yeah, I’m a changeling and don’t call me a cockroach.” There was a slight pause before Deimos snickered. “Heh… cock…”

Femme gave Julius a sidelong glance that made him smile sheepishly. “He’s a bit of a pervert.”

“So, he’s one of those love sucking insects?” Femme asked curiously while choosing her words carefully. She didn’t feel “parasite” would have been polite to use.

Julius was about to answer when Deimos did it for him, “Technically yes, I do feed on love, but I’m a bit of a special case. I’ve managed to acquire a taste for… fear.” Deimos licked his lips for a moment, feeling a little hungry.

A nod from Julius confirmed what he said as he explained in further detail, “Yeah, he tends to eat love as a part of his main diet, but then eats fear to power his dark magic.”

“Okay…” Femme began, unsure how she should feel about that info, “Julius, now tell me, why is there a changeling here?”

Julius cleared his throat. “Oh, right! As I said, this is Deimos. He’s an old friend of mine. We go way back.” Julius walked over to Deimos and put hoof around his shoulder in reassurance while flashing a nervous smile at Femme.

Femme tilted her head and tried to find the right words for a moment before replying, “I don’t know what’s more surprising; you knowing a changeling or the fact that you have a friend.”

That earned her a glare of annoyance from Julius. “Is it that hard to believe that I can have friends?”

“Mmm, yeah it kinda is. You haven’t always been… ‘friend’ material,” Deimos answered.

Julius just snorted as Deimos elbowed him, asking, “So, you gonna introduce your lady friend?”

The question made Julius stand a little straighter. “Right… uh, Deimos, this is Femme Fatale. Just so you’re aware, she’s a vampire. So, be mindful of that.”

Deimos nodded. “Oh yeah, I remember reading that in her profile.”

“Umm… profile?” Femme voiced out while examining the changeling with scrutiny.

“Oh yeah, he was sent here to spy on me, but nothing you need to worry about.”

“Alright…” Femme looked confused, but just went along with it. “Well, it’s very nice to meet you Deimos. Let me apologize about my earlier behavior. I’ve never met or even seen a changeling before, but I’m sure I’ll get used to your appearance. I hope I didn’t offend.”

“Hey, it’s no trouble. I actually get that reaction a lot. Don’t worry though, you’ll see me in disguise some of the time so it’s nothing to stress over. Also, be sure to refer me as Lucky Locke when I’m in that disguise. That’s the current alias I’m using.”

Julius nodded to the changeling. “Gotcha, I know the drill.”

“So…” Deimos began while pointing to Femme as he asked Julius, “Are you doing her?”

Julius felt his mouth drop at the question as he began to sputter, but Femme was the one who answered nonchalantly, “Yes, he is indeed ‘doing’ me.”

Deimos perked up. “Niiiice! Damn dude, you may not date much, but when you do you really know how to pick ‘em!”

Once Julius recovered from the previous question he cleared his throat with a blush. “Oh, just to clarify, we’re not dating. We’re just friends.”

Deimos just stared at him in confusion.

“You know… with benefits?”

Deimos shook his head in disbelief. “Wait, really?” he turned to Femme when he said that.

“Yep…” she answered simply while looking away.

He turned back to Julius just to stare at him for a moment in disbelief before complimenting him, “I’m… so proud of you. I never thought I’d rub off on you like that. I… just might cry…”

Julius rolled his eyes. “Yeah… yeah, can we drop the subject?”

“Uncle Deimos!” a high pitch voice screeched out.

Everypony and changeling turned to the basement door to see Ecto peering out from just behind the corner. She had a wide smile on her face as she rushed in, passing through Femme, and tackle hugged Deimos.

For a moment Deimos lost his balance, but he quickly recovered and shivered slightly from the cold before smiling down at the little filly ghost. “H-Hey there kiddo! I haven’t seen you in forever. I almost forgot about you,” he said while rubbing Ecto’s head. She remained corporeal enough to let him pet her.

“I’ve missed you so much.” She then gasped out, “Are you going to be staying with us?!”

Deimos looked to Julius and Femme for an answer. Ecto also looked at them as Femme pulled Julius over to whisper, “I’m not really sure how I feel about him being around Ecto…”

“Don’t worry, he behaves himself around her and kids. He can also stay in the upstairs bedroom. Deimos might not look it, but he’s very trustworthy and a loyal friend… even if he’s an absolute perv,” Julius whispered back.

Femme grimaced, but then sighed as it turned into a slight smile. “Alright, the little bugger can stay.”

“Yay!” Ecto cheered as she floated over to hug Femme this time.

Deimos hoof pumped in celebration. Then his face brightened up as he was coated in the green flames again and turned back into the black unicorn. Femme was momentarily surprised by that. “Oh dude, dude! On my way in I saw a bar, we should totally go out and get some drinks. We haven’t done that in ages!”

Julius smiled only slightly at the offer. “I’d like that, but I have to watch the shop. I still have to run a somewhat legitimate business. I also need to stay open during certain key times in case a delivery from the Covenant comes in.”

Deimos’ mood dropped and he frowned for a moment. “Well… I guess we can go another time…”

“Sorry, buddy,” Julius replied as he patted Deimos’ shoulder.

“I’ll watch the shop.”

Julius and Deimos blinked as they turned to Femme who had spoken. Both of them got a little more excited as Julius asked, “Really, you sure? Don’t you need your rest?”

Femme laughed it off as she motioned for Ecto to go back downstairs. After the filly was seen off she replied, “I’m sure, it’s no problem for me. Go have fun with your friend! You deserve it.”

“Gee, thanks Femme that’s really—“

“Hold it!”

Julius and Femme turned to Deimos who suddenly got between the two of them as he interrupted Julius. Deimos examined Femme closely while rubbing his chin. “Wait a second, she’s only offering because she wants something!”

“What?!” Both of them exclaimed at his statement.

“Think about it dude,” Deimos explained as he turned to Julius, “Would a mare really do your boring job so you could go out to have drinks with an old friend?”

Femme harrumphed while turning her nose up. “That is so sexist!”

Deimos just grinned. “Maybe a little, but only if I’m wrong.”

“Deimos,” Julius began, “Is it really that difficult to believe that Femme would go out of her way and do my job for me so I can go out drinking?”

After hearing it out loud…

Julius turned to Femme with suspicion in his eyes. “He’s right, you want something!”

Femme scoffed and looked offended. “Julius! You’ve known me for years. Would I ever manipulate you like that just to get something from you?”

He looked down in shame before turning back to Femme to answer, “Oh Femme… yes! That’s exactly what you would do.”

Femme’s ears folded back in annoyance as she rolled her eyes and lamented, “Fine, I do need a small favor.”

“Called it!” Deimos said smugly.

Julius sighed. “Alright, what is it?”

“You know my nosferatu vanity mirror that lets me see my reflection?” Femme began. Julius nodded and she continued, “Well, I was wondering if you could mimic the spell on it and enchant it onto anything that I could wear. That way if I step out I’ll have a reflection and nopony would suspect a thing.”

Julius hummed for a moment as he lost himself in thought. “That… seems like something I could do. Sounds like that would be a really good thing to have actually. I’m not sure if I can make a permanent enchant, but at least a temporary one. We’d probably have to have professional in Darkmoon to make us one that won’t wear off, but it’d probably mad expensive. Those things aren’t cheap…”

Femme grinned. “Excellent! You do that for me and I’ll watch the shop for you.”

“Alright, no problem. I’ll make it for you after we get back,” Julius answered as he turned to leave only to be stopped by Femme again.

“Umm… think you could do that… before you leave?” Femme asked sweetly.

Julius turned back with renewed suspicion. “…Why?”

Femme rubbed the back of her neck and looked away as Deimos snickered a little before she answered, “I… might be going out later.”

“To?” Julius leaned in, unblinking.

“Carousel Boutique…” Femme smiled sheepishly.

“What for?”

Femme groaned. “To… get a dress…”

“How are you paying for this dress?” Julius asked while maintaining a half lidded stare.

“I’m getting it for free…” Femme was going to leave it at that, but she then saw Julius wasn’t believing any of that and she quickly added, “In exchange for a modeling a few dresses for Rarity.”

“FEMME!” Julius shouted in frustration. “We’re trying to maintain a low profile and here you are putting it at risk for a stupid dress?!”

Deimos looked between the two of them before asking, “Should I… just wait outside?”

They both ignored Deimos as they stared down each other. Femme had become angry at Julius’ opinion and she huffed. “Well, how else do you expect me to buy my own dress when you’re paying me jack and shit?”

Julius expression didn’t change at all and he maintained his stare. However, Femme then pulled out her trump card. “Or would you rather me go ask my father for money? I’m sure he would love to know why his daughter has barely maintained any contact with him and that she’s paid almost nothing.”

That little threat made Julius’ mood flip like a switch to that of absolute terror. With shrunk pupils and his tail tucked between his legs he swallowed and walked passed Femme while saying, “I’ll go make that trinket.”

As Julius went downstairs Deimos approached Femme, asking, “So, is Julius scared of your dad or something?”

Femme hummed a bit. “You could say that. They don’t get along very well… or rather at all. Daddy absolutely despises him and is very condescending and judgmental towards Julius. However, he’s always acted like that towards all my coltfriends.”

Deimos looked at her queerly. “But… you two aren’t dating…”

“He… doesn’t know that,” Femme replied while laughing it off a bit nervously.

“Oh, I get it. If he found out he’d throw an absolute fit.” Deimos nodded.

“Sure, that’s the tame way of putting it…”

It didn’t take too long, but eventually Julius came back upstairs. He sighed with annoyance, “Okay, it’s done. I’ll need to reenchant it from time to time, but it’s a necklace sitting on your desk. Now please, don’t bring up your father again…”

Femme smiled and kissed Julius on the cheek. “Thank you, now you go have a fun night!”

Julius nodded, but as soon as Femme turned away a mischievous smile crossed his face as Deimos and he exited out the backdoor of the shop. After getting a few feet away Julius shift in mood hadn’t gone unnoticed by Deimos. He turned to Julius and asked, “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Julius answered while looking innocently away, “I just… gave her what she wanted.”

“Right…”

The two of them walked in silence for a moment before Deimos spoke up again, his face getting serious as he did, “Don’t think I didn’t notice.”

Julius looked perplexed. “Notice what?”

“Femme. I know who she reminds you of. The similarities the two have are uncanny and she could even pass off as her twin, but it pretty much ends there,” Deimos stated without having to delve any further than that for Julius to know what he was talking about.

Julius’ face darkened, unable to look at Deimos. “I can’t fool you can I?”

“No and frankly I pity you. I’m not sure I really approve of your little relationship set up considering everything, but I’m not going to judge.”

There was a moment of silence before Julius responded, “What are you getting at?”

“Listen, I’m not going to step into the middle of this. However,” Deimos forced Julius to stop and look at him while give Julius a very stern glare, “before you do anything stupid, can you do me a favor and consider Femme’s feelings; yours too? Don’t go breaking any hearts. Do you think you can do that… for me?”

Julius was very quiet as he stared into Deimos’ pony eyes. He breathed slowly as he looked back with conviction and nodded. “I’ll… I’ll try.”

Deimos slowly smiled and replied, “That’s all I ask. Now enough of this serious talk. Let’s go get wasted!”

Julius gladly agreed with a chuckle.

“So… is Femme going to be pissed at… whatever you did?” Deimos asked.

Julius stifled a laugh. “Oh, she’s going to chew me out for it...”

Hours Later…

Femme sat before her dresser with a frown at what was on it. Julius had indeed enchanted something for her to wear like she asked. However, Femme probably should have hoofed picked what she wanted him to put it on.

On the dresser was the gaudiest necklace one could find. The gold paint had worn off and faded into an awful grime that coated it and the gem inside was a puke green color. Femme would never want to be seen wearing such a horrid piece of jewelry…

“That clever son of a whorse…”

Author's Note

So, originally this chapter was going to be longer, but the beginning was taking so long I thought I'd make it its own chapter since it had less to do with the next chapter.

Next time, Femme gets a dress, Julius is quite the same when drunk, Deimos isn't safe for work, and other shenanigans.

Also, did you catch the little ref to one of my other neglected stories?

Prologue: Ghost Town

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Prologue: Ghost Town

In a small, quiet, insignificant town, a cold wind was blowing. It was the beginning of spring, but no matter what time of the year this town always remained cold and a bit gloomy. Most would think it was because it was so close to the Frozen North, and the icy cold winds that would drift from there. Yet there were still farms here and there that still managed to grow food despite the frigid weather. There was even a fairly large forest not too far from the town that still managed to hold lush green trees.

The truth of the matter was not the climate, but the significant presence of death that latched onto this defenseless town. Now this wasn’t because death happened often to the ponies of this town. It was actually do to the fact that the biggest attraction, or detraction depending on whom you asked, was the graveyard surrounding it.

This town had a graveyard many times larger than itself and easily had more residents in their final resting place than the citizens residing there. Not a surprising fact, but the sheer number of buried was far greater than should have been possible for a town this size with such a short history.

In actuality, the graveyard had been here before there was even a town. This was a favored spot to bury the dead and fallen in the distant past. Originally there had only been a single gravekeeper who lived all alone and looked out for spirits. It was a quiet life, with a bit of an eerie calm and peace. It made one appreciate life, but still be constantly reminded of the inevitable end everypony must face. Enlightening and depressing all at the same time.

As time went on, the graveyard kept getting larger and larger, requiring more diggers. Eventually there were enough gravekeepers around that it became an attraction for traveling merchants to occasionally stop by and offer their wares to those that lived there. From there, friends and families of lost loved ones built homes nearby so they could visit and mourn the loss of their beloved deceased. This in turn caused a few merchants to settle in and set up shop. Afterwards, a few found out how fertile the land was and began to harvest various vegetables of surprisingly high quality.

The best grown vegetable within the farmlands were pumpkins strangely enough. Very fitting considering their popularity with the holiday Nightmare Night. Their association with that holiday made the pumpkins from this town extra coveted. Because they were grown so close to such a large graveyard it was believed that the land was fertile due to the buried dead. Normally that would creep out most, but it instead made the large vegetable more intriguing thanks to that eerie creepiness. Many would buy it just to gross out friends and neighbors of other towns and cities. This was because of the semi-famous slogan of the farmers who harvested these pumpkins were, “Grown by the dead!”

Even though their major export was pumpkins, the town itself never really celebrated Nightmare Night. Being surrounded by a giant graveyard, which was at least five times larger than the town itself, made it hard for the average pony that lived there to be afraid of the usual scares that came from the holiday. Most just celebrated with a hearty meal, followed by tales of the local legends and town gossip. It would take something much more terrifying to scare these villagers.

Unfortunately, that was what would happen on this particular night…

Celestia’s sun began to set on the horizon and soon Luna’s moon and stars began to rise for the evening. The lights of the stars twinkled within the night’s sky like a million fireflies and the celestial body began its slow trek across the heavens.

In the town below, the lights of various homes began to go out one by one as the residents retreated to their beds and their dreams. Most of the houses were simple cottages and homes made out of the most basic building materials, while a few places and shops were built from something sturdier. One shop was even inside a large dead tree that had been hollowed out.

The only artificial light this night was that of a lone lamp that illuminated the darkness for the stallion who carried it by the handle in his teeth. He trotted along the crudely placed stones leading up to the main gate of the graveyard. There used to be fences, but were eventually torn down and never put back up, making it easier to expand the graveyard. A few attempts had been made here and there in the past to set them back up again, but inevitably they would have to tear them down as they needed to expand the graveyard once more.

As always, even this late in the summer, the night was cool and a fog was quickly rolling in. Not that unusual for this town, but the murky mists had appeared more frequently in the previous years and only during the night which usually didn’t bother anypony. It did add more to the eeriness of the town’s graveyard, but again, all townsfolk were so used to it now that they weren’t disturbed by it.

The dark chocolate coated young stallion trotted right up and under the gate. He wore a gray jacket paired with a white scarf and topped off with a grey cap delivered from Trottingham that covered part of his black mane. His eyes were half closed as his large yellow eyes darted lazily around as he half heartedly smiled and hummed out a pleasant tune. He turned his head to make sure his shovel was still strapped to his back. Satisfied, he began to trot along into the graveyard, still holding his lantern in his teeth as his hoofsteps echoed through the cemetery.

The roads within had originally been built a long time ago when the number of graves had been few and far between, but as time went on and space began to run out, building roads just ate up more potential spots to bury the dead. So, they stopped building more paths and one simply had to watch their step. More than likely you would end up standing right above where somepony had been buried just to get anywhere.

For now though, the gravedigger pony was happy to walk on a more stable path without disturbing the dead. He and the other gravediggers were very respectful towards the those who had entered their eternal rest. They put a lot of work and effort into making the graves and it was common practice in this town to show respect and courtesy to them. Many of the villagers would go out and leave flowers for the older and more forgotten graves. It was believed to help them rest easier and maintain peace.

Tonight the stallion was seeking a new spot to make a new grave; it was his job and even his special talent. His cutie mark, a shovel digging into dirt, made it somewhat of a dead give away. He enjoyed it; or rather he didn’t mind his job. It was hard, but satisfying work.

As he walked along he looked across the names on the many graves, some unrecognizable, some fading away, and some without even a word scratched out on them. The reason for the excessive amount of dead bodies buried here was because of a very simple factor. It was dirt cheap to bury anypony here. So, mostly poor families or families who can’t afford a nice funeral had their loved ones placed here. It wasn’t the most ideal scenario, but life is unfair and death wasn’t any fairer.

The stallion's ears perked up as he turned around a large crypt that held one of the older and more wealthy residents from way back when. A familiar sound echoed through the air, one he was all too familiar with. The sound of metal piercing the earth and ripping it away from the world. The sound of somepony digging.

It was a sound common to hear at this time of night, what with other diggers making more plots for the cemetery's future residents, but this struck him unusual for a few reasons. One, he was supposed to be the only pony working this section of the graveyard this night. Next, this particular part of the area should no longer have any room for graves. Most of the spots now were way in the back, close to the forest, at least in this part of the cemetery. Finally, even if there was by some small miracle an untouched spot so close to the town, he wasn’t anywhere near where any of the gravediggers should be working to have potentially spotted the unused piece of land.

He followed the sound closely as it continued to echo across the area. He soon deviated from the roadside path and was walking on grass in between the graves. A slight chill ran down his spine, a very unusual thing to happen to him. Nervous habits started to pick up as he found his eyes wandering more frantically. The cold slabs of the graves suddenly seemed colder and more of a warning than a marking. What was causing these unusual feelings?

The sound was very close now and something began to come into view within the fog. It was hard to tell, but he could definitely see some pony digging. As he drew closer with his hooves crunching against the grass he noticed something very odd. The pony digging wasn’t making a fresh grave, but was instead digging up one!

His eyes widened, thinking a grave robber was disturbing the dead in hopes of finding something of value. He grit his teeth around his lantern and shouted as best he could with it still in his mouth, “Hey you!” He then began to run toward the grave site.

As he got closer he could make out the desecrator more easily, it was a pale blue, unicorn mare with shoulder length dark blue hair. Her back was to him and when he shouted, she either didn't hear him or she ignored him as she just kept on digging. He shouted again as he approached her, “Hey stop that!” Irritation crept into his voice as she continued to ignore him.

Placing his lantern carefully onto the grass as he slowed to a stop just before the grave. He could see the unicorn’s cutie mark barely in the light now, a piece of parchment with writing on it. Possibly a writer of some sort or it could have meant something academic. For a moment he pondered a peculiar oddity, she was using a shovel to dig, but she used her hooves instead of her magic. She might have not been that magically adept, but a shovel couldn’t have been too hard to lift and use, could it? He was only an earth pony so he wouldn’t really know for sure.

He shook the thought off as chill ran up his spine again, but he ignored it, “Miss, stop this at once! You’re gonna upset the deceased if you dig them up. And I for one am not gonna sit on my flank and let you disturb them. Now get out of here this instant!” He raised his voice as he shouted out at her, as his voice filled with more anger and outrage. Anypony in the small town would be upset by this. To them this was one of the worst things one could do outside of killing somepony.

Once again though, the mare continued to ignore his presence and just kept on digging. The hole was deep enough that when standing on her two hind legs it was waist deep while she was propped up on her shovel.

The grave digger went from angry to curious and then slowly to concern, “Miss?” He reached out and poked her shoulder, she felt very cold and a bit clammy. She actually turned her head very slightly when he made contact with her. He could see her right light blue eye looking at him just out of the corner. There was an odd glow to it, like it had a spark of magic within it. She seemed a bit dazed and emotionless, as she just looking blankly at his hoof that touched her. He felt himself retract his hoof quickly, and as soon as he did, she went back to her digging as if nothing had happened at all.

That chill once again. “Are you… alright?” He asked with growing concern at this unusual behavior.

She just kept digging.

He waited a few seconds and then he grit his teeth in irritation again. As she tossed some more dirt to the side of the grave again his rage finally won out. He reached over and grabbed her shovel, easily pulling it out of her grip and tossing it behind him. Her fore hooves slumped to her sides as her tool was stolen from her. The young stallion scowled and yelled again, “Will you stop ignoring me!”

She turned slightly again, her right eye looking back at him out of its corner just like before. As moonlight traced over her face through the fog he thought she was quite lovely and he began to relax and calmed down. He began to hope that maybe this was a misunderstanding of some sort.

However, the lovely vision soon became one of horror. As she turned around he could see her face clearly. At least what was left of it. The left side of her face from her eye to her cheek and part of her mouth was completely gone. Only bone and traces of flesh remained. She had no left eye in her socket, but instead a light blue light with glowing wisps trailing out of it. Magic no doubt, fueling this horror.

She reached out over the edge of the grave and began to pull herself out, causing the young stallion, now with a look of terror running across his face to back up frantically, tripping over the shovel he had tossed and landing harshly onto his back. He was doing his best not to scream as she stepped into the light of his lantern and he could see her body more clearly. Bits of flesh missing here and there, revealing bone surrounded by rotting carcass. Her face was void of emotion and almost had a look of some pony half awake, almost like she was sleepwalking.

She made her slow march toward him, her one good eye lazily staring at him. Once she was close enough she began to reach out towards him. At that moment survival instinct mixed with fear rushed through the poor grave digger. He practically jumped onto his hooves, reached around and grabbed his shovel with his teeth. A good tug loosened it from his back and he began to swing it around. His eyes closed as the improvised weapon made it through its arc. He felt it hit something hard and was followed by the loud crack of bone shattering.

He trembled and dared to open one eye. The undead mare was now on the ground, twitching thanks to its broken neck. However, its face no longer was emotionless; it was now a mix of surprise and fear. He opened both eyes and just stood there watching, afraid to make any sudden movement.

The stallion nearly jumped out of his skin when the mare reached out towards him again, but to his relief and surprise she grabbed her shovel he had tripped over. With what little strength she had she pulled it close to her, hugging it like it was a child's stuffed animal. For a moment he thought he heard her cry out in pain as he saw the magical light from her eyes fade out and dissipate.

He fell back onto his flank and simply stared at her, his mouth agape at what he had just seen. Mustering up his courage he dared to get close to her and poke her body with his shovel to determine that she was truly dead now. Looking her over, he didn’t know or understand why, but found himself whispering out to the corpse with a tear forming in one of his eyes, “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry…”

Author's Note

11/22/2015
Took some suggested punctuation fixes from a reader. Very minor changes.

4/4/2015
Minor punctuation and grammar fixes as suggested by friend. Fixed some other errors when I used to put four periods for dot dot dot when it happened at an end of a sentence. Also replaced colt with stallion or young stallion since colt felt like the inappropriate word for a stallion in his late teens or early twenties. Removed the word "(Updated)" in chapter title since I think I got the point across by now.

2/17/2014
Finally proofread and cleaned up this chapter. Wow, there was a lot of mistakes and was able to improve the writing a lot. It could probably be done better, but I have many more chapters to go over. This will do for now. Maybe someone will be kind enough to look it over and see where I can improve upon things or clean up punctuation errors.

Besides improving the storytelling and fixing grammatical errors, I changed the time of year to the beginning of spring from the middle of summer. A few reasons being provides more time before the story would or could hit the winter months and spring represents change, new life or a new beginning. Which is what this is for the main cast.

Ch5: A Place to Call Home

MLP: Roses for the Grave
By Mordy

Ch5: A Place to Call Home

Julius gave off a great big yawn as he finally pulled the trailer to their destination. A small magic shop at the edge of a small town not to unlike their previous town they had lived in, minus the ludicrously large graveyard. The shop was a normal wooden two story house. The upstairs reserved for the living quarters and the downstairs for the shop. It was quite efficient as one could sleep in longer before having to get up and open the place. The colors of the shop were a bit brighter than their old home to match this towns much cheerier mood, which wasn't a very difficult feat. The shop was painted a light blue with the shutters of the windows being a bright green. The sign that hang over was a mix of green lettering and a blue background with a green border to match. It simply said, “Magic Shop,” with a grimoire to the left of the lettering.

Julius smiled at it as he unhooked himself from his cart. Femme and Ecto would stay inside the mobile home while he took care of business. It was approximately just a little bit past noon as he walked into the shop. This shop had a much friendlier tone than his had. The shades were open letting light in and it had the same friendly color theme as the outside did. It was also a lot less dusty and more organized. Something he envied to a degree. The usual supplies were set out, ingredients for potions, books, scrolls, and cantrips as well as other knick knacks.

He approached the counter where a light blue stallion with green hair was reading a spell book. He started to see a pattern here and chuckled slightly which caused the owner to finally look up from his reading and jump a bit. After getting over being startled, he set the book down and with an upbeat attitude he greeted him, “Welcome friend! What can I do you for?”

Julius pondered for a moment before answering, “Well… the nights have been deathly cold,” he put a bit of emphasis on the word deathly as he spoke. This caused the other stallions eyes to widen and his ears to perk up at his statement.

He cleared his throat and replied, “They most certainly have, but not as unforgiving as the burning light of the sun. I prefer the cool nights myself.” He looked intently a Julius, his eye narrowing at him.

Julius coughed as his eyes browsed the shop. “The shadows of the night do bring a comfort the light can’t match,” he said as he gave a nod and held out his hoof to the shop keeper. The owner brought his own hoof up to his and they shook.

Both of them looked around for a moment, eyeing the door and the windows to make sure no pony else was around before Julius asked a question, “Do you cut your own mane? It’s quite nice,” he said while feigning interest with the neatly cropped mane of the other unicorn.

The shop keeper looked around again and then gave him a confirmation, “I do, and do you cut yours as well?” He looked at Julius mane, getting in close to examine the tips of his hair that looked like they were dipped in ink. Julius gave a little sigh, “I used to, but I had to stop recently.” His shifted his eyes in a bit of paranoia. “Anyway, I need a new cover for my book. The old one has been… ruined.”

The blue unicorn nodded and he walked around the desk and went to the front door. He turned the open sign on the door, causing it to say, “On Break,” it was the same as the sign he used to have on his shop. It was a very useful tool for any establishment to have.

Julius was lead into the back and into a windowless room with a few bookshelves filled with tomes and a square table that had a couple of chairs surrounding it. On the table there was ink, papers, and a white unlit candle. Julius approached a chair and took a seat opposite of where the papers and ink were. The other unicorn locked the door behind him and secured it with magic. He then proceeded to place a sound ward around them so no one could hear their conversation. Julius then put his own sound ward right on top of his to ensure he wasn't letting certain individuals listen in. They both nodded in agreement and the unicorn sat himself across from Julius.

“Now that we’re alone we can safely stop speaking in code. At least I hope,” the shop keeper groaned and stretched himself out as he pulled a book from one of the shelves with his magic and then lit the candle off to the side, causing a blue flame to start burning on the wick. He turned to Julius, “Okay, I don’t know your name. I don’t want to know your name and I’m not going to give you mine. We never had this conversation and we both agree to never speak of this outside of the covenant. Deal?” He glared harshly at his guest not wanting any trouble from him.

Julius shut his eyes and nodded. “Yes, yes, that’s fine. I prefer it that way in fact!”

The magician face lightened and he dared to smile. “Very good, glad you know the procedures. So, why do you need a new refuge?”

To recap, this colt was a fellow who was also part of the Darkmoon Covenant. There were many precautions for dark magic users, leading to many cases of paranoia. This was why coded phrases were introduced and implemented as small talk so others could speak to each other in the open about various subjects. Julius’ greeting was to make sure the shop keeper was part of the loop and he had to respond in kind when the correct phrase was given. Then he asked about him cutting his mane which was a code phrase for asking if they were in disguise, usually as a transformation spell or the use of dyes. So, Julius didn’t know what his new "friend" here really looked like, but he knew what Julius looked like which made him a bit uncomfortable. However, this also invoked more trust from his shadowy compatriot.

The final thing Julius had requested was about a new cover for his book, but what this really meant was he needed a new home to hide out at while still being in touch with his fellow magic users. This brings us back to the magician’s question which made Julius ashamed to answer, but he swallowed his pride and responded, “I got caught. Thankfully they only saw me in disguise. They have no idea that this is what I truly look like.”

The unicorn winced, “Ooo, that’s really going to hurt your chances.” He shook his head as he lifted a quill with some magic and dipped it into the ink as he filled out some paper work. “How’d you get caught?”

“They found one of my failed experiments trying to bury itself. I wasn’t–” He was interrupted by the unicorn.

“Necromancy? Wait… were you holed up in that one town that’s just filled with graves?” He asked inquisitively and Julius nodded.

With a heavy and exasperated sigh he replied, “Yes and yes.”

The unicorn took a deep breath, “Your chances are looking pretty shot right now. I know that was a prime spot for necromancers and losing that is going to make some ponies very unhappy.”

Julius tried to reprimand himself, “I was emotionally depressed and made a poor decision. I still managed to escape them!”

The unicorn raised an eyebrow and harrumphed, “Depressed? What are you, a pansy and escaped who exactly? The townsfolk right?”

Julius scratched his chin with his hoof, remembering the goatee he had now and would need to get rid of it later. “Actually… it was the Canterlot Guard.” He smiled sheepishly.

The unicorn facehoofed. “Well, that’s just dandy! Next you’ll tell me they found the hidden alcove where necromancers could…” He stopped when he noticed that Julius was looking away and rubbing the back of head unable to look him in the eye. “Oh for the love of Luna!” he growled out and continued to write on the parchment. “Any other screw ups you want me to mention?” he asked sarcastically.

Julius shook his head which caused the unicorn to be relieved. “So, anything you can offer me that would make them consider you instead of throwing out your request?” He got a bit sour as he got to the end of his question. “Perhaps details on what your experiment was?” The magician had a slightly sly grin, a bit eager to get a peak on what a fellow dark magic user had been working on.

The unicorn was quickly disappointed as Julius replied, “Sorry, I’m not ready to reveal my work yet.”

“Your application has no chance,” he deadpanned.

Julius smiled though. “I would be inclined to agree… if I didn’t learn some very interesting information when I was captured.”

“Wait, you got captured?” The magician added that detail on his application and Julius groaned at this.

Julius gritted his teeth and explained, “Yes, I got captured, but that’s beside the point! I have important information that could protect others from being discovered!”

The unicorn just lazily stared at him unconvinced. “And what pray tell, is that?”

Julius looked around with a bit of caution. He was being very careful with this information. His friend took noticed to this and was getting concerned with what he could possibly know that would make him this afraid even as safe as they were right now. It took him a minute to collect his nerve before responding in code, “There’s… an angel among us.”

The magician’s eyes widened and he stood up. “What! Do you know who? We’ll get rid of this… angel immediately!” He was shaking, that phrase meant the Darkmoon Covenant had been invaded and an outsider knew of their secrets, such as their coded phrases.

“I do know who, but this pony is untouchable.” He shook his head in defeat.

The nostrils of the other unicorn flared. “What do you mean untouchable?! What pony could we not hope to silence?”

Julius looked at him with sorrow and defeat. “Let me rephrase my statement.” He worked up his nerve again, “There’s a goddess among us.”

The unicorn fell to his seat as horror filled his eyes. “No… no! You mean… the queen?” He was of course referring to Princess Celestia, but they knew better. Changing her title would not change the fact of what she was to them, a tyrant that ruled all of Equestria. She was a queen in every sense; she merely hid the truth behind an innocent forename, perhaps to be more beloved by her subjects.

A nod came from Julius as he confirmed his suspicions, “I heard it straight from the queen’s mouth. She was the reason I got captured in the first place.” He saw his friend gave a look of awe as he recounted his capture and how she had tried to bribe him with limited freedom in exchange for information and servitude. He then started to finish his explanation, “Once I saw an escape I stringed her along got her to believe I was considering helping her until I had my chance to escape.”

The magician had been writing down his recount. “And you say we were betrayed by a now dead necromancer named Black Tail from some time ago?” Julius nodded to his question and he wrote a bit more down. “Well, this will ruffle a lot of feathers. Just might make up for all that happened, still I wouldn’t hold your breath. Getting you a new residence isn’t going to be top priority for the higher ups.”

He waved his hoof dismissively. “It’s fine, as long as it gets done eventually I suppose.” He kept his eyes on the paper as the unicorn signed his own name and cast a spell on the sheet before floating it over to Julius. He took the sheet, all the notes he had taken had reformed into a hidden message. It was now disguised as some legal document with a line at the bottom for him to sign his name. This was another way of getting secret messages across to other members. He signed his name and it reformed into a new name, Jules Vern. Odd name to him, but he was more concerned that if Celestia knew the spell to decipher these messages. She would at least be aware of them, but the spell to decode them was known by very few. He knew how to code one, but even Julius didn’t know the spell to translate these messages.

He proceeded to roll up the paper and bind the scroll with a special insignia provided to him by his magician ally, before he tossed it into the blue flame, instantly transporting the message to a particular destination. It mimicked the dragon mail magic used by Princess Celestia and a particular purple dragon. However, it was older and a bit stricter with its destination. It would be sent to a focal point and redirected to the proper figure within the covenant. That was one of the drawbacks of this form of mail; you couldn’t send a message directly to an individual without going through the proper channels. Only if two were to set up their own separate focal points and taught the other the spell to directly send their message to that point would it be possible. Unfortunately the hassle of doing that was normally not worth it unless absolute secrecy was required.

With the paper work done Julius played with his goatee and asked, “So… what have I missed these last few years?”

A dark room kept aglow only by a single blue flamed candle erupted for a moment when a scroll formed above the fire. A dark blue aura surrounded the paper before the message unwrapped and was pulled in front of the hooded unicorn who sat at the obsidian desk that held his light source. Materials and paperwork scattered around in organized chaos. He always had so much to manage, but he was able to work at his own leisure. No pony could force him to get things done, but he was punctual none the less.

A quick spell cast and the message of the document was deciphered. A quick scan of the details and the eccentric unicorn had to stifle a laugh for relocation request after making such blunder with being discovered. However, his mood turned sour as he gained an annoyed interest when the details of Queen’s knowledge came to light and the betrayal of the now deceased necromancer Black Tail. It was a name he recognized, the necromancer had been quite promising, but then upped and vanished from the covenant without as so much as a word. This didn’t cause too much concern as nothing was set in place to keep anypony bound to the covenant, but it was well ingrained into the mind of each individual that betraying the secrets of ones fellows would end in severe punishment. Not even death would protect a traitor.

A low wicked chuckle escaped the unicorn at the thought of Black Tail’s retribution, but then he noticed the name of the pony that had slammed head first into this entanglement of trouble. He began to laugh even harder, “Julius... it’s been awhile. What has my student been up to all these years?”

Julius was in awe as the blue unicorn across from him finished telling him about the changeling invasion of Canterlot, “Seriously, I can maybe understand Discord if he never got to your town which you should consider yourself blessed. But not hearing about the invasion of the changelings? How isolated was that town?”

He chuckled, “It was quite out of the way and not exactly a prime tourist spot. Still, I might have been acting like a hermit while I was there. Heck, the only reason I knew about the Nightmare Moon incident and Luna was because of the whole everlasting night. Something like that doesn’t go unnoticed.” Julius had withdrawn himself from most of the outside world and had focused entirely on his own research. Something he was eager to dig back into once things had settled down.

His eyes drifted back to the blue candle and he tapped his hooves on the table with anxious anticipation. The other unicorn took noticed to this. “Hey, if they haven’t responded already I’d take that as a good sign. Means they haven’t immediately rejected you,” he pointed out, but as soon as he had finished his sentence the flame ignited and a scroll had appeared above it, causing Julius to immediately reach out for it with his magic. “Speak of the queen…” the other unicorn muttered.

Julius quickly read through the letter. “They’ve… already picked a place for me to move to. In fact they’re actually going to build a new location just for me,” he said with a surprise.

The unicorn dropped his jaw and grabbed for the letter. “What?! Some pony up there must really like you because I’ve never heard of such treatment being given to anypony I know/...” There was a tinge of jealousy in his voice.

Julius was frowning though as he grabbed the note back and kept reading it only to grimace with a sigh. This caused the other unicorn to raise his eyebrow. “A catch?”

Julius nodded to his question, “They don’t want me or any minions or friends I may have, to be in disguise. They also don’t want me to do any risqué magic that could expose me. In other words, they want to keep a close eye on me while inadvertently halting my research.”

The unicorn nodded in understanding, “I can see why that would upset you. Regardless I wouldn’t dismiss this kindness. Just find something new and more inconspicuous to work on.”

Julius frowned inwardly; he wanted to continue his research. He was, what some would call, obsessed with it. He had good reasons why, but he dared not share them. However, he accepted that it would have to be put on hold. He could at least try to figure out what went wrong with his last experiment so he would be prepared for when he could safely perform another again.

He signed a note that had been attached to the paper, essentially him agreeing to the terms that had been laid before him and he sent it off back through the blue flame. It didn’t take long before another note to come back telling him his new home would be ready within a week and its location. Julius looked to the nearby bookshelf and pulled out a map that had been setting between the tomes. He unfolded it with his magic and then searched for the location. He scowled at what would be his new home as he realized that it was way too close to Canterlot. This just meant he had to be even more cautious.

It wasn’t long before he left the shop; his business finished and was making his way back to the trailer. He looked at the letter with the location and date he should arrive, muttering to himself “Ponyville, eh?”

A lavender unicorn with a purple mane that had a hot pink streak running through it shivered uncontrollably. The shiver was noticeable all the way down to her cutie mark of a pink six pointed star surrounded by smaller white stars. The purple dragon with green spikes running down from his head to his tail easily took notice to the sudden vibration. “Hey, you okay Twilight?”

The unicorn known as Twilight Sparkles looked back to the baby dragon on her back. “Of course Spike! I just had a… sudden chill. But I’m find now,” she said as she gave Spike a reassuring smile and she trotted along back to a large tree at the center of town that acted as a library and her home. She pondered what could have caused her to have such a cold reaction on a warm spring afternoon, but she dismissed it with thoughts of study and regarded the reaction as harmless.

Oh, but how wrong she was…

Author's Note

UPDATE 7/4/2016:
Removed "(Updated)" from the chapter title.

UPDATE 3/7/2014:
- Cleaned up this chapter, less work than previous ones. Nothing really new here.
- Moved old authors notes down to the proper section.

NOTES:
- We made it to the mane 6! Or at least Twilight. Julius will be taking a back seat to the story for awhile as we focus on other characters. Expect the spotlight to be on the mane 6 and Femme for awhile as well as visiting other characters of importance from time to time.
- I know chapter was shorter than some and we barely had any time with Twi, but she and the others will be getting a lot of the attention for a long while.