Author's Note

Happy New Year!

Chapter 11

Months passed as Twilight worked on her lair, although she spent most of this time on trips to cemeteries in Equestria to get herself more pony undead to use as workforce to accelerate the work, leaving Star Eyes to oversee. Death Speaker also regularly returned to Klugetown to sell his undead and use the money to buy more tools and other stuff.

To move from the jungle to Equestria, she rode on Woofy’s back while being followed by three pony skeletons each transporting shovels. These times, Twilight thought of bringing more shovels than their number suggested they should bring, because as soon as Twilight animated a new pony skeleton, she could immediately make it work to help them dig bodies faster.

The advantage with going to Equestria instead of returning to Firwind was that, there, most towns didn’t have a cemetery guardian, because nopony dared disrupt the dead. Only the cities generally had one, and Twilight remained away from these because it would be too easy to be spotted by ponies awake during the night.

She never went far to the north however, beyond Canterlot. The farthest she went was Ponyville, after going through the Everfree Forest. When predators don’t bother you because you are now only made of bones, the forest offers a nice stroll. She just had to be careful to avoid cockatrices to avoid being petrified, but those were rather rare, thankfully. She still let one of her undead ahead just in case.

She tried to avoid getting groups too big. Large groups were a good way to be spotted, especially by pegasi, which was why she limited herself to one town per trip. Going to and from Equestria didn’t take long however. Their undead stamina allowed them to travel without stopping, they didn’t have muscles to ache when they were running, allowing them to run faster than normal, and they traversed through the Badlands instead of taking the detour through the jungle and swamp. Thanks to that, it only took a few days to reach Equestria instead of the weeks it took for Twilight the first time she went south. Also, right outside the Badlands was Dodge City which offered a nice spot for her to get some easy undead.

She didn’t bring only ponies. She was lucky enough to find a griffon. And of course, there were the few dead animals she found. In the Everfree Forest, she especially took the time to try to find some of the local fauna, and she was able to return home with a manticore.

Thanks to that, her army grew quite a bit, and before long, she had over one hundred ponies (and one griffon) working on her lair, and also digging where she found the ore deposits to determine if there was any iron.

Between trips, Death Speaker taught her various things, like how to create objects with clay, carve wood, and sculpt stone, and she was able to help make a kiln to get lime. Then she followed the instructions the minotaur gave weeks earlier on how to make mortar.

Once, Death Speaker took Twilight on a journey all over the jungle to find potential potion ingredients and explain to her what potions they could be used for. Another time, he showed her how to craft simple tools with sticks and stone, allowing her to make more tools for her undead while waiting for Death Speaker to return from Klugetown with tools of better quality.

Of course, many of her intelligent undead were at her sides, eager to learn too. They really were parts of her.

Sadly, magic and necromancy teaching had to wait for when they would be fully settled in the lair.

Thankfully, with all the undead Twilight was bringing, it was advancing well. Following Twilight’s plan, the first room, the guard room, was dug and in the process of having its walls and ceiling being covered by bricks while the floor was paved while they also worked on digging Death Speaker’s apartment so he will have a nicer place to sleep than outside in the jungle. Undead readied the materials that will be needed to craft the furniture once the rooms are ready.

Of course, this meant that many trees had to be cut, but Twilight made sure to instruct her undead to avoid cutting the trees at the same place, especially around the lair. If there was a clearing around her lair, it would be much easier to spot. So the undead spread out to cut trees here and there.

After a few months, Twilight looked at her army of undead and thought that leaving them outside once the lair was finished wouldn’t be good, so she got the idea of adding a room to store them, like Death Speaker’s basement, but much larger, so she began to work on making such a room linked to her armory, under the stairs. She left space for the armory to expand, feeling that, with her growing army, more space will be needed to store the armors and weapons.

For the ventilation needed to evacuate smoke from the kitchen and the smithy, Twilight used small animals that could burrow to dig through the dirt. Following Goldie’s advice, she made them dig miles of small tunnels so the smoke would be evacuated far away from the lair, not compromising its location. When it was time for them to dig vertically through the stone to reach the rooms, she equipped them with miniature pickaxes. For the water seeping through the soil when it rained, barrels were placed under the holes. If the barrels started to fill too much, new barrels could be put in their place, and an ape would transport the filled barrels to the storeroom, the water in them ready to be used to make potions (once distilled).

Yes, she found an ape.

As soon as the smithy was done, she decided to make her griffon, Gerard, the black-smith, giving him a piece of her soul. Immediately, he began to learn to forge stuff with the iron they found. Through trials and errors, he was quickly getting better. It wasn’t long before Twilight began to regularly join him to learn too.

When the library was finished, Death Speaker brought his books back from Klugetown, along with objects from his house like his ram skull, or Grogar’s portrait. Twilight let him borrow several of her undead to help him so he only had to do one trip.

The weeks before the game room’s completion, Twilight sent her undead all over Equestria in search of board games to bring back. Goldie also began to teach her how to play Ogres And Oubliettes, however, he admitted that there were probably rules that he didn’t know, so Twilight promised to find a rule book, which shouldn’t be difficult in a bookstore. Goldie still knew enough that he was able to help her start a mage character.

Before they knew it, Hearth Warming passed, then the new year began, and the lair was almost finished.

However, Twilight instructed her undead to keep an eye in the sky, because the date where Princess Celestia was coming to Klugetown was fast approaching, and it was possible that she could find the lair somehow.

Finally, it was time. Time for Celestia to fly toward Klugetown and, hopefully, find Twilight Sparkle, in addition to certainly freeing a few ponies from slavery. And if she didn’t find the filly, then at least a sign that she had been there, and… hopefully, that she didn’t board an airship to who knew where.

However, something said that this may not be the case. She received reports these last few months from towns all over the south half of Equestria that their cemeteries had been disturbed. The locals found several graves with their soil looking as if it had been dug during the night. Fearing the worst, they dug out the coffins of these graves and found them empty. Somepony had taken the dead inside.

Interestingly, the targeted graves were all old ones that nopony took care of anymore.

This could be the act of a group of grave robbers, probably taking the bones inside the coffins to sell them outside of Equestria. Pony bones could be used in some potions.

However, it was very possible that Twilight Sparkle was the one doing this to reanimate the dead.

This was both good and bad. It meant that Twilight Sparkle was making for herself a small army of undead, and Celestia could only guess why. Also, that the filly was now willing to disturb cemeteries was worrying. However, she was targeting ponies that were already dead. She received no reports of ponies disappearing, so Twilight Sparkle wasn’t killing to grow her army faster.

She also received a report of a mass robbery in a bookstore in Dodge City, dozens of books stolen during the night, which made Celestia chuckle despite the crime. Shining Armor told her about his sister’s love of books, and with no direct access to a library because of her… condition, she understood that the filly was finding other ways to get books.

Also, if she was hoarding books, it meant that she had a library of her own at least, meaning that she must have settled somewhere. The question, of course, was “Where?”

Again, that she was willing to steal was worrying, but she could forgive the filly for such actions. With her… condition, there was no way her ponies would let her buy anything, so resorting to robbery wasn’t surprising. It was still bad, but understandable. She needed to get books on magic to learn her special talent somehow, and she doubted that Klugetown would provide.

And so, Celestia, followed by an escort of pegasi guards, took off from her balcony, flying south.

Unbeknown to her, Mickey, hidden in a bush not far, saw her flying. He sadly wasn’t able to enter the castle. There were simply too many guards and servants, without forgetting the nobles and visitors, for him to be able to sneak around and remain hidden. He would be spotted very rapidly. Still, he was still able to get a good position to observe the castle, allowing him to see Celestia flying away.

Of course, she could have gone flying for any reason, but Mickey easily guessed the real one. They were the third of January after all. Now that the new year festivities were over, Celestia could do what Mickey had been warned she would do: go south to Klugetown.

And so, he warned Twilight.

Princess, this is The Rat, the wolf has left the den, over.

…What are you talking about?

Mickey sighed. I was just trying to sound cool by speaking in codes like a real spy. I meant that Princess Celestia has left to Klugetown.

Thank you. And next time you want to speak in codes, make sure that I know in advance what the codes mean.

Oh, of course. Ahah.

Celestia and her escort followed the railway south of Appleloosa, going through the Macintosh Hills and between the jungle at the east and the forest at the west. Soon enough, they were flying above the Bone Dry Desert, and they reached Klugetown.

She made sure to make her arrival as dramatic as possible to impress the locals and make it easier for her to be obeyed. Of course, as soon as she announced why she was here, some tried to fight her, but Celestia showed her power, making them cower after over thirty thugs were knocked out, many of them badly burned. After this show of force, the inhabitants were more willing to let her have her way, and they told her who had a pony slave.

In total, she found three ponies. Two mares and one stallion, two earth ponies and one pegasus.

One of the mares pretty much threw herself at her hooves to thank her, and Celestia could see why. While the other mare and the stallion looked healthy, if a bit thin, this mare had several scars all over her body that she could guess the origin of. She immediately glared at who had been her owner, a bipedal lizard.

The ex-owner raised his hands in defense. “I’m not the one who put her in this state. You can thank Derek for that, may his soul burn for eternity.”

“And where is this Derek?” she asked coldly.

“His ashes have been spread in the desert.”

“I see. How bad was it?”

“Very bad. She was covered in her own blood, she stunk worse than a skunk, she was skin and bones, she was very sick, she was scared of speaking, and she will certainly never get in bed with a male.”

By the time the guy finished speaking, Celestia was giving her best hug to the mare.

“I tried to make it better so she could work for me, but it was very difficult. I was actually thinking of letting her go. It was more pain than it was worth,” the guy continued.

“Even if it was for selfish reasons, I thank you for helping her. We will take over,” Celestia said.

“If it hadn’t been for Derek suddenly dying, she certainly wouldn’t have survived. She is very lucky.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “How did he die?”

“Nobody is sure actually, but I suspect Death Speaker to be involved. Derek’s home was locked and there was no break-in, and yet, one morning, he was found strangled by his own cover, and there is no way this sl-uh, mare would have been able to do it. So I think that Death Speaker sent a ghost to deal with him. As for why he would do that, I have no idea, he gained nothing by doing that.”

“Death Speaker?”

“Oh yeah, he is a necromancer. If you look around, you can see the undead that he sold.”

Maybe…?

“Have you seen an undead filly by his side?” she asked.

“Yeah yeah, he found one several months ago. He never sold her for some reason. Folks were ready to pay a fortune to get her as their pet. I guess that he decided to keep her as he was seen several times after that with her tagging along.”

Hope filled Celestia. “Where does he live?”

“You won’t find him in Klugetown anymore. He recently sold his house, and he left the town with some of his belongings. He apparently left by the desert, so he probably went north. No idea where, he told nobody.”

Celestia sighed. “What about the filly?”

“She hasn’t been seen in a while. Since she went to the desert months ago with several undead transporting tools fleshly bought by Death Speaker, she didn’t come back to Klugetown.”

“Tools?”

“Yeah. For some reason, Death Speaker was seen buying many tools in the last few months. axes, pickaxes, shovels, saws, hammers, and so on.”

“I see. Thank you very much for all this information.” At that, she gave him a bag full of bits. “I know that you don’t use bits here, but you should be able to find some use for the gold they contain.”

“It was my pleasure,” the guy said while looking greedily in the bag.

With that, Celestia left with the mare. Done with Klugetown, she teleported herself and all her ponies across the desert, to Firwind, where they will take the train.

But first, Celestia thought about all she learned about Twilight Sparkle and this Death Speaker in Klugetown.

Twilight Sparkle was in Klugetown and found a necromancer named Death Speaker. Goldie was also probably the one who killed Derek and saved this mare, but Celestia wasn’t sure if the killing had been necessary. Don’t get her wrong, she knew very well that there were times when you had to kill, but maybe there could have been a way to save the mare without killing Derek, and she didn’t think that Goldie thought of alternatives.

Goldie always had a strong sense of justice, wanting to help others and stop villains. However, he had the impulsivity of a colt who read lots of books where the villain ended up killed by the hero, so he probably thought right away that Derek deserved death for everything he did to that mare. He never took time to think if there was another way, he went straight for the kill, thinking that it was just.

Or Goldie really took time to think of alternatives and found none, but Celestia doubted that. He could have told Twilight Sparkle about Derek, and Twilight would have helped save the mare, probably sending her undead to deal with Derek without killing him. Celestia didn’t know what undead the filly had by then, but considering that she went through the swamp and the jungle, she probably got quite a few strong ones.

Celestia sighed. so it looked like her nephew became a vigilante, one of the ruthless kind.

But back to Twilight Sparkle. She and Death Speaker apparently began to work on a project, and they went north to make it.

She could guess what project it was.

A lair.

She did think earlier that Twilight Sparkle had settled somewhere so she could start to hoard books. For a moment, she thought that it was Death Speaker’s house, but since he sold it, then it left only a lair, which was certainly finished or near finished by now.

No wonder Twilight Sparkle went around Equestria to get herself undead ponies. She had needed the workforce to build the lair. This reassured Celestia. She wasn’t building an army to invade Equestria. Undead armies were always annoying to fight.

Unless Twilight Sparkle planned to invade Equestria after building her lair…

…She will avoid thinking the worst. Twilight Sparkle had no reason to invade Equestria.

Except the feeling of being ostracized by her fellow ponies because of being an undead, so she may seek revenge.

But she left on her own accord.

After she was told that Celestia would kill her.

…

Anyway, where could she have built a lair?

Immediately, a place came to mind: the jungle. Not many ponies dared to go there, and it would be easy to get strong undead animals there. It would be easy to hide a lair. There were lots of natural resources, hidden or not, ready to be used. And she didn’t have to worry about predators going after her in her state. And if she needed anything from civilization, she just had to travel the desert for a few days to reach Klugetown while she was close enough to Equestria that she could send undead to collect things like she did with the books.

It really was the perfect place to build a lair, so the most likely place where she would find Twilight Sparkle. Although, the filly proved that she could go against her expectations, like when she took the direction of Baltimare instead of going toward the Everfree Forest, so she wasn’t one hundred percent sure. Maybe she went instead to the forest surrounding the Arimaspi Territory, but the trees there were more spaced, so it would be easier to spot a lair from the sky, without forgetting that the arimaspis often descended from their mountains into the forest, and if one ever found Twilight’s lair, it would go very badly.

So, leaving behind her escort, she flew toward the jungle.

However, as she expected, she couldn’t find the lair. The trees just didn’t allow her to see anything. She flew back and forth, again and again, in vain. And searching on the ground would be like searching for a needle in a haystack while having to deal with the many predators.

So she lit her horn, ready to cast a large scale scanning spell that would allow her to find the lair, but she quickly hesitated.

Twilight Sparkle was certainly scared now, and using magic would only scare her more, and the filly would send her undead to fight her and Celestia would have to fight, making herself look even scarier, and it would be even harder for Twilight to trust her.

Instead, she chose to try her speciality: diplomatie. Activating her Royal Canterlot Voice, she yelled, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE! IF YOU ARE HERE, PLEASE, SHOW YOURSELF! I PROMISE, I WILL NOT HURT YOU! I ONLY WISH TO SPEAK TO YOU!”

On the ground, Twilight heard her perfectly, but Death Speaker then put a hand on her head.

“Don’t fall for her trap. She is just trying to make you reveal yourself so she can kill you.”

Goldie glared at the minotaur. “Celestia would never stoop so low!”

“This is the same mare who banished her own sister to the moon, and remember that every liches she faced until now were power hungry conquerors, so she certainly thinks that Twilight is the same and seeks to end her threat. And if she can’t find her, then of course, she tries to use tricks. She is a smart one.”

Twilight remained silent as she listened, then she nodded sadly.

In the sky, after waiting several minutes, Celestia sighed. “IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND, COME TO CANTERLOT! THE DOORS WILL BE OPEN FOR YOU!”

With that, she left, flying back to Firwind. She hoped that Twilight Sparkle heard her, and would listen to her.

There was only ten years left before Nightmare Moon returned. That was more than enough time for the filly to appear, if she ever appeared.