Daughter of Death

Before Twilight knew it, two years passed, spent studying under Death Speaker, animating new undead, reading books, and playing games with her undead.

Since she finished her lair, she stopped reanimating ponies, not needing them anymore. She still kept the ones she had.

But one day, during a lesson, Death Speaker suddenly found himself distracted, and he frowned.

“A problem, Master Speaker?” Twilight asked.

“Maybe… My vulture spotted an airship above the Bone Dry Desert,” Death Speaker answered.

“What is special about this airship? There are many of them flying above the desert.”

“I recognize this design… It’s one of the ships of the Storm King.”

“The Storm King? Who is he?”

“A conqueror. He conquered many countries this last decade, plundering their wealths and especially hoarding magical artifacts. I had hoped that his airships would never come to this region. My vulture only spotted one airship however. Probably a scout.”

Death Speaker continued to look through the eyes of his vulture, frowning more and more.

“Mmh… They are going toward a shipwreck. One crashed not long ago. Seems like it had something the Storm King wants. With some luck, once he gets whatever it is there is in this wreck, we will not hear of the Storm King again.”

Twilight became worried. “What if he is coming to conquer Equestria?”

“If this is the case, it is not our problem. Celestia will deal with him. Mmh? Oh? There is a pony at the shipwreck. Whatever the Storm King’s minions are searching, she seems to have it.”

Twilight hesitated. “Maybe I should send undead to help her.”

“No need, she is managing to escape. She has a broken horn, but she managed to distract the minions with her magic.” He sighed. “Which means that the Storm King will remain in the region to chase her, and we will see more of his airships around. Damn it.”

“Then I will send my birds all over the desert to keep an eye on the situation, and I will have one follow the mare.”

Death Speaker nodded.

“I don’t understand why you continue to send the vulture to search for corpses in the desert. You know that if you need corpses to sell, then I can easily find some for you in the jungle.”

“I know, but in the desert, there are more chances to find bodies that would be worth more in the eyes of the klugetowner. Bodies of travelers that succumbed to the desert.”

“Oh, I see.”

After that, what Death Speaker predicted happened. More of the Storm King’s airships appeared, searching all over the desert and beyond. A couple even passed above the jungle. Thankfully, they didn’t spot the lair.

In one of the airships, the Storm King, a tall satyr slash yeti-like creature in black armor, was having a meal when one of his storm creatures, large yeti-like creatures in armor, including a helmet, entered.

“Sir, we spotted something.”

This pleased the satyr. “Ah. Is this the mare with the Malachite?”

“Uh… No, sir.”

The Storm King’s expression immediately shifted to annoyance. “Then what is so important that you need to bother me during my meal? This can’t be another pirate attack.”

“Not pirates, sir, but… we spotted a skeleton bird flying not far from the airship.”

The Storm King raised an eyebrow. “A skeleton bird? Mmh… Show me.”

Going on the bridge of the airship, the storm creature, followed by the Storm King, joined one of his bethrens.

“Where is the bird?” the first creature asked the other who pointed a finger at the sky. The Storm King followed the direction of the finger and spotted the bird.

“I see, I see. So it seems that there is a necromancer in the region, and they are keeping an eye on us.”

“What do we do, sir?” one of the creatures asked.

The Storm King waved dismissively. “Leave it be. It doesn’t matter. Continue following the trail of the mare while I return to my meal.”

“Very well.”

Twilight saw all this through the eyes of the bird.

“I saw a tall creature that looks like some kind of monkey with white fur. He commands the others.”

“That’s the Storm King,” Death Speaker revealed.

“He doesn’t seem to have any magical power.”

“But like I said, he gathers magical artifacts, so you can be sure that he will use some if you end up fighting him. He is especially known to use the Staff of Sacanas, which can manipulate the weather and absorb magic. Remember that your magic is what is keeping your soul bound to your body, so if he ends up taking it, you are dead. Worse, your soul may be absorbed along with your magic, and you could end up trapped in the staff.”

“Uh… Then I will avoid getting close to him.”

Eventually, the worst happened, and not only the Storm King found the mare, but said mare sold Equestria so the Storm King could give her a new horn, becoming his new second in command.

When she heard through the bird the Storm King getting interested in Equestria, Twilight decided to act.

“I will not let him invade Equestria! Sorry, Master Speaker, but we will have to postpone the lessons. I’m dealing with that guy.”

Goldie grinned. “Heck yeah!”

Death Speaker frowned. “Are you sure about that? You are speaking of going to war, and right now, the Storm King has the superior army. Dozens of airships full of storm creatures, hulking beasts armed, armored, and trained.”

Twilight hesitated, but then, she affirmed her resolve. “I must still do something! I don’t want him to invade Equestria! And I have the ability to face him!”

“Why does it matter to you? You abandoned Equestria. If you showed yourself there, they would fear you, and maybe even hunt you.”

“Maybe, but the ponies don’t deserve being invaded. Also, my family lives there, and I still love them.”

Death Speaker sighed.

Twilight exited the study and went to the library where she found Star Eyes.

“Star Eyes! Prepare the undead! The Storm King wants to invade Equestria, and we will stop him!”

star Eyes immediately closed her book, got up, and saluted. “Yes, Princess!”

“We need more pony soldiers!” Twilight said. “I don’t know how long we have until the Storm King invades, but let’s act quickly! So you will spread the undead into groups to dig graves in several towns at the same time and bring the corpses to me. You will need carts to transport the dead, so start building some. And like always, start with the oldest tombs, and if there is a guardian, try to knock them out without injuring them. And of course, try to not be spotted.”

“Very well.”

After that, Twilight went to the smithy.

“Gerard, we will need more weapons and armors. A villain wants to conquer Equestria.”

“Alright, Princess. Let me do my magic, and you will have more stuff than you will know what to do.”

“If you feel like the production is not fast enough, take an undead or two to be your assistants. Don’t hesitate to tell me if the smithy needs to be expanded too.”

“I may need more iron than what we are getting.”

“I will send undead to start working on another of the iron deposits we found when we started building the lair.”

Later, she was outside her lair, and facing her was the totality of her soulless undead animals, from the smallest rodents to the elephants. Only part of the birds weren’t present because they were already a bit everywhere being her eyes on the Storm King and his airships.

“I want all of you to spread everywhere that isn’t inhabited and to find and bring to me as many corpses as possible. Make sure to bring all their bones if they are skeletons. Try to not be spotted. Now, go!”

As soon as she finished, the animals scattered.

“Do you think you will have enough time?” Goldie asked.

“I hope,” Twilight answered. Then, she thought of something. Star Eyes? Put to priority finding pegasi. We will need them against the Storm King’s airships. Griffins would work too if you find some.

You got lucky with Gerard. There aren’t many griffins in Equestria, especially outside of Cloudsdale where the bodies are burned and the ashes scattered in the sky.

I know, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t find another one or two.

The best would be to send pegasi to Griffonstone.

True. Do so. Oh, and send an undead to the Dragon Lands to see if we can’t find at least one dragon skeleton. It would be very useful.

We would have to bring you there to reanimate it. There is no way we can transport such huge bones.

I know.

As the days passed, Twilight trained to fight. She intended to remain away from the frontline. If she died, all her undead would die with her, and it would be too risky with the Storm King and his staff, but it was better to be prepared if something unexpected happened that forced her to fight. Death Speaker already trained her a lot since she finished her lair, so she wouldn’t be useless in a fight, but more training was never bad.

Her undead began to bring corpses to her to reanimate, growing her army again little by little.

She kept an eye on the Storm King who began to build his own lair on an island southwest of the south coast. So he decided to settle here, and it showed as he took control of Klugetown. He even got himself a pirate crew to transport cargo for him. However, it looked like he wouldn’t invade Equestria right away. The mare now working for him certainly told him about Celestia, and he must be searching for a way to defeat her first.

That was good news for Twilight because it meant that she had time to prepare, and she will be able to battle the Storm King on her own terms. The Storm King also had no idea of what she was doing. He spotted her bird, but he didn’t see it, or her, as a threat. He thought that she was just a necromancer cautiously keeping an eye on him to not get any bad surprise.

A couple of weeks later, however, the Storm King did something that she hadn’t expected. He invaded Mount Aris, the home of the hippogriffs. It was then that Death Speaker told her that the hippogriffs possessed a powerful pearl. Of course, as soon as the Storm King learned about such an artifact, he tried to get it. However, apparently, he failed, and the hippogriffs disappeared with it.

She hoped they were alright.

Still, she continued to prepare. She had to expand the armory and the smithy, she had to start working on a third iron deposit, and she gave pieces of her soul to a few pony undead to be her officers under Star Eyes’ orders.

However, some of her undead ended up being spotted by the ponies, causing quite the fright, so she was forced to reduce the number of undead in Equestria, reducing the number of bodies being brought to her. She still managed to grow her army a lot before this happened, even getting herself a dragon and a hydra. Reanimating these giant creatures proved to be very hard however as it took the totality of her mana pool, forcing her to rest for hours after that. The same happened when she reanimated too many undead too quickly.

When Death Speaker saw the dragon, he was very impressed.

“Very few necromancers could boast to manage to reanimate a dragon, but I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised with your Cutie Mark,” he said. “You really have the potential to be as great as Thanatos himself.”

Twilight felt like blushing. “Uh… Thanks.”

“And your mana pool is still growing as you hadn’t reached maturity when you died. I can only imagine how big it will be once you reach it in a few years. You may actually reach the level of the legendary Starswirl the Bearded.”

Twilight gasped. “Really?!”

The minotaur nodded. “Maybe you may even surpass him.”

Twilight looked away, feeling like blushing. “There is no way…”

“Since I’m telling you.”

Goldie hugged the filly. “You hear that? You will become the most powerful lich ever! That’s so awesome!”

“C-come on!”

“Just take the bucking compliment, you silly filly!”

She giggled, then hugged Goldie back.

After that, of course, she gave a piece of her soul to the dragon. There was no way she could leave her as one of her dumb soulless undead. Thankfully, the dragon being much bigger didn’t mean that it needed a bigger piece of soul.

Also, Twilight named her Sunny.

The Storm King will have a very nasty surprise.

Celestia read the reports of undead activity seen all across Equestria, and she was wondering what Twilight Sparkle was preparing. The number of tombs disturbed these last few weeks numbered in the thousands, and that wasn’t counting the undead seen transporting the bodies of animals. This time, after two years of silence, it looked like the filly really was building an army, and Celestia hesitated to go look at what was going on in the South. She wanted to trust that Equestria wasn’t about to be invaded by an undead army, but if Twilight Sparkle was building an army and it wasn’t to invade, then what could it be for? Was there a threat that appeared that needed such a force? Or was Twilight Sparkle building a kingdom for herself?

She could at least be more careful. Now, Celestia had to reassure her scared ponies that there wasn’t an undead invasion, hopefully. Thankfully, Twilight only disturbed the oldest tombs, so there weren’t many ponies asking her to recover the stolen bodies.

The main problem was the Apple Clan. Twilight ended up taking quite a number of Apple ancestors all over Equestria, including Granny Smith’s parents in Ponyville, and the Apples hadn’t liked that at all.

Considering that she discovered that one Applejack was one of the potential Element Bearers…

Celestia groaned.

Finally, Twilight felt that she was ready to take on the Storm King and his infamous armada.

Over seven thousand ponies in total, plus one hundred griffins, a dragon, and even a couple of minotaurs and donkeys. And there was the occasional sapient creature found dead in the desert.

To that, she could add several thousand animals of all kinds, mainly small ones, but clouds of birds and large groups of rodents could be as effective as a hydra, which she now had too. Too bad she couldn’t find a roc.

She even managed to build some weapons like ballistas and catapults, and she even got her hooves on some cannons found in the shipwreck from several weeks ago, when Death Speaker first told her about the Storm King.

If Twilight wasn’t stuck with an eternal grin, she would smirk. “Bring it on!”