Daughter of Death

Riding a pegasus, Twilight reached Klugetown in just a few hours, the Staff of Sacanas and a large bag of money floating beside her with her magic. When she landed, the klugetowners immediately took interest in her, probably remembering her as “that undead filly who followed Death Speaker a couple of years ago and that everyone tried to get”. They probably still thought that she was one of his undead. And now, here she was, and with a bag of money. She kept the Staff of Sacanas close to her, ready to use it to defend herself.

She asked around a bit, found the hospital, and entered it, leaving her pegasus outside, beside the one that transported Death Speaker.

Inside the hospital, as soon as she entered, everyone present, patients and staff, looked at her only to quickly return to whatever they were doing. She went to the receptionist and dropped the bag of money on her desk.

“This is to pay for Death Speaker’s healing. I don’t know if it is enough.”

The receptionist looked into the bag and said, “It looks like it should be more than enough.” She then looked back at Twilight. “Mister Speaker is currently in surgery.”

“Ok. Thanks. I will return tomorrow. Oh, by the way, I killed the Storm King. Klugetown is free.”

All activity in the room stopped as everyone who was present looked at her in shock.

“Is it true?” one guy asked.

“Yup,” Twilight answered before she showed the Staff of Sacanas, still bloody at its extremity. “That’s his staff.”

Everyone looked at the staff in awe.

“Is this why Mister Speaker is injured?” the receptionist asked.

“Uhuh. He took a really bad hit, but he saved me.”

“Wait… Aren’t you one of Speaker’s undead? Why did he save you?” a nurse asked.

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, only to close it. If she revealed that she was Death Speaker’s apprentice instead of his undead, they would understand that she was a lich, and she wasn’t sure how they would react. They accepted necromancers, but liches?

“Uh… He cares about me,” she eventually answered.

Someone snorted. “That old fool would never care for his undead. He wouldn’t care for anybody. He only cares about himself.”

This made Twilight angry. “Master Speaker really cares about me! He took me in when I was all alone! He is teaching me about necromancy! And magic! And potions! And how to fight! He got between me and the Storm King to protect me, almost getting himself killed! He may be grumpy, and a bit mean sometimes, but there is no way he doesn’t care about me!”

By the end of her rant, everyone was staring at her in shock again.

“He took you in?” the receptionist asked. “You aren’t one of his undead?”

What Twilight said caught up to her, and she winced. Horseapple!

There was a few seconds of silence, then someone shouted, “A lich!”

Reactions were then very mixed. Some got scared of her and ran away, others looked at her as if she was a gold mine, and others just shrugged and did nothing.

That… was actually better than what she expected.

She carefully looked at the ones who seemed ready to jump on her as she said, “Don’t worry, I’m not one of these lich overlords. I don’t intend to conquer Klugetown. However, if you attack me, I have an army of undead ready to be called to defend me. Just warning the ones looking at me weirdly.”

One of the guys staring at her raised his hands defensively. “Hey, hey. Nobody would be crazy enough to attack the one who killed the Storm King. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Good!”

The receptionist, who was now sweating, then returned the money bag, which was now just three fourth its original size. “Here’s the money not needed to pay for Mister Speaker’s healing plus a fifty percent reduction for freeing us from the Storm King plus another forty percent to convince you to please not attack us.”

Twilight wanted to frown.

“I can accept the fifty percent for freeing the town, but not the forty percent. It is not needed. I will not attack you unless you attack me first. So take back the money. If you want to please me, then do it.”

The receptionist laughed sheepishly as she took back the bag. “V-very well.” Then she counted the money and took the forty percent before giving the bag back.

“Thank you,” Twilight said as she took the bag.

And with that, she left the hospital.

Outside, what happened in the hospital repeated, people running away or simply looking at her in fear, others looking at her clearly wanting to add her to their collection, and others just accepting her. Without a word, she climbed on her pegasus and ordered it to fly back to the jungle.

Back at the jungle, she finally had time to look at the aftermath of the battle, and it didn’t look good.

The jungle was a mess. Devastation was everywhere. Many trees had been burned, and others destroyed. There were shipwrecks everywhere, especially the Storm King’s flagship which could be seen from very far, and there was absolutely no sound, which wasn’t normal in a jungle. There was always the sound of a bird squawking or of something roaring. Not anymore. All animal presence had disappeared, having escaped to other places in the jungle away from the battle, or having become collateral damage.

She knew that defending Equestria was worth it, but she still would have lowered her ears if she still had them.

Then, she found the Storm King, in front of the surviving storm creatures who were bowing, surrounded by her undead, including Star Eyes and Sunny. Goldie was also there.

There weren’t many of them left, not even one hundred. And now that they saw that the Storm King was dead and now one of her minions who told them to give up, they were waiting for her to decide their fate.

So she made her pegasus land beside the Storm King and descended before she faced the storm creatures.

Then, she said, “Go! Leave this place! Settle in Klugetown, move to some country, or return wherever you come from, I don’t care! Just make sure that I don’t find you causing problems again, understood?”

The storm creatures bowed in thanks, their heads touching the ground, before they ran away, the undead letting them pass.

Then Twilight looked at the Storm King.

The person she killed herself. It may have been for a good cause, to protect Equestria, it may have been in a war, it may have been in self-defense, he may have been absolutely evil and probably deserved what happened to him, but the fact was, she killed.

She quickly looked away, stopping thinking about it, and she began the task of reanimating whatever could be reanimated. Sadly, a good number of her undead who had been killed were now too damaged to be able to be reanimated, especially if their skull was destroyed. Many undead still ended up with some bones missing, and it wasn’t rare that Twilight had to use the bones of undead that couldn’t be reanimated to replace the missing ones. However, there were no spare bones to replace the ones Sunny lost.

Then dead storm creatures were brought to her.

Creatures that her undead killed, under her orders. She was pretty much the one who killed them.

Silently, she reanimated them, making them replace the undead she lost.

Once she was done, she returned to the lair, then went to Death Speaker’s bedroom where she climbed on his bed and curled up.

Goldie followed her on the bed, then spread his forelegs apart.

Immediately, Twilight hugged him, and he began to pat her spine.

“You did what you had to. You saved Equestria,” he said.

“I… I know… Still… How were you able to kill somebody without feeling horrible?”

Goldie remained silent for a bit, then said, “You really don’t mind killing somebody when you have been killed yourself.”

Twilight gasped, then broke the hug and looked at Goldie. “You were killed?”

“Yeah… As you know, I don’t like talking about how I died, but… I guess that I can tell you, if it can help you.”

“What… happened?” Twilight hesitantly asked.

“...” He sighed. “I don’t know if you remember, but my real name is Golden Crown.”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, I remember. I actually wondered if you were the son of a noble, with a name like that.”

“Well, you were right. I’m the son of nobles. And not any noble. I am from the lineage of Princess Platinum herself, which Celestia adopted as her nieces and nephews. You may have heard of Prince Diamond Tooth. Well, I’m his great granduncle.”

Twilight looked at Goldie in awe. “So you are a prince?”

“That’s right! But I never really liked that title. I actually didn’t care about being a noble. Strutting around with my muzzle in the air, being all proper, talking about politics and laws, eating food more sized for mice…” He shuddered. “That wasn’t for me. No, my dream was to join the Royal Guard and become a hero. To protect Celestia-even if she doesn’t really need protection, to protect the innocents, to fight for justice and peace… And my parents hated that. A noble has no business with a sword they would say.” he rolled his eyes. “They clearly forgot that, back in the days, nobles were an important part of the army. Celestia herself, who is a noble, fights on a regular basis whenever a bad guy shows up. I had totally my place in the army. and maybe I could have even become Captain!”

“Uh… Except that Captain deals with politics, which you wanted to avoid.”

Goldie groaned. “Right… Anyway, so I wanted to join the Royal Guards, and I did stuff that no nobles should do, like exploring the streets, playing in the mud, doing pranks, and so on, and my parents didn’t approve. They tried again and again and again to correct me, but I never listened. Then, one day, my mother got pregnant…”

Goldie looked away sadly. “Which was the perfect excuse for my father to… to remove me.”

Twilight gasped, putting her hooves on her mouth. “You mean…?”

Goldie nodded. “They poisoned me. They made it look like I became sick, and they made sure to choose a poison that wouldn’t be detected. Day after day, for weeks, I was unknowingly fed something that killed me little by little. I couldn’t leave the bed, I vomited half the things I ate when I wasn’t vomiting blood, I lost a lot of weight, my whole body hurt more and more, it became hard to breathe, I peed and pooped on myself, I even lost my sight… And then I closed my eyes only to never open them again. The only reason I knew that I was being poisoned was because my father told me just a few days before I died, but by then, I was too weak to do anything about it. He sounded so happy to see me die…”

Goldie was shaking by now, so Twilight hugged him again, and he returned it.

“I was so angry. My own parents… They were stealing my future. They would get away with it. Nopony would ever know about what really happened to me. And there was nothing I could do. I died, and all I wanted was to make them pay. To give them justice. So when I became a ghost, once I got enough energy, I began to prank them, a lot. I made their life into Tartarus. They quickly understood that I was the responsible, but instead of revealing anything, they fought me back, hiring mediums to force me out, but I would always come back and restart. But no matter how bad it was getting, no matter how much they lost their sanity, they never broke, they never revealed what they did, and they never got justice. They both ended up dying of a heart attack, first my father, then my mother, but not before they turned my little brother into a mini them.”

Goldie broke the hug and looked Twilight intently in the eyes. “After their death without them receiving justice, I lost my purpose. I tried to rest in peace, but I couldn’t. So I promised myself to become the hero that I dreamed to be. I would help the ponies in need, and if I ever met other villains like my parents, I would bring justice to them myself, one way or another. When I killed that Derek guy… I had prepared myself for such a moment for a while, and this poor mare… She was like me, being killed little by little, without being able to do anything about it. Because of that, I couldn’t help but imagine my father in Derek’s place. So when I killed him… I just couldn’t feel any guilt. So you understand now…”

He growled. “If you hadn’t killed the Storm King and all these storm creatures, everypony in Equestria would have become other Goldies. Maybe even everyone in the whole world. So… Even if killing is horrible, tell yourself that you saved countless beings from ending like me. You are a hero.”

Twilight wanted to cry, then she hugged Goldie again. “Thank you.”

Goldie smiled. “You’re welcome, Princess.”

“You are a hero too. You are my hero. Despite what I became, you became my friend. You remained at my side when I would have been all alone. You got me away from Canterlot. And you took the Staff of Sacanas away from the Storm King’s hand, which helped a lot. I don’t know what I would have become without you,” Twilight said before she moved to lie against the colt’s side. “Thank you so much.”

Goldie put a leg around her, holding her against him, not saying anything.

“Goldie? I promise. One day, I will find a way for you to rest in peace.”

The ghost eyed Twilight. “It would mean leaving your side.”

“Do you want to remain stuck forever with me? To never find peace?”

“...I don’t know. I admit, I wish to see what awaits me in the Great Golden Plains. Maybe I would end up reincarnating, getting a second chance at life, with a better family. But… I like being with you.”

“I don’t want to hold you back.”

“Then… I guess that we will see if you find a way to send me to the afterlife.”

“Wouldn’t telling the ponies the truth be enough?”

“I don’t know. I actually wanted my parents to be the ones to tell the truth. To show their true nature. And since they died, it became impossible.”

“Then I guess that I will see what I can do with the help of necromancy.”

“Yeah.”

From Goldie’s side, Twilight looked at him, then briefly placed her teeth against his cheek, surprising him. Then he looked at her.

“Was that a kiss?”

Twilight giggled. “The best that I could give with no lips, at least.”

The colt gave her a cheeky grin. “Seems like I’m not just your hero. I’m becoming your prince charming.”

Twilight giggled again before she placed her head against his shoulder. “Yeah, my prince.”

Goldie chuckled as he let his head rest against Twilight’s. “I guess it’s only right for a princess.”

“I’m only a princess because you call me that.”

“That's good enough for me. Besides, you are pretty much the Princess of the Dead.”

Twilight snorted. “No way.”

“After what you did, I think that you deserve this title. Also, all your undead call you Princess.”

“That’s your fault!”

“You are the one who told them to call you that instead of Mistress.”

“I prefer it to Mistress, and they don’t want to simply call me Twilight.”

“There you go then, Princess.”

Twilight wanted to pout.

Then the two laughed.