Daughter of Death

“So, what do you two want to do?” Twilight asked Fizzlepop and Grubber, the three sitting in Death Speaker’s living room. Fizzlepop and Grubber were on the couch while Twilight was on a chair. Fizzlepop wasn’t wearing her armor anymore. “If you want to remain here, I can dig new apartments for you two, which will take a few weeks to do. Until then, you could use Master Speaker’s apartment while he is in the hospital. Your apartments should be finished before he returns. But I would understand if you don’t want to remain here. An underground complex in the middle of a jungle, several days away from all civilizations unless you count flying, surrounded by dead creatures including your old comrades and even your old boss, it would be very difficult, I imagine.”

“Oh, I really wouldn’t mind living here,” Grubber said. “I can’t say no to a free home.”

Twilight nodded, then looked at Fizzlepop. “What about you?”

“I… guess that I should remain here, if you’re going to search for a way to repair my horn. I don’t feel ready to return to Equestria yet anyway, and I don’t know where else to go.”

“Great! It will be so nice to have living company beside Master Speaker! I’m going to start working on your apartments right away!”

“Is there anything we will have to do while we remain here?” Fizzlepop asked.

“Weeeell… Not really. I guess that you could laze around if this is what you want, but if you think of something that you would like to do like, I don’t know, becoming a smith like Gerard, then go on. I imagine that it would help pass time as there is not much to do here.”

Fizzlepop and Grubber both nodded before they began to think about what they could do.

“What positions are open?” the mare asked.

“Uh… Black-smith, I guess, even if now that the Storm King is dead, we won’t need as much stuff forged. Then… I guess that an assistant to help put the books back in their place would be nice. Yeah, we are big readers here. Sunshine, Master Speaker’s own undead and personal maid, is the one who usually ends up doing it when piles of them start accumulating. Speaking of maids, you could become one too if you want. Now that I think about it, putting books back in their places could be counted as part of the work of a maid. Ooor you could help mine ore for the smiths, we have a couple of mines out in the jungle, but I don’t think that you will like to do that. Or… You could join my army. I don’t plan on using it again, but if another villain shows up… But I don’t like the idea of sending my friends to risk their lives for me, especially after I lost some undead that I considered as friends against the Storm King even if they were basically part of me, but since you already served in one army, you already have the experience.”

“No thanks,” Grubber said. “I got enough of that for a lifetime under the Storm King.”

“After, those are the jobs disponible for the lair, but there are other things that you could do for your own personal enjoyment, like… carving wood. Since we are in a jungle, there is wood everywhere, so you could use it to carve objects that you could then use to… decorate your apartment or the lair, or to sell in Equestria or in Klugetown. I could even dig a workshop for you. Or instead of wood, you could use stone and sculpt statues, or clay and sculpt pots and jars. Or I could teach you how to make potions. We have a room for that and more than enough ingredients.”

The two thought for a bit before Fizzlepop said, “I will give it some thought.”

“As for me, I guess that I wouldn’t mind being a maid,” Grubber said. “I already have a lot of experience tidying up places. It’s pretty much what the Storm King made me do aboard the flagship for a while before he made me second in command, then Tempest’s second, and it had been an alright job.”

“Alright.”

“Uh… Will I have to wear a maid outfit?” Grubber then asked in worry.

Twilight imagined the little guy in a maid outfit, then held back a laugh. “Only if you want.”

“No thanks.”

“Ok. Then no maid outfit for you. But if you want a uniform… Well, we have nothing to make clothes, so something to think about later. Or I guess that you could commission something either in Klugetown or in Equestria. Well, I guess only in Klugetown. We don’t have any bits for Equestria. Mmh… Now that I think about it, I could make some undead start to produce objects out of wood, stone, clay, and iron, and also collect fruits in the jungle, and one of you could go to Equestria to sell all of that so we can start to get bits. Well, you said that you didn’t feel like returning to Equestria, Fizzlepop, so I guess that it would be you going there, Grubber.”

“But I would never be able to pull a cart full of all that all by myself. I would need a bigger creature, and if Fizzlepop doesn’t come, then it leaves only your undead.”

“Which would cause problems… Ok, getting bits will have to wait.”

“Wait, maybe you could send the Storm King? With his full body armor, nobody would see that he’s dead,” Grubber proposed.

“It wouldn’t work,” Fizzlepop rebutted. “Ponies are extremely skittish, and the Storm King in his armor doesn’t look friendly at all. They would avoid you.”

Grubber snapped his fingers. “Darn it!”

“I guess that I could return to Equestria briefly to help sell stuff,” the mare then said. “Although ponies also tend to avoid me… So I’m not sure how well this would go.”

“Well… At least, we can try. You wouldn’t need to go far. Just to the nearest town, which is Dodge City, at the other side of the Badlands,” Twilight said. “Since it’s a border town so close to the Badlands, they must be more used to people who… well… who look different.”

“That’s true.”

“But it won’t be anytime soon. For now, let’s focus on settling you.”

The Storm King and the storm creatures entered their rigor mortis phase, so Twilight decided to wait for it to end before she would decide if she would give the tyrant a piece of her soul or not. Frankly, she couldn’t see why not. He would be a big addition to her generals.

She sent her undead to loot the airships, as well as toward the Storm King’s island to loot his HQ. They quickly returned with more of this black armor, as well as various weapons, cannons, and many treasures that the Storm King had plundered all over the world when he conquered countries, including many magical items. Twilight suddenly found herself having to build a treasure room. She wasn’t sure of what she would do to all this however. Maybe she could give the magical items to her generals.

For the black armors, while she found herself with a lot of them, their number was still limited and she had no way to get more for now, so once Gerard worked on them to make them more fitting, she would give them to her elite troops. She already knew that the storm creatures will be included in them. They proved to be real juggernauts that she only managed to defeat thanks to overwhelming numbers (and a dragon and hydra, they worked very well). If another villain showed up, they won’t laugh for long when they will find themself facing these guys. And the Storm King would be commanding them. And she will also make some black armor for herself. She really needed protection.

As for what to do with the airships… She considered repairing them, but she decided against it. She wanted to remain hidden, and having airships flying above her lair wouldn’t help at all. In the end, she decided to leave them.

She kept the Staff of Sacanas. It offered a lot of potential.

She explained all that to Death Speaker in Klugetown’s hospital. The minotaur was on a bed, his chest entirely bandaged.

Once she finished talking, he nodded, then said, “Your victory made you much stronger. Finally, it is a good thing that the Storm King came.”

Twilight sighed. “I still would have rather avoided having to kill…”

“It was bound to happen sooner or later. I myself had to kill a couple of times. Don’t put too much thought into it. In this cruel world, what you did is considered as normal.”

“It isn’t normal in Equestria.”

“How many villains do you think Celestia has killed? How many soldiers do you think the army has killed through the wars that Equestria has been through?”

Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it. “....A lot.”

“And yet, nobody in Equestria bats an eye about it. Killing is as normal there as everywhere else. So nobody will hold it against you. On the contrary, they would thank you for getting them rid of the pain in the ass that the Storm King has been. You understand? You did nothing wrong. Remember that.”

Twilight silently nodded.

A moment of silence followed before Death Speaker said, “Once I get out of the hospital, we will go to Death Mountain.”

Twilight looked at him in surprise. “Already? Are you sure I’m ready?”

“That blow I took weakened me a lot. I don’t think that we have much time left. Try to learn as much as you can by yourself while I recover. And now that you have the Staff of Sacanas, maybe you will have less problems facing whatever will be inside the mountain.”

“Alright.”

A few days later, in the guard room, Twilight stared at the Storm King, now out of rigor mortis. She made him remove his armor so Gerard could repair the breastplate, so now, he had nothing on him.

The Storm King remained immobile, doing nothing.

Finally, Twilight began to work on giving him a piece of her soul. A few moments later, she was done, and she looked at the Storm King again, which she just named Storm, not knowing his real name.

Storm looked down at her, then grinned before he suddenly picked her up and put her on his head, much to her surprise. Then, Storm began to run around, making her squeal and laugh.

“How is your ride, Princess? Should I stop?”

“No! Continue! Faster!”

“As Her Majesty wishes!”

At that, Storm climbed the stairs and exited the lair with her, running into the jungle.

After a few minutes, still grinning, Storm asked, “So, is it a good enough impression after the very bad first one that my body made?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Glad to hear! Still want to continue? I can do it all day and all night!”

“Yes!”

“Alright! I’m accelerating again! Brace yourself!”

And his speed practically doubled. He may be running even faster than a cheetah. And he expertly avoided all the trees in his path.

On his head, Twilight laughed like she hadn’t laughed since she became a lich.

Twilight studied hard by herself in Death Speaker’s absence. She still visited regularly to ask him questions about this or that that she read in the books. She wanted to be as prepared as possible for Death Mountain so she could get her hooves on the Staff of Thanatos and save her mentor.

Weeks passed, and Death Speaker was considered healed enough that he could leave the hospital despite his torso still being bandaged, however, he had difficulty walking without his staff. Twilight let him borrow her manticore as a mount.

As soon as he returned to the lair, Death Speaker prepared for the journey to Death Mountain.

Thankfully, they could simply fly there, Twilight on a pegasus, and Death Speaker on the manticore. It will still take several days, but it will be much faster than the weeks it would have taken on ground, passing by Equestria and going west beyond Las Pegasus.

Once Death Speaker was ready, they departed, just the two of them, a pegasus, a manticore, a vulture, and Goldie.

For days they flew, regularly taking rests so Death Speaker could eat and sleep.

Then, they finally saw Death Mountain on the horizon. It wasn’t the tallest mountain, nor the largest, but it had the particularity of being a lonely mountain in the middle of nowhere, and the closer they got, the more Twilight could see that there was absolutely no life around it, not even grass, clearly delimiting the death ward. The presence of many skeletons in a line around the mountain also helped.

They circled the mountain, making sure to never cross the line, until they found the entrance to Thanatos’ lair, two large stone doors with a giant skull sculpted on them. They then landed just a few meters in front of the death line before the doors.

“There it is. Thanatos’ lair,” Death Speaker said.

Twilight wanted to gulp. That was the kind of foreboding mountain where you would see vultures fly above in stories, except that, here, even the vultures died, their skeletons part of the line of skeletons surrounding the mountain. The mountain itself was made of black sharp stones, making her wonder if it was natural, with lots of skulls sculpted everywhere, and even some real skulls of giant creatures like dragons. Not a sound could be heard except a faint breeze blowing dust, and it was very cold. All it missed were black clouds covering the sun above it.

“Well… Here I go…” Twilight said.

Death Speaker gently placed a hand on her head. “Good luck, kiddo.”

Goldie rubbed his head against hers. “Remember, I will be with you.”

Twilight wanted to smile at him in thanks. Instead, she gave him a nod before she advanced toward the mountain, Goldie following her.

She crossed the death line, and before long, she was before the door.

Surprisingly, when she got close enough, the eyes of the skull glowed purple, and the doors opened by themselves, revealing a hallway where magical torches held by pony skeletons hanging on the walls lit up with purple flames.

The mountain itself let out a sound like a moan from its depth.

Twilight was now shaking, but after several seconds, she steeled herself and advanced. Once she was inside, the doors closed behind her.