Daughter of Death

Celestia received the report: undead creatures were spotted in Baltimare.

Right away, she was certain that it was Twilight Sparkle. So the filly already discovered how to reanimate corpses, without receiving any teaching in necromancy. Very impressive. As expected from somepony with such a Cutie Mark.

However, her position was very bad news. Baltimare was near the border of Equestria, and if the filly wanted to leave the kingdom, then she just had to go south, and Celestia would lose her trace into the Hayseed Swamp and the jungle beyond. From there, she could end up anywhere in the lands in the south; the jungle, the forest around the Arimaspi Territory (she doubted that Twilight would enter said territory however, it would be too dangerous even for her), the Bone Dry Desert, the Sea of Clouds, all the way to the coast near Mount Aris.

Worst case scenario, she could even take a ship or an airship to who knew where beyond the oceans.

She hoped she wouldn’t go into the Bone Dry Desert. It was a lawless region where ponies were treated as slaves. And an undead pony? It would be a trophee, an object of collection. Every century or so, Celestia personally went there to free any pony slave she could find, not without causing some destruction and sending a few people to the hospital (or whatever counted as a hospital there), but they never learned their lesson.

Because of that, she hesitated to send guards there.

In the end, she decided to hope that Twilight Sparkle will eventually see that living there wasn’t worth it and will return to Equestria. And just in case the filly manages to board a ship or an airship, she will send words to rulers with whom she had a good relationship to keep an eye for her if she appears in their nations.

And if Twilight Sparkle ends up a slave… Well, next year, it will be exactly one century since the last time she went to the Bone Dry Desert. It shouldn’t be hard to get words about an undead filly.

It was official, Twilight hated swamps. The mud stuck to her hooves, it wasn’t rare that she was up to her knees and even her forearms in it, it was very humid, and worst of all, the BUGS.

She had nothing to fear from carnivores. She wasn’t fresh enough for them. She walked beside crocodiles (or were they alligators?) without fear. But the bugs still considered her as a walking buffet and incubator, and there were LOTS of bugs in the swamp.

It didn’t help that she entered the black putrefaction stage. She couldn’t smell to confirm it, so she had Goldie look at her skin, and he eventually confirmed the black discoloration appearing. So, no doubt that by now, she was smelling worse than a skunk, which attracted all the bugs in a very large radius.

No doubt, those bugs will turn her into a skeleton before decomposition could do its job.

She especially hated when bugs entered her eye sockets.

In answer, she submerged herself into the swamp water as much as possible to get rid of them, even if temporarily, without fear of the bite-acudas present. Since she didn’t breathe anymore, she could remain in it as much as she wanted, giving her some peace.

Because of all that, progression through the swamp was very slow. It took her days to traverse it.

However, there was a good thing about swamps: there were many animals, and so, many bones. Goldie found quite a number of them, often scattered by scavengers. One spell from Twilight was enough to assemble them if they weren’t too far apart. Thanks to that, she ended with many more animals joining her growing little army, including a couple of crocodiles (or alligators), a hippopotamus, a fox, and much to Goldie’s joy, a bear. But she mostly got small animals, like beavers, birds, frogs or toads (including a bufogren), squirrels, and rodents. She also found a turtle but she left it dead. It would be too slow to follow her.

Eventually, the swamp left place to a jungle. By then, Twilight had a few holes in her body made by the insects. Thanks to that, her abdomen wasn’t swollen anymore. However, as she traversed the jungle and days passed, she was starting to lose hair in great quantity, exposing her putrefied skin.

They found more dead animals in the jungle, including a monkey, some large feline she couldn’t identify (it would be cool if it was a lion, but a tiger, panther, or jaguar wouldn’t be bad either), another wolf, an anaconda, and even an elephant.

After a couple of days, she got the idea of sending her animals to find skeletons and guide her to them, so her army grew bigger even faster. She even managed to find an antelope partially devoured but still very recently dead. When it reached rigor mortis, she had the unknown feline (that she named Tabby) transport it.

She had no idea of what she will do with all these dead animals, but it was nice to have them.

They found a hydra, but it was still very much alive so they left it alone. But now, Goldie dreamed of having a skeleton hydra.

By the time she reached the end of the jungle, she grew quite the army. By now, she was pretty much naked, and her ribs and part of her skull around her right eye socket were exposed because of the insects devouring her.

She was entering her fourth week since her death.

Also, her cloak was caked with mud and now had several tears caused by the vegetation. It needed repair.

Then she found herself in a desert. Sand everywhere as far as the eye can see. Just great.

Goldie looked back at the jungle. “I think that we should return to the jungle.”

“Why?”

Twilight’s voice now had an echoey effect, a result of the fact that it was now of magical origin because her vocal cords were gone.

“It would be a great place to settle for you. Nopony would bother you there, and it would give you a constant supply of fresh corpses to reanimate. Also, there are lots of resources to build something like a tower; wood is everywhere, and it shouldn’t be hard to find stone.”

“Mmh… That’s true. But first!” She looked back at the desert. “Let’s see if we can find some dead animals to help, especially big ones. There are always skeletons in deserts. And let’s see if there is a settlement. Some tools, like axes and pickaxes, would be very useful for starting.”

Goldie raised an eyebrow. “You intend to show yourself?”

“Of course not. I may be outside of Equestria, but the locals may still react badly to a lich. No, I will send some small animals to search, like I did in Baltimare. Preferably during the night this time.”

“You don’t need axes, you already have beavers. And the elephant could uproot whole trees.”

Twilight chuckled. “Right, of course.”

After that, they went into the desert, followed by all the animals. And as expected, they found skeletons, completely dried out by the desert.

For a few days, this continued, exploring the desert and finding skeletons to reanimate, while Twilight herself looked more and more like a skeleton with some skin.

Then, they heard a vulture, and looking up, they saw… a vulture skeleton flying in circles above them.

Goldie frowned. “This isn’t one of yours, right?”

“Uh… I’m not sure. Wait a moment.”

She looked at her links with the vultures she found in her journey. Along with all her birds, she sent them to explore the desert and find skeletons. And none of her vultures corresponded to the one flying above them.

She gasped. “Yes, it isn’t mine! It belongs to another necromancer! There is another necromancer in this desert!”

After a few more seconds of flying in circles, the vulture descended toward Twilight, landing in front of her. It stared at her, then said in a deep, gravely voice, “Follow me.” Then, it flew away.

Twilight and Goldie exchanged a look, and the ghost asked, “Do we follow it?”

“A necromancer could teach me what I need about being one. Let’s go.”

“Alright.”

And so, they followed the vulture. For a whole day, they followed it, always going in the same direction. Twilight called back her birds, just in case.

In the distance, they could see a town at the end of a path toward what seemed to be the end of the desert. Beyond was what could only be called a sea of clouds.

The town itself was very vertically built, on large pillars of stone. There were buildings built on wooden platforms along said pillars, vertical houses, and even houses on other houses with walkways. There were also chimneys spewing black smoke, and docks with airships.

Twilight was often said to not judge a book by its cover, but this town didn’t look very good.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to enter it. The vulture descended and landed on the shoulder of someone standing in the path to it.

Twilight recognized a minotaur, very old and lanky, with grayed black fur and gray hair and also a gray beard. He was also wearing a black cloak with a hood, and he was holding a scepter with an amethyst at the top that he was using as a stick to remain standing. As Twilight approached him, she could see that his eyes were clouded. He was blind.

Yet, he could clearly see her. No doubt he was using the vulture to look at her through its eyes. And he seemed to look right at her soul.

Once she got close enough, he talked.

“So, a lich. I don’t think that this world has seen one of your kind in centuries.”

Twilight wanted to gulp. “Uh… Hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Death Speaker,” the minotaur replied simply. “Surprisingly young for a lich. One usually doesn’t become one until after decades of studying necromancy. You don’t seem to have your phylactery on you. Have you hidden it somewhere? Somewhere good, I hope for you.”

“I… I am the phylactery.”

Death Speaker raised an eyebrow. “Interesting… And very naive of you to tell me that. I could have been an enemy, and now, all I would have to do is crush your skull to eliminate you.”

Again, Twilight wanted to gulp.

“Hey, come on, give her a break, she is just a filly. Last month, she was still sleeping hugging her doll,” Goldie interjected.

“Hey! Don’t say that to strangers!” Twilight shouted, embarrassed.

For the first time, Death Speaker smiled, which looked more like a smirk. “I see. My apologies. I assumed that, by becoming a lich, she would have the corresponding mental. As I said, it usually takes decades to become one. For a filly to become one, I thought that she would be very mature, and smart.”

“I’m smart!” Twilight shouted before she grumbled. “I didn’t become a lich the usual way.”

Death Speaker raised an eyebrow. “Oh? How did you become a lich, then?”

“I’m not sure. I was taking the entrance exam for Princess Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns when I got a magic surge. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the mortuary.”

The minotaur actually looked impressed at that. “You turned yourself into a lich… by accident?”

“It seems so. Even got my Cutie Mark on the same occasion.”

“You never studied necromancy?”

“Never.”

“Then, what about the undead following you? How did you know how to animate them?”

“I don’t know, it just came naturally.”

Death Speaker rubbed his chin after that. “Interesting.” Then, he waved at her to follow him. “Come. Let’s go to my house. No need to remain standing here. Remain close to me. Leave your undead in the desert, only bring a couple of them to serve as your guards. Not your elephant. Your ghost minion can come too.”

“Hey! I’m her friend! Not her minion!” Goldie yelled. “Also, my name is Goldie!”

Meanwhile, Twilight said, “Uh… Okay.” She then quickly turned to look at her undead. “Woofy, Tabby, come with me. The others, scatter in the desert and play dead.”

The undead all followed her order, leaving behind the canine and the feline. Seeing that she was ready, Death Speaker began to walk toward the town, and the foals followed him, Twilight remaining close to him as he said.

Twilight didn’t feel reassured when she entered the town. There were all manner of creatures that she didn’t know doing suspicious activities, and they didn’t look as friendly as ponies usually were. Many eyed her… hungrily.

After a few streets, one that looked like a bipedal aquatic creature even stopped them and asked to Death Speaker, “Ooh! Can I have the little one? Whatever your price is, I can pay.”

In return, the minotaur glared at him. The creature raised his hands in surrender.

“Ok, ok! I was just asking!”

Then he walked away.

Every now and then, other creatures asked something similar only to be silenced by the same glare.

One time, however, glaring wasn’t enough. The creature, some kind of bipedal pig, looked confident before he snapped his fingers. Suddenly, Death Speaker and Twilight found themselves surrounded.

“Let’s try another time. How many for the little undead equine? Come on, I’m asking nicely,” the pig said.

Death Speaker’s glare intensified. “And here is my nice answer.”

And suddenly, he smacked the pig with his scepter so hard that he knocked him out right away.

The others looked surprised, but they quickly recovered and jumped on the minotaur. The amethyst on the scepter then glowed, and a magical shield appeared around Death Speaker and Twilight, the creatures all crashing into it.

Death Speaker removed the shield, then his vulture flew up before he began to smack the scepter around as if he was wielding a staff. One of the creatures tried to get him from behind, but the vulture arrived and clawed him.

Twilight stared in awe as Death Speaker was single handedly defeating a large group of thugs.

“Snap out of it! We should help!” Goldie shouted at her.

Twilight shook her head, then looked at Woofy and Tabby. “Attack the guys attacking us! Uh… Please, avoid killing them. And don’t attack them if they are unconscious.”

The two skeletons immediately jumped on their nearest targets, making Twilight wince.

Goldie also participated by lowering the hat of one of the attackers to cover his eyes as he had been about to attack, blinding him long enough to be knocked out by Death Speaker’s scepter.

In a few minutes, it was over. Fourteen unconscious creatures now surrounded the group. Twilight looked at the ones that had been attacked by her skeletons, saw their state, and winced again.

“Not bad,” Death Speaker said to the filly while his vulture returned on his shoulder. “Now, let’s go.”

Looking away from her victims, Twilight nodded, then walked after the minotaur.