Hours later, around midnight, Twilight had finished the two books and was now in the process of trying to give independence to one of her undead. The one she chose was Mickey, the rodent she sent to keep watch in Canterlot. With independence, it could decide what to do, who to watch, when to warn her. It was very important.

Through the two books, Twilight learned that the undead that she animated were extensions of her soul. So, while the links between her and them looked like they started from her magic, they actually started from her soul, which was deep inside her magic (so, no way to see it because of the magic surrounding it). So she guessed that, if she were to separate her soul from her body and put it into a phylactery, then the links would follow it, and another link would probably form between it and her body. She would have to confirm it by reading a more advanced book about liches if Death Speaker had one.

Anyway, so the undead she animated were actually part of her, so if she wanted to give them some independence, she had to give them a little bit of her soul. Nothing soul-damaging. The little soul pieces would still be linked to her, and if the undead was destroyed, it would return to her right away.

It didn’t mean that the undead will become her however. The soul was just the base, meaning that all her undead will share stuff with her, like probably her love of studying, or her apparent talent at magic, but Twilight could then mold it into something more different. She could give it a blank state and let the undead develop its own personality, or she could give to it the personality she wanted. For a spy like Mickey, making it the silent type would obviously be better. Careful, patient, calm…

But first, she had to give it a piece of her soul, and for that, she had to focus on her link. It took some time, but she was able to tear off a piece of her soul (which looked like a small little light) and guide it through the link to Mickey. Because of how far Mickey was, this process took longer, constantly having to stop the piece from returning to her main soul. She almost let it go a couple of times.

But finally, after an undetermined amount of time, she succeeded, and Mickey now had a piece of her soul.

Finally, she began the process of molding its personality. For that, all she had to do was to word it in the undead’s mind, like “You will be that and that and that, and also that.” She had no idea if it was a male or a female, but considering the name she gave to it, she chose male. She gave it the personality she determined a spy should have, and then… She decided “Why not?” and began to give him more details, like making him a good singer even if he probably won’t be able to sing to remain incognito, or giving him the habit of saying “Haha!”.

This made it another long process, Twilight being very thorough with the creation of her first sentient minion.

Once she was done, she said, And there! Finished! Wake up, Mickey! How do you feel?

I feel like I just came to life, even if I’m not really alive, ahah!

Well, it’s nice to meet you, Mickey. Uh… Do I need to present myself?

No need. I already know everything about you, Mistress Twilight. It must have come with the piece of your soul now within me.

Please, don’t call me ‘mistress’.

As your minion, I feel obligated to.

Well, let’s make it more friendly, please. I already consider you a friend.

Does it count as a friend when you made it yourself with a piece of you?

…Let’s make it yes.

Through Mickey’s eyes, she felt his body shake in a way that told her that he was silently laughing.

Very well. Instead, I shall take a page from Goldie’s book and call you Princess. You don’t mind that as much, ahah!

It’s still embarrassing when he calls me that.

But you are starting to like that little nickname. Don’t lie to me, I’m you, I know you.

Twilight groaned.

Anyway, I suppose then that you know your purpose.

Yes. Spying on the ponies here to see if anything interesting happens. I will try to spy on Princess Celestia, but I don’t know how well I will do inside the castle with all the servants and guards, especially the maids constantly cleaning it.

I’m sure that you will manage. You are small, fast, and I gave you the perfect personality to infiltrate. And you are smart, like me.

It did you good in the exam, Mickey said sarcastically.

I have learned my lesson! I will try to look at problems from different angles! So remember to do the same.

Will do. Well, I should use the cover of the night to try to enter the castle. It will be a nice start.

Alright. Be careful.

You made me careful, remember?

Of course I remember, I was just being a good friend.

Ahah! And I was messing with you.

Twilight groaned again before she left Mickey, returning to her own body. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Goldie.

“Hey, you are back, Princess. I waited a while.”

“What time is it?” she asked.

“About 3am.”

“Thanks. So, did you find any ghost who talked to you?”

“Yes, several. Lots of them are victims of murder. I also learned that this town practices slavery. I found a couple of ponies.”

Twilight recoiled in disgust. “Ponies are enslaved here?”

“Yes. No wonder the townsfolk wanted you so much. You are an undead and a pony. I guess that being a child didn’t make it better. Probably felt like you would make a very good pet.”

“Ugh. I can’t wait to have my lair so I can leave this town.”

“Yeah, but I learned something more worrying. The older ghosts told me that once a century, Celestia comes here to free the pony slaves, and next year will just so happen to be exactly one century since she last came here. If you want to continue to avoid her, then you will have to avoid being in town. I don’t know if the lair will be finished by then.”

“We will work day and night to make it in time. Did they tell you when exactly in the year she comes?”

“No, they didn’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she comes as soon as next year starts.”

“At worst, I can just remain out in the desert and wait for her to leave.”

“No, it’s not just this town that Princess Celestia will search, but the whole desert. There are villages here and there, as well as caravans. Any of them could have a pony slave.”

Twilight shrugged. “Then I will remain in the jungle. One minute.” She closed her eyes and focused back on Mickey. There are news. Princess Celestia will come to the desert, probably at the start of next year. If you manage to keep an eye on her, then tell me once she is about to leave.

Very well, Princess.

Thank you, Twilight said before she opened her eye sockets. “I warned Mickey. He will keep us informed.”

“The joy of having a spy constantly in contact. So, what now? There are a few hours left before the sun rises.”

“I will give independence to more of my undead, starting with Woofy and Tabby, and Felix. As my first undead, it should have more priority.”

“Alright. Meanwhile, I think that I will go play some… pranks on these slavers. I hate slavers.”

At that, Goldie left, leaving Twilight to do her stuff. Before he left, Twilight saw in his eyes that whatever… ‘prank’ he will give to the slavers will not be the fun kind.

Stopping thinking about that, Twilight closed her eyes and began to tear off a piece of her soul to give to Woofy. Her guards may be needed tomorrow, and them being independent will be much better.

Morning came, and Death Speaker woke up only to find Twilight still in the library with her eye sockets closed, and he guessed that she was in the process of giving independence to her undead.

He touched her on her horn and said, “Wake up once you are done with your current undead.” Then, he left to eat the breakfast that Sunshine had certainly prepared.

Twilight opened her eye sockets a few minutes later and found the minotaur in the dinner room downstairs, Goldie beside her, looking very grave. She didn’t dare to question him about what he did after he went to ‘prank’ the slavers.

As he ate, Death Speaker asked, “How many undead have you given a soul piece to?”

“Uh… About two dozen.”

“You should stop there then. You can only take so many pieces before your soul becomes unstable. Leave it to the undead you would consider your officers. Their independence will allow them to give orders to the undead you haven’t given a soul to.”

“Alright.”

“There are some shovels in the basement. We will take them so we can dig the tombs.”

Twilight looked away, still not wanting to do that. “...Okay…”

“Since you have a monkey, we will be able to take four.”

“The monkey is one of the undead I gave a piece of my soul to.”

“Good.”

Not long after, Death Speaker was done with his breakfast, and they went to the basement, passing the door beside the staircase.

It turned out that the basement was where Death Speaker stored his undead. There were many of them, just waiting to find a buyer.

The shovels were against the wall, five of them. The minotaur took three, and the filly took one.

Then, they left the house, Twilight remaining close with Woofy and Tabby following her. Death Speaker took Sunshine so she could transport food and water for him, and she will help them digging.

Twilight still couldn’t believe that she was going to desecrate some graves. Why had things gone so wrong?

Then, she heard a group of people beside who they walked.

“Have you heard? They found Derek dead in his house.”

“Really? How did he die?”

“His own sheets were used to strangle him in his sleep.”

“Eh. It was about time someone did something to that pig. He was just horrible.”

“Yeah, have you heard the rumor of what he did to that mare he owned?”

“Ugh… Don’t remind me. I would never do that to my slave if I had one. I have standards.”

“Not everyone is like you, sadly. Good riddance.”

A slaver owning a mare was killed?

Twilight looked at Goldie in horror.

Goldie saw her reaction and shook his head sadly. “You should have seen the state of the mare he owned. He was treating her very badly. I don’t think that she would have survived by next year. As a hero, I had to do something. He was a villain, she was an innocent in danger, so I did what I had to do. Hopefully, whoever will own her next will treat her better. I would have preferred that she escaped, but she was too weak to traverse the desert.”

Death Speaker snorted. “In my opinion, you did good.”

“Also, this rumor they spoke of? A ghost confirmed that it was true.”

Death Speaker looked sick. “Wretched creature.”

Twilight was scared to ask. “What… did he do to her?”

“You wouldn’t understand. I will explain to you while we traverse the desert.”

It wasn’t long after that they left Klugetown and walked northwest. Twilight told her monkey, who she named Lucy once she found out that she was female, to come, and Death Speaker gave a shovel to her.

Then they traversed the desert, which took a few days. While Twilight, Goldie, and Lucy could walk day and night, Death Speaker had to rest.

Eventually, they reached the end of the desert and arrived at a greener area with fir trees. It wasn’t long later that they reached the ocean, and their destination: the port known as Firwind. It was a small town, but it still had what they wanted: a cemetery.

“Now, we wait for the cover of the night,” Death Speaker said.

That was enough time for her to say that she refused to continue. That she didn’t want to dig out dead ponies.

But they already traversed the whole desert. Backing out now would be bad, having wasted all this time for nothing. Time was everything Twilight had, but not Death Speaker. Each second was precious to him, and Twilight would feel guilty.

So she said nothing and waited, trying not to think of what Death Speaker told her as they traversed the desert. That beings could do something so horrible… The poor mare will need a lot of help. Goldie helped her get it out of her mind by talking to her.

Night came, and Death Speaker said, “Let’s go.”

Hesitantly, Twilight nodded.

The cemetery was out of town, so there was no risk of encountering somepony, except maybe the guardian if it had one. It was fifty-fifty about that. A town so small may not have one, but being so close to the Bone Dry Desert, grave robbers may be a regular occurrence.

As they approached the cemetery, they found out that there was one. They could see him thanks to his torch. Thankfully, Twilight and Night Speaker didn’t have a torch. The minotaur, through the eyes of his vulture, had perfect night vision, like Twilight.

“What do we do now?” the filly whispered.

At that, the vulture flew from Night Speaker’s shoulder, toward the guardian from his blind spot. Then, it swooped and hit the guardian on the back of the head, knocking him down. Death Speaker then ran toward the guardian as he recovered from the hit and smashed him with the back of his shovel. The guardian barely had time to see his hooves as he was getting up before he was knocked out.

Twilight gasped as she ran after the minotaur. “Did you kill him?”

“No, he is just out cold. Hopefully for the next several hours. Now, we can dig.”

Beside Twilight, Lucy shrugged. “I guess that there was no other solution. So, which tomb first?”

“Preferably the older ones which are no longer maintained,” Death Speaker said.

“Hey! I don’t allow you to use the bodies of this cemetery for your dastardly schemes, necromancer!” they suddenly heard before the ghost of a gray earth pony stallion with a graying red mane came to the minotaur’s face, looking very angry. He looked to be in his sixties.

Death Speaker stared at the ghost, then looked away from him and at the tombstones, looking at the dates to see which were the oldest.

“Hey! Listen to me!” the stallion yelled, not liking being ignored.

“Sorry,” Twilight said to him. “I need ponies to build a lair in the jungle. Don’t worry, I’m not planning anything bad. I just want to study magic and necromancy away from ponies who would want to hurt me because of what I am.”

The stallion looked at her in surprise. “You aren’t one of his undead?”

Twilight shook her head. “No. I’m a lich.” She winced when she saw the dark look the stallion gave to her at that. “I’m not a bad lich. I promise. I didn’t ask to become one.”

“There is no need to pay attention to him,” Death Speaker said. “If he knows what is good for him, he won’t attack us. Mmh… Looks like this grave is the oldest one. Let’s dig.”

And so, Death Speaker, followed by Sunshine and Lucy, began to dig. Twilight gave an apologetic look at the stallion and went to help them.

Under the eyes of the stallion, and of a few other ghosts who approached but didn’t dare to try to stop them, they dug, getting a coffin out. Sunshine then gave Death Speaker a crowbar that he used to open the coffin, revealing the skeleton inside. A pegasus, male.

“Now, you can animate it,” the minotaur said.

Twilight nodded, then hesitantly approached. After several seconds of doubt, she finally fired the spell, animating the corpse.

Once the pegasus was out of the coffin, Death Speaker closed it and placed it back in the tomb.

“Now, we bury it,” he said.

Twilight nodded and helped him.

For the rest of the night, the process was repeated.

Author's Note

Firwind's name comes from this fanmade map I found: Link