Morality of a Necromancer

Chapter 14: Breaking and entering

Abyss was sitting in his office, waiting for his subordinate when he heard something interesting on the radio.

"- and has shown that he is willing to use lethal force if confronted. That is all."

"Thank you lieutenant Plate Mail. This was News Flash, brining you the news live in front of the Pegasus Wing hotel."

The door opened and Silent Whisper trotted inside. Abyss looked at his subordinate and smiled.

"We did well in bribing that guy, didn't we? If all of this is over, I'd like to offer him employment. What do you think?"

Silent Whisper shrugged.

"I think that he's just a lowlife that knows how to cover his flank, got those in excess in this city."

"Exactly, we need to show our future subjects that obedience will be rewarded and defiance will be put to an end. Will you join me downstairs?"

She smiled and followed her employer down the secret staircase. They kept walking in silence until they reached the sanctum. The entire room was cast in near total darkness, but Abyss had cast an enchantment on them that allowed them to see like the room was brightly lit. The Elements of harmony were bound on the large stone table in the middle of the room, along with an unknown seventh mare. All the mares had regained consciousness by now, and were silently comforting each other.

"Tell me, why have you taken that seventh mare again?"

The mares went silent immediately as soon as they heard Abyss speak, fearfully listening on. Silent Whisper wing-shrugged.

"She looked like she was close to them, and I thought it'd be better if I took everypony connected with them as well. Less chance that they'd interfere with our friends in the station. Should I dispose of her?"

The Elements gasped, and the seventh mares started sobbing. Abyss grinned at the sight, but shook his head.

"No, we might just as well use her now. Who knows, maybe her blood will give us that extra edge we need. Everything must be optimal if we want to succeed."

One of the mares called out to him.

"Let me go you freak! I'll buck you to the bucking moon!"

Abyss sighed and shot a sickly green ray at the blue mare, causing her to scream in agony.

"Now now, miss Dash. If you want to be set free you need to give me a more compelling argument than that. But I will let you in on a secret."

He trotted closer, leaning forward so that they could see his face.

"I won't let you go, and nopony is going to save you. Waste your breath on saying goodbye to your friends instead of threatening me, it'll be just as effective but might soothe you a little."

He laughed mockingly and made to leave, but stopped as Twilight called out to him.

"Why? Why are you doing this? What kind of things could turn a pony in a twisted monster like you?"

Abyss nearly told her, just to see her reaction, but restrained himself. Telling your victims your plans could only give them an edge, however small. He grinned fiendishly at Twilight.

"Don't break your pretty head thinking about it, you'll experience it soon enough."

Abyss let out an echoing laugh and left the room, closing the door with a resounding crash. Silent Whisper approached him with a smile, shaking her head.

"Always going for the dramatic. So, when will we start the ritual?"

"At dawn, when both Celestia and Luna are preoccupied with their respective celestial bodies. We wouldn't want to risk divine intervention, even though they are forbidden to do so. One cannot be prepared enough when overthrowing a divine regime. A few more hours, and I will become king of Equestria!"

Silent Whisper suddenly pressed closer to him, a seductive look in her eyes.

"Does the great king have need for a queen?"

Abyss blinked, not expecting that reaction from his subordinate. After a few stunned seconds though, he grinned like a madpony.

"My dear Silent Whisper, you are perhaps the only mare in Equestria that can say such things to me without getting killed. I think that alone should be able to answer your question. If not, I hope that this will suffice."

He leaned in and kissed her deeply, feeling her body press close to his. He broke the kiss soon after, a neutral expression on his features.

"Although I'd like to give in to desire, we have more pressing matters to attend to. We will continue this after we've conquered Equestria, my queen."

Abyss left, leaving a smiling Silent Whisper behind. He couldn't help but chuckle, fortune favors the bold, indeed. Although he had no romantic feelings for his employee he could not deny her attractiveness. And what self-respecting king did not have a queen?

He entered his office again and turned up the radio. He still needed to remove one last obstacle, and he'd rather not leave that to corrupt Guards. He made a quick call, and Loud Snap entered the office a minute later.

"Gather some of your men and look for the necromancer. I want him out of the picture before the night is over."

The bruiser nodded.

"Of course, boss. What should we do with the body?"

"I don't care. As long as he is dead before sunrise, you are free to do whatever you want. Do not disappoint me."
~
Sandova was casually trotting along the pavement, hood down and oversized cloak trailing behind him. He knew that hiding his face would draw more attention than his face itself. He had already blended into the crowd of Manehattan, but quickly realized that most ponies would be going home as soon as possible, not wanting to be out on the street with a rogue necromancer walking about.

Sandova saw some Guards in the distance, and casually walked into an alley. After a minute he could no longer see the main road. This was also the moment his path got blocked by two rough looking stallions.

"Good evening, gentlecolts. How may I help you on this fine evening?"

The thugs blinked before one of them, an oversized earth pony, stepped forward.

"Ye kin give us yer bits, an' we won't hafta smash yer face in."

The other stallion growled in acknowledgement. Sandova sighed, no matter the world, it seems that thugs are universal.

"One warning, pals. I am the necromancer the Guard is looking for, get out of my way or enter a world of pain."

One of the thugs stopped, but the other pressed on.

"Yer bluffin', now hand over yer bits."

Sandova sighed and cast ray of enfeeblement, catching the first thug square in the chest. His eyes widened as he felt his strength fade away. Sandova ignored him and fixed the other thug with a withering glare, activating his fear aura for good measure.

"Now do I have to render you impotent as well or can I move along? I'm in kind of a hurry, you see."

The thug nodded and began helping his buddy get up before quickly moving out of the alley. Sandova winced, the Guard would know he was here in no time, undoubtedly alerted by those low-lives. He had to move before-

"You there! Halt in the name of Celestia!"

Sandova cursed violently and ran in the opposite direction, hearing the guard behind him give chase. He looked behind him and saw only a lone unicorn chasing him. Sandova narrowed his eyes, the unicorn looked familiar. He heard the flap of wings and violently collided with somepony in front of him. Sandova had his charnel touch ready when he saw the face of the pegasus beneath him.

"Is that necromancy in your hoof or are you just happy to see me?"

"Detective? What in nine hells are you doing here?"

He dismissed his charnel touch and rolled off of her, then helped her get up. Behind them, Cold Case had finally caught up.

"Helping you, of course. Abyss has most of the Guard in his pocket, and I'd like to help you take the son of a bitch down."

"Son of a bitch? Huh, never heard that particular insult before."

Sandova shook his head, this was not the time to expand one's vocabulary, damnit!

"Anyway, what about your jobs? You can't seriously be risking your jobs to help some random guy you only met yesterday!"

Cold Case chuckled.

"Funny, that's what I told her as well. We're not particularly risking our job for you, but it helps that we consider you a friend. At least, that's what I do."

Hard Facts nodded.

"We're doing this because somepony has to. It might get us get locked up if we fail, and we'll probably still get arrested if we succeed, but if we won't stand up for justice, who will?"

Sandova looked at her, impressed at her resolve.

"Well said, detective. But we still have the problem that I'm Manehatten's most wanted criminal at the moment. I doubt even Celestia will listen to me, considering my actions at the hotel."

"About that, what did happen there, exactly? We only got the citizen-friendly version."

Sandova told them, sparing no detail. Cold Case shuddered, but Hard Facts wing-shrugged.

"Sounds like that bastard had it coming. I mean, he did try to throw you off the roof. From the way I see it, you acted in self-defense. His buddies are to blame if Crystal Clear dies, they made you drop him after all."

Both stallions stared at her.

"That's, uncharacteristically cold of you, detective. I'm impressed."

"Really Hardy, what's gotten into you?"

Hard Facts grinned wryly.

"One, don't call me Hardy again or I'll buck your teeth in. And two, this entire situation is going to Tartarus faster than you can finish a hayburger with extra cheese. I've got no time to be horrified about what happens tonight, it'll only slow me down."

Cold Case set his jaw and nodded grimly.

"You're right, but we'll talk about this later. Speaking of death so casually isn't healthy and you know it."

Hard Facts rolled her eyes at him, but Sandova spoke up before the argument could escalate.

"Right, we still need to find out how to get into Abyss' office without us getting arrested by the Guard or getting killed by Abyss' goons."

A rough voice suddenly spoke up behind them, startling them.

"Don't worry 'bout the first one. We'll have the second one covered."
~
Silent Whisper was happier then she'd ever been. Not only was she close to becoming one of the most powerful ponies in Equastria, the object of her desires had reacted positively to her advances! She shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts, but couldn't help but smile contentedly. She was pulled out of her musings by the buzzer for the back entrance. She quickly got to it and pressed her hoof against the speaker button.

"State your purpose or leave."

A rough voice answered, and she recognized Loud Snap.

"We got the necromancer and some Guards, ma'am. I figured that the boss would like to know what they know before disposing of them."

Silent Whisper sighed.

"And that's why you aren't paid to think, you oaf! Whatever they might know is irrelevant."

She heard him grunt before he answered.

"So I'll just dispose of them, then?"

Silent Whisper thought about it, now that they had them she could just as well figure out what they knew. Like Abyss always said, one cannot have enough information.

"No, send them in. Dump them in a holding cell, I shall join you shortly."

She walked towards her office and picked up the phone, quickly dialing her employer.

"Yes?"

"Boss, it's me. Loud Snap just came back with the necromancer and two guardsponies, thought that we could get some info out of them before we disposed of them."

"Very well, but make it short. I'd rather not have them escaping and causing havoc in here, not when we're so close."

"Of course."

The line went dead and she made her way to the holding cells in the basement. Although most of the building was a legitimate office building, Abyss had made sure he could handle all of his other operations here as well. No inspection had ever uncovered the darker parts of the building, the inspectors that tried tended to disappear on their way home.

A few minutes later she reached the holding cells and noticed light coming from one open door. Irritated, she walked inside.

"Damnit Snap, how many times have I told you to close the door when you're holding somepony imprisoned?"

She froze when she saw that she was the only conscious pony in the room. Loud Snap was the cell's only other occupant, and he was covered in bruises and withered patches of fur, not to mention unconscious.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I got ya covered."

She whirled around to see a smiling Sandova Mirell close the door behind her. She screamed in impotent fury at the necromancer, knowing that she had no way of getting out.

Behind the glass Sandova laughed and shook his head, turning to the detectives.

"I told you that it would work. Overconfidence is a common trait amongst villains like this. Now, where would they keep my friends?"

Cold Case shrugged.

"I haven't the foggiest, and I doubt we can get anything out of her."

He pointed at the still fuming Silent Whisper. Hard Facts shrugged.

"We can always try asking the next thug we come across. All the regular employees have gone home hours ago, so it's just us and Abyss' trusted crooks in here."

Sandova nodded at her, a cold smile forming on his lips.

"If they're anything like the thug squad that 'helped' us in here I'd say we'll be fine."

"Don't get cocky, just because we beat the crap out of six thugs doesn't mean we can handle Abyss' entire organization. This is his headquarters after all."

They slowly moved up the stairs, but encountered nopony. The staircase ended in front of a door, which revealed itself to be disguised as a wall panel as they went through it.

"No wonder that we could never catch him on criminal activity here. I doubt most of his employees even know areas like this exist."

They quickly moved down the corridor, trying to find a fire escape plan of the building. They made it halfway down the corridor when the doors on the far end opened and two dozen ponies appeared. Sandova prepared a spell when he was hit from behind. Unbeknownst to them, a second group of guards had sneaked up behind them, using the flashy entrance of their colleagues to cover up the sound of their approach.

All three of them got restrained, and Sandova and Cold Case got inhibitor wings forced around their horns. Hard Facts tried to fly up and escape, but a clever earth pony slammed her head against the wall before tying up her wings with a rope. An azure unicorn with sharp features stepped forward, barking orders.

"Get them to the boss, I'll get miss Whisper out of the holding cell. I'm sure she wants to be present when we demonstrate the futility of their actions."