Chapter 4: Unforeseen complications.

"Are you sure that this is a good idea Twilight?"

Sandova was looking at the anatomy skeleton in front of him.

"I mean, there is a reason most people consider this spell as evil. I am going to fill this pony's remains with negative energy, animating the bones. It will be a mindless slave until it is destroyed."

Twilight frowned and thought for a moment, before nodding her head.

"This pony donated his entire body to science after his death, having his remains used to help ponies achieve scientific accomplishments. And I think observing unknown magic qualifies as such. I am a bit disturbed by the 'mindless slave' part, though. Isn't there anything you can do about that?"

It was Sandova's turn to shake his head.

"I am not strong enough to create intelligent undead, nor would I do that even if I could. I know this world is very different from mine, but I highly doubt that this world's version of a carnivorous walking corpse would be any less evil than my world's."

Twilight nodded, looking slightly downcast. Sandova, however, smiled deviously.

"I do, however, know of a spell that grants sentience to otherwise mindless undead. I am not nearly strong enough to cast that spell, but I can try to learn it so that I can take care of the 'mindless slave' part later."

Twilight smiled and looked at the skeleton again. Sandova cracked his neck and wriggled his fingers.

"Then let's get this over with, did Rarity provide the gem?"

Twilight nodded and levitated a onyx gemstone out of one of her saddlebags. Sandova took it and examined it closely.

"I am no expert on gemstones, but isn't this one pretty expensive? The ones I usually need for small skeletons are much more, well, flawed. Not that I'm complaining, mind you."

Twilight looked at him questioningly.

"What do you mean? You need gemstones for certain spells?"

"Indeed, some spells require a focus of some sort, and most spells also need material components. I have learned to forgo the need of lesser components, but anything that's expensive holds too much power to simply pass by. I can emulate the cost of, say, a candle, but gems are far too powerful to simply emulate. You still didn't answer my question of how much this one will cost me. In my world I could eat like a nobleman for months with this gem. Hells, I could animate an hydra with this."

Twilight was already scribbling furiously on some poor piece of parchment, taking notes of what he just said. When he didn't continue she looked up to see Sandova looking at her with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh sorry, I guess I got a little distracted. To answer your question, gems are not that rare in Equestria. They are uncommon and valuable, yes, but not that valuable. Besides, Rarity would not even possess an inferior gem. You'll have to make do."

Sandova laughed and took the gem from Twilight, his eyes glistening with mischief.

"Make do? If I ever feel the need of raising an entire army of undead I know where I can go for supplies."

Still smiling he carefully put the gem in the skeletons empty eye socket, muttering while he did so. A surge of black energy rippled from his hands, and Twilight saw the onyx flare with an inner light before disintegrating. The skeleton moved its head jerkily before it simply stood still, as if awaiting orders. Sandova opened his mouth to speak when there was another surge, and the skeletons movement became much more liviely.

"That's not supposed to happen"

Sandova looked worriedly at his now dancing skeleton. He decided to try turning it for good measure and went to work. He muttered an incantation and gestured dramatically at the skeleton, which spared him barely a glance before continuing bouncing around, as if overjoyed.

Now extremely worried Sandova began casting Command Undead. This resulted in the skeleton shaking its head and looking at Sandova again. Sandova eyed the undead suspiciously, skeletons were supposed to be mindless yet before him stood one that resisted Command Undead. No mindless undead is able to resist that spell, and that could only mean-

"Twilight, stop it before it goes anywhere!"

Twilight looked worried at Sandova's outburst, but before she could act the skeleton bolted past her, through the door and into Ponyville. Leaving a confused unicorn and an extremely worried necromancer in its wake.

"This can't be good."
~
Applejack was busy setting up her stand when she heard screaming.

"It's terrible!"

"It's going to kill us all!"

"The horror, the horror!"

Applejack sighed and looked in the direction of the floret triplets, expecting to see the overreacting again. You can imagine her shock when she saw a skeleton running down the street.

"What in tarnation?"

"Applejack!"

She turned around to see Sandova sprinting down the street, followed by Twilight. They stopped for breath when they got to Applejack.

"Have you seen a walking skeleton pass by? It kinda, uuhm, escaped."

Applejack looked at them incuriously. It took a while before she could manage to voice her thoughts coherently.

"Y'all did WHAT?"

Twilight looked guilty while Sandova grinned, smiling almost challengingly at Applejack.

"You see, Twilight and I were discussing our different forms of magic when she asked for a demonstration. I told her that most of my spells either don't work in this world or are meant for harming. The only spell I could think of showing her was Animate Dead, so I told her about it. She asked me to show her the spell, I obliged and something went wrong, so here we are. Lovely weather by the way, don't you think?"

Applejack could only stare at the necromancer. Sandova was about to comment on it when the screaming started again.

"Well, if you're quite done playing flytrap, we have a skeleton to catch."
~
Following the skeleton was easy enough, they just had to follow the trail of panicked ponies it left behind. Catching it was another thing entirely, since it was both fast and strong. After a few failed attempts, Applejack finally managed to catch the skeleton with her lasso.

"'Ah got ya now, no more runnin' off ya hear."

The skeleton had other ideas, and simply continued running. Applejack yelped when she was dragged along by the skeleton. This gave Sandova the opening he was looking for, and he started casting another spell. Black tentacles erupted from the ground, groping for the skeleton. He then looked at Applejack, suppressing a snicker.

"You okay? I forgot to mention that I've mastered the art of enhancing my creations far above their original strength, and that I use that skill subconsciously whenever I animate something."

They looked at the skeleton again, except that it had apparently broken free of the tentacles and was nowhere to be found.

"Damnation! I forgot that earth ponies were physically the strongest ponies. Still, it's impressive that it could break free of Evard's Black Tantacles so easily. I wonder how strong it used to be?"

He looked at the mares only to find them looking at him disapprovingly. He smiled a guilty little smile and winked.

"Oh yeah, sorry. Anyone have any Ideas, 'cuz I've run out."

Twilight looked thoughtful and tired, but she had been running along with them for a while now. Sandova himself also felt tired, he wasn't used to prolonged physical activity. At least, not anymore.

"Maybe we can ask around at the place I got the skeleton in the first place, give some clues on who he was before he died."

Sandova sighed, he forgot they knew next to nothing about necromancy.

"How would that help? I mean, it's an animated corpse, it doesn't have memories of its life. Unless its possessed I don't seem-"

He stopped, thinking about what he said. Possession? But that's impossible, this world is too innocent to harbor spirits like that. Or is it? As his welcoming party showed this world wasn't nearly as innocent as he first thought it was. Maybe Twilight had a point.

"I'm sorry, I spoke too fast. Can you take us to the place you got the skeleton?"

Twilight arched an eyebrow at his sudden change of heart, but kept her thoughts to herself.

"Sure, it's not far from here."

But when they got back to the town center they were met by a mob of angry ponies.

"There he is!"

The mob moved over to Sandova, who became increasingly worried, and he's been worried ever since the skeleton escaped, so that's saying something.

The mob halted in front of them, one pony pointing an accusing hoof at Sandova.

"You come here saying the princess trusts you, you tell us you have only the best intentions. Now tell me, 'human', why is there some unholy abomination running through the street causing havoc? You may have fooled the princess, but you can't fool us."

The mob shouted various agreements to this. Sandova felt betrayed, this was Havndir all over again! Again he was judged on what he did, not why he did it. They didn't even want to understand! Fine, they want to see a monster, then a monster is what they're going to get! He smiled wickedly.

"Ah, it seems I have been found out. Now tell me, what did you plan on doing now? I am sure you can find the perfectly legal punishment for using magic that is beyond doubt evil. I mean, it wrecked homes, killed ponies and made your lives miserable. The fact that it had been requested by your favorite librarian doesn't matter, bacause I'm clearly controlling her mind."

He walked towards the mob and contemplated on using his fear aura, but after one look at the mob he decided they were scared enough, he laughed scornfully.

"Did you ever think that the princess would be stupid enough to be fooled by a mere mortal? Did you ever think you'd be even alive right now if I was what you believe me to be? I have razed a village before, I can do so now! If I was as evil as you believe, I would either be ruling this place or locked up for trying. Now don't get me wrong, I am a bad man, but I'm doing my best to redeem myself. It's time you showed some damned respect!"

The mob faltered, both ashamed and scared because of his words. Sandova merely scoffed and walked back to Twilight and applejack. They looked at him with a mixture of fear, sympathy and anger, especially anger.

"That's no way to treat other ponies Sandova! They might be wrong, but you could've been the better one and solved this in a nicer way."

Sandova scoffed again, not impressed by Twilight's words.

"Oh believe me, I was being nice. My tongue is a lot sharper than that. But I guess you're right. I owe you and the town an apology when this is over. But can we get back at catching the skeleton now? I'm still uncomfortable knowing there's a powerful undead construct with free will walking around that possesses enough power to resist me. I'd rather not have him do any actual harm, if I can help it."

The mares looked at each other before nodding.

"Ya have a point, but believe me that we're not done talking mister."

He rolled his eyes and looked at Twilight.

"Okay then, lead the way."

After a brisk walk they arrived at a small shop called Tests and Trials: science equipment.

"This is where I got the anatomy skeleton, maybe they know more about his origins."

As they walked inside they were greeted by the sight of a familiar skeleton. Next to it was an old grey unicorn mare with a judge's hammer as cutie mark. The group tensed, but looked confused when the skeleton merely stared at them with empty eyes. Sandova arched his eyebrow at the mare.

"Excuse me ma'am, but why aren't you scared of an animated skeleton? It's hardly common around here. At least, that's what I gathered from the angry lynch mob outside"

The mare merely smiled and gestured them to follow her, which they did.

"How can I be scared of my husband, dead or not it's still him, I can feel it."

Sandova arced an eyebrow and followed the mare to some stairs at the back of the shop. They ascended the stairs and entered a small living room. The grey mare motioned them to take a seat, which they did.

"Okay, who are you and what's the deal with the skeleton? Where I'm from they can only gain sentience with a annoyingly difficult spell, and it's limited at best."

"My name is Public Trial and this is my husband, Chemical Trial. Before he died his greatest ambition was the reanimation of a dead body, having read The monster of Frankenstallion a tad too much. He donated his body to science in the hope of having his body used to continue his studies, but no scientist would continue it. They regarded it, rightfully so, as unethical."

The skeleton seemed upset at this.

"I'm sorry dear, but you surely see that most ponies who would try such experiments live in padded rooms nowadays? I'm still glad your dream has been accomplished though, and for that I thank you sir."

Sandova, who was struggling to contain his laughter, nodded in response. He then looked at the skeleton with renewed interest.

"I finally see what happened here. After his death his spirit lingered to see if his last wish would be granted, and after it wasn't it possessed the skeleton, maybe hoping it would happen eventually. The fact that he'd been possessing the skeleton for a while, combined with residue energy from the overly expensive onyx I used he could take over the body when I reanimated it. Impressive, not many spirits have the willpower to do such a thing."

The skeleton nodded in acknowledgement, and Sandova smiled.

"But what's going to happen to Chemical Trial now?"

"Excellent question! I believe it's time for you to pass on my friend, you have lingered for far longer than healthy. Your wife is fine and your body will be used responsibly, please allow yourself to pass on. Believe me when I say it's for the best."

The skeleton nodded and looked at his still living wife one more time, then something vague separated itself. It briefly looked like an earth pony with a short mane and spectacles, his cutie mark a beaker filled with a bubbling liquid, before it vanished.

Sandova noticed that there was not a single dry eye in the room, excluding him of course. He stood up, flourished a bow at Public Trial and looked at Twilight once more.

"So, any other exciting ideas for today?"

Author's Note

Whew, finally past my writer's block. It took a while to figure out what went wrong, until i concluded I'd portrayed Sandova as a whiney misanthrope as well as veing too nice. He's too cahrming for that. Expect updates at random moments, 'cuz i need more inspiration for extra 'friendship' chapters before all hell breaks loose.

Enjoy it, y'all deserve it wfter waiting.

-Sandova