Investigating A Nightmare

[Necrose]

The unicorns that had invaded the cemetery turned out to be Necromancers and it didn't take long for word to get out to the citizens of Ponyville that somepony had taken the bodies of their loved ones. Rather than blaming Necrose for allowing the dead to be re-animated and taken for purposes unkown, the majority began to worry, rightly, about what would happen with a herd of zombie ponies wandering around, but so far, since one of the unicorns fled the cemetery after the zombies and animated skeletons that wandered into the Everfree Forest, presumably to take control of them and guide them somewhere else, no reports of the undead had been made. But that didn't stop the authorities from asking questions. Naturally, Necrose was first to be questioned, as he was there when the Necromancers were practicing their black sorcery and it was he who apprehended one of them and brought her in.

The black-coated earth pony had been busy restoring the cemetery to it's former state while his crew built the caskets and buried the recently deceased, but he made time to go into the forest to check on Zecora, and so far, she was fine and had seen no zombies, allowing the undertaker to breathe a sigh of relief. But there was still much to do in the cemetery, with bodies to re-commit, zombies destroyed by the youngest Necromancer's wild magic, and several tombstones and one charnel house to rebuild, and the young stallion refused to rest each day until it was too dark to see. Still, the guards came when they had more questions, and Necrose would answer them to the best of his abilities.

[Sunset Joy]

There had been many odd happenings lately, and when the news of a necromantic uprising reached Canterlot and the High Command, it didn't take long for the Royal Guard to take interest. They needed a high-ranking officer to lead the investigation, somepony that would be unfazed by grisly and terrifying matters, and with enough wits and cunning to get results; after the few first candidates had to be cast aside due to more important ongoing matters or other duties, Sunset Joy was approached with the task, and she accepted it, although a bit grudgingly, having to leave Canterlot again for Ponyville.

Now, the armored mare trotted down the path to the cemetery, behind her two members of the First Company to act as her escort. Sunset, like her companions, wore a full suit of plate armor, well-tended and shining brilliantly, the haunchguard painted with Celestia's sun on the other side, and the insignia of the 1st Company on the other, a sword, a shovel and a pickaxe crossed on a black background. The First Company, for somepony familiar with the organization of the Royal Guard, was formed of siege engineers and earth ponies expert at trench warfare; hence the mock-name "Earth Company." Unlike some other companies that focused on siege warfare and fortifications, the First Company were both engineers and warriors, given thorough training of both disciplines. They were seen as proud, efficient and iron-willed, things that even an outsider could easily spot by their straight and tall bearing.

Reaching the gates, Joy stopped for a moment and looked around at the carnage that had been caused earlier, her gaze searching for the stallion that was described to her in Ponyville. She spotted a black stallion, taller and broader than most, clearly a strong, hard worker, with a black fur and white mane that gave him a very grim appearance. After telling her followers to go and help the other ponies that worked at the cemetery, as she walked straight to Necrose, eyes locked on him as she approached.

"Are you Necrose?" She asked while still some distance away, in a loud voice, almost a yell. She quickly closed the distance, and nodded at him. "Captain Sunset Joy of the First Company. I come from Canterlot after hearing of something very strange taking place here. I understand you've been questioned before, but I'd like you to answer to a few more questions." Her voice was cold, but not unfriendly; her eyes were blank, empty pits, but not dead, and her features were like cast in stone, but yet not unpleasant to the eye. She'd been told that this earth pony, the undertaker, had disabled two of the necromancers, and driven off the last one. He was big, and intimidating, with a nasty scar, but Joy doubted he'd done that. She had once or twice fought an Unicorn magician, and both times been overpowered, so she knew what a trained sorcerer was capable of, and to think that some hillbilly from a backwater town would be able to take on three at once.. the thought was ridiculous.

[Necrose]

A voice from up the path caught Necrose's attention from aiding the monument maker in setting a re-made tombstone, though the plot had no body in it, this one, this Amethyst, was one whom the Necromancers had managed to take away. The big, black-coated earth pony told himself that her family, if any remained in Ponyville, would at least have someplace to go to honor her memory as he turned from the task at hoof to face the pony who called out to him, leaving the monument maker to finish on his own. The pony who called the undertaker from across the cemetery was a mare who carried herself straight and tall, clad in well-tended full plate armor the likes of which he had never seen before. She was all business as she introduced herself as a captain of a company of soldiers, and the lack reflection in her eyes reminded him of the zombies from the other night, though it was obvious she was still full of life.

"Well met, Captain," the scarred earth pony said to her as she approached, "I am indeed Necrose. How can I help you?" No doubt she was here about the zombies, all the other guards were, and just when it seemed all the questions were answered, more were asked. Now Canterlot was getting involved, and why not, Necrose asked himself. It may have began in his cemetery, but since one Necromancer escaped with more than half the bodies in the cemetery, it could become a matter of national security, so naturally, Princess Celestia at the very least would need to know.

[Sunset Joy]

"Excellent. Let us pass idle banter and get straight to the matter at hoof", she said, looking around as she spoke. "Do you have a place we could discuss in peace and at length?" The mare's gaze returned to the scarred stallion. She had noted that there was much damage done, and that it wasn't just lack of care; the ponies here seemed to be hard at work as they struggled to fix the carnage caused by the black sorcery of the necromancers. Sunset was not an expert at the arcane, but she knew enough of battle magic to know that some very powerful spells had been unleashed, and by looking at the number of unearthed graves, the necromancers had been quite potent in their power, as well. This bode ill.

"It seems that the necromancers put on a bit of a fight", she commented in a matter-of-fact voice. The first impression she gave was of somepony who didn't quite care about anything, but reacted to the outside world in a cold, flat manner. Perhaps she was just self-centered, or somehow incapable of putting herself in somepony else's place, lacking empathy to do so; in truth, Joy had never felt that allowing her emotions to show or take control would lead anywhere. Happy or sad, she kept all that for herself, and let the others guess. This was perhaps why she was promoted to quickly into the rank of a captain, having the quality of always keeping calm in the direst of situations.

"Anyhow; I'm here to investigate the events that took place some nights ago on behalf of the High Command of the Royal Guard. If you could describe to me fully what you saw and heard on that night, and what took place, you would certainly be of great aid to all of Equestria." So far, the High Command had wanted to keep the necromancer insurrection strictly hush-hush, but the rumors had spread like wildfire, and even though officials declined any commentary to the media, they had not succeeded in keeping it under covers - mostly because they didn't know anything more than anypony else, and wouldn't want to incite chaos and panic with their lack of knowledge.

[Necrose]

"Yeah, we can talk on the porch of my house. Over there," the pony said, motioning to the house on the hill. He began walking toward his house, not even looking to see if the mare was following him. She had asked to go somewhere they wouldn't be disturbed, so if she was serious, she'd follow of her own volition. She commented on the state of th cemetery, and Necrose only snorted. "You don't know the half of it I'd be dead and probably a zombie myself if the unicorn who did all this was a good shot. I'll explain later."

The young stallion climbed the steps to the front porch of his house, offering a view, pleasant to him, of the cemetery, though broken tombstones and the leveled charnel house marred the calm beauty of the place. All around the cemetery, ponies worked to re-commit what bodies remained and take vital data off broken tombstones, and the superstitious black-coated pony couldn't help but think two things watching them: First, even were the cemery to be restored to it's original visible state, the lack of bodies meant that it wouldn't be completely the same. And second, that the dead likely would not like what happened here. "Please, have a seat, Captain," he said, motioning for the mare to come near him so he wouldn't have to yell. "Anyway, you want to know what happened here, right? It's a short story, but an eventful one. I promise you that." He began his story by telling the soldier about the green lights at about midnight and meeting Grimlore. He thought the three ponies were looking for the grave of a loved one, but that assumption was quickly proven false.

"And that's when he revealed that they were members of some cult calling themselves the Black Dawn," the undertaker said, turning his attention from the mare to the cemetery. "At least, they acted like they were members of a cult. Anyway, the damage was done by one of his accomplices, the one I apprehended, to be exact. Like I said earlier, she didn't aim, she just fired bolt after bolt of magic in my general direction, and she didn't even try to resist after I tackled her. She seemed crazy and didn't even care that she'd killed her leader or that she'd been abandonned by the other one."

[Sunset Joy]

Sunset followed after the grim-looking stallion, and sat down when Necrose urged her to, listening intently and without interrupting him, until his story came to an end and he mentioned the insane mare that was currently being held by the authorities. Sunset frowned - her first visible reaction so far. "I would have liked to interrogate the necromancer, but when I reached the Guard Post here in Ponyville, I was told that she had committed suicide. Although when I visited the cell and saw the body, I suspect her death was not her own doing. Certainly, she had written her cell walls full of gibberish and acted more or less like a lunatic, but the way she had died.. Well, suffice to say, I believe she was murdered."

Joy pondered for a while.. the story the stallion toldwas rather strange. First of all, she still had doubts about is ability to deal with three necromancers by himself. "Anyhow; the part where you defeated three Unicorns sounds quite unbelievable. For now, there are other questions that are more important. You mentioned one was called Grimlore; and we know that the one that died was Bonecinder. Do you know what the last one was named? Did they mention what they were doing, or rather, why? And if there is a cult, did they speak anything about a leader, or something similar? Any details, any odd things they might have said or done?" Joy barraged him with inquiries - he might have forgotten that one thing that would explain all of this peculiarity.

"What about the one that died, Grimlore? You say that he tried to talk you into leaving peacefully, and the one that you caught killed him. Do you suppose they had some kind of animosity, or was it an accident? Any thoughts? You are our only witness, so your insight is all we have."

[Necrose]

So the mare was dead? Ruled a suicide but with suspicions of murder instead. Necrose shook his head, remembering that pony and her wild, uncontrolled use of magic. "Yeah, Grimlore said they were serving somepony. He referred to them as their 'lord and master', but who that is and why they want zombies, I don't know, none of them said and it was over before I coud ask," the young stallion said as he turned his attention back to the soldier. "And I never learned the third one's name. She was older, though, I remember that much. She didn't look quite as old as Grimlore appeared to be, but she was old enough to be my mother, at least." The black-coated earth pony stood up and stretched, then sat back down. The soldier had been frowning and it was the first sign of life out of her aside from walking and talking the undertaker had seen. "I don't know if there was any animosity between them, to tell you the truth," he continued. "Grimlore did the talking til things broke down, but now that you mention it, the young mare, you said her name was Bonecinder? She did seem to be quite eager to kill, where Grimlore seemed the type to live and let live. Maybe that was a source of friction? I couldn't say. All I know is, after I tackled Grimlore and began fighting with him, Bonecinder prepared a spell, but I let Grimlore gain control and get on top of me just in time for the spell to be cast on him and send him flying into a grave, killing him instantly. And it was about that time the other one wandered off."

[Sunset Joy]

"Odd, then, to have ponies with so differing views band together - this must be some 'master' to succeed in having them work together, I'd guess", Sunset thought aloud. She observed the stallion; he sounded honest enough, and she couldn't think of a reason why he'd lie to her. He'd have luck, to have survived the destruction that befell the cemetery, judging form all the damage that had been done by the out of control magic.

The captain adjusted her scabbard and whisked away a loose strand of hair that had escaped the tight bun she kept her mane on, thoughtful. A lot of this made no sense.. Ponyville was right next to Canterlot.. why would the necromancers risk such proximity to the Princesses? There were many more remote locales, with bigger cemeteries, safer and out of reach by the Royal Guard.. She did not understand their logic.

"So, the leads we have are their names; Grimlore and Bonecinder, as well as the Black Dawn, led by some sort of a master, or a head cultist. Since they led the undead into Everfree, they must have some sort of a headquarters, or at least an encampment, there to survive an extended period.. Can you point which way they went?" The captain turned towards the forest, looking at the treeline observantly.

[Necrose]

Necrosed turned his attention to the treeline and thought. It was dark and the lantern didn'tcast enough light to see properly. Relative to the house, which way had she gone? He scanned the treeline for a few moments wordlessly, and shook his head. "From here, I can't tell," he sighed. "So..." Without another word, he got up and walked toward the center of the cemetery, reasoning that if he were close to the location of the scene, he'd be better able to tell which way the third Necromancer went. He turned toward the ruined charnel house first, then the treeline. Eyes scanning the edge of the forest, the earth pony stared long and hard, and eventually, his eyes widened briefly before he points a hoof in a direction and called out to the mare sitting on his porch that it was that way the necromancer lead the zombies.

[Sunset Joy]

"Lets go to the scene, then", she suggested, following after his trail of thought. The Everfree was huge, so it wouldn't probably lead anywhere, but little was better than nothing. She'd have to go over to the Aerial Reconnaissance Company and ask them to fly over the area to look for anything out of the ordinary when she'd return to the Academy.

Sunset got up and would've followed after Necrose, but her hoof didn't quite carry her; she fell on her knees, and then on her side, unable to support her own body as her muscles, each and every one in her body, betrayed her and would no longer do their job. Necrose was already half-way to the cemetery, so there was no chance he would have noticed her dilemma.

She didn't hear his call, or see him pointing. All she saw was the roof of the porch. She tried to move her legs, but they did not respond; her heart began to race, faster and faster, until she was certain it'd explode in her chest. Fear ran in her veins, freezing her blood; her pupils dilated, eyes shifting around in a panic - this was bad! If anypony knew, and word spread of her condition, she'd lose her job, everything that mattered.. she'd have nothing left! Using all of her vast reserves of will, she forced herself to get up.. but in vain. Not a single inch of her body answered; she was paralyzed completely.

[Necrose]

The big earth pony began walking toward the trees, following the path the third Necromancer took into the Forest. He didn't know which way she went from here, other than into the Forest. It was dark, and he was pre-occupied with the other Necromancers, but Necrose knew he saw her come this way. "Well, Captain," the undertaker said over his shoulder to the soldier, "she entered the Forest right about here, but you'll forgive me if I stay here in the cemetery. I have work to do here, and there's too much land in there for us to cover without some form of aid, be it more ponies to help us search or unicorns to cast scanning spells. That Necromancer could have gone anywhere from here." He waited for the mare to speak, but she said nothing. It didn't seem particularly odd to him, as she seemed a pony of few words, saying only what she needed to say and only when she needed to say it. It didn't seem odd, but at the same time, it also seemed to the undertaker that the soldier would speak when spoken to. "Captain?" the young stallion said, turning around to find himself alone on the edge of the Everfree Forest. "Captain?" He looked around for her, but found nopony but his crew working nearby. He approached them and asked about the soldier, and they told him he arrived alone.

It wasn't a big cemetery. There was no way she could have gotten lost. And yet she was not with him. The earth pony looked over the cemetery for the soldier, but didn't see her anywhere. She couldn't have left, could she? She didn't seem the sort who would leave after questioning somepony about something without confirming they were done, especially not after she had asked him which direction the Necromancer who fled went. The last place Necrose had seen her was on his front porch, so he decided the best thing he could do would be to resume his search there and retrace his hoofsteps. Maybe she stopped to question one of his co-workers.

The scarred earth pony was unprepared for what he found on his porch. The mare was still on his porch, but something was very, very wrong. She was laying down, not moving. Worse, she didn't seem to be breathing. Necrose rushed to her side and immediately began trying to rouse her, but what could he do when he didn't even know what caused this. "Are you alright, Captain?" he asked her, not knowing whether or not she could even hear him. "Come on, what's happened here?! Can you hear me?!" Her eyes were open, but her pupils dilated. At this point, Necrose began to panic. He had checked her pulse to see if she was even still alive, and her heart was still beating, but it was beating far faster than it should be beating. "Help!" he called in his loudest voice to the ponies in the cemetery, "I-I need some help up here!"

[Sunset Joy]

She took a sharp, wheezing breath, attempting to draw air, and the mare's breath returned, but still, she didn't move, eyes staring forward, and unmoving, each breath slow, struggled. If she heard him, Joy didn't react, not until he yelled for help. Her horror multiplied - each time she suffered one of her fits, she feared it'd be permanent.. the feeling of helplessness was worse than death, forced to stay still and quiet, unable to move or speak even as she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs.

But this wasn't the worst.. no. What was most dreadful was how most of the attacks happened during night, when it was dark. Alone in the darkness, in the silence, like buried alive.. Sunset never cried, and hadn't shed a tear in ages, not until she went through an attack for the first time. It had been nighttime then, and she could never forget the horror, the soul-wrenching, cold, undistilled fear that ran through her then. It had lasted for a few minutes, but she cried then, out of sheer terror.

Sunset's mind raced as hoofsteps neared; her companions must've heard Necrose, judging from the nearing sound of clanking steel. The two Guards indeed rushed through the field and to the undertaker's house; just as bewildered as him. "Captain?" One of them asked and knelt by her, checking Joy's pulse. "What happened?" The other asked Necrose with a rather agitated voice. They both seemed confused, and certainly were as lost with the situation as the scarred, black undertaker was. "Do you have a doctor in town!? Something is wrong with her breathing", suggested the taller, moss-green Guard, peering around himself.

[Necrose]

Two ponies approached Necrose and they were wearing the same style of armor as the mare lying motionless on his front porch. The undertaker guessed they were under her command. One knelt by her side and checked her pulse and the other asked what happened. "I-I don't know!" the young stallion blurted. "We were talking about the Necromancers and when she asked about the one who fled, I told her I needed to go into the cemetery. I thought she was right behind me, but I didn't see her after that. I came back here, looking for her, and here she was, just like this!" The scarred earth pony's heart sank when it became apparent that something was wrong with her breathing. He stammered a response to the question about having a doctor in town. "But I don't think we should try to move her!" he was quick to add. "I-I'll go into town and get Nurse Redheart! She'll know what to do! You two stay here, with your Captain, and I'll be back soon." With that, the young stallion bolted off his front porch and toward the front gate. He didn't know this mare from anypony else, but he wasn't about to let her die on his watch.

[Sunset Joy]

Sunset's eyes darted at the three ponies feverishly, showing signs of regaining control over her body; she tried to speak, but all she managed was a quiet, whispered mumble and a wheeze when Necrose was about to leave. The knightmare's front leg twitched, and she tried to grab onto Necrose before he'd go to get Redheart. A miserable, struggled word escaped her lips, faint as a breeze; "n-no. Don't.. go", she spoke. One of the guards, the brown one with a shattered shield for a Cutie Mark, turned at the black pony who had rushed of and yelled, at the top of his lungs: "Wait! She stirred!" Before quickly turning his attention back to the captain.

Her underlings then knelt by her one removing his helmet and shooing the other away to give the mare some space. "Captain? Are you alright? What happened?" He asked, worried. He offered the company commander a hoof, which she took, and weakly got up and sat, breathing labored and heart still racing. The two soldiers who had come with Sunset stared at her, both confused and not knowing what to do. "Captain, do you need a doctor? The undertaker knows one, and can get her here if you just.." his sentence was cut short by Sunset, now speaking in a determined, typically cold and monotonic voice. "No. I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, but there is no need." She looked at both of her Guards, sternly. "I will explain later. No word to anypony until we've spoken, understood?"

The moss-colored one of the Guards had a look of doubt after hearing the captain's words. "Ma'am, are you certain you won't need a doctor?" He inquired, and was answered with a steely gaze and a wave of her hoof. "You had your orders. Go. We'll speak later."

The two Guards exchanged a look, and the one who had removed his helmet picked it up, and they left, back down the path to the graveyard, and Sunset stood up on her own four legs, still a bit dizzy. He looked around for Necrose; had he already ran off to the hospital? She hoped not.. The more ponies knew of her illness, the likelier that she'd be found out and put on retirement from the Guard, and she shuddered to think about that. It was already the worst case scenario with her two companions now knowing something was going on.

[Necrose]

A loud voice sounded over the cemetery, and the black-coated earth pony stopped dead in his tracks. She's recovered? She'd probably need a doctor, but if she's recovered, he reasoned as he trotted back to his house, but if she was conscious now, it would be easier o bring her to a doctor than to wait around for a doctor to get their supplies together. Necrose spotted the Guards coming up the path from his house. Their captain wasn't with them. He thought they said she'd recovered. Noticing this, he turned his attention to his porch, focusing, trying to see the mare. He could mke out the silhouette of a pony standing on his porch. Had she decided to stay there? Why would she do that? She needed help. After a brief conversation with the guards about their Captain's current condition, the undertaker made his way back to his front porch.

"Well, Captain," the young stallion said to the armored pony standing on his porch, "you certainly gave your men and me quite a scare. Are you alright? I can carry you into own to a doctor if you need me to. I'd go if it were me."