FimFic: Sanctioned Necromancy: Second Chance

The thing laughed, a grating and deep note that seemed to sap the world of all warmth. The frozen rain that began to bounce off the green aura that surrounded Bones proved that this was not an just an illusion. He steeled himself and concentrated, renewing a second layer of shield charms. His aura of power swelled; gaining in strength.

 

"Check yourself, if your caught unprotected by that your blood will freeze in your veins." He tried to keep his voice from shaking, and almost succeeded.

 

"Got it, keep it together Bones." she sounded reassuring, but a glance her way showed she must have been just as terrified as he was. Her red mane was matted with dirt and blood, and there was a long bleeding gash across her cutie mark. Her chest rose and fell as she panted through her nostrils. Even through the shield aura around her, Bones could see that Scarlet was shaking.

 

The soul parasite began moving closer. Its horrific appearance was amplified by the desecrated corpse of a beige mare that the served as the entities host. Six heads had torn themselves out of the ponies back, their necks long and slim, while innumerable tentacle-like legs had sprouted from her belly like roots. The creature itself wasn't very big, but its many writhing limbs made it seem much larger than it was, it even towered above the buildings around it. The legs slowly carried it forward, carving gashes into the ground wherever it stepped. Its appendages were anathema to existence itself, and utterly destroyed anything it came into contact with. This included visible light, that's why its limbs appeared to be nothing more than black moving shapes that blended in with the clouded night sky. He could disrupt the limbs with magic, causing them to dissipate, but they would reform moments later. He needed to get to the source.

 

"I need to get under it." He said, gritting his teeth and pulling the ring Celestia had given him out of his saddlebag. They would have to take care of this thing themselves, it wasn't as if Celestia herself would be showing up anytime soon. There were bigger problems to worry about that night, as hard as that was to believe.

 

"No problem, want me to be the distraction?" Scarlet knew this wasn't a good time to argue with his insane plans.

 

Their eyes met, and they both smiled, in that end-of-the-line kind of way.

 

"Don't get yourself killed." Bones found himself not wanting to be the first to look away.

 

"I'm sure you wont give it the chance." She grinned, and dashed towards the creature, circling around its left side. Bones saw the first strike. Three of its heads shot towards her, and vaporized with a loud crack and flash of light as they triggered Scarlet's proximity defenses. The beast roared in fury, its destroyed heads already reforming.

 

Bones managed to convince himself that what he was about to do wasn't guaranteed suicide, and sprinted towards the thing, levitating Celestia's ring beside him as he did. He sent a concentrated blast of sharpened kinetic energy at the monsters legs, severing the ones nearest to him. He managed to get in through the gap he made just before the legs reformed, trapping him inside the many-limbed cage. It was all or nothing now.

 

He heard the sound of his proximity spells going off. He had already lost his lifeline, there was now nothing between those reality destroying legs and his bare flesh. He cleared his mind, and focused solely on what he was doing in this moment. He was still far from his goal, and he let loose a few most concentrated blasts of magic to clear the way. Bones felt something lash across his flank, leaving searing pain in its wake. He bit his tongue and continued on, beginning to feel as if he was dancing through a forest of thrashing pitch black trees. He was starting to get close, just a few more steps. Bones slid the ring he carried with him over his horn, feeling its power radiate through him. He performed one last leap that would bring him in range of his target. Mid jump, Bones's body became consumed in blazing agony as one of the roots clipped the back of one of his his legs, taking a chunk of flesh with it. He collapsed on the ground, paralyzed by shock and pain. That was all the beast needed to trap him. When Bones stood up again, he was surrounded. He could try to blast the legs away, but using any kind of magic would activate the ring, and he only had one shot. Terror gripped him, and he fully grasped the reality that he was probably about to die. He fought the urge to run away, running would only see him sliced to pieces.

 

"Bones!"

 

There was another crack, a flash of scarlet light, and a scream of pain. Bones found himself in the clear, Scarlet had given him his opportunity. He stumbled forward, and fell as he put weight on his injured leg. Time seemed to slow as the adrenaline in his system peaked, and as he was falling he saw the creatures heart. It was a shriveled and black thing, he might have mistaken it for a stone if he hadn't known better. Now was his chance, he must not miss. Bones closed his eyes and focused as much power into his horn as he could. At first he thought he had gone blind, Bones saw nothing but pure white light as his horn exploded into a massive beam of raw solar energy. The parasite, its heart, and its pitiful host were obliterated in an instant.

 

Bones finally hit the ground, blinking as the sight slowly returned to his eyes. He felt tired. More tired than he had ever been in his life. He wanted to close his eyes and not wake up for a thousand years. His eyelids grew heavier, and his consciousness began to fade.

 

Then something red caught his eye. Life returned to his limbs, and he desperately pushed himself to his hooves, he could feel his lifeblood leaking from several wounds he hadn't noticed until now.

 

"Scarlet." he tried to shout her name, but failed, It came out instead as a  hoarse croak.

 

He limped over to her, his maimed hind leg dragging against the muddy road.

 

"Scarlet!"

 

She was laying motionless on her side, half of her gut seemed to have been just scooped away. Blood still oozed slowly from the gaping wound. She wasn't breathing.

 

Bones could feel his heart skip a beat.

 

"No. No no no no no." Bones collapsed next to his best friends corpse, refusing to believe what he was seeing. She must have just been knocked out, she would be fine.

 

"Wake up. Wake up!" He began gently nudging her, trying to coax her into moving again. "Come on."

 

No response. Her eyes were still open, but they were bleak, utterly absent of life.

 

"Please, Scarlet." He begged, tears were welling in the corners of his eyes now, and he nuzzled her cheek.

 

The reality began to sink in, and grief flooded through his body. He buried his face in her blood soaked mane, pleading for this to just be some terrible nightmare, that he would wake up in a second to Celestia's morning sun.

 

"I just want to say goodbye." He broke down into uncontrollable sobs.

 

What was the last thing she had said to him? He couldn't remember now, but he felt it was important somehow, that she had trusted him. She had trusted him to keep her safe, and he had failed.

 

He stayed with her like that for a while, just venting his grief as memories flowed through his mind.

 

He looked up at the starless sky, and anger began to fill him. How could she have been taken away so easily? He had known her for so long, she shouldn't have been allowed to just be stolen from him like that. Stupid monster, stupid death, stupid world. Why did things have to be this way?

 

They didn't. He could fight this.

 

Bones slowly rose, wiping his nose and holding back tears.

 

He could do it, he could bring her back. He knew how, he had done it before. This was his special talent.

 

Bones let out a soft cry, and reached into his friends torn belly, coming back with a hoof covered in slowly coagulating blood. He walked around Scarlet in a counter-clockwise circle, dragging his bloodstained hoof on the ground as he did so. He began to sob again as he rolled her onto her back and began splaying out her limbs so that each of her four hooves would be in a different quadrant of the circle. Bones stood over her, concentrating necromantic power into his horn. It began to glow its usual dull green, though this time it was infused with small swirls of dark energy. Celestia would banish him for this, he was sure. But he decided he didn't care, so long as they were banished together.

 

"I love you." He said, looking down into lifeless eyes.

 

Bones angled his head down, and plunged his horn into Scarlet's heart.

 

"I'm sorry." tears streamed out of his eyes and into the wound he had just made.

 

Her body twitched briefly, then became still. Bones pulled his horn from the body and sat down next to her, waiting.

 

What felt like hours passed with Bones still by Scarlet's side. All the blood had long since dried, staining the ground. He looked up at the sky and wished it would rain again, just so he could be rid of the feeling of her blood caked against his horn. He closed his eyes, hoping he had done the right thing.

 

"Bones?" The voice was quiet, but audible.

 

He snapped his head back down to Scarlet, he could see a faint purple glow behind her eyes.

 

"Bones? Is that you? I cant see." She seemed slightly worried, but was doing an admirable job of keeping her cool.

 

"Its alright Scarlet, it should return in time." Fresh tears were flowing down his face. "I'm here, I just need you to stay calm."

 

"Why cant I feel my body?" Her voice was rising now.

 

"Its okay, everything is fine now. I'll explain everything to you, just stay calm."

 

"I.. I think I can move, if I try." Her limbs began twitching slightly, small spasms at first, then deliberate movements. She began struggling to roll onto her belly.

 

Bones tried to coax her into stopping, gently pushing her back down. "Scarlet, I need you to hold still. I have to-"

 

"Its fine, I'm alright." She was determined to right herself, and knocked Bone's hooves away. She rolled onto her belly, and began pushing herself up.

 

"Scarlet, please, take it easy." Bones was getting very worried now.

 

"I still cant see, but I think I can feel pressure, I can feel the ground beneath my hooves."

 

Some of Scarlet's intestines slipped out of her gut and fell to the ground with a wet, gruesome noise. Bones suppressed a gag of horror.

 

"What was that?" Scarlet inquired, sounding a little more confident.

 

"Nothing you need to worry about. How are you feeling?" He hoped desperately she wouldn't regain her sight before he could explain things to her.

 

"Odd, to say the least, its not good, but not bad either. Its sort of a neutral feeling. Oh! I think I'm starting to see again!" She turned to face Bones.

 

Scarlet was a frightening sight. Both of her eyelids were still open, but her eyes had begun sagging in different directions. she had been unnecessarily working her jaw as she spoke, and had nearly chewed through her own tongue, which was just hanging out the side of her mouth by a small sliver of flesh.

 

"I think I see you!" She sounded almost cheerful.

 

"Scarlet, I need to tell you something." Bones readied himself to drop the news.

 

"And whats that?" As she spoke, her tongue finally came loose and flew through the air for a moment before smacking against the ground and coming to rest.

 

They were both silent for several seconds.

 

"Bones, what is that?" Her voice was a neutral mask.

 

"That.. Depends." His mind was pulling blanks.

 

"Bones, is that my tongue?" She demanded.

 

He couldn't think of a way to dull the blow besides outright lying. So he just gave it to her straight. "Yes."

 

Scarlet's lungs no longer functioned, but she began making hyperventilating noises as she backed away. "What is wrong with me?"

 

As she backed away, Scarlet's legs became entangled with her own intestines, and she fell over onto her side. It took a moment for her to register what had just happened, and when she looked down at herself, she began to scream in terror.

 

"Scarlet, please! Let me explain!" Bones was panicking now too, this was turning out just like last time.

 

Scarlet ignored him, and began desperately pushing her innards back into her lifeless body.

 

"Bones! Why am I not dead? What did you do to me!? Ah!" As she finished speaking the temperature around them began dropping rapidly. The grass around Scarlet began to wither and die.

 

"No, not again." Bones stepped closer to her, trying to force confidence into his voice. "Scarlet! You must listen to me! All I have done is kept you alive! You must calm down! Please!"

 

Scarlet did not appear to be listening, the glow in her eyes had flared into bright flames, winds of power were beginning to whip around her body, and the circle of dead plants was beginning to spread.

 

"Scarlet!" It was no use, she was beyond words.

 

He would not let this happen again. He attempted to shield himself from her life draining abilities with a shield charm, and stepped within the ring of death. Immediately he felt the warmth being sapped from his limbs, and he rushed to Scarlet's side. The magical wind buffeted his face, causing his eyes to water. He grasped Scarlet's head between his hooves and forced her to look in his eyes. He tried to shout to her, but the growing gale tore away his words. His mind raced for something, anything he could do to help her. In desperation, he placed his bloodstained horn against hers, and attempted a binding curse, but she was draining his power faster than he could muster it. He closed his eyes, tears flying away with the wind. If this didn't work, at least they would meet oblivion together by Celestia's cleansing light. He reached into himself, and summoned every last bit of magic he could, focusing it into the most important spell he had ever cast.

 

Save her.