The undead foal moved slowly and without much coordination. Its horn flared brightly and a shield appeared around the crystal. It shimmered like a soap bubble and the colt backed up inside of the shield, seeking protection.

The crystal flared with a sickly yellow light and several of the dead bodies began to move, slowly rising up to their hooves. They moved slowly and stumbled towards Bucky, who was still in shock because of what he had witnessed.

“Greetings Buckminster Bitters,” a cold sepulchral disembodied voice said.

Bucky began to sweat inside of his armor. The voice sounded entirely too much like his own. It was only a trick perhaps, intended to unnerve him. He tried to quell his unwanted and unwelcomed fear so he could focus upon the task at hoof.

“You are so gifted. I am so proud,” the voice said in cold cutting sarcasm. It filled the air with booming laughter. “At long last, one of our line has made it this far. You still have a horn. Sort of. I always knew that House Bitters was the only true heirs among the many houses of Avarice to the only two bloodlines that mattered.”

“Who are you?” Bucky demanded as he kept a wary eye upon the undead.

“It doesn’t matter, but the fact that you are of my blood will make it so much easier to absorb your essence when I claim you,” the voice said. “And with your essence, I will claim your destiny as my own!”

“Not bloody likely,” Bucky retorted. “Bah, I should know better, talking to dead things.”

“I AM NOT DEAD!” the voice shrieked.

“Oh, struck a nerve have I?” Bucky asked in a harsh mechanical growl.

“You should respect your elders and your future GOD!” the voice bellowed.

“A god that hides behind undead foals isn’t much of a god,” Bucky snarked.

“I am going to enjoy devouring your essence,” the voice hissed.

“You’re deluded,” Bucky snarled in a cold metallic growl.

Bucky lashed out with his telekinesis and sent the undead flying away from him. More started to twitch and rise. Bucky ignored them, focusing instead upon the shield and the crystal. He cursed himself. Abjuration was never his strong point.

To buy him more time to concentrate, he pulled a flame filled spell jar from the rack on his armor and hurled it at the undead, setting them ablaze. The cavern was now well lit, and ghostly shadows danced along the walls. He readied another burning spell jar and turned his gaze upon the shield. He gave it a good telekinetic thump and saw it shimmer. It wasn’t that strong.

He hurled the second spell jar at the pile of the dead and then once again focused his attention upon the crystal and the troublesome shield. He needed Lyra. She would have had it down in an instant. He slammed it with another telekinetic thump, sending a few thousand tons of force at it. It cracked and static coursed along the outer surface.

Bucky felt a painful gurgle in his stomach. The last telekinetic burst has been a big one. He conjured more whiskey from the keg, knowing that it was a stopgap now. He pulled a lightning filled spell jar from his rack and hurled it at the shield.

The lightning crackled all along the surface and the shield began to flicker. As it flickered, Bucky slammed it one last time, lashing out with all of his willpower and fury. The shield popped like a bubble, exposing the undead unicorn foal and the crystal spire.

“You are disappointingly weak in some simple areas of spellcraft,” the voice taunted. “Really, if all you have is brute force to remove even a simple shield, you have no chance to survive our encounter.”

“Oh piss off,” Bucky growled. He felt infuriated. He was all to aware of his own shortcomings as far as magic was concerned, and now he began to worry. His failures in school might come back to haunt him.

He focused on the task at hand and sent a spike of energy at the crystal. It cracked, and then the crack began to grow larger and larger. It sounded like ice cracking, a glacial shelf preparing for a thunderous break.

“Acceptable losses. I have learned your weaknesses and will plan accordingly,” the voice announced in mocking tones.

The crystal exploded with terrific force, obliterating most of the bodies in the cavern.

Bucky looked carefully around the underground gallery, looking for signs of anything moving. Seeing nothing, he moved towards the crystal fragments, intending to collect a sample for study. Lyra would be most interested and might have a way to deal with future crystals that might be a little easier for him to manage.

He selected a long shard of crystal that still thrummed with magical energy and gathered it up in his magic. It felt wrong to even hold it. It reeked of dark magic and Bucky’s first instinct was to hurl it away. He resisted the urge. He needed its secrets, and perhaps Lyra would have a way to deal with the crystal shielding spell.

Bucky summoned a large quantity of whiskey and drank it down. He needed the energy. He summoned more, and then more, and then a bit more for good measure. His stomach still gurgled, but didn’t feel so burned out and empty.

After stomping around, he found what remained of the undead foal. He shone his eyelight down upon it, and began to study what was left of the body. While most of the corpse was rotted away, the head and horn was remarkably well preserved. The foal had little magic Bucky realised. It was a custodian. A means to magically trigger defenses and maintenance perhaps. Bucky suspected that the bear was corrupted into shadow by the crystal, and then perhaps left here as a guardian.

Still, it was alarming. The dead should have no magic. Bucky racked his mind, trying to think of any undead types that might still have magic. Spirits like Sombra were one thing, they were magic, but corpses with no animating life force, this was a whole different issue entirely.

He thought of Harper and nearly pissed himself as he imagined what her fate might have been. Suddenly, more than anything in the entire world, he wanted to be in a cool dark place holding Harper and smelling her sweet milky scent. He ached to hold her.

He gave a final careful check to all of the corpses in the cavern, and then, deciding he couldn’t be too careful, he froze them all solid. Closing his eye, he sent out a telekinetic nova and shattered them all. He felt a painful gurgle in his belly as he opened his eye. He could see the little frozen bits of corpses all around him.

Nothing threatening remained in the underground chamber, and the mystery of the lost ponies upon the isle had been solved.

The moment Bucky’s hooves hit The Scorned Mare he let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t know what to say, or what to tell the the ponies around them. He could only stare at them dumbly as the feeling of numb shock continued to take over his body. He set down the crystal shard upon the wooden map table and then simply stood there, not moving, not talking, doing nothing.

“Bucky? You alright in there?” Derpy asked.

“I’ve been better,” Bucky said in a small frightened voice.

“No more tonight. I understand you need to be on deck just to keep guard through the night, but no more trips down to the ground tonight,” Derpy said soothingly.

“I couldn’t, even if I wanted to… I can’t talk about it yet,” Bucky said and then fell silent.

Derpy wanted Bucky to talk, but decided to not press the issue. She understood the need for silent reflection. More than anything, she wanted to hold him and comfort him. She felt a nudge, turned, and saw Berry.

“I no longer detect anything below us,” Lyra reported. "The isle is kinda small. Whatever it was, it is gone now. Bucky put an end to it.” She moved forward to the map table and began to look at the crystal shard. She eyed it for a few moments, lowered her head to the table level, and then studied the crystal from a different angle.

“This feels wrong,” Lyra announced, not wanting to touch the crystal at all. “Oh this is bad. I am not even sure how bad this is yet, but it is bad,” Lyra said in a panic.

In the soft grey hour of the dawn, Derpy waved her hoof in front of Bucky’s eye as he lay on the bed. There was no response. He lay there, staring blankly off into space. She waved again, hoping for a response, and there was none. She pondered a gentle slap with her wing, but decided against it. She needed to get his attention somehow.

Instead, she kissed him. For a moment, there was no response, but then Bucky thawed. It was as if he slowly came to life. Derpy pressed her advantage and her lips against Bucky, pushing and then rolling him over onto his back. She climbed on top of him, straddling him gently, and stroked the sides of his face with her wings as she continued to kiss him gently and softly.

She broke the kiss and lifted her head, her eyes meeting Berry’s, who looked quite worried. Berry leaned over Bucky to say something, but was interrupted when Bucky grabbed her and pulled her in. Derpy, still straddling Bucky, gently kneaded his barrel with her front hooves. She wasn’t an earth pony, but she knew how to make Bucky feel good.

“I need my kelpie,” Bucky said breathily as he broke away from the kiss he shared with Berry. “I need all of you. I’m so tired…”

“We’ll be here with you… get some sleep,” Thistle said as she crawled into the bed and went to Bucky’s side. The kelpie squeaked when she was taken and pulled in for a kiss.

Derpy slid off of Bucky and took her usual spot by his side. She watched as the others shuffled around and went to their usual positions, each one settling into place in turn, and she watched as Bucky’s head drooped into to place on Thistle’s back.

“Where is my other earth pony and my unicorn?” Bucky inquired in a dazed voice.

“They’ll come to bed soon. Harper won’t stop crying, they have her in another room and they are trying to quiet her,” Berry replied and then yawned.

Bucky thought of Harper, and then thought of the abomination deep underground. He shuddered and wondered if he would ever be able to sleep well ever again.

“Sentinel and Moonbow are doing well together I think. When I checked on them before going to bed, Sentinel had Dinky, Piña, and Moonbow all piled into the bed with him. They looked adorable together. I wish I had a camera,” Berry said as she rubbed Bucky with her hoof.

“Moonbow hit her decade mark this spring,” Thistle whispered. “She and I talked during the night. We have so much in common. I don’t want her making the same mistakes I did. Unlike me, she is willing to listen and learn.”

“Already showing signs of being a good mother,” Derpy said, praising the kelpie.

“Also, you have to watch when she pounces on Sentinel. She’ll be sitting still and Sentinel will be minding his own business and then POW! She just bursts into action and pounces him, and Sentinel rolls and bounces away on stiff legs with his back arched and he hisses,” Thistle said, smiling as she told the story. “At first it scared me because they snarled and there was bared fangs and they made such ferocious noises at one another and I thought for certain there was going to be a fight. Turns out, this is how they show affection. So when it happens, don’t be scared.”

“They don’t hurt each other?” Derpy inquired.

“No, she likes him. She told me she was trying to teach him how to act like a lunar pegasi,” Thistle replied. “Sentinel was upset though because she interrupted his writing. She gave him something to write about.”

“Well, we want Sentinel to be aware of his roots. I’m sure after a couple of moments of terror, wetting ourselves, and worrying that they are attempting to murder one another, we’ll get used to it like Thistle has and everything will be fine,” Berry said.

“I can feel the foal kicking,” Thistle announced.

All three mares felt Bucky tense, and then he moved quite suddenly, pushing Thistle over onto her side. Thistle let out a squeaky squeal as the side of Bucky’s face and ear was pressed up against her navel. Thistle tried to hold still, tried to contain herself as she felt Bucky pressing up against her, but then she felt his ear slowly trail over one of her teats.

She lost it and let out a long low pleasurable moan. Her tummy and other tender bits were just too sensitive now. She let out a startled cry when she felt Bucky’s snoot pressing into her stomach, and then he began to sniff her, pressing his nose into different places and deeply inhaling her scent. Her eyes rolled up into her head and she let herself enjoy the experience.

Thistle believed that Bucky was at his best when he was in his most animalistic states. There was nothing that would ever come near her and ever harm her again.

Author's Notes:

Don't worry, more is coming.

Typo hunting begins now.