The army of ponies came to a stop as the land surrounding the Keep began to shift and toss, the forms of undead rising from beneath the ground in droves as Swift and Fury’s eyes widened in shock.

“Celestia preserve us.” Swift whispered as the companies behind us began to file out to either side.

“We can beat them.” Rosie assured the mare, placing a claw over her withers, “We just need to stick to the plan, and everything will turn out alright.”

“Rule number one in a war,” I countered, “no plan survives contact with the enemy. We might have a strategy for taking them out, but it never hurts to have a backup in case something goes wrong.” I turned my attention to Fury, “Any ideas, General?”

He nodded, “We can take out some of the undead from the air using our pegasus units, as well as bombard them from a distance with unicorn spells. The only problem I can see is that there are a lot more of them than there are of us. We need to avoid getting surrounded or else we’re going to get crushed like an ant under hoof.”

“Then it’s critical that we keep moving and avoid getting pinned in one spot.” I added, “Swift, Rosie and I will take our squad to one of the flanks and try to infiltrate the keep from behind, you need to keep their attention away from us by engaging the undead at the front.”

“We can also use our mobility advantage to run blitz attacks on the line while the majority of the troops keep the horde under control.” Swift smiled at Rosie, a slight blush coming over her cheeks as she nuzzled against the gryphon’s neck, “That way we can hopefully sneak in undetected while the coven focusses on directing their monsters at our main force.”

Fury watched as Swift and Rosie gave each other affection but didn’t comment on it as he shifted his attention to me, “Then we are all counting on you and your group. We can hold them off for a time, but without the ability to engage the coven directly, we won’t be able to stop the undead for long because they’ll keep bringing them back. Your top priority is to take out the coven at any cost and then get your flanks back to the main line so we can take care of the remaining undead. Is that clear?”

I saluted, “Crystal, sir.”

Fury saluted back, turning as the supply wagons began unloading the weapons and extra armor while the commanders passed out the respective gear to those under their command. Fury selected a set of wing blades while Swift and Rosie added some sections of plate armor to their kit, the earth pony picking up a sword while Rosie held onto the gryphon sabre that was hanging from her side. I picked out a duo of short swords and then added a set of bracers to my gear while slipping a small buckler over my shoulders. The metal shield would protect me from behind as well as provide me with an extra weapon should I lose one of my swords.

With our respective weapons taken care of and with Fury directing the distribution of the remaining supplies, Swift, Rosie and I walked back over to our company, selecting two of the squads from the front line as the rest of the army got into position.

“Alright, so here’s what’s going to happen.” I called out as we lead our support group along the rear of the battle line, “We are going to try and sneak around the keep and attack the coven directly, allowing the majority of the army to engage the undead out here. We are going to be on our own once we get inside, so if you have any doubts, voice them now or else we won’t have any pity for those that chicken out in the middle of the mission. Any questions?”

“No ma’am!” Was the collective reply.

“Alright then,” Swift called out over the din of shouting soldiers, “from this moment on, we are going to be fighting for our lives. If we say do something, you need to do it and do it yesterday or else somepony is going to die. The enemy has no mercy for fools who can’t listen to orders, and I won’t feel any pity for anypony who get’s their plot killed because they didn’t listen when given an order. Your number one priority is to keep these two alive so they can take out the coven inside the Keep.” She pointed at Rosie and I while maintaining her pace towards the right flank of the army, “If they die, we all die, so do your jobs and keep your formation unless you’re already dead on the ground. Am I understood!”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Good.” Swift nodded before turning to face Rosie and I, “Alright, you two are going to stay in the middle of our formation until we breech the keep. Stay with me and stick to the plan for as long as you can. I’m not sure how many of those zombies we’re going to run into out there, but I’d rather be safe than sorry when it comes to your lives.”

The ponies around us formed into a diamond shape with Swift acting as the point directly in front of us while the others covered our sides and rear. We broke from the side of formation just as the army of undead began marching forward, the village between us and the Keep quickly becoming overrun with the mass of rotten flesh. Fury called out the advance, the thunderous peel of bugles echoing over the battlefield as the pony army began marching against the approaching undead.

Swift and the others directed us around the village as the undead began picking up speed, their rotting flesh making sickening squelching noises against the hard-packed dirt of the main road. For a while it looked like we were going to make it without any trouble, but that only lasted until we came even with the village. A large group of zombies charged from between the dilapidated houses, coming straight for our left side as the rest of the army continued on towards the rest of the pony force.

“Incoming troops!” One of the mares called out, the formation shifting to support the left flank as the extra soldiers opened up the right side.

There was a loud crunch noise as the corpses impacted against the outer line of guards, their swords swinging through the air as parts were removed from the bodies in seemingly random order. Swift used her own blade to decapitate several of the incoming zombies before they could get around the formation, but it wasn’t enough. The ones that were put down were pitiful in number when compared to the incoming mass of undead, and it began to show as the surge of bodies began to work around the edge of the formation.

“Sure up the flanks!” Swift called out as she shifted to block one of the zombies that had tried to make it around the wall of ponies, “Don’t let them get through!”

Rosie and I were blocking and destroying as many of the zombies as we could without exposing ourselves too much. We knew we had to stay inside the formation unless absolutely necessary, but that didn’t make it any easier as we saw several of the guards get taken down as the amassed undead began to overwhelm our position.

“Make a run for the Keep!” Swift called over her shoulder as she used her hind hooves to buck a zombie into literal pieces, “We’ll hold them off so you can get finish the mission!”

“But what about you?!” Rosie cried as she slashed the head off of another corpse, “What are you going to do about all these undead?”

“We’ll make it through,” Swift retorted as she fell in beside me and Rosie, “we’ll return to the main force and draw these monsters away from you so you can get into the Keep and take out the coven. Hurry up and go before they cut off your route of attack!”

“Come on,” I grabbed Rosie under one arm and dragged her around the ponies, racing over the open ground as they blocked the rest of the undead from following us, “let them do their jobs so we can do ours. We need to get to the keep and kill those necromancers before their constructs overrun the army. Swift is a big girl. She can take care of herself. Focus on the mission and we’ll make it out of this just fine.”

Rosie grumbled under her breath but didn’t argue as she raced along beside me, our auras surging as we pumped on the speed, kicking up twin trails of dust as we blazed past the remaining undead and charged straight for the castle gates. The drawbridge was up, of course, but Rosie had wings and I could easily climb the walls once I jumped over the moat. We continued to charge past the remaining undead, cutting off heads at blinding speed without losing a step and then making a powered leap up towards the walls as our strides brought us up to the edge of the moat.

Rosie flared her wings and grabbed me under the arms, pushing the last few feet as we cleared the parapets, my boots coming down hard on the rock walkway as Rosie flipped over and came in for a landing at my side. We kept our weapons drawn and ready as we carefully climbed down from the outer wall, our eyes wandering from shadow to shadow as we carefully walked into the main courtyard. Not a single undead could be seen in the area, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t any hiding outside our field of view. Rosie kept her side plastered to mine as we pushed further into the keep, the sounds of battle outside slowly going silent as the stone around us dampened the noise to nothing.

The air around us had grown still as we made our way deeper into the central keep, the darkness casting shadows over everything as we shifted nervously from step to step. Rosie’s feathers and fur were fluffed in nervous energy, her aura sparking with soft light every once and a while as she followed in my footsteps down the hallway. There was no sound save for our own steps on the stone, and I could practically smell the stench of death hanging in the air. We were in the necromancer’s home territory, and I had the distinct feeling that they already knew we were here.

As the great doors leading to the throne room opened with a mighty groan, Rosie and I poked our heads around the gap before stepping into the grand hall fully, our eyes locked onto the singular chair that resided at the far side of the room. There wasn’t anything else in the ancient space, but I knew in my bones that they were hiding here somewhere.

“Where do you think they are?” Rosie whispered as we stopped at the edge of the steps leading up to the throne, “Did they run away?”

My reply was interrupted by a chorus of laughter, and we spun back to back as large swirling clouds of black smoke formed on either side and running up the steps. The largest cloud by far slowly condensed on the throne itself, revealing Moon Song in all her glory as the other clouds formed into the other members of the coven. Rosie and I were completely surrounded save for the way back we had come, although that was quickly cut off as several death knights closed ranks and shut the doors behind them.

“Well, well, well,” Moon Song smiled as she lounged on the throne above us, “look what we have here. A little Auramancer come to save the day with her stumbling chick of a sidekick.” She let out a sinister chuckle as she climbed to her hooves, “You were fools to come here, and even more the fool for trying to face us by yourselves. We are far more powerful than one little Auramancer, and I will enjoy watching you break as we tear you little army apart.”

I smirked as I charged my aura and allowed it to escape my body, lighting up the room with a bright yellow glow as I glanced behind me at Rosie, “Ready to show them our little surprise?”

Rosie tightened her grip on her own blade as she nodded, “Thought you’d never ask. I’m ready to kick some plot and then head home.”

“Such confidence,” Moon Song mused as she stood above us on the dais, “but foolish all the same. Echo, Nightlock, show our guests how we deal with intruders.”

The two necromancers on either side of us ignited their horns, and I dodged to the side as the one in front of me shot a beam of dark magic my direction. Rosie flew into the air, letting her own aura flare brightly as she dove down on the other mare, her blade digging a trench into the floor as the dark green unicorn dodged to the right.

“What?!” Moon Song cried as her eyes widened in shock, “The gryphon is an Auramancer as well?! How is this possible?”

I grinned as I charged at the unicorn before me, my blade singing as my speed boost cut off any chance of escape. “That’s just one of the surprises we have in store for you!”

The unicorn in front of me tried to duck out of the way, but even with a last-ditch dive, my sword still bit into her side and slashed a deep cut along her flank, her eyes widening as she cried out in pain. She fell to the ground as her black blood began to pool on the cobblestone, but I was unable to finish the job as one of the death knights blocked my blow with his own blade.

“It won’t be that easy to defeat us,” Moon Song growled as her own horn began to glow, “you might have more power than we anticipated, but you are still outmatched.”

Rosie ducked to one side and was forced to land as a mass of magic missiles filled the air above us, creating a literal minefield in the upper half of the chamber. The hen growled as she slid to a stop beside me, her blade locking with another death knight as the two necromancers tried to pick both of us off with more blasts of magic. Yet it wasn’t enough to put us down for good, even when some of the magic managed to get past our defenses. Our auras managed to cancel out most of the incoming dark magic, resulting in minor burns more than anything else, although it didn’t help when we were trying to stop the death knights from skewering us at the same time.

Finally, as we managed to dispatch the death knights, Moon Song called out as we turned our attention to their masters, “ENOUGH!” The cry was disruptive enough to make Rosie and I pause as the unicorn mares ran back to the rest of the group. Rosie and I stood up straight but kept our weapons ready just in case, our eyes locked on Moon Song as she slowly walked down the steps.

“It would seem that you have more skill than I initially gave you credit for.” Her lips curled down as she sent a glare towards both of the other mares, making them flinch as the elder unicorn came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, “Very well, I guess I have no real choice at this point. I will have to pull out our secret weapon to defeat you.” Her frown morphed into a sinister smile as her horn ignited, a section of wall rotating around on our left as it glowed with the same sickly green.

“Behold,” Moon Song smiled as my jaw dropped open in shock, and terror, “your worst nightmare come to life. Well,” she chuckled softly as the two newcomers stepped out of the shadows, revealing their distorted features for all to see as they walked towards the rest of us, “not quite alive anymore, if you know what I mean.”

My mind was locked up in shock as my eyes roamed over the two ponies walking towards us, my heart clenching in fear and anger at the same time as I took in their familiar and yet unfamiliar faces. Their bodies were covered with the same black armor that all death knights possessed, but the helms were missing, leaving their faces open to the air. Their eyes were nothing but pools of tar, completely overcome with necromantic magic while what little fur that could be seen had darkened several shades from what I knew they originally possessed.

“Lyra?” I managed to croak out, “Bon-Bon?” I spun around and glared at Moon Song with such fury that the unicorn actually took a half step back before mastering herself. “What did you do to them?”

The smile that she replied with made my blood boil as Lyra and Bon-Bon walked up and stood on both of her sides, “Oh, nothing much, we just showed your little lovers what it’s like to be half dead and under our complete control.” I snarled as she ran a hoof down the side of Lyra’s face, her eyes partly lidded as she wrapped her hooves around the other unicorn’s shoulders, “You didn’t think we wouldn’t find out about your little herd, did you? The news about the new royal herd has spread throughout the entire country, and you so foolishly allowed them to leave your sight when you knew that we were looking for any and all ways to destroy you.” Her lips dropped into a frown as she released Lyra, stepping forward a pace or two before coming to a stop, “You now must face the consequences for your actions, because the only way you’ll get to me is to go through my newest death knights. They will fight until you destroy them completely, and I will relish watching you fall apart as you either submit to our rule or destroy the only ponies you have ever loved, aside from that naïve little princess.”

“I’m going to kill you.” My voice had dropped into a growl as I raised my sword into a cross guard, “I’ll make sure that Lyra and Bon-Bon are freed from your control right after I rip your horn from your head and feed it to you.”

“Such fury and compassion,” Moon Song mused as she stepped back, allowing Lyra and Bon-Bon to step between her and me as Rosie switched her shocked gaze back and forth between us, “I can’t wait to see that fire inside you die out as you finally give into despair. It will be so delightful to watch you hopes and dreams die as you are forced to fight the ponies you love most.” She glanced back at the others and their own death knights, “Nopony is to interfere with this contest. I want this to be as painful as possible for our little Auramancer.”

“And what about me?” Rosie hissed as she brandished her own blade, “I could still kick your plots before Sarah even has to move a muscle.”

Moon Song and the other coven members laughed, “You wouldn’t get four steps before we would destroy you. The only reason you are still alive is because you are little to no threat against us. Auramancer you may be, but with as little training as you seem to have, you couldn’t hold a candle to us even if you tried. Now sit down and let the adults have their fun. We’ll annihilate you if you so much as twitch a feather to ty and help your friend.”

“Don’t even think about it, Rosie,” I interjected as the hen bristled, “this is my fight now, and I’m going to finish it by myself if it’s the last thing I do.” My gaze locked onto Lyra and Bon-Bon as my heart clenched in agony, “I owe it to them to at least give them a decent burial if I can’t free them from Moon Song’s control.”

I squared off against my lovers as Moon Song returned to her throne, the two mares drawing their own blades as their soulless eyes locked with mine. I swallowed thickly as I charged my blade with my energy, the dark red and nearly black blue sputtering and sparking as I tried to keep my emotions under control. Ready or not, this was going to be the most difficult fight I had ever fought in, and I prayed to whatever gods watched over this world that I could do what had to be done in order to save them. I would never forgive myself if I allowed them to stay under Moon Song’s control without giving everything I had to free them, one way or the other.

“Let’s get this over with.” Moon Song stated flatly as she waved towards me with one hoof, “Kill her.”

“Yes Mistress.” Lyra and Bon-Bon chorused, and I was forced onto the defensive as they both swung their blades at me, driving me back a step before I could recover, allowing Lyra’s magic to slip her blade around my guard and to drive the tip into the curve of my side.

I hissed in pain but managed to fight my way past the burning in my side as I blocked Bon-Bon’s blade, although it wasn’t a half second before Lyra was trying to work her sword behind me while Bon-Bon had me occupied. I disengaged from my herdmate and sped back several steps, my aura flaring brighter as I used what little extra energy I had to heal the wound in my stomach.

“You’ll never get anywhere doing that.” Moon Song taunted me from her lofty position on the throne. “Fight like you mean it or else you’re not going to last much longer.”

“Shut up horn head.” Rosie hissed as I sprinted around Lyra and Bon-Bon, hoping to get a lucky strike in at Moon Song before she could notice me.

Unfortunately, the other members of the coven weren’t going to simply let me through, and I had to divert my momentum as a shield sprang to life around the dais. I cursed under my breath as I was driven back and had to reengage my herdmates, all the while Moon Song watched on with that infuriating smile of hers.

Finally, I had had enough. I charged up my aura to the maximum, lighting up the entire room with a bright yellow light. Moon Song and her followers shielded their eyes with their hooves, as did Lyra and Bon-Bon, allowing me to work my way around my herdmates and up to the shield. Using most of my available power, I plunged my blade into the shield, shattering the energy around the impact point as the cracks in the barrier spread throughout the entire bubble. The other coven members were just clearing their vision when the barrier broke, allowing me to take out several of the unicorns before they realized what had happened.

Moon Song snarled as her horn ignited, and I was flung backwards as her magic impacted me directly in the center of my chest, the wind exiting my lungs with a whoosh as my back impacted the far wall. Lyra and Bon-Bon formed up again in between me and their master, although Rosie was quick to help me up as she glared daggers at Moon Song and the remaining members of the coven. Of the original eight, five lay in growing pools of blood on the dais steps, leaving Moon Song and the other two mares the last ones standing of their dark cabal.

“You have made a very big mistake.” Moon Song growled as her horn ignited once again, “We will return, and when we do, you shall know pain and suffering the likes of which you have never seen. But first,” her gaze turned to Lyra and Bon-Bon as her frown morphed into a vindictive smile, “I will take two of the most precious things you possess.”

I cried out with what little air I had managed to get into my lungs as Moon Song fired a beam of pure black magic at my herdmates. Neither mare made any move to get out of the way as the condensed magic split apart and hit both of them in the center of the chest. For a moment nothing happened as Moon Song’s magic connected her to my herdmates, but as the energy turned a vomit green color, both mares began screaming as black mist seeped from every corner of their bodies and flowed through the magic beam back into Moon Song.

In a matter of moments, the energy flow came to an end, leaving Lyra and Bon-Bon as their original selves, only for their bodies to fall limply to the floor as Moon Song disconnected her spell from the two mares. She laughed uproariously as a black smoke sprang into being around her and the other necromancers, the mist taking them to some unknown location as their death knights vanished in similar maelstroms of power. In a matter of moments, the throne room was empty, save for me, Rosie, and my unmoving herdmates.

I forced myself to my feet once the echoes of Moon Song’s laughter came to an end, stumbling over to my herdmates as I searched for any signs of life from either of them. My hands came down on their flanks, and I desperately felt for a heartbeat, anything to signify that they were alive. For a moment I thought I felt a weak thump within each of them, but as I waited for another, there was nothing.

Lyra and Bon-Bon were dead.

My chest constricted as tears flowed from my eyes, my hands shaking as I tried to force their chests up and down in some pitiful hope of performing CPR. Some part of my mind realized that it was hopeless, but I still had to try, even if there was no hope.

Rosie walked up behind me as I compressed Lyra’s chest for the twentieth time, my lips meeting hers as I tried to pump some air into her lungs. The hen let me be for several minutes as I tried over and over again to save my lovers, but in the end, she stepped forward and rested a claw on my shoulder, my shaking body finally stopping as I lifted my head from Bon-Bon’s. I slowly looked up at the gryphon, tears streaming down my face as her own tears soaked her face feathers.

“I’m so sorry.” She whispered as she pulled me into a hug, “I wish there was something we could do. But there isn’t anything that can save them, not now.”

My body shook as I sobbed into her chest, wrapping my arms around her shoulders as I cried out my loss. Yet as my mind slowly ground to a halt, a small spark lit up in my head. My sobbing slowly subsided, allowing me to turn my attention back to my herdmates.

“Maybe there is something I can do.” I whispered. I pulled away from Rosie and knelt down next to the still bodies of my herdmates, my hands igniting with my aura as I slowly placed them in the center of each of their chests.

“What are you thinking?” Rosie asked as I began channeling energy into both mares.

“Something that is either going to save them or kill me.” I replied.

I ignored Rosie’s cry of shock as I pushed more and more energy into both of my herdmates, going far beyond the normal limit for how much I could use without driving myself to exhaustion. My power was already limited after using so much in the fight, but I was determined to do this, one way or the other.

“What are you doing?!” Rosie tried to pull me off as sweat began to drench my body from head to toe, but I shrugged her out of the way as I continued to channel energy into the slightly cooling bodies, “You’ll kill yourself if you don’t stop pushing energy into them! Remember what the masters warned us about in their journal?! Using too much energy could drain your own soul until it can no longer sustain your body! Please,” She began crying again as I felt my arms beginning to shake from the strain, “their lives aren’t worth losing you when you have to protect the rest of Equestria.”

“I don’t care!” I screamed as I poured more and more into my dead lovers, “My life isn’t worth anything if I can’t even protect the ones I love!” I could feel my tears evaporating as my body began heating up from the strain of channeling so much energy, my vision beginning to go dark as I pushed myself far beyond my limits, “Either I save them here and now, or I die trying.”

Rosie was forced to back up as the temperature around me continued to climb, and I gave one final cry as I pushed everything I had left into Lyra and Bon-Bon. I felt something snap within me as my energy cut off completely, and I could feel my body falling as I heard Rosie call out my name, although it sounded like she was at the end of a long tunnel as my face came to rest in Lyra’s mane. I tried to move but it was like my body couldn’t hear my brain’s commands as I felt Rosie shaking me and calling my name. Or at least that was what I thought she was saying. I couldn’t really hear her over the ringing in my head as my vision finally faded to black.

The last thing I remembered doing, was holding onto Lyra and Bon-Bon’s front hooves as my mind left the waking world, and it was only then, at the brink, that I realized that maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t the hero everyone thought I was. I had failed to protect my lovers, I had failed to protect Equestria, and now I had failed to even save myself. Discord had been wrong. I wasn’t the savior of this world, I never had been, and now I was finally going to pay for all of the mistakes I had made in life, one way or the other in oblivion.

Author's Notes:

Well, here we are, the finale for Act 2 of Hands of Life. What did you all think about the newest instalment of my longest book? I finally broke the quarter million word count as well as cracking thirty chapters on the nose, not including side chapters. I never imagined that this book would get so long, and it's still got another Act to go through before it comes to an end. Hope you are holding onto your horseshoes, because the adventure has only just begun.

In case you all wanted to know, I do have theme songs for this chapter, and they are as follows. The first is for the combat scene at the beginning of the chapter,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t42lcYWaca8

The other is for when they enter the fortress proper and the subsequent fight with Moon Song and her coven,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDHgAlQgKrs

Also, say hello to my Patrons WuBzY and Earthpatriot117 once again. They have been a big boost to my confidence over these last few months by providing their support, and I hope that others will join their jolly ranks at some point in the future.

Other than that, I'll see you all next chapter,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.