Returning my focus to the grove, I found myself at a bit of a crossroads. The diamond dogs were a problem, but I needed to be ready for the thestral’s arrival. I needed to get down into the caves but I also couldn't bring anyone big with me. I also needed to remove the collars but I didn't know how.

Or did I?

I hadn't really given the possibility much consideration, as I had just naively assumed that removal was impossible. I sought to discover if that was truly the case and started that search by plumbing the depths of the dragon’s knowledge. I had a moderate experience when it came to piecing together bits of experience and memory at this point so if he knew how, I’d find it.

I was stymied relatively quickly though, as my increased familiarity with the memories of living creatures didn't help when he knew little. Enchantment was about as far from necromancy as possible, and add to that the possibility that his special method of casting spells and there was little overlap. If I didn't know a simple way of removing or negating the spell, that left only one possibility.

Cheesing it.

Popping over to Rainy, I found that she had left her body stuffed in a closet somewhere in the castle. Instead of bothering with walking around like normal, she was busy scampering about the abandoned homes in the body of the lizard. My initial urge was to reprimand her, but she literally couldn't be hurt so I allowed her curiosity to play itself out.

Inhabiting her body, I pushed open the door and after some walking found that I was near the mustering point for the thestrals. Here they gathered what meager supplies they had, and waited for the call to come down to move to my grove. I could see Rainy’s parents were busy helping out, so I didn't bother them, continuing my search for the pony in charge.

In this instance, it was Tall Order, the pony standing off to the side and reading a manifest of some kind. Evidently, he heard my approach, his ear twitching before he lifted his head and looked down in confusion.

“Xathrid. Do you have any news?” he asked.

“Sort of but first I was wondering how you knew it was me,” I replied.

The old stallion smirked. “You don't walk with the eager bounce of a child. Now then, I assume it's important?”

“Sort of. I was wondering if there were any dogs that died during the battle who did not have quite such a… dramatic end,” I inquired.

“Err yes, unfortunately. One of the dogs that had split off from the main group caught a spear to the gut and before we had the chance to assist him, he bled out. His body has been left near the cave entrance in the lower levels,” Tall Order answered, his gaze narrowing. “Why, do you wish to raise him?”

“No actually, or at least not entirely. I was hoping to test something. I’ll let you know more later,” I exclaimed.

“Alright then. Please do keep us all informed,” Tall Order called.

“Will do,” I answered, giving the old stallion a wave before slipping away.

Using my now diminutive stature, and the general way most adults ignored the presence of a child, I slipped back into the castle without being noticed. Delving deeper, I wound my way down winding staircases, and long hallways before finally coming to a halt at the very bottom step. There I retraced my steps to where the fight had gone down. There I located the dead dog, his face serene and peaceful despite how much of his midsection was stained red.

It was a grizzly sight, but one that I didn't linger on for long. Instead, I focused on his neck, namely the band of magically imbued metal that wrapped around it. I could feel that there was indeed lingering energy maintaining the wards, but it wouldn't last long anyway.

“Curious,” I muttered aloud.

I had assumed that the enchantments would fizzle the moment he died, yet they did not, only slowly losing power. This made me wonder if the spell fed off the dog’s life force in some way, or if there were other factors at work. With Rainy’s limited magical senses, I couldn't deduce much more, though I still deemed it a success.

Rainy dear. Please spend a bit of time with your parents. I thought.

Oh okay. I was getting bored of being a lizard anyway. Rainy replied.

I shook my non-existent head and retracted my consciousness to the grove where I searched for the fallen dog I had captured. He had been napping in a bush last I checked, though I couldn't remember which one I had placed him in. After a bit of searching and a moment of panic, I found the bugger still unconscious but otherwise unharmed.

By then, the dragon’s form was still not quite complete, the plants needed more time to work, but that was fine. I brought him over to the dog and had him inspect the enchantment a little closer utilizing his more advanced senses. I still didn't quite understand why these senses carried over after death, but I wasn't about to contemplate that particular mystery at the moment.

Sure enough, I found what I was looking for, a sub-enchantment that monitored whether or not the target was alive. I couldn't mess with it in any way without causing catastrophic harm, but I didn't really need to either. Deathless Slumber was a spell the dragon knew well, for some reason, the effect of which was about what you may have thought from the name.

It, in essence, killed the target, but not really, as it held the spirit while the body was locked in a sort of stasis. The creature would then remain ‘dead’ for a set amount of time before the spell expired, and the target came back to life. The spell had plenty of limitations, like how the target could not resist in any way, they had to already be asleep, they couldn't move, and a bunch of others that were mostly redundant but did make things more complicated.

Thankfully all that didn't matter as he was just lying there, unable to do anything but occasionally grunt or twitch. I wasn't exactly eager to try the spell on him, so I tried to think of some other possible solution. When that turned out to be fruitless, I decided to gamble with the dog’s life and begin the process.

The dragon leaned down, and inhaled or at least mimed the action of doing so anyway. Either way it took effect, with the dog gasping it's last breath, only to stop midway. The dragon exhaled a greenish mist that traveled up the dog’s nostrils and took root in his lungs. There it glowed faintly before fading leaving the dog completely still, body stiff, but not dead.

I glanced at the enchantment and noticed that sure enough, something had clicked inside of it. It was off, and once it ran out of internal power, it would shut down completely. When that finally happened the thing would be an inert band of metal, and would be easily removed. It wasn't exactly an expedient solution to my problem, but it was an effective one that didn't require anyone to die.

All I needed to do now was find the dogs, bring them to the surface where the dragon could reach them and their collar problem was null and void. To get there I would still need to explore the caves, figure out what was going on and judge the enemy's strength. To that end, I summoned a few undead squirrels I had managed to scrounge up while I had been contemplating the collar situation.

They had been long dead and completely devoid of nutrition but that's not what I cared about them. They could serve as three diminutive sets of eyes with which to explore the deepest reaches of the caves below. I wondered briefly if they would make for a good place to mine in the future but dismissed that for the moment.

I would figure that all out later. Right now I had a mission to accomplish, and so I set my three little squirrels to work. Alongside them I sent the undead earth pony under my command, the skeletal creature taking up the rear of the strange troop. With the tiny rodents taking the lead, they quickly reached the blocked passage that lay down deep beneath my roots.

It wouldn't take much for me to pull apart the entire mound of debris, but that wasn't my goal, at least not yet. Worming a single large root through the mess, I created a space just large enough for my scouts to slip through. Retracting the woody appendage allowed the squirrels through and for my plan to truly be set into motion. But, while they moved, I started subtly shifting things around so that at a moment’s notice, I could remove the entire blockage and allow my other undead through.

I didn't focus on that at the moment though, instead shifting my attention down to the squirrels as they worked their way through the cave. Narrow, winding, but angled in a downward direction, I could tell that this section was at least mostly natural. That soon began to change though, as after a few minutes I came across the upper limits of what seemed to be a mine of some kind.

The tunnel I was currently in narrowed significantly, at the end of which lay a small narrow opening just large enough for a pony to squeeze through. Beyond that, the tunnel became wider, taller, and far more uniform, the signs of recent work being visible everywhere. It was clear that the initial tunnel was natural, yet there were some signs of someone having taken a pick to it at one point.

That was a mystery for another time, so I pushed it from my mind and kept on moving, keeping my squirrels spread out slightly. I enjoyed the multiple angles they gave me to inspect my surroundings, and the increased number of eyes helping me piece things together. It was odd to think I was so used to this kind of thing already but hey, people are adaptable even when they get turned into trees.

The path ahead diverted not far, though the tunnel to the left was wide enough to allow a mine cart to pass through it with ease. This seemed to be the plan as further in that direction I could see piles of discarded tracks waiting to be laid. Off to the right, things were more natural, with only the ground having been flattened to allow more comfortable foot travel. Looking at them both, I chose to go right even though I could have easily gone in both directions at once.

I was immediately glad I had done this, as I was almost instantly greeted by a rather shocking sight. Before me lay a long and clearly ancient wooden bridge that went out over a large circular pit that went down for several stories. At the center, there was a large collum of what looked like marble that went from bottom to top and supported the bridge. Around the edge of the hole lay the winding track that circled lower and lower before vanishing down a path that lead north.

There were smaller break-off tunnels that occasionally connected to the main track and even what looked like a hastily constructed camp. Scampering across the bridge, I could hear what sounded like the distant thump of footsteps, along with someone barking orders. I decided to abandon my scouting for the moment and snuck my way down to the bottom floor.

Along the way, I saw grim-faced dogs plodding downwards, mining equipment held loosely in their grip. Around their neck was the same collar I had become so familiar with, while on their face they wore the expression of men walking to the gallows. It tugged at my heartstrings, but I ignored them for the moment, focusing on staying out of sight, and keeping to the shadows.

At the second level, I found a natural underground creek that threatened to spill out over the side of the pit but was blocked by a grated hole. Peering down through the bars, I noticed that the water was allowed to collect at the very bottom level. There a slightly raised section could be seen jutting off from the side, just high enough that it wasn't in danger of getting flooded.

I looked around and found that unfortunately there was only a single way down to that bottom level. It was also currently occupied by a long line of dogs which would surely spot me if I tried to move among them without cover. I contemplated my problem for a moment, only to nearly smack my tiny rodent faces when I realized the solution.

I was three piles of bones so light that they nearly floated when dropped.

With that in mind, I leaped into the gentle but constant flow of water and allowed my squirrely forms to land in the shallow pool below. Given that I was so light, and barely had any surface area, the sound my impact made wasn't even audible over the burble of the water. Extracting my squirrels was also easy, and soon I was on the ground floor, with my target directly ahead.

My curiosity got the better of me though, as I began inspecting the bridge that allowed the tracks to wind into a tunnel only a few feet above me. I clambered up the supports and followed them to the tunnel, where I found that it split in two directions. One was obviously intentional as that's where the tracks continued off, but there were warning signs posted as well as a glowing magical barrier.

The words weren't in a language most would understand, but the dragon was not most creatures. I felt recognition, but I couldn't recall what the piece of wood was saying, only the feeling I got when I looked at it. Fear, this was a warning, but of what I couldn't know for certain, and there weren't any other obvious clues lying around. The tunnel beyond looked normal, though up ahead a hundred yards in, a wall had collapsed, partially obscuring the rest of the tunnel.

As for the other pass, it was far newer and was also angled upward, likely going to whatever camp they had in the area. Realizing this, I decided to split my three squirrels, sending one back the way I came, the other to the barrier, and the final one upward. The first to reach its target was the strange magical barrier erected over the tunnel with the collapsed section.

I noticed immediately that whoever had first built this place had erected the wall as the markings were clearly ancient. The enchantments were also placed on runes that were antiquated in the extreme and mostly forgotten as they were prone to failure. Other than that, I couldn't recall anything else about the magic itself so I started inspecting like a human, which meant the first thing I was going to do was poke it.

I was surprised to find that I was able to pass right through, and nothing even happened to me. No alarms blared, no rocks fell, and I didn't get shot by some unseen trap either. It clearly wasn't intended on holding me back, though I couldn't tell if that was because I was undead, or if I was a squirrel or what.

Either way, it allowed me to continue on to the next area, though in the meantime I shifted to the other squirrel. He was currently peeking out from the shadows of some debris and watching as a group of dogs gathered near a mound of gold ore. The area was the one set off to the side at the bottom floor, where I noticed another smaller passage leading deeper. I couldn't go over there, however, as everyone was facing that direction as if waiting for someone.

Weaseling my way a little closer, I started picking up some of the half-muttered conversations going on.

“Think this is it?”

“Might not be. They still need someone to haul all this gold back.”

“If it's true and our fearless leader’s cohort is missing, we’ll probably get culled just in case.”

“He wouldn't do that. We still have some value to him.”

“Your naive.”

“I am not. He might be evil but- augh.”

The dog contorted as the collar shocked her to the ground, punishing the poor creature for her poor word choice. I pitied them all immensely and kept listening but didn't learn anything new from my spying. They were waiting for the solar scout to emerge and give them their new orders now that the team nearby had been slaughtered.

Once more, I shifted my focus, this time back to the first squirrel which had reached the hole in the wall. Peeking into the gap I could see that it opened into a cave, one that was filled to the brim with a black sedimentary rock of some kind. It came in layers and seemed to break off relatively easily as chunks of it littered the ground and gathered in clumps.

Picking up a small piece I noticed that it left behind a black residue on my tiny fingers. I dropped it with a clunk, and looked around again, realization dawning in my mind. This was coal, all of this was coal, and it had likely been cordoned off because the shifting which had caused the collapse and also released a ton of methane.

Silent, deadly, and odorless, I had learned about it during a school trip into an old coal mine, or at least I think that's where this knowledge came from. Regardless, it was likely in vast enough supply here to wipe out nearly everyone in the caves since it had been building up for centuries or maybe longer. Either way, it would have to be something I would have to watch out for, or use, though I wasn't sure I wanted to do that quite yet.

Switching focus once more, I went topside to the other squirrel and found that the tunnel did indeed go to the surface. The passage going there was long, and winding, and emerged in a shallow glen just outside the range of my current grove. The digging work was slapdash, and poor, meaning I could likely collapse the entire thing with minimal effort if I wanted to. That too was something I contemplated but didn't act on quite yet, rather I checked the camp for any clues.

There was only a single disassembled tent as well as a few supplies tucked away half hidden under a rock. He had done a good job cleaning up after himself, but a squirrel’s eye for detail was above that of a pony. I could spot where he had made a fire, where he had likely relieved himself, and where he had most frequently walked.

Pulling out his things, I searched around for letters, or any kind of personal effects but found only a single piece of paper. One written in a strange code that caused the words to flee my vision each time I focused on them. It wouldn't help at the moment, but I hid it in a tree for later retrieval and eventual decoding.

Summoning the squirrel back down into the mines, I shifted my focus around while I waited for something to happen. I recalled the earth pony skeleton, then cast ventriloquism on him just in case I needed to talk to someone, then I sent him back. Along the way, I shifted the debris out of the way and had the undead work his way into the mines at a slow, cautious pace.

While this was happening I was trying to devise a plan of some kind only to be interrupted by the appearance of a new pony. Haggard, and disheveled, he wore the armor of the solar guard, though he kept his helmet belted at his side. He had appeared from the side passage I noted earlier, emerging before the gathered dogs and looking at them with disgust.

“I know none of you care, but the squad is likely dead,” he remarked tiredly. “Though I can tell some of you want to celebrate, I wouldn't do so quite yet.”

He began to pace back and forth in front of the gathered crowd of dogs, wings fluttering at his sides. Annoyed and anxious, his youthful face was easy to read even at a distance and through the eyes of a squirrel.

“My orders in case of just such an event are clear. I am to retreat, but not before removing all evidence of our presence, starting with you,” he continued.

“You can't do that!”

“We did everything you asked!”

“Silence!” shouted the stallion. “I don't like it, but we all must do our duty to the burgeoning empire. Mine is to run, and yours is to die.”

“Wait!” I had the skeletal earth pony shout from two floors up, his voice purposefully altered to make finding his location impossible. “I have a question.”

“What, who said that? Come out here this instant!” yelled the earth pony.

“To the diamond dogs below, if you were to die here and now, would you consent to being raised from the dead?” I pressed.

“To the dog hiding above me, die! I order you to die!” shouted the stallion.

I had the squirrels set upon the wards, their tiny claws tearing through the ancient stone with relative ease.

“Answer, quickly!” I continued.

“I consent!”

“Me too!”

The voices soon became numerous, with nearly every single dog sticking up their hand or shouting that they consented. While this was happening, I scratched away the second rune and noted that the barrier flickered once before vanishing. The air pressure change was immediate, my squirrels were able to sense a rushing of air pushing past them in a wave.

“No, you're not a dog. You must be that necromancer they were looking for,” murmured the stallion in horror. “And if your alive, and my team isn't…”

“I speak through the mouth of your kin, solar scout,” I spat. “Like you, he was a monster who sought to genocide the thestrals, enslave the diamond dogs, and generally do awful things to everyone he met.”

“We are restoring the natural order,” he retorted, spinning around in search of the source of my voice. “The thestrals should not be, and these creatures are barely above animals, to begin with. Do we cry when the cow is caged or the dog collared? No.”

“I do,” I replied. “They are thinking creatures, and should have the chance to choose their own destiny.”

One of the dogs keeled over and hit the ground, followed by a second. More were clutching their heads, and wheezing, unable to breathe properly.

“I am not,” the stallion paused and began to cough violently. “What… what is happening? My armor should defend against any of your magic!”

“This isn't magic,” I replied simply. “Just good old-fashioned methane poisoning. Sorry, by the way, I wanted to make this quick but it seems you all are a bit hardier than anticipated.”

A good third of the dogs dropped dead during my little explanation, and more were joining them with each second. The rest would join them soon, as they were visibly panicking, and were in the advanced stages of methane poisoning. Dizzy, weak, confused, and twitching, the dogs went through all the symptoms in short order.

“Methane, you mean the bad air,” muttered the stallion, falling to one knee and clutching his head. “That shouldn't be possible. The barrier was up.”

“Well, not anymore. Now then, any last words?” I asked.

As if on cue, the last two dogs dropped dead, leaving only me and the now spasming stallion.

“I hope you-” the stallion began, only to suddenly wheeze and collapse forward.

“I’m going to assume you were about to say something rude,” I remarked to no one in particular. “But I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and tell everyone you wished me a pleasant afternoon.”

I chuckled at my own joke while walking over to the pile of corpses and looking over them all.

“Now then, let's start dragging you back,” I muttered to myself.

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