Luna knocked on the door several times.

Twilight wondered why the princess would need to knock on any of the doors other than Celestia’s bedroom, seeing as it was the royal castle.

While she was pondering this, the door slammed open and small plastic bag filled with ice cubes slammed into Luna’s face, stunning the princess.

Not two seconds later, Eclipse was standing in the doorway, another pack of ice resting on his head and even drooping over his eyes.

“Who the fuck is--“ He began, just to be cut off by a loud thud as something heavy hit the ground.

Eclipse clicked his tongue twice in rapid succession, processing the sound, then slowly nodded. “That was one of the princesses, wasn’t it?” He didn’t even wait for an answer, instead lifting the ice pack far enough to reveal one poorly dilated pupil. “Shit.”

Twilight was aghast. “You just assaulted the Princess!” She screeched, in shock.

Eclipse lowered his head and gritted his teeth. “Yeesh. Not so loud, you blasted banshee. That gunk I was injected with last night cured drunkenness, not hangovers.”

“You just assaulted the Princess.” Twilight repeated, this time as more of an angry hiss than a surprised scream. “Why are you being so calm about this?”

Chuckling, Eclipse picked up the insensate princess and half dragged half carried her into his room. “She and I have hit each other with way worse than some ice. You take a few exploding magic missiles to the face and flying ice ain’t so bad. Besides, considering she’s suffered more damage from pastries, I think she’ll be just fine.” He laid Luna onto his bed, but he didn’t bother to put her in a comfortable position, letting her limbs sprawl out as they please.

“Pastries?” Twilight asked, before she caught herself. “Nevermind. Tell me you have something that will wake her up?”

Eclipse mulled the thought over for a moment, soon coming to a conclusion. Stepping over to a desk and several drawers, he began rifling through the area until he pulled out a pair of large, pink and very fuzzy earmuffs. “They look funny, but they’re the only muffs that are one hundred percent soundproof.”

He slipped the ear muffs on and shifted the ice pack around so that they peacefully coexisted on his head without falling off. Then he pulled out an air horn and fired away.

Luna jumped up. Or she would have, if she had been in anything resembling a standard sleeping position. Instead, she kind of just had a body spasm and fell off the side of the bed.

“Luna!” Eclipse cheered, taking off the earmuffs as the Princess slowly got back on her hooves. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

Luna turned her head to the left then to the right, popping her neck several times. “Indeed.” She muttered when she was done, rubbing her head with a hoof. “Is there a reason that Twilight and I were assaulted by ice?”

“I’m just fine, Princess.” Twilight answered, speaking up.

Eclipse chuckled. “And I wasn’t expecting a royal visit until some minor nationality pissed off you or your sister. I did mention that the last time we spoke, right? It was just after Shining Armor made his third attempt at upchucking his stomach.”

“Much as it would please us to watch you rain destruction on several of the--“ she coughed into her hoof. “less than respectful nations Equestria is forced to engage in politics with, my sister and I have something else in mind.”

With a grin on his face, Eclipse nodded. “You and Celestia. Meaning it probably doesn’t come from Cadence or the newly crowned Twilight. So you have to know that I am really going to put up one hell of a fight against doing anything that has anything to do with guarding nobles, joining in a parade or public speaking. If it were anything like that, you’d just skip straight to dragging me out by my ear.” He glanced up, single revealed eye twinkling slightly. “I’m either about to go on another mission likely to end in a small war, or I’m about to laugh my ass off.”

Luna nodded, noting to herself that Eclipse was much more observant when suffering from a hangover. Perhaps less energy to put into maintaining a check on his anger and/or displeasure resulted in increased focus and precision.

…Somehow?

No matter, Luna already had something on her mind.

“A medium sized town, similar to Vangar, except it isn’t a self-sustaining town without any outside connections. Braycover sits on a minor trade route. It is another largely self-ruling village, but is also part of a coalition of similar towns and cities on the border of the minotaur lands. They bow to no known ruler aside form each town’s elected officials.”

“Heh. Democracy lives in the world of technicolor after all.” Eclipse couldn’t fight the smile on his face, so he didn’t even bother to try.

Twilight shot a questioning glance Luna’s way at the word ‘technicolor’ but the princess just winked. “The reason it’s even on the map is that the coalition has successfully rebutted attacks from the griffins, minotaurs and at one time, Equestria itself.”

Eclipse frowned. “You want me to walk into a town that kicked Equestria’s ass? Or, to be a little more open with why that sounds terrible, kicked our asses, seeing as I’m kind of part of Equestria now?”

“We were given false reports that they were planning to take over towns on the edge of Equestria, complete with minor attacks and raids. Only later did we learn that it had been orchestrated by a rogue group of griffins, in an attempt to draw Equestria into what was already a three way bloodbath. I hear that my sister’s response was less than pleased.”

“Celestia’s response?” Eclipse asked. “I’m sure you couldn’t have been any hap -- oh.” Eclipse’s ears slowly descended until they were laying flat against his head. “Oh.”

With a roll of her eyes, Luna laid Eclipse’s concerns to rest. “I am well aware that many things happen in one thousand years, Eclipse. Surely you have more faith in me than this?”

Twilight’s ears shot up when she heard this, realizing why Eclipse had gone quiet. She nervously smiled when Luna gave her a questioning look.

Luna sighed in disappointment. “It’s as if I’m made of glass. Anyway, back on topic. The griffins are testing the coalition’s strength again, focusing on the north side. Braycover is the southernmost town in the coalition. As such, it has had most of it’s guard sent north to reinforce the cities that are more threatened. Only a token force remains to deal with any bandits or crimes in the town. Normally all information from that area of the world comes by the traders who stop to do business in those towns. Of, course this makes the rumors of Braycover being attacked by a necromancer difficult to confirm.”

“Necromancer?” Eclipse’s ice pack slid off his head and fell to the floor with a plop. “You had my curiosity. Now you have my attention.”

Luna nodded. “The problem is that while all reports agree that undead are attacking the town, there are some where a necromancer is summoning the creatures to burn and pillage and others that say the necromancer is fighting fire with fire. That is, protecting the town from an undead horde by using another undead horde. Whether the necromancer is a hero or a villain, you undoubtedly need to stop whatever is going on there before it spirals out of control. If the necromancer is a hero, then there is something else creating and directing the other undead. I pray that this is not the case and that it is just some powermad fool playing with foul magic. Either way, with this incident happening so close to a brewing warzone, it could turn into a much larger disaster than it already is, otherwise Celestia and I wouldn’t have thought much of it. Sadly, the griffin threat overshadows a few undead in the minds of the rest of the coalition.”

Twilight whirled to face Luna. “What? You would have just let a dark magic user walk around doing as he pleases?”

“Incidents of evil magic users are distressingly common, Twilight.” Luna said, some sorrow in her voice. “Also, necromancy doesn’t even fall under dark magic. It is more of an offshoot of summoning magic.”

“It’s not dark magic?” Twilight pulled out a book, seemingly from thin air and started flipping through the pages. “But, surely that can’t be? It’s almost nothing like any summoning spells I’ve ever seen.”

“The rituals and spells are vastly different.” Luna agreed. “But that is mostly due to the differing nature of the undead versus other conjurations. Unlike demons, certain golems or shadow creatures, undead won’t direct themselves, so a large autonomous legion is actually quite impossible. They need orders, otherwise they’d simply stand still and continue to rot away to nothing. Of course, if one were to tell them to guard an area, they’d maintain a constant vigil for countless years, since the magic that maintains them is much more stable than a summon spell of equal magical power. Of course, undead are also generally weaker than a purely summoned creature as well.”

Finished with the explanation, Luna turned back to Eclipse, who had also been listening with his full attention. Guessing at his next question, Luna quickly countered. “Yes, you need to be a unicorn to use necromancy. No, I don’t know if chaos magic can be substituted. I would be grateful if you didn’t try.”

“Awwww.” Eclipse whined.

“This time, the four you’ve managed to drag back to Canterlot will be going with you, so you won’t need to recruit any new comrades in arms.” Frowning, Luna mumbled to herself. “Though, I do have twenty bits riding on you dragging back even more recruits.”

“What was that?” Eclipse asked.

“Nothing.”

Twilight frowned, but didn’t really say anything.

Several seconds of silence ticked by in utter silence, until Eclipse finally broke the spell.

“So why’s Twilight here anyway?”

“Happenstance. Twilight saw me and came over for a brief conversation before I knocked on your door. If I hadn’t been knocked out cold, she likely wouldn’t have lingered.” Luna gestured to the still open door. “She’s staying at the end of the hall until she returns to Ponyville.”

“Come on, Featherbrain!” Dust Demon cheered. “It’s ice magicked up by the princess of the sun. It’s literally the one thing she doesn’t excel at!”

Aranna dug her talons into the ground, trying to not get blown away by the blizzard spewing from Celestia’s horn. She ignored Dust Demon’s shouting to the best of her ability, flapping her wings in an attempt to create a heat wave of her own magic to counter Celestia.

Her success was limited, since Celestia’s unrelenting blizzard blew away every attempt she made. Feeling frost starting to grow on her feathers, Aranna instead focused on going up as quickly as she could, flapping her wings with all the strength she could muster.

Once she managed to get several dozen feet of distance between herself and the ground, Aranna found herself running through every evasive maneuver she knew as Celestia started firing shards of ice at her.

Sagebrush let out a soft whistle. “Getting hung out to dry, ain’t she?”

Snarling, Dust Demon redoubled his cheering efforts. “You can do better than this! Show her everything you’ve got!”

“I honestly cannot tell if you are supporting her or jeering at her.” Thorn said, a hint of a smile on his features.

Sagebrush chuckled. “Demon’s had it out for Celestia since she bested him by making a mini sandstorm and using it to blind him. Taking his own namesake and beating him with it, hah! I like her style.”

Catching a moment of peace as Celestia readied another barrage, Aranna gathered some of her power into her open talon. A small blaze started, hovering over her open hand as she tried to create a fireball.

Thorn smiled. “She was listening to me.”

Throwing the sphere of flame at a surprised Celestia, Aranna could only stare in disappointment as the fireball dwindled to a small pinprick and eventually went out just a few feet away from her. It hadn’t even come close to Celestia, who quickly returned to firing shards of ice at the airborne griffin.

“But she was not listening very well.” Thorn sighed, catching Luna, Eclipse and Twilight approaching from the side. “Company.” He said, catching the attention of both Dust demon and Sagebrush.

Celestia also turned to greet the newcomers. When Aranna tried to take advantage of the distraction, a half dozen shards of ice flew back, twisting and turning in the air to follow the griffin as she tried to shake the homing missiles. It was an exercise in futility, as the griffin quickly found out.

Celestia smiled as she let Aranna safely land with the knowledge that she was still just toying with them when she engaged in combat practice.

“We get to fight undead!” Eclipse cheered as he met his group of four companions.

Dust Demon shivered. “Now, there’s something that’ll turn your stomach upside down.”

“What’s wrong, Dusty? Scared of a few walking bones?” Aranna joked, patting the pegasus on the head.

“Naw, just a little nervous about fighting something that’s already dead. How do we kill that, anyway?”

Nodding, Celestia smiled. “A common misconception. Undead can be defeated just like any living opponent. The magic animating a body will be expelled if the body takes enough damage.”

Dust Demon shrugged. “Alrighty then. Guess I get to try out those fancy wingblades you had me training for.”

Slinging an arm around Dust Demon’s shoulders, Aranna gave him a large grin. “Sword and shield’s better.”

“We don’t all have talons to hold them with.”

With a thoughtful chirp in the changeling language, Thorn stepped forward. “Slashing and piercing is all well and good against living targets and even most undead, but they would be ineffective if we have to fight skeletons. It would be a good idea to invest in a few extra bashing and blunt weapons, like Sagebrush’s hammer.”

“Shield bash?” Aranna offered.

“I still have my ground pound attacks.” Eclipse suggested.

Twilight glanced at him. “Ground pound?”

“Oh, yeah. See if I punch the ground with a some chaos magic in my hoof, then -- I’ll just show you.” He turned and reared up, pulling a hoof back as far as it could go before he slammed it into the ground, causing a wave a sharp rocks to erupt from the earth in a line in front of him, tearing through a pair of trees that had been caught in the blast zone.

Twilight’s jaw dropped.

“Oh, yeah. I can make random stuff explode, too. It’s like everything’s a grenade!”

“Presenting Eclipse, master of humility.” Thorn sarcastically muttered.

“I love being an oxymoron.”

Several days later, the group clambered off of the train, leaving behind the nervous stares of the train's other passengers and into the nervous stares of other people at the station.

There were minotaurs, griffins and ponies of all three species milling about en masse. Outside of those major groups, there were several zebras and a pair of diamond dogs. Only a handful of guards were about, mostly just to keep the peace. There was an earth pony, a unicorn and two minotaurs that Eclipse could see, with more likely to be just outside of view and around town. All four of the gaurds were paying attention to the group that had just arrived.

Eclipse nodded. “Culturally diverse. I like it here already.”

Behind him, Aranna rolled her shoulder. “I think my arm fell asleep on the train.”

“You didn’t need to sleep with all your armor on. That shield probably cut off blood flow or something.” Dust demon answered, tugging at his own breastplate. It was a silver version of what many royal guards wore. The pegasus version was lighter and allowed for wings at the cost of a minor amount of protection. Unlike most suits of guard armor, this one came with a pair of bracers rather than horseshoes and had no helmet. It also came with a pair of sharp blades to be attached to the wings for a weapon.

Dust Demon had opted to not wear the bracers, leaving them to be snatched up by Eclipse, who gleefully strapped the bracers onto his forelegs with some excitement at the prospect of finally getting actual armor for himself.

Adjusting the clasp of his black cloak, Eclipse chuckled. “Oh, come on. Like Sagebrush wasn’t doing it too.”

“Sagebrush probably has padding or something.”

Sagebrush’s hammer was resting in a rack on his right side, running the length of his body until he felt the need to turn his head and grab the weapon in his teeth. “Only in a few places. Mostly so it doesn’t chafe.”

Thorn was now the only one not wearing any personal defenses, aside from his own natural chitin. He hadn’t felt the need to ask the Princesses for any, seeing as he was mostly here for tactical support rather than more combat personnel.

Aranna sighed. “Are we going to get stared at everywhere we go?”

Eclipse shrugged. “Well, we do look like a group of mercenaries or something, not to mention the changeling." It was then that Thorn sheepishly realized that he hadn't worn a disguise the entire train ride. "Just relax and don’t cause trouble. We’ll be fine. Peace and quiet like this doesn’t last long when I arrive, so calm down and enjoy a breath of fresh air.”

“Attack!” Eclipse turned to see a griffin in a Braycover guard uniform fly overhead, trying to muster the guards at the train station. “Another wave, coming from the east!”

All four guards that Eclipse could see rushed out, plus another unicorn and a pegasus that had been out of sight.

“Me and my mouth.” He grumbled.

Aranna chuckled. “Never a dull moment with this crew, huh?”

With a nod, Dust Demon agreed. “I’m liking my choice to stick around more and more.”

“Let’s just hope that zombie-ism doesn’t spread like it does in the movies.” Eclipse said, sticking his tongue out.

“That was disproven long ago.” Thorn said, buzzing his wings as he took to the air, Aranna and Dust demon following suit. “We three will find the exact location of the battle. For now, just head east as best you can. I’ll return and direct you to the fighting.”

“Right.” Eclipse agreed. “Aranna, Dust Demon, support the Braycover guard and keep an eye out for that necromancer until Sagebrush and I arrive. Then the five of us start doing some heavy lifting.”