Inside 59

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

"Your mistake is believing that a nightshade is your friend," the devourer sneers as the two fighters go at it. "Nightshades do not have friends. Nightshades have tools. Tools which they discard once the tool no longer serves its purpose." It gestures at Sunder with one of its way too long arms. "This creature may not even realize that it is using you, but it is. It can not help but do so. It is the nature of being a nightshade. Now please, do try to die with some grace. I am feeling a bit empty as a result of our skirmish and my remaining soul could use the company."

What an awful creature.

When Punch throws the blow at Sunder's face the nightmare deflects the attack with one of her wings and tries to hook the limb to pin it to her side. There isn't any hesitation in Sunder's attacks, but she seems to be fighting back enough to tone down the lethality of her style ever so much. Hence, pinning rather that trying to break Punch's arm at the elbow. To make matters worse, Sunder's tail begins pooling on the floor, sending out rivulets of liquid shadow that aim to seize Punch and begins crawling up her legs to bind them in place.

The nightmare is aiming for a pin.

And once a nightmare has a pin, then comes the crushing, life-draining sleep-paralysis.

~Stop TRYING to hit me and HIT ME! You've got to break this piece of **** charm or we'll just bucking kill each other while chuckles watches.~ Sunder hisses into Punch's mind.

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

"SHUT UP SUNDER I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING." Punch lashes out with her other arm, punching the nightshade stuff on the ground, and by extension punching nightshade. If that works, all of Sunder's spooky nightshade abilities should be unusable for a few minutes while reality sorts itself out. This is followed by trying to punch sunder through space, away from the battle, again.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

The hilarious part is that Sunder wasn't really even thinking about her tail doing the spooky shadow thing. It kind of has a mind of its own in that regard. Otherwise she would have waiting to employ it until she had both of Punch's arms pinned. Stupid shadow stuff doesn't know proper stratocumulus style!

Sunder gives a wholly silent cry of pain when all her spooky abilities shut down, telepathy included. Her tail snaps back to being just a weird looking tail and releases any grip it previously had on Punch. That doesn't end the fight, though, mostly because Sunder deflects the follow-up punch before aiming to starto-throw Punch face-flat into the floor. If the throw works out, Sunder will have one of Punch's arms pinned behind her and one of her forehooves crushing the other at the wrist. The other forehoof will be right between Punch's shoulder-blades to keep her smashed against the floor.

Having a pony stand on your hurts.

Just sayin'.

"I honestly don't believe either of you know what you're doing," the devourer comments conversationally. "You thought the two of you could just wander down here and fight undead as powerful as myself? Please. Now your soul will be forfeit and the nightshade shall be my slave. I will enjoy draining your soul to keep your 'friend' bound to my will."

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch is pinned. She smiles. A pair of things appears in her hands, one pink and shaped like a directional explosive and one a white grenade with red crosses. The pink thing explodes first, emitting a large amount of pink goo that travels with enough force to knock sunder 10 feet, and almost immediately hardens to the strength of steel. That end result should be Sunder, stuck to the ceiling. The other one is a healing grenade, which heals Punch a lot.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

Welp.

Sunder is glued to the ceiling now.

There isn't much she can do about that, since she can't punch the goop to explode it. Stuff that restrains her has always been her kryptonite. That's part of the reason she uses a fighting style that lets her come out on top in grappling situations. Kind of hard to grapple against killer chewing gum, though. She's still hideously strong, though. That stuff is already making groaning sounds as Sunder strains against it.

Seeing that its minion has been immobilized, the devourer leaps at Punch, hoping to grab her and rip her soul out of her body before she can recover.

Rawr!

Soul ripping!

Of course, Sunder and Punch both know that the troll can take things that assault her fortitude like a champ.

The devourer, however, does not.

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch's soul is ripped partially out of her body.

...Punch's soul is wearing spiked boxing gloves.

And now Punch is trying to beat the living snot out of the devourer with both her body and soul.

And using those shiny gloves (on the physical plane), which might do bad metaphysical things to the devourer.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

The devourer gets the ever loving pie beaten out of it.

Its remaining soul is destroyed, first and foremost. And then it gets pummeled. Limbs snap, bones break, its fancy head dress gets shredded, and then it explodes. The explosion is pretty cool, as it happens. That orange glow inside it suddenly turns magnesium white as beams of light begin piercing through its body as it writhes in agony, the radiance dissolving away its undead flesh. And then it just pops in a silent white flash, scattering bits of bone and mummified meat all over the place.

The seal on Sunder's forehead likewise glows white before fading moments before she manages to break free from her binding and drops face-first into the floor. She gathers herself back to her hooves, shakes herself off, and then gallops over to Punch.

~Oh **** oh **** oh **** your soul is sticking out of your body is that normal?~ the nightshade babbles mentally. Apparently her spooky powers are coming back. ~Bucking hell, I'm sorry Punch, I let myself get mind-whammied like a bucking idiot. I've got some more healing potions in my saddle bags, are you going to need a Restoration or something?~

She sounds really worried!

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch falls backwards, and her soul snaps back into place. Oofah.

"Sunder... find the stupid rib, and then I'll get us out of here, and I swear if that... person... doesn't..."

...

"I'm tired."

Adrenaline crash, among other things. 'Other things' including getting your guts blasted out, getting healed, having various parts of you drained, and having your soul half pulled out.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

~Buck the stupid rib, it can wait,~ Sunder growls back as she rummages through her saddle bags, eventually pulling out an eye burningly neon magenta potion. She pulls the stopper out and tries to feed the thing to Punch. ~Restoration potion. It should help with the soul damage. ****, I'm really sorry, Punch. This is all my fault. If we had both been on that bastard he would have been down in a flash.~

She isn't the least bit happy about her performance against the devourer.

Punch verbally informing Sunder that she's forgiven would help.

Ponies are big on that sort of thing.

Even undead ponies.

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch drinks it. "Did you know that it could control undead? I bet not. You'll know next time." She gets up. "Come on, Punch. Grab the rib. I want to show you something cool."

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

~No, I didn't know it could control undead. That never came up before on account of me being alive and stuff,~ Sunder points out as she gathers the three most intact ribs she can find. Sure Lady Evercraft only asked for one, but it doesn't hurt to grab more just in case. You never know when a ritual might blow up in your face and then you have to do the whole thing over again.

The ribs are pretty gross. Black things with mummified flesh still clinging to them.

And faint echos of soul stuff.

~Got some McRibs. Alright, let's see this cool thing of yours,~ Sunder says. ~And it had better not be a cool thing like collapsing the whole Gent damned dungeon crawl on top of our heads.~

That wouldn't be very cool.

Not cool at all.

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch tries to grab Sunder around her barrel. "I have to hold on to you for this. Now," She punches reality, opening a wormhole to the surface, and tries to pull sunder through. If it works, they'll be outside the dungeon entrance and the portal will close behind them.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

Hey look!

Now they're back on the surface!

Isn't that keen?

~So you can teleport by punching space, too? Heh,~ Sunder mentally laughs. ~Let me take things from here on out. Just... lay across my back or something. I'll carry you back to Lady Evercraft and we'll get my flesh back.~

Whether Punch takes the offer or not, Sunder will trot back to Elestra. The necromancer will still be standing there where they left her. Floating next to her, suspended in a cage of clashing magic, is a disgusting, vaguely pony-shaped mass of flesh and fur and feathers. It looks pretty gross, all things considered. Sunder hopes that isn't what her body will still look like once she gets it back. Below the orb a glowing magic circle has been inscribed into the dirt.

~We go the rib.~

"Good. Give it to me, then step into the circle."

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch will take the ride. She's looking forward to not fighting for a bit.

When they get there, punch will give the necromancer the 'I'm watching you' gesture again.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

Elestra gives no reaction regarding Punch's gesture. If she even noticed it, she doesn't so much as flinch.

Sunder removes her saddle bags, pulls out one of the bones, and hoofs it over to Elestra. Then? She stands in the circle, glancing up at the gross meat-thing hovering above her head.

Elestra holds the devourer rib between herself and the meat ball, mutters a few words, and causes the whole thing to powder and drift into the flesh carrying along with it the motes of soul stuff. Then the chanting starts. A good five minutes of chanting while Sunder fidgets inside the circle. As the chanting reaches it crescendo, Elestra smites her staff against the ground and the arcs of clashing black and white energy around the meat latch onto Sunder. Tendrils of flesh begin creeping down the conduits and into the nightmare as the flesh ball slowly shrinks.

The whole process takes about fifteen minutes to complete with Sunder standing there, back arched and wings splayed, in what looks like rather awful pain.

Eventually the meat ball vanishes with a sickening pop and a fully living Sunder flops over in the middle of the circle, still smouldering from all the magic.

She's out like a light.

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch steps forward to go to Sunder, and will check to see if she's okay. If the necromantress doesn't want punch to do that (i.e. 'the energy in that circle will make you explode'), however, Punch will hear her out.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

Elestra doesn't warn Punch to stay back, does does moving into the (now no longer glowing) magic circle do anything to Punch.

Several things will be noticeable about Sunder right away. First? All her creepy undead scars are gone. She looks like your standard pastel colored miniature equine instead of a battle scarred warrior. And that in turn means her broken shield cutie mark is back on both sides of her butt now. Second? She's breathing. She's got a pulse. She feels warm to the touch. All those things that living people should be doing. And finally-

"Uuugh..."

Her mouth isn't melted shut anymore and she can talk again.

One groggy, purple, very living eye opens up and slowly focuses on Punch.

"That was the fourth most painful thing I've been through..." she slurs.

Makes one wonder what numbers one through three were.

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

"You want to Say thanks, Or Just want to leave?" Punch will pick Sunder up onto her shoulders if Sunder doesn't object.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

"Y-yeah. Thanks for getting rid of my undead cancer for me," Sunder manages to wheeze out.

Elestra just stares at her for a time before speaking. "When I have need of you, I will send one of my servants to leave directions to my tower at your home. I believe I can learn a great deal from you, Sunder. A great deal that will perhaps prevent Atropus from ever finding the Nexus again."

"Oh," Sunder grunts. "Yeah. I can see how that would be good. Okay."

And then?

Then Punch is free to carry Sunder toward the exit.

Punch must have a really strong back, because Sunder weighs about two hundred pounds.

Sure, that's little for a pony. But that's still pretty darn big.

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch will head off. She's strong, but not STRONG, so Sunder slows her down a bit and it's safe to say Punch can't fight well like this.

"Hey, Sunder? I have a funny Request for you. Just in Case I ever Die and you're around."

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary]

Sunder's limbs feel like noodles right now.

She's hoping that her limbs stop feeling like noodles soon, because the two of them being in awful shape is basically requiring that something terrible jump them before they manage to get out of the cemetery.

"Yeah?" Sunder replies weakly. "What's up?"

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

"If I ever Die, On your watch, I want you to Do Something for me. Now, this is Going to Sound Utterly Ridiculous, even Stupid, and it IS, But it works. Or it Did in the Game, and it Still might." Punch sighs. "For Some Reason, that Game was Set Up So that if the Corpse is kissed, on the mouth (I'm not even Joking), and the Player Still has a Dreamself (that's like an extra life), they'll wake Up as the Dreamself. Basically, kiss the Corpse, and I might Be alive. Somewhere else, yeah, But alive. It's Stupid and Gross, But if it works..."

[Rebonack]

[Crystal Gardens]

"Yeah, that's basically what I thought the first time I ran across this place," Maph comments with a little nod. "There's a guy with a food cart that sells meat on a stick who wanders around the gardens. And frozen fruit juice on a stick, too. We can find him and get that snack for you, Kenji."

Maph'tey begins bounding along one of the many paths of the garden, the crystals below his feet singing with each footfall, sending ripples of color rolling across the ground.

[Mispelled Cemetary]

"You're right," Sunder agrees. "That sounds stupid. But it isn't the stupidest thing I've heard of around here, so sure. I'll kiss your gross corpse for you if you ever eat it."

Sunder wiggles her limbs a bit.

She's starting to get feeling back into them!

That's a good thing.

"The Temple of Inari does resurrection services," Sunder reports. "But you need a giant bucking diamond for the spell. If kissing your fat face doesn't bring you back, I'll try the magical rez bit."

And then a plague walker bursts out of the ground in front of them.

What's a plague walker, you ask? Well, it looks like a zombie for the most part. Except for the fact that one can see lots of lumpy, disgusting shapes crawling around under its skin. Its fingers are blackened and dead and its covered in huge, vile boils ringed in black necrotic flesh. It also smells really gross. And it's crawling with horribly over-sized fleas. Just really terrible in general.

"Really?" Sunder asks of the universe in general.

[Lost_Deep]

Mispelled Cemetary

Punch sighs angrily.

"No." One hand's glove vanishes, and she reaches up to grab sunder. The other glove changes to the big green glove, and Punch does one of those assisted jumps with it. The end result should be the pair, flying into the sky.

Free as a bird... fired out of a cannon. With no air control.

Well, at least they should be able to clear the fence.

[Rebonack]

[Mispelled Cemetary ==> Market Street]

Goodbye plague walker.

You were really gross.

As they go hurtling through the air, Sunder hooks her front legs around Punch and begins beating her wings, thus granting them both control and the amazing ability to avoid having the ground come flying up and smash them in the face!

Isn't that nice?

Before long the iron gate of the cemetery comes into view and Sunder sends the both of them zooming right over the top of it. Once they've cleared the rather undead infested Red Zone, Sunder sets them down in a (mostly) controlled crash in a large patch of grass that's probably some snobby ye olde noble's lawn. Because typically only nobles had lawns in ye olde settings. Sunder will release Punch and then flop over onto her back to stare up at the sky with her beautifully living eyes. She'll just lay there for a while, her limbs splaying out in all directions.

"Today ended better than I thought it would."

That's a pretty massive understatement.

[Lost_Deep]

Market Street

Punch is quiet for a minute.

"So, I guess usually now we'd party in celebration, but I'm feeling too tired to party. Now what?"

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

"I'm thinking I'm going to go home and hug my mom," Sunder replies. "And then sleep for the next three days straight. That sounds like a pretty tidy plan to me."

Most people are usually bushed for a while after being returned to life from being a member of the walking dead.

Or at least you would think that would be the case.

Some folks seem plenty energetic once they get back up!

Sunder apparently isn't one of those.

"Hey Punch?" Sunder mumbles up into the sky. "Thanks for coming with me. I would have been pretty solidly bucked if you hadn't."

A beat.

"And I'll still sock you in the jaw if you tell anyone I cried."

[Lost_Deep]

Market Street

Punch nods. "Yep. At least a nap Sounds Good to me. Think you Can make it home On your Own feet? Or wings? Anyway, we Should hang Out Sometime."

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

"Yeah... I think I can make it on my own. Just have to crash here a little while longer until I can feel all my limbs again," Sunder replies. She really isn't the sort of person who is quick to admit weakness. But... honestly? Punch has already seen Sunder pretty darn vulnerable. Helped her out when she was pretty darn vulnerable, too.

And that's pretty cool, in Sunder's book.

Cool like the clouds.

The sky is super-blue today.

The clouds are all high and wispy.

Cirrus clouds.

Cirrus clouds are neat. And the cirrus style pegasus martial arts happens to annoy Sunder. It's all flighty and pokey, faffing about with a million biting jabs. Stupid cirrus style. It's neat to watch, though. Almost like dancing. Sweet Spring loved dancing. Maybe Sunder could get better with cirrus style, or at least the more visually pleasing parts of it. Seeing her daughter dance again would probably make Cleansing Spring happy.

"I'm going to tell my mom what happened to Sweet Spring," Sunder says as she watches the clouds slowly drift across the sky. "She deserves to know."

[Lost_Deep]

Market Street

"Yeah," Punch agrees. After a minute, she speaks again. "Hey, remember when you weren't Sure Just how much you hated Undead? I think that maybe, after you're Done Resting, you Should Go Over that again. It might Do you Good. In my experience, having a Solid Sense Of Self Can keep you from going crazy. I'd Be Sad if you went Crazy, too."