Comment by Kiri

Thanks, Sev, for asking the question I wanted to ask! Would Necropony be sad if Jonan died. Would Necropony also die again? Would they die together. :O

Reply by Shazzbaa

Necropony would de-animate soon after, without Jonan's magic sustaining him. He'd be upset about Jonan being distressed, but once he died Necropony would just assume he's asleep and guard his body until de-animation. :<

Reply by Ely

TT.TT Just thinking about it it making me sad.

Reply by Jade

Wait...Jonan is sustaining Necropony?!?! He's actively choosing to keep him?!?! I HAD NO IDEA THAT WAS THE CASE. THAT IS SO ADORABLE. JONAN IS A BIG SOFTIE.

Also, Sev would never let him hear the end of it.
Well, Sev never lets anyone hear the end of anything, so...

Reply by Karen

It might not be that simple...? If it were by conscious effort then wouldn't Necropony have deanimated when Jonan passed out from dehydration? I recall something in a vote incentive (or maybe it was a Patreon Q&A) that Necropony is a exception / anomaly to typical necromancy -- though that may have been referring more to its abundance of personality. Necropony may be more like the best miscast ever, in that he continues to be sustained by Jonan -without- conscious effort.

Reply by Karen

But I'm sure Shazzbaa will clarify for us all :-)

Reply by Shazzbaa

this might be the vote incentive you're thinking of! (though he did mention it in a patreon Q&A as well). The fact that Necropony appears to act independently of any given commands, rather than waiting until it receives orders, is not normal for Jonan's undead.

Reply by Jade

Okay, but instead of, like, deconstructing Necropony, Jonan chose to keep him. Unless Jonan just...gives off a steady stream of magic he has no control over. But even then, he could just kill Necropony if he didn't want him around.

Pragmatically, keeping an extra zombie around takes up a good bit of energy, so a non-traditional independent zombie is an unnecessary drain. So Jonan is still a softie for keeping our adorable undead pony around, and no one can tell me otherwise!

Reply by mythee

If I had a zombie that behaved differently from the rest and I didn't understand how or why, and it was pretty harmless, I'd keep it around for at least scientific purposes.

If it seemed sentient/sapient/consciously capable of enjoying unlife then I wouldn't be able to deanimate it for the sole reason that it'd be like killing and I can't even kill a fly without crying so um.

It might not be that he's soft if it's the first reason tho! I'm giving him a 'benefit' of the doubt on that. XD

Reply by Shazzbaa

I will also point out, though Jonan would tell us all there are very practical reasons for him doing so, that he argued to bring Necropony along for the trip.