//------------------------------//
// The Challenge of the Necromancer – Prologue: The Call to Arms 
// Story: The Challenge of the Necromancer 
// by Daedalus Aegle 
//------------------------------//

	The hammer blows that drove the nail into the public notice board in the market square of Ponyville didn't really sound very much like a dire portent of doom. It was neither particularly like the sound of rolling thunder, nor the crack of a volcano erupting, nor as tremors running through the earth beneath the marching hooves of a massive army come to lay waste to the city. In fact, nothing about it suggested that the action in any way signified an impending cataclysm, much to the annoyance of future historians who were left with the task of trying to make something interesting out of Ponyville's first, and ultimately only, Magic: the Gathering tournament.
Dice Whirl the Neck Bearded, the proprietor of Ponyville's games and comics shop, stepped back to examine his work, and found it satisfactory. He had done all he could. He had sent out the call. Now, there was but to wait and see if anypony would rise to the challenge. A team of champions, ready to step beyond the call of duty, into the annals of legend. For this event would go down in history as oh who am I kidding.


THE NECROMANCER'S LAIR INVITES YOU
TO BATTLE FOR GREAT GLORIOUS HONOUR
SUMMON MIGHTY ARMIES
WIELD POWERFUL MAGICS
DEFEAT YOUR ENEMIES
DEFEAT YOUR FRIENDS TOO
RISE TO THE TOP
AND CLAIM THE GREATEST PRIZE OF ALL
THIS FRIDAY AT THE NECROMANCER'S LAIR GAME STORE

Sponsored by Unicorns of the Coast.


Heedless of the ambience, the day was perfectly nice, spitefully so, and the poster on the notice board attracted an entirely ordinary quantity of mild interest from ponies who were, on the whole, perfectly unexceptional, and not one single giant battle axe-wielding barbarian bounty hunter or dragonslayer. But the ordinary ponies came, and saw the call to arms.
"The first place winner will receive a unique card: Oahsee, the Champion of Equestria,*" Rainbow Dash read out loud. She frowned. "What's that star thingie? Lemme see..." she squinted and moved her head in close to be able to read the miniscule print at the bottom of the poster. "*: Note that Oahsee, the Champion of Equestria is a special promotional card that is not valid in the Standard, Vintage, Legacy, Commander, Extended, Retracted, Inverted, Six-Legged Mongoose, Spicy Jalapenos, or Your Parents' Basement formats."
The card itself was printed on the poster: a white legendary creature, 5/5 for five mana, with a slew of special abilities that made it great for just about any situation in the game. The artwork depicted an alicorn that could have been Celestia's twin brother, soaring majestically in front of the sun, in gold and silver armor and wielding a blazing sword in his magical grip.
"Oh my," Fluttershy said softly, looking at the card. "That's a rather nice prize. I wouldn't mind having that for my deck."
Rainbow Dash froze in terror at the thought. She saw the entire tournament play out in her mind: All the other matches done, and Fluttershy and her poor opponent sitting alone on the first turn into the middle of the night. But since the tournament couldn't go on without the winner from that match, everypony else would have to just sit and wait. Either the whole thing would be cancelled after everypony else leaves, or, more likely, Fluttershy would crack under the pressure of having an entire shop full of competitive, impatient gamer ponies angrily yelling at her to hurry up. Then she'd burst into tears and flee home and it would take Dash two weeks of gentle (or not so gentle) nurturing before she'd dare to set hoof outdoors again. And Dash didn't have time for that because next week she was going to see the Wonderbolts perform in Canterlot. She had to prevent this terrible future from unfolding somehow.
An idea came to her mind. A crazy idea. Completely insane. Just insane enough to work. “Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash began, “I need to tell you something…”

–

Friday morning was neither hauntingly ethereal nor gloriously radiant, or indeed ominous in any way, shape, or form, much to Dice Whirl the Neck Bearded’s annoyance as he opened the gates to the Necromancer’s Lair Games and Comics Shoppe and awaited the coming of the heroic masses who would battle for glory and valour. He wasn’t disappointed… okay, he was disappointed, because none of them were dressed for the occasion in the garb of fantasy adventurers, but he shouldn’t have been disappointed because they came in an eminently respectable number, trickling into his store in ones and twos and threes, and took their places on the field of strife.
In time, to Dice Whirl the Neck Bearded's joy, the crowd grew and prepared for battle. They mingled, appraising each other as potential opponents inbetween making small talk about the past week and how the relatives were doing. Every "How're you parents doing?" or "How about this weather, huh? The Pegasi have really outdone themselves lately," concealed a subtle barb, a a feint to test their target's reaction, their awareness, their way of thinking. Or so he liked to imagine.
A skilled duelist could read their opponent like a book, or so all the books on duel theory he had read insisted. Dice Whirl let his eyes pass over the room and fall on random competitors as he tried to peer into their innermost selves.

–

“This is gonna be awesome,” Spike said, doing his best to avoid squealing in his excitement.
Twilight said nothing. She was peering around the store with a frown, keeping a wary eye on the other players as they came in.
“Twilight?” Spike waved a claw in front of her eyes. “Something wrong?”
“There he is,” she hissed suddenly, and her eyes locked in a glare at the pony who had just entered the store. Spike turned to see who might have inspired such a reaction, but saw only the Cutie Mark Crusaders, accompanied by the two elder Apple siblings. Applejack waved at Twilight and Spike but stopped when she too noticed Twilight’s glare, directed at her brother.
Big Mac glared back. The stallion of few words had, Spike had to admit, a truly impressive glare.
“Mister Macintosh,” Twilight said in a tone so cold and sharp it could pass through a block of ice without leaving a mark.
“Miss Sparkle,” Big Mac answered without batting an eyelid.
“That’s Princess Twilight Sparkle to you,” Twilight snapped.
“Just what the hay has gotten into you two?” Applejack asked, looking from one to the other and back again before fixing her eyes on Spike, who shrugged.
“I am going to get her back, mister Macintosh, if I have to issue a royal decree and assemble a SWAP team to do it.”
“Nnope.”

–

"I do not see that there was anything wrong with my deck, Tia."
"I told you, sister, those old cards are so ludicrously powerful that they render the game all but unplayable! I think the game would be much more enjoyable for all of us if you got used to playing with more recent cards instead. That way everypony has a fair chance of making a suitably powerful deck. Not everypony can get their hooves on cards from over a thousand years ago, you know."
"They should just try harder. In a competitive marketplace the value you get out is correlated with the labor you put into it."
Celestia facehoofed. "Sister, I have warned you before about trying to apply lessons from economics and philosophy textbooks to casual social interactions. If this goes on I may have to restrict your library privileges."
"Thou wouldst not dare, tyrant!"
“Ugh!” Celestia grunted. “We will discuss this later, at home. Now we must put on our disguises before we enter Ponyville.”
Luna nodded, and the two alicorns each immersed themselves in a magic field, and began to change. They shrank down to the size of normal mares, their manes lost their ethereal nature and behaved as regular hair, Luna’s wings and Celestia’s horn were concealed by illusion, and their cutie marks were altered to not be immediately recognizeable.
“There,” Celestia said as their royal chariot came in for landing just outside the town. “Now, dearest cousin Moonrise, let us go enjoy ourselves with some casual games alongside our fellow ordinary ponies.”
“Certainly, beloved cousin Sunny Skies. I predict that we will destroy our opposition much as we destroyed Jormungandr the World Serpent at the dawn of time! The songs they will sing of our triumph today will be glorious!”
Celestia only sighed.

–

“So who else is coming?” Spike asked Applejack. “I don’t see the others here yet.”
“Rarity isn’t coming,” Sweetie Belle said. “I did what you asked and tried to get her to start playing the game,” Spike grinned nervously, his eyes shifting back and forth as Applejack turned an exasperated look on him. “But she said something about ‘a snowball’s chance in Tartarus that I’m setting hoof inside that filthy den’. I don’t know what she was talking about. I don’t see anything with tentacles anywhere.”
“RD and Fluttershy aint’ coming either,” Applejack said. “Ah asked Flutters the other day, and she said that RD had finally confessed her true feelins’ and the two of them were going for a romantic getaway to Acapulcolt this weekend.”

–

Well, Miriam, Rainbow Dash thought to herself as she stretched back on her folding chair down at the beach, you've really outdone yourself this time. This was absolute genius. Not only did you get Fluttershy away from that tournament, and get to go see the Wonderbolts next week, you got an awesome vacation in the sun too!
"Oh, Dashie sweetie, I saw the most adorable animal-patterned tablecloth in a store window earlier, we have to get it for the wedding!" Fluttershy said, flying down to grip her recently-acquired fiancee in a relentless snuggle.
"That's – great, Fluttershy," Rainbow said, trying to fit a hoof between them to use as a crowbar. Who knew Fluttershy could be so freakishly strong? After a while she gave up, finding no purchase, and gently patted her friend's back. "In fact, you should just go buy them right away. Wouldn't want somepony else to snatch them up while you're just sitting around, right?"
Fluttershy gasped. "You're right! And I saw some other mare looking at them too – but you have to come and tell me if you like them too."
Dash smiled. "Naw, I trust you, 'Shy. You just get what you think is best."
"Okay, hunnybun," Fluttershy said, and rubbed her nose against Dash's. She squeed. "I still can't believe you felt this way about me as well, and proposed to me with a trip to a tropical beach resort!"
"Hehe – yep, that's me, Rainbow Dash, mare of action. But you'd best get running or else..."
"Oh, right!" Fluttershy nodded and flew off faster than Dash had ever seen her go outside of an animal-related emergency.
Okay, so I had to tell Flutters that I'd always loved her and ask her to marry me to get her to come along. No big deal. She'll realize soon enough that we'd never work out together and call it off, and I'll hug her close and tell her that it's okay and that she needs to do what's right for her and we'll always be best friends.
It's not like I'm taking advantage of her. No funny stuff, saving it all for the honeymoon, first kiss during the ceremony and everything. Took me ages to convince her not to just pounce on me straight away. Rainbow Miriam Danger Dash is nothing if not a moral, integrit- integerate- good pony.
Dash laid back and stretched out luxuriously. Yup. I can't see any way that any part of this can possibly go wrong.

–

Celestia and Luna stepped nonchalantly into the game store, their disguises intact, receiving no more attention than anypony else in the store, right up until 'Sunny Skies' yelled "Hello everypony!" with childlike glee, causing everyone in the store to briefly look in their direction.
"Sister!" 'Moonrise' hissed at her under her breath. "Oh, so I can't even recite the Articles of Honorable Warfare without spoiling our ruse but it's okay for you to go attracting attention from everypony we meet?"
"I, dearest cousin, am just being casually pleasant. You, however, are a walking anachronism who cannot carry a conversation for five minutes without using aphorisms that went out of fashion eight hundred years ago," Sunny Skies said through her grin.
"There is nothing deficient about the phrase 'wide foal-bearing hips'. It is a pleasantry that any mare should be happy to receive."
Sunny Skies turned her attention back to the store, and her eyes lit up as she saw her student smiling and waving at her. Of course dearest Twilight would see right through my disguise, Sunny thought, but she’ll be discreet… well, as discreet as she is capable of, I'm sure. She waved her own hoof and was about to speak when Twilight cut her off.
“Hi Zecora!” Twilight said, walking right past the disguised princess to greet the zebra who had just stepped in behind her. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here. You play Magic?”
“Hello Twilight! I am here, and ready to kick some pony rear,” Zecora said. “My skills are honed, my deck is great, and the opposition I will devastate.”
Sunny watched, her grin frozen, her left eye beginning to twitch, while beside her Moonrise gripped her muzzle in two hooves to stop from laughing. However, all the chatter of the store fell silent when the door swung open to permit the next pony entrance. Moonrise's jaw dropped in shock. Sunny's eyes widened at first, but after a moment she burst out into an amused smile.
"Good day, my subjects!" said Princess Celestia, accompanied by a green-eyed royal guardspony. "I have come to try this card game that everypony has fallen in love with. This is the right place, correct?"
The Princess, Dice Whirl noted, had cut it very close, and mere seconds after her arrival he rang his bell to announce that the trials were about to begin, and that the contestants should find their places among the assembled playing tables to prepare.