10. Acts of Sacrifice
“There – has been – entirely – too much – running – in our lives – recently!” Lyra gasped out as the six of them galloped at full speed from the former throne room. Behind them, the horde of golems chased them through the castle. As before, the ponies’ four legs gave them something of an advantage over golems in terms of speed, but the golems knew the castle’s layout and took turns much better.
Trixie grimaced as she looked over her shoulder. The golems were gaining, slowly but surely, largely because they didn’t tire but Trixie and her friends did. She set her horn aglow and launched a fireworks spell back at the golems to try and buy time. Corona’s lingering magic within her leant it real heat and force, but she managed to strike only one golem, and that one only stumbled a little, and picked itself back up almost immediately. The small flames that lingered on its body didn’t even slow it down.
“We need to get out of here!” Trixie cried. They had maybe a ten second lead on the golems. Trixie was almost tempted to give the Elements a shot, see if maybe they did anything to the necromantically-animated constructs, but then she remembered she didn’t have the Element of Magic on her. Corona had taken it…and without it, they had no way of dealing with her, never mind the golems or Grogar.
“I’m not seeing any doors! Just windows!” Carrot Top exclaimed. “Who designed this place – ”
“Oh – forget it!” Raindrops shouted, charging ahead of them and slamming hooves-first into a window. Its glass shattered outwards, covering her in small nicks and cuts, but she ignored them as she turned around and her friends gathered near. “Trixie, get Cheerilee and Carrot Top out.”
“I’ll catch you if you fall,” Ditzy provided, carefully flying out the window and avoiding the glass. Cheerilee was already at the sill as well, looking down. “It’s maybe ten feet.”
“Me and Raindrops will cover,” Lyra provided, grasping her lyre tightly as the golems rounded a corner. They didn’t slow their charge at them at all. Lyra’s horn glowed bright gold and she threw a shield spell up, large enough to block most of the hallway. Golems tried to slither past, but Raindrops leapt at them as they did, using front and hind hooves both as Lyra struggled to maintain her shield against their attacks.
Trixie was already working on getting the two earth ponies out via her telekinesis. She grasped and hoisted out Cheerilee first, the magenta mare being the more capable of the two in case anything happened on the ground. Cheerilee gave a little salute as she was lowered down, Ditzy flying alongside her until she was safely on the ground.
Trixie shook her head a little as she withdrew her aura from Cheerilee, putting one hoof to her forehead. She was not used to picking up something pony-sized. Quills and books and the occasional card, that was her normal limit. She made a mental note to work on that as she grasped Carrot Top in her aura and began lowering her down, Carrot Top fidgeting the entire time. “I’m sorry I’m not more useful…” she said as she was lowered.
“Carrot Top? You just played chicken with a necromancer, a demon, and an alicorn.” Cheerilee reminded her as Carrot Top joined her on the ground. “Try to remember that.”
“Huh…guess I did…”
Meanwhile, up in the palace, Lyra let out a sharp breath as her shield spell cracked. “This isn’t gonna last…”
“Ditzy, grab Lyra!” Trixie exclaimed. Ditzy was back inside in an instant, grabbing the unicorn about her barrel and flying her backwards and out. Like Trixie, she wasn’t used to carrying hundreds of pounds of pony at once, but fortunately all she needed to do was slow her descent to the ground, not stop it.
There was a problem, of course – Lyra’s shield failed the instant she could no longer see it. Raindrops and Trixie were both already galloping towards the window. She yelped when she felt a golem’s claw swipe at her tail, and didn’t wait for Raindrops to grab her as she leaped blind out the window. Her trust was rewarded, thankfully, as Lyra’s aura was wrapped around her and carried her to the ground safely.
Raindrops leaped backwards out of the window herself. The golems surged after her, but now that Raindrops was outside, with room to spread her wings and fly and with the golems not having enough room to swarm, she was more in her element. A solid buck knocked the first one to leap out of the window back into the castle, and the next one to charge out received a hoof-punch to its snapping jaw. Two more stumbled over themselves trying to get out; Raindrops was on them in and instant, shoving her hooves into the sides of their heads and crushing them against the wall before finally turning and fleeing, joining her friends on the ground.
Then, they were running again. The golems at least needed a little time to get out the window and run. They came in a straight line, each already moving at their best speed and none of them thinking to slow down to catch up to their fellows. Raindrops had managed to destroy two at the window, but that still left them with ten golems to deal with.
Tambelon’s palace gate loomed before the ponies; it was closed, of course. Trixie was running next to Cheerilee, and glanced at her hopefully. She was disheartened to see Cheerilee similarly glance to her, each of them having hoped that the other would come up with a clever plan to get all six of them over the wall without problem. There was none.
They weren’t going to make it. Not all six of them, anyway.
Trixie skidded to a halt, horn blazing bright blue with the golden sparks leaping from it from Corona’s influence. She grit her teeth as she stared at the onrushing golems, having a precious few seconds to rifle through the spells she knew and decide on the best ones for the situation.
A beam of magic lanced from her horn and struck the lead golem first, encasing it in an airtight bubble and halting its movement. The golem behind it didn’t react fast enough and slammed into the bubble. It was unharmed, but momentarily stunned. The remaining golems adjusted their run, each of them turning around the bubble from the left.
They were adaptable, Trixie realized, but only over time. For the first few times they encountered a problem, they would all react the same way, following whatever programming Grogar had instilled them with. They learned, but not even half as fast as a pony would. Could she use that? Trixie’s horn glowed – but before she could do anything, a burst of gold-tinted magic shot past her and into the new lead golem, sending it flying back against its fellows.
Trixie recognized that aura; glancing over her shoulder, she saw Lyra, standing on her hind legs and hooves working at her lyre. “The hay do you think you’re doing?” her fellow unicorn asked.
“Sacrificing myself so you five can get away!” Trixie cried, even as she turned her attention back to the golems, who were up and moving again. “Where’s everypony else – ”
Lyra struck with her magic again, a wide burst of sound that, while it didn’t knock over any golems, did make them slow down and lean against it like a heavy wind. The golems started to charge again, but a jasmine-and-magenta shape appeared over them and dropped down amongst them. The golems were slow to react to this unexpected angle of attack as Cheerilee and Raindrops lay into the nearest golems they could get their hooves on. The golems may have learned how to fight them before, requiring Corona to save them, but Raindrops and Cheerilee had had some thoughts of their own as well. They didn’t lash out with hooves, but rather lunged full-body at the golems, dragging them to the ground where they could them trample them underhoof and hoping that the golems couldn’t react quite fast enough to maul or eviscerate them with their claws.
The golems that the two couldn’t reach – six of them, as Raindrops had managed to tackle two – turned to deal with the threat, and that was when Carrot Top and Ditzy appeared in the air overhead, looking to repeat what the other mares had accomplished. The golems hadn’t learned and were caught by surprise, or whatever their programming called it, as Ditzy and Carrot Top both leaped at their own golems. That still left four standing, however, which bore down on the ponies beneath them. Trixie grasped one in telekinesis and threw it as far as she could while maintaining her shield over the former lead golem, even as she ran forward and hurled herself at another golem, colliding with it and pushing it against another that was about to slice its claws through Cheerilee’s neck. Lyra had joined in Trixie’s charge, and took down a golem of her own.
By the time they hit the ground, Raindrops and Cheerilee were up again and charged the last golem. It utterly lacked survival instinct and did likewise, claw forward. Cheerilee ducked the claw, but Raindrops only dove in, heedless of her own safety as her hooves connected to the rag-doll like body of the golem and forced it down to the ground. The golem tried to tear at her, but Raindrops only let out a whinny of anger as she raised and brought down her front hooves again and again, until at last the golem stopped moving.
The remaining golems were taken out as quickly as possible; once on the ground beneath the ponies hooves, they were at a marked disadvantage. The last one to be destroyed was the one that Trixie had trapped in a bubble; it had scratched and clawed at the bubble the entire time, trying to escape, but once it did Ditzy, Carrot Top, and Lyra fell upon it without hesitation, bringing it down.
Trixie was breathing heavily as she took stock of their situation. None of the other five looked any better than she did, all of them covered in cuts. Some of them were relatively small, some of them larger – and Trixie’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Raindrops with a hoof to one eye and an uncomfortable amount of red surrounding that hoof. “R-Raindrops!” she exclaimed, dashing forward, as did the other five when they saw.
“I’m fi-fine,” Raindrops stuttered out between gasps for breath, hooves and wings twitching from the adrenaline rush she was still going through. She rubbed a fetlock against her eye, and the other five saw that her eye itself was uninjured, but there was a gash in her brow above it. She had another long, though shallow, cut across one flank. She had already been the most physically injured of them, and this latest encounter hadn’t helped at all.
Carrot Top took Raindrops’ head in her front hooves, looking at the cut. “Doesn’t look too bad,” she said, then looked Raindrops over more fully, “but we need to avoid fighting – ”
There was a hollow wail. The six ponies turned to look for its source, and saw, standing atop the palace’s walls, a golem, pointing at them and its maw hanging open as its shriek split the sky. To their horror, the wail was soon taken up by other golems. A second one appeared in another section of the wall, then a third – and then more, and more, crawling over the side from the city that lay beyond. There were easily a hundred golems, probably more. It didn’t much matter – in their condition, they probably couldn’t have handled even four or five.
“Plan?” Trixie asked, as yet more golems began to appear. She looked to Cheerilee, who was staring at the golems with wide eyes. “Plan? Anypony?”
“Run!” Cheerilee responded, turning around to make good on that. The rest followed, but they were exhausted, barely managing a quick canter. The golems, as one, leaped down from the wall and began to charge them.
Trixie looked to Ditzy and Raindrops. “Fly, you idiots! Get away!”
Ditzy shook her head, though there were tears streaming from her eyes. “I’m not leaving you!”
“There’s no reason we all have to – gah!” Trixie began, but then she glanced behind her. How had the golems come up on them so fast? They were nearly on top of them, trailing only a few feet. Some part of Trixie’s mind wondered if Grogar’s command to take one of them alive was still standing, which of them would be unlucky enough to be that pony.
---
Bray was having a difficult time getting a read on his master’s mood. He followed as Grogar lead him through the various hidden doors of the castle – a former queen had developed an irrational hatred of them for reasons no one had ever understood, and so had ordered that they be made to blend in with the rest of the castle, creating in effect a network of secret passages. It had always been something that Bray had intended to fix once he had become king of Tambelon.
They were heading up, through the tall central tower of the castle, which had housed the king’s chambers – Bray’s – and the observatory. Bray soon found himself standing out on the balcony of the latter, looking out across the isle’s night. The fire that the alicorn had started still blazed in part of the city, though its largely stone construction prevented it from spreading too far. Beyond that, the city was dark, and the forest beyond it darker still. Once, one had been able to see the lights of the various satellite villages of Tambelon from up here, the lights of taverns and farmhouses. Now there was nothing.
A loud crack that reverberated through the night reminded Bray – once he’d recovered his wits – that this was not really true. There was still the gray shield that enveloped Tambelon, and beyond it was Princess Luna. Unlike Celestia for the past few hours, she was at the height of her power. The shield above was visibly cracked and broken in many places; he doubted that it would survive another blow from the alicorn.
Grogar seemed unconcerned, however. He was looking out across the island with…Bray wasn’t sure what. Grogar hadn’t been one to ever display much in the way of emotion, due to his lack of a soul. That didn’t seem to have changed too much. Bray supposed that, having lacked the emotions of a fully living being for so long, Grogar would take some time before he could display them again. Even still, the ram had a slight grin on his face.
“Two thousand years, Bray,” the ram said as he gazed out across Tambelon. “Two thousand years of seeking and searching. Finally over…tonight.”
Bray put on a small smile. As much as he hated Grogar, as much as he wanted him gone for robbing him of his kingdom, the simple fact was that Grogar was much stronger than him. He had remained alive as long as he had by knowing that Grogar was the master, and he the servant. Nevertheless, there were some pressing concerns at the moment. “Not to, uh, rain on your glory, master…” Bray said, glancing up, “but Luna is coming.”
Grogar nodded. “She will be of no consequence once I have undergone my apotheosis.”
“Right. O-of course, master.” Bray seriously hoped this was the case, as he doubted he would live long if the alicorn of the night emerged victorious in the battle that would come as soon as the shield was destroyed. “Um…master, as much as you want to revel in having your soul back…”
“I should get on with it?” Grogar asked. He closed his eyes, and his grin widened slightly. “Indeed. Hold still, Bray.”
Years of service to Grogar almost made him actually remain still, but years more of survival instinct instead saved his life. He leaped backwards with a yelp as a solid plane of black magic sliced through the air, right where his throat had been. “M-master?!” he exclaimed in fright as he picked himself up.
Grogar’s grin was gone, and his now-green eyes, somehow even more terrible than the red they had been only a few minutes previously, narrowed as he looked at the donkey prince. “Why do you think I kept you alive all these years, Bray?” he asked as he stalked forward, the magic he had conjured solidifying into a long, jet-black knife. Bray retreated as Grogar advanced. “As a servant? Surely even you were not so stupid as to believe it was out of any kind of camaraderie.”
Bray retreated under Grogar’s advance, eyes wide. When Grogar flicked the knife at him, he managed to duck it, though it did score a cut across his cheek. He cried out at the feeling. “B-but I’ve always been loyal – ” he began.
“And incompetent,” Grogar said, telekinetically retrieving the knife. “But I have kept you around because I need a final, specific sacrifice. You have been prepared, Bray, over these long years. Your death is the final step.”
Bray turned, running as fast as he could for the stairs down. Grogar conjured a shield over it, however. The donkey prince brayed in fright, picking a direction and running. Predictably, this landed him only at the edge of the balcony, where escape meant a lethal hundred-foot drop to the roof below. He remembered that he knew how to teleport, and tried, but Grogar spoke a word, and a burst of black magic cancelled the spell. “M-master…!”
“Time to die, Bray,” Grogar said, as he descended upon the donkey.
Bray felt fear like he never had before gripping his heart. But fear had never paralyzed him before, as it did some others. It had usually lead him to the flight side of the fight-or-flight instinct, but there was nowhere left to flee to – and so he had only one option.
The gem in Bray’s turban – a replacement for the one stolen by the ponies, though unfortunately the only such replacement he had – glowed, and Bray lashed out with magic. For now, it was only simple telekinesis, slamming against Grogar and sending the ram sliding back several feet. Grogar looked hardly affected, growling and eyes narrowing further.
Bray grit his teeth, however, stepping one hoof forward, then beginning to pace in a circle, getting his back away from the balcony. “N-no, Grogar!” he exclaimed, gathering some small amount of courage from the fact that he had managed to hold back the mighty necromancer. “I will n-not be so easy to s-slay as my father was!”
Grogar chuckled slightly. “The father you helped me kill. Along with your entire family.”
“They were useless foals!” Bray countered as he felt rage gripping his heart, a welcome change from the fear that had been there moments ago. Images of his family, his stupid, feckless father and mother and older siblings, flashed in his mind. “Tambelon held more magical might, more wealth and power than in the whole of the rest of the world combined! We should have sat at the center of a mighty empire. We would have under my rule! You stole my kingdom! You lied to me and betrayed me, and now you expect me to die for you?”
Bray lashed out with magic – a bream of pure energy. Grogar stopped it contemptuously with a shield spell as Bray continued to move, conjuring lances of energy and driving them as Grogar’s shield, then conjured whips of magic that tried to move behind the ram, past his shield. Grogar noticed the whips, and snorted in derision. He scuffed one hoof on the ground as he created magic of his own that destroyed the whips, then shoved forward with telekinesis. Bray cried out as he went flying backwards, and Grogar charged him, knife forward and aimed for his throat.
Bray reacted instantly, however – once again, his fight-or-flight instinct driving him to instant action, long before any conscious thought could have made him act. He rolled away from Grogar’s charge, then conjured a thick web, like that from some monstrous spider, in front of him. Grogar pulled up just short of touching the web and becoming stuck, but Bray let out a shout and sent more magic forward. The web wrapped around itself and rose, becoming an eight-legged golem that skittered after Grogar. The ram retreated a step in surprise as he conjured a shield to keep the web golem at bay.
Bray rose to his hooves, grinning at the sight of Grogar, Demon Ram Grogar, Grogar the Necromancer, retreating from a spell conjured by his poor, ‘stupid’ servant. He threw a hoof forward and launched magic at the golem, and it caught on fire. Unlike the useless rag-dolls created by Grogar, however, this golem would not be destroyed, not as long as Bray’s magic powered it. Its flaming legs clawed as Grogar’s shield, and the ram was forced back another step.
Bray let out a laugh at the sight. He had Grogar on the ropes! Why had he not done this years ago? “I was an heir to the throne of Tambelon,” he hissed. “My magic is second to none!” He held forward a hoof. His golem moved out of the way, but only so that Bray to strike at Grogar with a dispelling effect. The ram’s eyes widened as his shield dissipated into nothing. Bray raised his other hoof as Grogar tried to conjure a new shield, and lighting arced from his hooves and into the ram. He cried out as he stumbled backwards, towards the balcony.
Bray’s assault ended, but the flaming web golem charged at Grogar again. Grogar let out a howl of anger as he once again conjured black magic. It washed over the golem, dissipating it back into motes of harmless magic that took the form of grayish-red smoke – through which Bray lunged, a conjured knife of his own with a blade nearly as long as his cannon plunging forward and into Grogar, just at the base of his neck and down into his chest. The strap for the bell the ram wore snapped, and it fell from his neck as his eyes widened in surprise and pain. The knife had not quite hit his heart, but it was close enough that the difference was one of only a few seconds at most.
Bray glared hate up into the demon ram. “Now die,” he said, gem glowing. Before Grogar could do anything more, he was thrown from the balcony telekinetically, and fell towards the ground below. Bray watched him fall with no small amount of satisfaction, which only grew when the necromancer landed with a very definite and final thud on the roof below.
“The Necromancer is dead,” Bray declared. “Long live King Bray!”
It didn’t matter to him that there was no one around to exult him at his impromptu coronation; he would have subjects soon enough. A hollow wail went up from the castle grounds to his left – Grogar’s golems. He looked down from the balcony, and saw that the six ponies that had come to his island were running away from a hundred-plus horde of golems, charging across the eastern courtyard and closing in on them fast.
Bray grinned, as his gem glowed and he readied himself to teleport. Grogar was dead, and soon, so too would those meddlesome, short-eared nags. Now…now he had some planning to do.
---
It had hurt, rather more than he had suspected it would. But even as the darkness tried to claim him, the fact that it didn’t – that it couldn’t – told him that it had worked. There had been some unexpected twists along the way, but by and large everything had gone according to his designs. Now all he had to do was wait, until the changes to his body, his psyche, his soul, were complete.
For once – and now, forever – he had the time.
---
The golems were almost on top of the six ponies, and each was surely certain that they were going to die.
And then, fire. A wall of flames roared to life in the bare foot of space between the six ponies and the golems. Trixie’s tail was singed. The lead golems didn’t stop in time and plowed on through, but instantly ignited and made it only a few extra steps before collapsing. The remaining golems – most of the hundred-plus that had been chasing the six – stopped short, glancing around as they tried to find the source of the fire. The six ponies, too, took the chance to stop and stare, though after a moment they looked to each other. None of them questioned where the fire was from – it was obvious.
The wall of flames dissipated, and Celestia arrived in a white-hued flash. Her body was free of any injury, and she stood tall again, wings raised regally, eyes white with power, mane and tail alight, her back to the six ponies. Beside her was Zecora, a faint white sphere around her protecting her from the heat of Celestia’s flames, heat that would have been enough to send the six ponies back several more paces had the terror, however misplaced, of the sight of Celestia once again at the height of her power not been enough to do that by itself. They didn’t make it more than six or seven steps, however, before running into an invisible telekinetic wall.
Celestia glanced back at them, before looking back out to the golems. Each of the golems let out their hollow wails and charged forward. Celestia stepped forward herself, stomping one hoof on the ground. Blue-hot flames leapt to life in front of her and washed forward in a great conflagration; before any of the golems could react it washed over them. When the flames cleared only a few moments later, there was nothing left of the golems save ash, and even that was scattered to the winds with a contemptuous flick of one of Celestia’s wings.
The white alicorn turned next to the ponies, and held up a hoof. Lying on top of it was the diadem that was the Element of Magic. The ponies stared at it in terror. Before, the Elements had protected them from Celestia’s power unleashed upon them – but would the same hold true when she held one of the Elements in her hoof?
Celestia noticed the fear, however, and she remembered well the realizations she had just undergone. She tucked her wings away, and used one alula to hold onto the Element of Magic as she regarded the ponies. “You betrayed me,” she intoned, taking one step forward, “but I realize now why. You do not understand me – what I am trying to accomplish. Why I am doing what I am doing.” She closed her eyes and shook her head sadly. “I have been foolish. I shall grant you that. And in my foolishness I have more than earned your terror.” She glanced upwards, at the dome that Luna was even now preparing herself to destroy. One more blow would likely be enough, but Luna still needed some time to prepare that blow – ten minutes, maybe more. She looked back to the ponies. “But there is more to me than fire and hate, my little ponies.”
Celestia’s horn glowed white, and magic that moved and licked at them like flame washed over the six ponies. They recoiled in fear at first, until they realized that the magic was not burning them. Instead, as the magic poured over them, their cuts were closed, their bruises soothed, even the singed manes and tails that Celestia’s own fire had caused was repaired. They were still exhausted – Celestia could not heal that – but they were otherwise whole once more.
The gray pegasus with the uneven eyes – Ditzy Doo, Celestia reminded herself – reacted first. Her wings had steadily risen and muzzle scrunched as anger built within her, and after a moment she came forward, wings beating to take her into the air as she rose to eye level with Corona and jabbed a hoof at her. “Do you really think that this makes up for anything?” she demanded. “We understand you perfectly, Corona!”
“You are working off of a thousand years of my sister’s lies,” Celestia continued, forcing herself to remain calm. She looked once more to Luna. “But I was in error concerning the reason my sister created those lies. She does not understand, any more than you do, my little ponies.” Celestia looked back to the six. “In some ways, perhaps it is my fault. I isolated her from governance, a thousand years ago. For her own good, to protect her. But when she overthrew me, Equestria was left with a monarch who had no idea what she was doing.” Celestia shook her head sadly. “No wonder Equestria fell into corruption as it had. No wonder her Night Court was allowed to run roughshod over the populace.”
“Never mind the thousand years of basically peace and stability we’ve had since you left, right?” Trixie demanded, stepping forward herself, her gaze locked on the Element of Magic. “Give that back, Corona.”
Celestia smiled at the unicorn’s naivety. “So that you can banish me once more into the Sun? I think not.” She spread her wings again, taking the Element into her magical grasp. “See how the Element of Magic has restored me to my full power, my little ponies! What more proof do you need of my righteousness?” She looked back to the ponies. “I shall dispel the millennium of untruths spread by my sister, lies spoken for so long that even she has come to believe them. I have only ever sought to protect you from the horrors this world contains, and that is a task I shall once more take up.” Celestia chuckled, shaking her head as she looked to Zecora. “For the past months I have been hiding like a foal in my lair. No more! As it always must, the Sun has risen, and its light has directed me towards my path!
“Grogar shall fall first. I shall burn away the demon ram as I burned away his toys. Then I shall gather my strength and power, acquire what I need to overcome my sister, and my niece, and any other weapon she could direct against me. With a single blow I shall topple my sister in Canterlot. There shall be no need for a campaign, no need for armies marching city by city as I once envisioned.” Corona looked to each of the ponies, one by one, before continuing. “Then when I am once more on the throne, I shall expunge the lies and deceit my sister has spread. Not with fire and sword, but with actions and deed, transforming Equestria into the greatest nation in the world, that none dare challenge. You shall see – you shall all see! I shall provide, and none of my little ponies shall want for anything, ever again.”
Celestia nodded to herself, turning and trotting towards Castle Tambelon, intent on seeking out Grogar. Ditzy surged forward, however, stepping in front of her. “We’ll fight you, Corona!”
Celestia stopped in her trot, regarding the pegasus. Mere hours ago, she would have considered this a sign of weakness, but…she looked back up. “I was in error, Ditzy Doo, eight months ago. I should never have taken hostages. Though I never intended them harm, it was wrong of me to even imply otherwise. I sought to control you all through fear.” Celestia shook her head. “Never again. I shall lead through glorious example. Until then…” Her horn glowed white, and she pushed Ditzy aside as gently as possible, as a mother might a wayward foal. Ditzy tried to stop her, but couldn’t.
Celestia looked to the ponies, and held up the Element of Magic once again. “While I possess this, none of you are the slightest threat to me. I have no need to harm any of you.”
The six all looked like they wanted to say something to that, but each stopped short, their eyes locked on the Element of Magic. Celestia was right, after all. All things had a weakness, and this was the weakness of the Elements of Harmony – they had to be together, work as a single set, or else they wouldn’t work at all. Celestia smiled as she turned once more to castle Tambelon and trotted towards it, intent on seeking out and burning away the necromancer within. “In time, you will understand your error, my little ponies, as I understood my own,” she said as she left.
---
He stood. He paid no mind to the red stain he left behind on the cobble stone as he did; it didn’t matter anymore. He knew where Bray would go, and he started walking there. He had a loose end to finish off before he dealt with Celestia.
---
The wealth of Tambelon had taken many forms. Its most obvious had been in the form of being a center for trade across the Sea of Tranquility – the camels to the west, the buffalo to the south, the elks and griffins to the north, and the ponies to the east had all sent ships across the generally placid waters of the Sea since time immemorial – the trade routes were ancient even in Bray’s time, never mind now, two thousand years later. The donkeys of Tambelon had sat near the center of the those trade routes. At first they had been pirates, but as wealth accumulated on their island they had transformed into protectors of the Sea, guarding ships from others who would plunder them – for a modest fee, of course, but the Tamberlaan had been consumers of trade in their own right at well. Tambelon’s land at its height had consisted of only the isle itself and a few small colonies in the southeast, but its material wealth had rivalled that of the ancient Unicorn Kingdom itself.
But the far greater wealth had always been its magical knowledge. Collecting the texts and learning the lessons of all their neighbors, the donkeys of Tambelon had amassed a library of magical writings second to none in all the world in Bray’s day. The library had been called Spellhold, and it was into that library that Bray now arrived in a blue-hued flash of magic.
Spellhold lay within the walls of the Castle Tambelon, though it was not directly connected to it. The building was circular, with scrolls and books covering its walls, requiring ladders with a dozen rungs and more to reach the tallest shelves. The library had been used by Grogar, of course, both after he had killed the royal family and before. It was within the pages of the books here that he had learned how to summon dread Tirek, how to slay thousands of beings in an instant, and countless other spells. He had already been well-learned, but his magical knowledge had more than doubled on entering Spellhold. Yet not all the spells were made for doom and destruction – indeed, that comprised only a tiny portion of them. There was magic here for every purpose and any purpose – Celestia and Luna themselves would have learned a trick or two from perusing the texts.
“And it’s mine,” King Bray said to himself as he looked around. “All mine.”
Bray had to move quickly, he knew. He allowed himself only a moment more of excitement before he got to work, the gem in his turban glowing bright. As prince of Tambelon, his most important area of study growing up had been magic. All of Tambelon’s royal family had been mages of no small power. With four brothers and three sisters sitting between him and the throne, he had further had little else to do but study magic. And the key to donkey magic had always been an implicit understanding of it that the other races could seldom emulate. The buffalo had their rituals, the elks and griffins their runes, the ponies their inborn magical gifts and the camels their contracts and wishes, but none of them could understand magic on so instinctive a level. With that understanding came power.
He began creating magical beacons, one by one, placing them around the edges of Spellhold. Each one projected an aura around itself, a five-foot cube that was little more than a marker, a notation that took in the details of everything about the space and objects it contained. Each was, once created, completely independent from the magical power of Bray’s gemstone, and would linger for several hours before collapsing. After several minutes of work, he was finished: Every space in Spellhold was lit by beacons, one every five feet in any direction, each one feeding off of each other and working together to create a perfect, three-dimensional map of Spellhold and all its contents in Bray’s mind. The beacons would further provide power when Bray required them to. While his gemstone could only channel so much magic at any one given time, there was no limit to the actual magic it contained.
Bray smiled as he sat down, looking over his work, ignoring the slight chill in the air. Using the beacons, he could teleport Spellhold – the entire library – and every single scrap of parchment contained therein to wherever he wanted to go as soon as the shield that lingered over Tambelon was destroyed by Luna. Fifty miles, a hundred, a thousand, it wouldn’t matter as long as he remained somewhere within this hemisphere. Someplace out in the middle of the Great Desert, most likely, in its eastern wastes where even the buffalo rarely travelled. He would never be found there unless he willed it, and his mastery of teleportation magic would give him ample ability to acquire food and water for himself.
And then? Bray’s smile widened. Then, it would at last be his time to reign. He had only ever scratched the surface of Spellhold’s magical knowledge, but at last, with no Grogar, no insipid family, nothing to worry about but the acquisition of magic, of power…
“I will become a King in the Wastes,” Bray said aloud, holding his front hooves out wide. “Yes…yes! It will take me a few years, but I can be patient. I was patient under Grogar, I can be patient now, too!” He grinned, bringing his hooves together. “That was always your weakness, ‘master,’ you old goat. No patience. Always hurrying. No wonder you wanted to live forever!”
Bray laughed again as he stood, pacing around as he waited for Luna to break the shield. He could be patient waiting for that, too. “I will gather my magical might, and then strike. I can act slowly. A few buffalo tribes here and there…a great enough display of power will cow them into submission. With those tribes I will move…south, I think. Yes – no need to offend any alicorns. The alpacas and the tapirs, they shall fall before me, city by city, tribe by tribe, nation by nation! I will carve a mighty southern empire and rule it for the remainder of my days. All will bend knee to me! Bray the Conqueror! Bray, King of Tambelon! Bray – Emperor of the South!”
“And that, more than anything, is proof of your stupidity,” an impossible voice said. “Even now, when you think you have nothing left to fear…your aspirations are so small.”
Bray froze, mouth hanging open, eyes wide. “Th…wh…” he stuttered, turning around slowly, looking at the entrance to Spellhold, its front doors, which Bray had not used but which nevertheless now hung open. Bray was far more concerned with the figure that stood in that door, however, illuminated by the beacons that Bray had placed. Bray couldn’t see the figure clearly, but… “Grogar…?” he asked in a small voice. “Is that you…?”
“Here’s a hint,” the figure said, and there was a burst of magic. Bray felt himself flying a second later, shoved back by telekinesis against one of Spellhold’s bookcases. The impact was just shy of bone-shattering, and Bray couldn’t stop himself from collapsing in a heap at the bookcase’s base. Before he could rise, Grogar was somehow there, standing over him and with one hoof on his barrel, holding him down even as Grogar’s telekinesis took Bray’s turban from his head. The cloth of the turban ignited, and the gem was ground into dust.
Bray stared up at Grogar in horror. How could he – how was he – not even a scratch? “How?” Bray demanded.
Grogar smiled grimly as his eyes flashed with some inner light. “One cannot become one of the undead without first dying, Bray,” he explained. “But nor can one take one’s own life to do so. Suicide means the lack of a will to continue living – how could I become immortal if I was willing to take my own life?”
Grogar chuckled as he stepped back from Bray, but the donkey prince remained where he lay. His fight-or-flight instinct had at last failed him as the inner light of Grogar’s eyes seemed to shine again. “You were retained for a purpose, Bray, but that purpose was not to die for me. It was to slay me. To murder me – or to attempt to. That was the final act of this plan – the last step on my road of apotheosis.
“And now I…”
Grogar’s entire form burst into green light, matching that of his eyes. After several moments, the light seemed to become too much for his body to contain. His fur curled and smoked before bursting into flame.
“…shall live…”
The flames raced across and consumed Grogar’s form, but let out no heat. His flesh was obliterated, the muscles and sinews and organs beneath as well. Within moments nothing remained of Grogar save a pitch-black skeleton that burned in emerald flames, save in the skull’s eye sockets and within its rib cage, where the cold fire instead burned a deep, malevolent purple.
“…forever.”
The burning skeleton that Grogar had become – that Grogar would be forevermore – stared down at Bray. Despite the fact that Grogar could no longer show any emotion at all, possessing nothing more than a skull’s grin, somehow he managed to convey a sense of unmitigated contempt as he put one hoof forward and opened his mouth.
“Your soul is mine.”
Bray tried to move, tried to scream, tried to react in some way – any way. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t do anything more than stare in horror as the former demon ram, now lich, reached out magically, the green and purple flames flaring and shooting forward and around Bray, over Bray – into Bray.
There was pain. And then, quite suddenly, there was nothing at all.
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Oh dear...
Whoa boy....
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYUM. That was an unfortunate sort of turnaround. Bray, you didn't really think it would be that easy, did you?
Grogar's got a point, too - his ambitions are laughably small for someone with a library as potent as all that. Too bad nobody stepped on his glasses. 
Good to see Corona's edging back towards Celestia, but I think Ditzy's pushing her own envelope just a wee too far! THAT'S STILL A LUNATIC ALICORN POSSESSED OF A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF POWER YOU SILLY FILLY.
Wonder if Celestia and Luna will need to work together to beat Grogar, or if Celestia can handle things on her own now that she has the power of the Element of Magic renewing her...? 
Shit, that got dark. And am I the only one who finds this new 'nice' Corona more unsettling than her fire and brimstones attitude from earlier?
I am so, so sorry.
(I’m not sorry at all)
So... Grogar just gave Bray the Penance Stare.
What fun.
That was pure awesome, the attempted escape, the mounting horror at the sight of the army of golems. Bray proving oddly competent at dispatching Grogar even if it was planned, he actually managed to show some real magical credential there. Celestia's scene was fantastic as well, her healing up the L!6 obliterating an army with pretty much no effort, it was awesome. Her explaining her plan and pretty much shrugging of Ditsy's attitude and shooing her away like a small child was fantastic. Hmm, so I'm guessing Corona is going to fight new Grogar and either be outmatch, while Luna tries to get in, or decide the fallout it too troublesome it deal with and opts to give the Element of Magic back and then dodge?
I'm probably not the first person to note that reference. That was an awesome scene by the way. Grogar's re-introduction was suitably chilling and I loved his 'so small' line, in comparison to becoming a god becoming king does seem rather petty. I actually used to have an image of what I think Grogar looks like now and it is terrifying!
Great chapter!
DAAAAAAAAMN! You're getting good at these action scenes.
I almost expected the golems to just fall apart when Grogar died.
Liking the new calmer Corona
4121208
Wouldn't have included the line if it wasn't the first thing that I was thinking of.
4121282
Starscream is my favorite Transformer in every generation, largely because he constantly gets the short end of the stick.
Though additionally the decision to include this may have been because while writing that part of the chapter I was listening to "The Humbling River", which was used in one of the trailers for Fall of Cybertron.
4121338
I had considered it, but there were some pacing issues that required them to keep going for a little longer.
4121170
It's way more disturbing when someone who's insane can be calm and rational, rather than frothing at the mouth.
Hey guys, this demon ram that killed like a jillion donkeys for his own personal gain? I don't know how harsh we should be to him. I mean, everyone deserves a second chance, right?
Except for this alicorn that did something that personally effected me in a non-permanent emotional way. Fuck her.
Yuuuuup. Living up to that...vitally important ideal that is one of the cornerstones of your society, Ditzy. Definitely no hypocrisy there.
Harmony's really more of a guideline, anyway.
Kindness, as somepony said, has limits......and one of them is letting some nincompoop who thinks she knows better than anyone else call the shots. A dictatorship of niceness is STILL a dictatorship.
4121574
Ditzy said what she did back in chapter 2, before she'd even set hoof on Tambelon, never mind actually met Grogar. She's probably singing a different tune at this point, especially after all those little flashbacks I've shown.
'Sides, she didn't object to killing or imprisoning Grogar per se, just the idea of locking him away on an empty world while thousands of years passed by in the real world until he was forgotten about, and then killing him - that is, making him suffer. Torturing him.
I concur. She doesn't want to forgive either of them, and in fact would be happiest if both were safely locked away where they couldn't hurt anypony - Grogar in a prison (back when he was still just a ram - after all, there's no reason to think that a pair of those magic-suppressing rings I've shown to exist wouldn't work on Grogar prior to this apotheosis), Celestia within the Sun (which is the only prison that can contain her).
4121434
He can be kind of endearing, I know I liked one incarnation of him and even thought he was cool when I was a kid (it was the design) along with Soundwave. But I think the only version I 'really' liked was the one where he became a good guy then a bad guy then a good guy again sacrificing his life to prove Unicron was a threat.
A charred skeleton wrapped in green flame, not really any kind of lich I'd been expecting, but probably a far more evocative image than the more typical variety. I doubt it was intentional, but it sort of reminds me of Blight from Batman Beyond.
4121931
Yeah, I don't know where the idea came from either. To be honest I had originally imagined blue flames, but as Luna and Trixie both already have blue magic, I switched it to green-and-purple to keep it visually distinct. Even though we're not "seeing" it, of course, but it does make it easier to keep track of things when writing.
4121967
Now that you mention it, I think I have occasionally come across the blue flame variety of lich (or at least assorted other undead). Usually such flames also "burn" cold as well, leaching heat rather than producing it.
Anyway, you probably are right about it being easier to go with a different color, if only for distinction.
4121980
You can probably thank this guy for the association of blue with liches.
4121170
Nope, while Corona was scary before with her attitude of fire and brimstones as you so put it, she was more shocking due to the sheercontrast between her and benevolent Celestia from the Mainverse. Now? She is downright chilling, before she was nuts, but here, it's like she has gone through so much that she has gone completly insane to the point where it loops back to her going so crazy she is sane again, evil but sane. Chilling.
4121282
Of course, Starscream's death, I'm not the only one who recognized the shout out to the Transformers G1 movie, ironic, G1 Transformers shout out in a fic where the main antagonist, or one of them anyway, is a G1 MLP villain, I love how that scene makes Galvatron look like a hero to the cons and more competant than Megatron ever was. "Here's a hint." one of the most chilling lines in the movie considering what happens after, Starscream getting disintegrated. I'm almost surprised Bray didn't get killed off via disintegration due to that, what with him being The Starscream to Grogar's Megatron and all, and like Megatron, he was seemingly killed and then came back in a new form, more powerful than ever, Galvatron for Megs, and Demon Grogar for Grogar.
4121170
Nope, while Corona was scary before with her attitude of fire and brimstones as you so put it, she was more shocking due to the sheercontrast between her and benevolent Celestia from the Mainverse. Now? She is downright chilling, before she was nuts, but here, it's like she has gone through so much that she has gone completly insane to the point where it loops back to her going so crazy she is sane again, evil but sane. Chilling.
4121282
Of course, Starscream's death, I'm not the only one who recognized the shout out to the Transformers G1 movie, ironic, G1 Transformers shout out in a fic where the main antagonist, or one of them anyway, is a G1 MLP villain, I love how that scene makes Galvatron look like a hero to the cons and more competant than Megatron ever was. "Here's a hint." one of the most chilling lines in the movie considering what happens after, Starscream getting disintegrated. I'm almost surprised Bray didn't get killed off via disintegration due to that, what with him being The Starscream to Grogar's Megatron and all, and like Megatron, he was seemingly killed and then came back in a new form, more powerful than ever, Galvatron for Megs, and Demon Grogar for Grogar.
4121434
Well if someone who's 'insane' is calm and rational then you must define the value of insanity. Insanity implies an inability to function with the real world. Brandon Sanderson wrote a book called 'Legion' about a man who has incredibly vivid hallucinations. Hallucinations that he talks to and treats like real people even though he knows they only exist within his head. He then argues whether or not he is insane, because he is perfectly capable of functioning within the normal world (he doesn't talk to them in public), whereas heavy drug addicts are not considered insane despite their massive failure to function as a productive member of society.
That aside, I am very much enjoying her return as Celestia. I'm assuming the Element of Magic restored her partially because she has a former bond with it, partially because she realized that flames and swords were not the path she should walk and partially because the betrayal of the L mane six weakened their hold on her. Shoot after that last bit, I'm rooting more for Celestia than them.
Now see.... I like this chapter the most. I don't know why but I've always liked darker chapters in stories like this. It just seems.... more bad ass than the others. It also demonstrates how darker the show could be had the developers put time and effort into it.
I do believe you meant cannon.
Dark indeed, but most engrossing. Celestia's definitely making progress. She's wiling to admit she hasn't been perfect, though she's still a long way from acknowledging the number and magnitude of all her mistakes. For example, disabling Harmony. Yes, it'd suck if they blasted her yet again, but there are many, many other forces out there that could use a good Rainbow Beam of Fix Everything™. Like Grogar the lich. (Or something like it. Not sure if he ever established a phylactery, but he could've done that without Bray noticing.) Ah, but that would require her both to admit she couldn't do everything and to put her ponies in harm's way. Can't have that, now can we?
Also, I loved Bray's thoughts on the various races and their interaction with magic. That kind of world-building is always a treat.
Eagerly looking forward to more. Especially the showdown between the lich and the mad demigod.
4122332 well the show runners are still putting in a lot of effort to make the show regardless of how dark or light it gets in tone. It is a kids show after all and that puts limitations fanfics don't have to adhere by.
4123269 True. I was just saying is all. I still like the show.
4123279 Yeah I doubt you'd be reading an AU fanfic of a show you didn't like in the first place lol
4125208 True.
Is there a paladin in the house? a cleric? priest? oh boy things are looking grim.
4122280
There definitely are some cool similarities between the Mega/Gala and Grogar situations. I figure Bray survived purely because Grogar wanted him too.
4126721
Probably, knowing the old goat, if you'll excuse the pun, Bray is nothing but a tool to him, the moment I saw the line "Here's a hint." I knew Grogar was back and worse then ever...
4121990
Oh Great and Powerful Author! I have a Question.
I realize it has little to do with the current story but i am curious: what color is a zebra's internal magic when looked at by Trixie's mana vision?
According to you, unicorns glow pink, pegasai glow sky blue, and earth ponies glow grass green, but what about zebras?
Do they even have and internal magic or do they draw on the magics of the world around them?
I ask because zebras are close enough to ponies to share an ancient ancestry.
If i had to make a guess i would say that their magic aura would glow silver.
This was a nice change of pace. Granted the Lunaverse isn't supposed to get too dark, but Grogar seemed a bit underwhelming until this moment. Now he's really threatening.
4127214
I honestly don't know...they don't really have any internal magic, though, as explained by Helping...Hands?; they rely on rituals and manipulating the ambient magic of the world.
Also the colors are implied to just be how Trixie sees magic and are probably a result of some stereotyping on her part. Like, Crisis established that her own magic was originally pink, so that's probably why she sees unicorn magic as pink. Earth ponies are green because they're earth ponies, earth, grass, grass is green. Pegasi magic is blue because the sky.
So with zebras...well, it probably wouldn't be black-and-white stripes. Maybe something like yellow 'cause the first thing she thinks of with Zebrica is the dry savannas (with yellowed grass) and deserts (with yellow-ish sand)
So, the L6 without the full set of Elements versus Corona. They are so incredibly lucky that she didn't decide to reward their betrayal last chapter with incineration this chapter, because there might not have been anything that would have stopped her.
And Bray's ultimate fate here is a nice object lesson in the differences between an enemy like Corona and one like Grogar. So had the girls in her power, entirely at her mercy, and she simply walked away.
Also, Ditzy need to calm the hell down. Her default reaction to Celestia makes her a pretty serious loose canon in any non-violent interaction with her.
4127732
interesting, ... yes pale yellow definitely works.
I can understand the colors being based on Trixie's own preconceptions.
But i don't see why zebras don't have their own internal magic, they share a common ancestry with ponies. Plus it seems like having natural magic is More common in MLP sentients than not: dragons use thier magic for fire and growth, gryphons must have something similar to pegasai to walk on clouds, sea serpents can apparently control water currents.
My own headcannon is that zebras Do have thier own internal magic, but rather than tapping into it directly or having it just seep out ambiently over time, they use it as a sort of lure for the ambient magic about them through their rituals and meditations. Sort of like using a magnet to drag around lead filings until you have a picture on a n etch-i-sketch. That they use their magic to shape the magic around them into the "shape" of a spell or cause the magics withing their alchemical brews to mix just right.
But thats just me.
Well... Horse apples just hit the fan, there. Corona... too little, too late.
And your internal dialog is quite contradictory there.
As for Grogar and Bray... great all-around, save maybe the shout-out to the 1986 movie. I am... really not fond of that movie anymore. As in fact I'm starting to downright hate it. Nothing against the scene, but the movie is just... ugh. I could write an essay... well, I wrote a review at least.
As for Ditzy and Grogar, well she didn't know what he was capable of. With Corona, she's got first-hoof experience with her actions.
I hope the Mare Six can at least save Spellhold from the incoming Grogar vs Celestia. Twilight would have a heart attack if the magical equivalent of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is burned into ashes.
Changeling the Lost magic system reference?
Great chapter!
The main fault I find is that the L6 come across as being Too Dumb to Live.
A deranged physical goddess that they've ticked off, shows up and saves them. For some reason she has had a change of heart and doesn't want to kill them. She monologues about her motivations and new perspective. And what do they do? Keep their traps shut and wait for their chance to escape? Smile and nod, whilst slowly backing away? No, they mouth off to her. Despite the fact that they were (with good reason) terrified of her not a moment before and are really pushing their luck (considering they'd already nearly been killed several times so far that day). Trixie speaking up isn't that much of a suprise. But Ditzy, a mare who has a foal waiting for her at home, should be a bit more cautious at this point.
There is a difference between bravery and stupidity after all.
Also can Grogar actually take Bray's soul? Corona said that 'one’s own soul can only be given, never taken' in the last chapter. (Though in my view the 'giving of ones own free will' bit is probably kind of a relative thing when you take into account factors such as the sellers intelligence, emotional state, circumstance, what they understand a 'soul' to be, etc.) A quote from the The Sandman comics that comes to mind with this situation:
Lucifer: They talk of me going like a fishwife come market day, never stopping to ask themselves why. I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul? No. They belong to themselves... They just hate to have to face up to it.
4128318
Well, they have some internal magic in the same way that everyone in Star Wars has some connection to the Force, even characters like Han or Chewbacca. But they have no way of manipulating that internal magic, actively or passively. So they have their rituals instead.
4128601
I have given up on trying to please you.
Also, bullshit, that movie's awesome. I mean, yeah, it's full of flaws, but come on. It has the most 80s soundtrack of any movie ever, it has giant robots fighting other giant robots, it has a hungry evil robot god, it has Orson Welles' final acting role and doing an awesome job with it...seriously, at that point, who cares what the script is?
Also I was never majorly attached to any of the Autobots who died, save Optimus Prime, but I weathered Yoda's death so I could weather his.
I was attached to Starscream, but as I established earlier, one of the things I've always liked about Starscream was that he was the universe's chew toy. His death was just kind of a perfect finishing note for him.
(I never saw any of the post-movie original cartoon. I...don't really want to; the movie serves as a good cap in my mind, and as far as I'm concerned nothing remarkable happened over the next few centuries until the Beast Wars era)
4128843
Actually I was thinking more genies.
4128961
This story is actually confronting a lot of issues within the Lunaverse as a means of trying to resolve them. The two biggest are changing Corona's personality, motivation, and goals into something easier to write for and work with; another was solidifying Zecora's role in her hierarchy and her reason for doing what she's doing.
But another major thing being addressed is the irrational fear that ponies have for Corona. For them at the moment, any deal with Corona is pretty much the pony equivalent to making a deal with the Devil. This is biting them hard in the flank right now and did in the previous chapter as well.
However, it's something that's going to be addressed, don't worry. In an earlier chapter we had a moment where I had Celestia mentally examine and establish her opinions of each of the L6; there will quite likely be a similar situation coming up for the L6 with Corona in a later chapter.
Yes, she did.
4131159 I watched the movie opening week in 1986. It is a disjointed mess that throws things at the screen and lurches from one scene to the next. It started the beyond-overused cliche of Prime dying and introduced some rather flat characters. I was attached to those characters killed off in such a manner that even the creators on the 25th anniversary edition found to be lacking. The soundtrack is... dated as all hell, too. The series holds up far better than it has any right to, but the 1986 movie is horrible.
And yeah, I noticed on that bit.
4131159
Bray's soul being inside Grogar is somehow going to help defeat him, isn't it?
4131769
Mmmm...not sure, he isn´t exactly a badass like Greed.
4132186
Fair point. Though maybe his mere presence could be used to impede Grogar rather than it being due to Bray himself. Though he did do a pretty cool magic display in his 'fight' with Grogar.
Well, I gotta say that, despite it going All According to Plan, Bray did manage to take a brief and hard fought for Level in Badass. I kinda felt bad for Bray briefly...I mean he was a power-hungry sociopath, but still he's been through some crap. And as others have mentioned both Grogar and Celestia/Corona are both quite terrifying, albeit in different ways. I think, someone mentioned Celestia has gone so far into Crazy, that she starting to come back around into reality. That seems to sum it up rather well. When confronted with the thought that she might not be the good guy that she envisions, rather than accepting it, she chooses instead to dive further into her delusions, believing that everypony else just doesn't get her.
As always, it was good to see the close bonds on display between the Lunaverse Six. The trust and loyalty shared between them is always heartening to read. And of course, it's always nice seeing how well they work together to survive and kickass.
And I keep finding myself looking forward more and more to seeing stuff about Equestria's neighbors; bringing them up has a wonderful way of expanding the world, I find.
I see why necromancy is forbidden. I suppose that one could use necromancy for good, but the vast majority necromancy can only harm.
Corona said a ones own soul can not be taken. Do we know for certain that Bray still has his own soul?
I think I've heard this joke before. "A necromancer, a demon and an alicorn walk into a bar..."
Dammit! was going to do this with my version of Grogar in my G5 verse, but in a different way....can I still do that? or woudl that eb some sort of fanfic faux pas?
i.imgur.com/CHmBhqM.gif
Your knowledge of magic rituals surely makes this a richer experience. Well played.