Iron Kingdom Equestria

by Bitt_Player

Deeper Darkness

"Celestia's in her castle, and all is right in the world," Twilight reminded herself. She started and ended every day with this proclamation, and repeated it frequently throughout the day. It helped her maintain something resembling mental stability, and she was in dire need of that. The unicorn pony had just led her first offensive action as a warcaster, and driving mechanithralls and bonejacks to fight two-headed wolves had proven a disturbing experience. What worried Twilight the most, however, was the single feather she'd found lying on the ground. As much as the mare tried to convince herself that it had come from a large bird of some kind, Twilight had to admit, to herself if not Lord Exhumator Scaverous, that she knew a pegasus pony who was exactly that shade of yellow. Twilight had no doubt that Fluttershy's animal empathy would keep her safe from the wolves, but if Scaverous's forces had arrived just minutes sooner, the timid pegasus could easily have fallen victim to the undead. Twilight tried not to imagine her Ripjaw digging its mouth-mounted circular saw into Fluttershy's legs the way it had expertly immobilized several of the wolves, or carving into the pony's wings to stop her from flying away.

"Well, you seem to comprehend the rudiments of controlling warjacks," Scaverous said, standing next to the pony, "I have only had you in my care for a few weeks, and already you can manage multiple bonejacks in combat. Although, it seems that you do not yet grasp the use of the arc node. We will have to re-do your lessons in channeling spells."

Twilight Sparkle suspected that today's 'test' had been intended to get her killed, rather than evaluate her skills, but she didn't dare say so out loud. She merely groaned inwardly at the thought of once again trying to channel her magic through the strange devices known as arc nodes, which were carried by many Cryxian light warjacks. The unicorn knew that Scaverous himself had stolen the secrets of the arc node's manufacture from the exhumed skull of its long-dead inventor, and that his necrotechs had subsequently discovered corrupt and vile methods of reproducing it faster and at less expense than its Cygnaran creators could yet match, letting them attach arc nodes to cheap, expendable warjacks with little concern for how easily the sensitive devices and their hastily-fabricated carriers were disabled.

"Ah, but first, here is another opportunity for practice," Scaverous commented, breaking Twilight's reverie. The pony looked up to see one of Scaverous' Slayers carrying a large, blue-skinned being in its claws. "A trollkin," the iron lich explained, "very likely a scout."

Despite her ever-present horror at her own situation, Twilight couldn't help but admire the trollkin. Though clearly unable to damage the Slayer, he showed no fear, pounding the machine's claws and chest ineffectually with his fists. "What're you going to do to him?" Twilight asked, dreading the answer.

"I am going to kill him," Scaverous said plainly, "and you, Twilight Sparkle, will harvest his soul. You will then use it, along with his skull and the lessons I have taught you, to determine through forensic necromancy why he was spying on us."

At this, the Slayer put the trollkin on his feet and turned him around, giving him his first look at Scaverous and Twilight. At the sight of the unicorn, a look of recognition and mute horror spread across his face. She had never seen a trollkin before, but Twilight immediately concluded that this trollkin had had previous encounters with ponies. She whirled around to face Scaverous.

"You can't make me do this!" The mare cried, tears forming in her eyes, "killing argus is bad enough, now you want me to rip out an innocent man's soul?!" Scaverous had trained her in the rudiments of capturing souls and using them to empower her magic, which was a fundamental aspect of necromancy. However, Twilight had been so mortified by the very idea of using someone's immortal soul like some kind of battery that she had avoided actually doing so up until this point.

Scaverous triggered Avernus, letting the chain scythe growl to full speed before replying, "do you think you have a choice? It is true Asphyxious wants you alive, but it is also true that he cannot do anything to me that I cannot recover from. My own soul is safe, hidden away where no one can find it. Even if he obliterates my body, I can merely have a new one crafted. Remember that I tolerate you only because you are less inconvenient than Asphyxious's punishments. But you are close to making that no longer the case."

Twilight took a step backwards. This attitude was quite a departure from Scaverous's previous behavior of exasperatedly tolerating her. She thought he might be bluffing, but she knew very well what Avernus could do in his hands.

"NO!" The trollkin shouted, glaring at Scaverous, "go ahead and kill me, if it'll spare the pony!" Horrified, Twilight stared at the trollkin. He didn't even know her, but he was willing to die for her? "It's all right, little pony," the trollkin said, looking to Twilight, "Dhunia protects 'er own. No matter what ya do t' my soul, I'll make my way back to 'er."

"How touching," Scaverous sneered, raising Avernus. Despite her horror, Twilight looked directly into the trollkin's eyes.

"I'm so, so sorry," the unicorn said with tears in her eyes, as Avernus tore into the troll's throat.

Using a set of scalpels and carving tools, Twilight quickly removed the dead trollkin's eyes and stripped the flesh from his skull, using his captured soul to enhance the speed and precision of her telekinetic magic. She found that the row of spines rising from the top of his head were spurs of bone bonded to the skull, and quickly intuited that she would need to remove them in order to properly carve the forensic runes that would let her summon and interrogate his ghost. The small chunks of what appeared to be calcified stone emerging from his chin, however, would not impact her work. The unicorn's mind -and stomach- roiled in disgust at herself as she cut off the spines one by one and began to etch runes into the skull, channeling corrupt power into each one. It wasn't long before a translucent echo of the deceased trollkin appeared before Twilight, looking confused.

"Ah, this must be what th' big guy meant by 'f'rensic necr'mancy'. Pretty sure I'm dead, but I'm here talking to ya," the trollkin observed, glancing around. Twilight remembered Scaverous telling her that the more recently someone had died, the more likely their echoes were to recognize their situation.

"I'm so, so sorry," Twilight repeated, now weeping openly and utterly hating herself, "but I really need you to tell me why you were here."

The trollkin shade shrugged, "scoutin', really. My warband is in dire straits, so a bunch of scouts like me were sent out lookin' to see if we could find any friendly folk. Maybe other trollkin or cooperative farrow. I figured I'd watch yer fight, but I got dumb an' let that killin' machine catch me". Twilight hung her head, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "Ah, now, let's not have n'more of that. Look, I dunno how you got mixed up with these crazy undead types, but it's clear ya'd rather not be. I dunno if the advice of a dead trollkin means much to ya, but I think ya should do yer best t' play along with the big guy until ya find an opening to escape." Suddenly, the shade began to face, becoming visibly more transparent. "Whoops, looks like yer magic's fadin'." He observed, "don't mourn fer me now, ya gotta worry about the ones like you who're still alive."

"Can you tell me your name?" Twilight choked out.

"Vigg. M'name's Vigg," the trollkin answered, "an if'n ya make it outta this, and ya happen to run into her, tell Pinkie Pie I'm sorry fer missin' her 'welcome back' party." With these words, the necromantic echo of Vigg vanished as his soul became too weak to power the runes in his skull.

Twilight retched, mortified. She stared at the skull, now lying on the ground in front of her. She lay down on her stomach. Ignoring the weight and discomfort of her armor, disregarding Scaverous' luminous stare and the aching in her bones, Twilight wept.

---

Lord Exhumator Scaverous watched silently as the unicorn lay on the bloodstained grass, crying. While he still did not know what sort of results to expect from training so unwilling a student, he felt that it was important for Twilight to get such emotions out of her system. Indeed, breaking her heart in this way was part of the reason he had commanded her to interrogate the shade. Only those who summoned such echoes could communicate with them, so he did not know what the trollkin had said to the pony, but it clearly had the effect Scaverous desired. A few more events like this, the iron lich judged, and the pony's will would be completely broken. She would lose most of the energy and curiosity that seemed to drive her, but she would become much more manageable, and all iron liches knew the value of obedient minions. Scaverous let Twilight cry until she stopped on her own, then calmly led her back to his laboratory.

In the weeks that followed, Twilight accompanied Scaverous on daily expeditions to seize resources and test her rapidly-growing skills. The Lord Exhumator believed that only the crucible of battle could forge a truly great warcaster, a concept he had scavenged from the Cygnaran officers who had developed their nation's journeyman warcaster program. . Her talent for learning and using magic manifested even in her harrowing circumstances, and she continued to learn even as she hated doing so. All the while, she carried Vigg's advice at the forefront of her mind, and constantly looked for opportunities to escape Scaverous's control.

"Celestia's in her castle", Twilight kept telling herself, "and all is right in the world."

Comments

[Bitt_Player]

Alas, poor Vigg! I didn't name you until I decided to have you killed! Originally I was going to have a semi-offhand mention of Twilight being really sad about stealing a trollkin's soul and conducting necromantic interrogation on him, but then I decided to have it happen 'on screen', as it were. Show, don't tell, after all.
I wanted to do a rotation of all the Mane Six before getting back to Twilight, but in the process of doing so, I accidentally 'd the chronology. To whit: "Riflemen and Pig-Men" and "In the Frozen North" happen at roughly the same time, but both actually occur after "Gentle Mare, Huntress, and Sand Man", which starts mere hours after "Infernal Sunset". "Deeper Darkness" occurs some weeks after all of those chapters. Possibly a month, but not more. I'm keeping the timeline intentionally vague, but with those chapters I went past "imprecise" and right into "timey-wimey".

[Bitt_Player]

885947
I think that if/when Twilight gets away from Cryx, she's going to develop an intense dislike for any type of magic that is even slightly morally questionable. I'm pretty sure that if some infernal popped up offering her a sinister deal for more power, she'd be more likely to start bucking the hateful thing than ask for details. She's also unlikely to even touch Thamar-worship. Another unicorn might maybe latch on to one of those two subtypes of magic, but no promises.
Fun fact: I seriously considered having Fluttershy become a devout member of the Church of Morrow.

[Insanity_Pony]

Holy shit! I had considered making a story set in a warmachine style equestria. I didn't know someone already made one! holy shit I am reading this!

[Bitt_Player]

938564
"a warmachine style equestria"? As in, set in Equestria, but with warjacks and warcasters and Arcane Tempest Gun Mages and all that? Say, I like that idea! Now you've got me considering a sequel/spinoff story set after Equestria returns home, taking some souvenirs with them.
Anyway, I'm glad you like my work!

[Insanity_Pony]

938866

I had Ideas for factions, characters, warjack types, and story planned out but I never got around to writing it. I don't know if I will since I'm already procrastinating on starting my fallout equestria fic.

[Doomunicron]

939011
Naw, we need more necro-sparkle
And Scaverus, stop teaching her forensic necromancy and teach the damn unicorn how to make skarlock ponies!
I NEED SKARLOCK PONIES

[DavidPony]

lol celestia is in her castle and the world has gone to hell

[Snow]

few weeks

What. Fluttershy's chapter was written such that it indicated same day or within just a day or two, but this one is written remarking on the encounter like it had just happened.