Bell chimes
I wish I could say that my truth spell uncovered some as-of-yet unknown facet to him which absolved him of his very real potential to harm others. I did not, however I had found something else. Something deeper.
He held resentment in his heart, but not just. He recognized what was wrong with his world, and tried to do better. He recognized why he was wronged, and tried to isolate himself from the cause, he did try to do better on his own. He still posed no less of a potential danger than what my sister and I had first recognized in him, but I found I was mistaken in my perception of him. He was not some sick beast that needed to be pacified; he was far more than just some reiteration of my own Nightmare; he was a man who persevered, even now.
I told him before, but only now did I truly understand it myself. He had drowned, but now he was safe.
I didn’t react the way I did because I was saddened by his confessions, per se. In all honesty, it was all merely a matter of perspective.
First off, such tragedy simply does not happen in our world. It was something which I was still having trouble coming to grips with. And yet, the fact remained that for so very long, to his very last breath, he struggled against his fellow humans, and they did not stop until they forced one last death out of him. He alienated himself from them, and they sought out his own end, for what? Was it truly because of his magic, or was it because he dared to reject their 'justice'? Because he defied their own corrupt order?
His society was so much worse than our own to such a drastic degree that, it just broke my heart. It was just now settling in for me that perhaps his craft was much less out of place in his world than I had initially thought.
Soul-eating monsters and mad undead were the least of his worries. There were worse still than that, and as a result, his peers were living in fear to the point that instead of being encouraged to enforce their community, they merely focused on putting as many bodies between themselves and any sort of danger or insecurity as possible. Their peers’ bodies. To what precise extent, I did not know, but it definitely appeared that they were too busy to actually seek out enlightenment and personal growth in any manner, instead pursuing becoming as loud and aggressive apes as possible. Such a society was simply inequine… but that was all that he had at his disposal.
I shuddered to consider what he expected to find of our kingdom this day. No wonder he was not satisfied with his findings and wanted to inspect other cities beside Canterlot.
That was why I cried. Not for a single tragic life, but for an entire tragic world... and for my own mistaken assumptions of the treasure within my care.
Right now, he tried. He might’ve not turned out unblemished as a result of his life thus far, but he was still trying to understand something contradictory to his nature, to his being. He might’ve not been the child I wanted, but he still sought to understand something which wasn’t making any sense to him, in spite of how it made no sense to him. He was trying to understand, well, me. And it was hard for him, but he still tried. It was painful for him, maddening for him, it spit in the face of everything he built himself upon, but he. Still. Tried.
He could’ve most certainly come out much, much worse than he did. I did not know what he went through, and I doubted I would know even if he were to recite his entire life to me. Still, that wouldn’t stop me from trying, especially not now when I finally knew that my words and actions really did have an effect on him. After all, maybe that was all he really needed. For someone to try to understand him as well.
Here in the square of Canterlot, I held my son.
I did not stay that way long enough, however, as something decided to impose a rude interruption.
I was not paying attention to my surroundings, and didn’t notice the commotion my subjects were causing until moments before I felt an impact upon my side, throwing me into a merchant’s stand a few strides away (*).
I felt my disguise flicker from the impacts, but I regained my focus quickly enough once I recovered my senses amidst the debris of the stand. It was a lapse in concentration, but I doubt anyone noticed my true identity. After all, I wouldn't allow for the day I planned to spend with my child to be canceled because of this fiend.
As I recovered from the crash, I first took stock of myself and my charge. “Are you alright?”
“I’m… fine,” he offered with a notable amount of reservation, seemingly distracted somewhat.
Not feeling anything broken, I focused my attention to the hissing monster glaring at us. It was a large creature, perhaps three times my real size, a cross between a lizard and a bird. Leathery wings with long scales arranged like feathers, ending with long, hooked claws, sharp enough to leave shallow cuts as it dragged them across the hard marble in an effort at intimidation. It seemed completely capable of balancing itself on its hindlegs however. A long beak full of serrated teeth, with multiple long, tentacle-like tongues within. And a single eye betraying simple, beastial aggression.
“You let your guard down. That’s why it attacked.”
I was more concerned with focusing on the beast in front of me than responding. However, before I even gathered the presence of mind to decide to use an offensive spell, the creature faded out of vision. I looked around in surprise and trepidation, not finding the creature anywhere, however I still heard its hissing and scratching on the marble, and could make out the places where he'd disturb the few stretches of remaining snow. It was circling me, indeed looking for another opening.
“You do know Snallighasts can turn invisible, right?”
“Don’t you mean Snallygasters?” I baited.
“Careful!”
My charge’s warning wasn’t necessary in the slightest. This beast was clearly deadly in its speed and arsenal, which were more than enough to hunt a manticore. However, I had stronger protection than even the natural king of the hunt, and more than enough magical ability to make this encounter into a farce. I was actually surprised that its opening strike hurt me so very little.
As the beast rushed at my perceived blind spot, I turned toward the noise it was making and blasted it away with a simple concussive spell, knocking it out of its cloaking field. It bounced a few times, then it stopped, remaining still.
“I think you might’ve killed it,” my charge’s voice went, chilling the blood in my veins.
“What?!”
I rushed towards the creature, my charge still held against my chest, past a stallion who approached us in order to ask if we were not harmed ourselves, then I regarded the beast. It was still breathing, however there was a trickle of blood coming from its head.
My charge commented, “Its skull is fractured. It doesn’t seem to be dead, however.”
“I didn’t hit it that hard!”
“The fact that you almost killed it says otherwise.” I wanted to say something else, however he patted me on the place where I was hit and continued with, “Exactly how durable are you?”
I was interrupted again, this time by a pegasus guard who arrived at the scene. “Ma’am? Are you and your colt okay?”
Two of his colleagues approached soon afterwards, landing on either side of the fallen creature, carefully. Apparently they had enough sense to treat this situation as the adequate threat it… was supposed to be.
“We’re fine. Just a little startled, is all…”
“You sure?” the guard checked. “That was quite the impact you both went through.”
“I would be more concerned with that… beast, if I were you. I seem to have reacted a bit strongly.” ‘Which is to say, for whatever reason, it is far weaker than it’s supposed to be.’
“Don’t worry, I don’t think anypony would judge a mother for reacting to a threat to her child.” I felt my charge go stiff in my grasp. “Still, my colleagues will make sure the creature’s tended to, as well as locked securely until we can determine why it acted so violently. Meanwhile, I’ll be escorting the both of you to the hospital. Can’t be too careful, after all.” Before I could object, he went on with, “I’m sure you understand.”
Oh, right. A mother would typically be expected to react unreasonably concerned for her child in my situation. And since that was the role which I’d best take on in this particular situation, I figured I should act the part, unless I wanted to give myself away.
To my eternal fortune, however, I did not need to concern myself with that dilemma for long at all, as a familiar voice rang out, its source approaching from the rear. “That won’t be necessary, officer. I can make sure my sister arrives home safely.”
‘Drat.’
Surely enough, the guard, together with everyone else in the area, offered deep, courteous bows towards where I heard my sister speak from. I sighed and turned around. Finding my ever-protective sister here, most likely in response to feeling my energy flaring earlier, I decided it was pointless to try to keep my and my charge’s disguises any further at this point.
I turned back into my old appearance, luckily I had the foresight to equip my apparel anyway. Predictably, everyone around gasped in shock, however they were not taken aback by me in particular.
“Luna,” Tia drew my attention allarmingly, approaching whilst pointing at my charge.
There was the subtle sound of bell chimes. He was staring at the blood, which was now running along the marble towards us. He stretched out a hoof towards it. I jumped and hurried away, holding him tightly while I did so.
I turned him towards me, but he did not respond, as if in a trance. His eyeless sockets were opened, an eerie red glow emanating from within.
“Are you alright?” I asked him. No response. “…Answer me! My child! Talk to me, please!”
He seemed to have heard me that time, as he shook his head clear of whatever he was experiencing. The curious sound of chimes and the red glowing of his eyes ceased. He lowered his eyelids back down, an obviously confused look on his face. “What did you call me?” he asked, genuinely at a loss.
I sighed out in relief. “Don’t do that! You scared me half to death!”
“I did?” he asked, rubbing the side of his head. “What did I do? I seem to have blacked out for a moment there.”
I looked back to the now motionless bloodstain on the marble. Tia approached, and spoke, “Perhaps we can look into it safely at some point in the future. For now, I think we need a little time to clear our heads.”
We didn’t want to cut our day short so quickly, but it couldn’t be helped. Perhaps next time. I didn’t even get the chance to introduce him to donuts…
Celestia teleported us back to the castle, not wanting to hear any objections. She was very persistent in keeping us as safe as possible. I presumed she might’ve been a bit upset over what happened. In that respect, when I brought up whether we could visit any of our cities today in order to show him how our subjects lived, she would not hear any of that either.
I briefly considered that this must be how my charge feels about being supervised and held against his will. I'm certain he'll appreciate us sneaking out tonight. We shall feast on the delectable dough holes yet!
We appeared in my sister’s study. Apparently Tia was busy signing forms when she sensed my power spiking. Early in the morning, and she already had a stack of papers waiting for her. I would feel sorry for her, if I didn't know she actually enjoyed the chore… Anyway, we had a few things to talk about, so she asked her aide to leave the chamber while we discussed what just happened. While… ugh… Quill-Something? While her aide was clearing her documents, Tia sat down behind her desk and beckoned us to sit across fron her.
Before either I or my sister could initiate the conversation, my charge started, “Alright, tell me. Exactly how much damage does a lethal amount typically consist of around here?”
It took me a while to understand what he was talking about. “Much more than what it took for me to break that wretched creature’s skull, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“That’s not it. You were supposed to be sliced in half in that initial attack, at least if you were a regular human. However, you emerged without even a scratch. What, does your kind have mithril-lined pelts or something?”
There was a sense of horror steadily growing in my throat. I knew what he was getting at, but I was reluctant to follow that train of thought to the end. Celestia regarded me with not small amount of concern, then eyed my charge carefully, “A regular pony can be whipped by a manticore’s tail with nary a bruise to tell the tale, not to speak of the naturally resilient earth pony, who could technically be flattened by a dragon and just bounce back out with not much more than a few bruises and aching joints. An alicorn’s resilience is… harder to measure, as it varies according to their tier and attunement to their Aspect. Suffice to say, you could drop a mountain on us out of nowhere and we’d survive without that much trouble.” She paused, steel in her eyes, before continuing, “What about humans?”
“Well, I don’t know about any mountains, but there is this one record of the first recorded murder of a human. It was by his brother, which merely brought a respectably large rock, no larger than a forearm was long, to the back of his sibling’s head, in a tantrum. He didn’t even mean to kill his brother, since death was as-of-yet unheard of back then. Or so the tale goes, at least.”
Tia’s eyes went a little colder at that, but still she wanted to make sure. “…Pardon? A rock?”
I held him a little closer. He seemed to notice, but said nothing of it. He just went on, “…Yes, a rock. Hell, let’s be generous and say that it was a very sharp rock that the farmer used. Perhaps the stone on his plough? Regardless, he didn’t really need the addition of the stick connected to the stone, but whatever helps you sleep at night. Honestly, even a rock thrown by a skilful-enough slinger could kill quite effectively, then again there are always bows, spears and crossbows. Regarding being flattened by a dragon, however, I don’t think I heard of any records of any human, dwarf, elf or other, surviving the experience. Except for that one druid that one time… No, wait. He reincarnated. Nevermind.”
I have to confess that neither I nor my sister focused our study of his race beyond a general, perspective view. We did not force ourselves through studying any instances where they’d… died. We only deemed it sufficient to agree that they were just a very violent race, only a slight ways away from our gryphons in likeness in that respect.
A rock to the back of the head. We just assumed that they were more resilient. We had no reason to think otherwise, how could we have known otherwise?! It was unthinkable that it took just this much to kill one of them! It takes a boulder to injure a pony, and it wouldn’t even be anything that they couldn’t recover from afterwards! It takes falling at terminal velocity for a pegasus to break their wing, which only contains their very thinnest bones! But what is a rock?! What is a human left to assume of their lives if it could be taken so easily?!
Celestia wanted to try to find an explanation.
“I am sorry, we were not aware of any of this. It seems our morphic field preserves us, while your kind might not even have it to begin with.”
“We do have it,” he cut off, “It just doesn't offer any kindness. Even so, I don't think I understand. You can get literally flattened by a boulder, but say no thanks and stay alive?”
“To an extent, yes.” (**)
“What about stab wounds to the heart or head? What about drowning?” his tone even, it seemed he suspended his disbelief and was now merely gathering information.
“While there is a limit, the pony body will always seek to return itself to perfect health. Make no mistake, we can die, it's just less easy. We're physically adapted to making best use of our magic. Even if we are ever at the point of death, we fall into a coma, an organ at the base of the brain keeping it from deteriorating until another pony might come and take us to safety.”(***) He was about to object further, but Celestia hadn’t finished. “There’s also the matter of Windygos.”
“…What?”
Celestia took a while to gather her composure for such a grim subject. “In the case of ponies being claimed by wild things, they become part of the forest and act as a deterrent keeping ponies and animals separate. If the culprit was sapient itself however, the victim's spirit gradually gets twisted and warped by the need for vengeance, eventually becoming a Revenant. In the case of ponies, that would be a spirit of cold and hate, a Windygo." On queue, Tia’s horn lit up and an image of the spirit in question appeared in front of us.
She went on, "After the Windygo claims its culprit, it is left to roam the lands, prowling for ponies with an explicit desire to shed blood. Once they catch their scent, they hunt again. The more hatred, the more prevalent the scent, so a pony who intends on taking a peer’s life would be quite irresistible.” For emphasis, the images depicted the shadows representing two ponies, one wielding a knife in a threatening manner around the other’s back. The culprit lifting the weapon to strike, but being imprisoned in ice as soon as the knife started being brought down. “The common Windygo freezes any pony it comes across, instinctively, so as to preserve their source of hatred indefinitely… unless they’re enraged.”
“And what if they’re enraged?” he asked, just as unreadable.
Tia escaped a sigh. As answer, she changed the image. This time the knife landed, and the second pony dissolved into a far larger, more menacing ethereal shape. The culprit was not encased in ice, instead being turned to ice themselves, then shattered, the sounds of screaming only intensifying after that.
“So around here, Wendigos are created through murder? Where I’m from, they are created through cannibalism.”
“…I think I’m ill,” I went.
“I am not surprised,” my colt answered shortly, nonplussed.
Tia asked, “You seem to be taking this well.”
“How am I supposed to react to the revelation that, unlike mine, your race actually seems to live above the natural law? All I can say is, I am surprised that you didn’t overpopulate by now.”
“…Right. About that." Tia traced a hoof to the side of her mouth reluctantly, looking to the side. "You see, unlike humans, ponies run on a mating season, once every ten years. We also happen to have a longer lifespan.”
My charge seemed to have had enough. He finally burst out of being unreadable, giving in to the restlessness and tension that had been gathering underneath the surface. “Okay! So, this particular conversation line seems to be having trouble dying in excruciating agony, so I’ll just take the liberty of killing it myself! There, it’s dead! We have better things to discuss right now! We were talking about the beast that attacked us today!”
“Oh, right," I offered, less in a tone of recollection and more in one of uneasiness. "You were asking how I didn’t get sliced in half by that beast.”
“The Snallighast,” he offered, studying me persistently.
“…But that was not a Snallygaster, however,” my sister offered to correct.
“There you go as well,” he replied, turning to face her in turn.
The colt decided he finally had enough of the close proximity and bound off on top of the desk. “You say Windygo, I say Wendigo. You say Snallygaster, I say Snallighast. Let me throw a random idea out of nowhere now. We both have different versions of the wintry spectre, perhaps we also have a different version of the multi-tongued bird crossed with a lizard with hooked talons and only one eye as well? Perhaps your language link is trying to point out that we're not really talking about the exact same creature after all?”
My sister went again, “Around these parts, this particular member of the wyvern family is far less… well, disturbing than the creature you two have faced. However, I can’t say for certain that it doesn’t present a distinct resemblance to our own version, despite its larger size and general appearance. Wouldn’t you agree, Luna?”
I nodded, and my colt retorted, “The Snallighast is part of the ghast family. Ghouls with spectral abilities, including phasing through solid structures and becoming invisible. If I were to guess, your version is simply a two-legged creature with dragon-like characteristics, literally the description of a wyvern, correct?…”
I nodded, and Tia replied, “Yes, you are. I would also like to offer my own random idea, if you don’t mind.”
“Speak your mind,” he allowed.
She lit up her horn and her desk was split in two halves. The left side had a hoof track next to the line in the middle, and the right side had a palm track in a mirroring position. On the left side appeared many magical beasts’ silhouettes from our world, two of which were highlighted. “I believe that there might possibly be a connection between all of these differences, which our scholars might be able to find.”
“Or maybe there isn’t, and they would be wasting their time on your behalf. Or perhaps there are actually multiple different elements setting our two worlds apart. Just this morning I found out from Luna that you have a Dreamworld acting as a buffer between this realm and the realm of the dead. We don’t have any such realm to speak of.”
“Good to know,” Tia replied, and jotted new information down on a note. “And even if they would be wasting their time, they would be doing so in my service, on my money. So it’s my choice to make.”
“Suit yourself. Mind at least explaining why you’re so anxious to throw away your money?”
“Oh!” she laughed warmly. “How silly of me! I forgot to explain, it was the random idea I mentioned that I came across. I just thought, randomly, that perhaps your Necromancy might also work differently from ours? It was something I wondered since I couldn’t quite explain that little display of yours during your blackout minutes ago, and considering there are no records of any Necromancers as talented as yourself in our world, then perhaps your advanced affiliation would manifest differently here than in your original world?”
To his credit, my colt only remained taken aback very briefly. “You’re talking about reverse-engineering not only the mechanisms behind both human and equine magic, but also about me teaching you the intricacies of my art which I’ve gathered over a century and a half.”
“That I am.” And to Tia’s credit, she remained as calm and collected as though she had just merely asked someone to pass the salt at the table.
My colt did not seem amused in the slightest. What he said afterwards, however, took me off guard. Only me, however.
“Tell you what. How about you remove this seal off of me, and maybe I’ll consider it?”
Yes, that seal. Now you know what they're talking about in the next chapter.
(*) They use the Equestrian system, not the imperial nor the metric one. So, strides. There are a lot of other technicalities which I'd like to set straight here as well. Logically, Equestrians were not supposed to have chess either, or donuts, and they were also supposed to have words that did not have equivalents through direct magical translation between Equish and… whatever Necky’s language was. Also, the ponies weren’t supposed to have the decimal system either, since they didn't have ten fingers. Needless to say, I refused to be bothered with all of that crap.
That doesn't mean there wasn't a good reason for them hidden in there after all. Let's just say that chess is so popular that it's a dimensional recurrence, like Troll Will Smith. Actually, yeah, it would be a crime to insinuate otherwise! It would actually be an even worse crime to create a world without donuts, however.
Seriously now, Luna's language link translates meaning, not literal translations (no, duh, otherwise we'd be looking at Google-Translate-level grammar), and said language link also translates numbers as well. Expect Luna asking Necky about his choices in numbers, however. "Why 5?" or "Why 10?". That sort of thing.
(**) The morphic field is a thing which, say, has a frog still hop around even after Twilight turned it into an orange. The frog remembers what it is despite the spell turning it into a fruit. It essentially said 'nope' to being killed and turned into an inanimate object, which is by definition what cartoon logic is.
Pinkie is a special case. Long story short, she has the rare ability to harness that ‘cartoonishness’ for the sake of cheering her peers up due to the symbiotic nature of pony magic. The entire race acts as an organism, and she's charged with making sure the organism is functioning well. After all, you can take depression lightly until you're reminded that it's an illness that causes people to kill themselves. Also, she herself actually has a psychological dependency to be upbeat and to make others happy all the time (“Party of One”).
Royal guards are often seen wielding spears. Let’s just say that they all receive specialized training in both lethal and non-lethal takedowns. You know, kind of like how most armies and police forces train their recruits. We can also say that, same way Applejack can use telluric energy to drop all of the apples out of a tree and land every single one in the baskets below, and pegasi can extend their magic onto chariots in order to make the entire platform fly, so too can the guards channel magic through their spears. Since they're more durable than humans, they can get stabbed in the thigh and not bleed out, while a paralysis or stasis enchantment can stop them from endangering other's lives. At the same time, the guards are meant as both the first and last defense, so they can either use stasis and non-lethal takedowns, or they can amp up the enchantment to dangerous levels, or use their telluric magic to better guide the sharp edge through a rabid dragon's enchanted scales.
We can also just say that there’s an unwritten ‘take no life’ rule going on. Less in order to avoid creating a vengeful spectral fiend that would otherwise almost never fail to rip them apart for creating them in the first place; and more in order to avoid bringing about another Cold Age. There's a reason why the Crystal Empire is still surrounded by tundra. Sombra fed off of the hatred and fear which he inspired in his subjects, something which understandably attracted every single vengeful spirit in the continent.
I’m not sure what manner of vengeful spirit each individual race has, however. All I have is variations of the Windygo for equine creatures and Hellhounds for Diamond Dogs. I'm also not against giving the latter a fiery elemental orientation.
The Royal Guard are more in service for the purpose of disaster control, than anything else. Hydras, “Constellations” like the Ursa Major, “want it, need it” spells, rampaging Spikes… you get the idea. They might also find plenty use in maintaining the law. They can protect and serve without killing.
(***)Sort of a magical black box. What, they have magic that they use to heal wounds and the sort, why wouldn't they have magical safety nets as part of their anatomy? Did you think those heads were so big just to be cute? That would be just plain ridiculous. Ridiculous, I say!
It's right under where the horn usually sprouts out, between the brain hemispheres. I think there's a hindu-acupuncture-spiritual-pressure-point thing going on around where the horn pokes out as well, but I don't really know for sure... anywho! They can get stabbed to death, bleed out, they can even drown. I'm totally not drawing on straws here, trying to figure out how to justify the existence of magic and mythos. Having entire species get wiped off the face of the planet if a demigod-tier entity felt especially uppity one morning, or if some legendary-level magical martial arts master decided to reshape the layout of a few maps just 'cause.
Exasperation aside, now you know why their heads are so big. It’s most certainly not because they’re smart. They have a section of the brain, which I have no intention of naming, in the fronter-middle of said wrinkly organ, right next to the hypothalamus, the optical chiasm (Wikipedia's your friend!) and has some say in whatever the fuck lets them use magic.
I understand this might be a bit of a curve ball... Even though no one would really pull a Naruto in one of the stories on this site, be all foot-in-the-grave and still keep going. That's not saying I'm planning on doing anything like that, though. If someone gets stabbed in the leg, they're not using that thing in the next few days, unless they use necromancy... which is why I'm going to have to add a very severe drawback to using necromancy. Some kind of magical Necrosis maybe... Did you know, scar tissue is actually a lot shittier than the tissue it replaces? Cause it is, and Necromancy does NOT create life. It merely offered Necky the means to make due.
I see most of you like the idea of bright yellow eyes like the sun. Very well, sounds good to me. Let's have the embarrassing fawning happen. Also, I'll apparently have his eyes turn different colors under certain circumstances. Apparently they glow red when he smells tasty, tasty blood nearby. I assure you, however, that he is not a vampire. It really is just his necromancy acting wonky on his new fuel. It has to do with Thestrals 'n shit. The reason his head didn't go 'POP!' when he blacked out there was because his defensive seals weren't even triggered. He actually de-synched with his body because he was encountering issues with recognizing his own body anymore, hence the blackout.
I need to keep reminding myself that this is a story about Necky and Luna's chemistry, not a story about me talking about a story about Necky and Luna's chemistry. I wrote >2k words that I needed to shelve just by making the first 6 lines of this chapter. I didn't even touch on them in the author's notes! I could just go on and on about the rationale behind what happened last chapter, and get a freaking thesis paper in the end. I suppose it's a good thing to have as many words to choose from as possible, however. It just gets really freaking disorganized. I have four different Word docs titled 'Notes', 'Reminders', 'More reminders' and 'Even mnore reminders'. I am dead serious. There's also a doc called 'Scraps' which I have not opened once since I reinstalled Windows last summer. I have no idea what's written in there.
I figured out what his cutiemark is going to be in the end. I took a while of deliberation until I finally decided on what I'd find fitting for him.
Finally, here's a thing that exists. It's a mediocre band, though, if you ask me. I give it a generous 6.5, personally. BUT HEY, THE ALBUM'S CALLED AFTER THE MAGICAL BEAST THAT I MENTIONED, even though I don't remember the lyrics ever mentioning the birdosaurus creature once. Feel free to not listen at all.
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he was sleepy?
or were you going for tried?
oooh this is gonna be good
Interesting concepts.
Man, your description of pony biology was incredibkyninteresting.
6774581 -_- I read that half a dozen times, and half a dozen times I misread it. Thanks for pointing that out.
Oh dear, I don't think Tia is just going to remove his seals, but could you imagine a necromantic Celestia? I shudder at the thought.
Great story. I really like your ideas.
6774599 6774614 6774718 I am happy to hear it
... well. I seem to be in the minority. I've never liked serious stories that take the show at face value. The admixture of cartoony 'rule of funny' stuff the show pulls and the blood and death this Necromancer represents always seems to evoke a Genre Dissonance effect in me. I'm hoping this won't be a huge point to the plot.
EDIT: Clarity, I hope.
6774761 I'm not taking it at face value. I'm just taking certain elements of the show and working around them, with the purpose of highlighting a contrast between these two worlds which represent Necky and Luna directly. It's not genre dissonance, it's artistic contrast.
UPDATE!!! And what a wonderful read.
He's still throwing tia and Luna for a loop
6774874
I don't see it that way. It knocks me out of the story entirely whenever I see these Bugs Bunny moments taken as some sort of ... super-power. The Windigos are a good example of contrast. With the ponies it's 'any murder, most foul' will give birth to these creatures but with Necromancer's world, it's only in an extreme form of murder (cannibalism) - which highlights how the two worlds could diverge so greatly in their paths. That is a good contrast in my opinion. Having ponies spring back into shape after being stepped on ... that's just silly.
If everything is as durable as you say, then guards would have to have extra training just to try and be lethal. If it takes more than a boulder, a directed piercing weapon won't do much on one strike to a pony (I assume other creatures are scaled somewhat similarly, but I could be wrong). So smacking a stupid civilian around with their weapon would probably be seen to us as assault with a lunchbox, one with sharp edges at worst.
So, this appeared to be a Snallighast more than a Snallygaster, correct? Same powers, appearance, etc. I find it most surprising there has yet to be more concern (both in story and out) that we appear to have another being that's 'crossed the border' with him (or that he's spawned, but who knows!). This spells trouble, and perhaps a conflict greater than trust issues (not that I haven't been entertained by it all thus far
).
So, will we ever see any of these mythical, chapter-length cuts/note pages? Or are you just teasing my love of world-building?
6774918
Just to play devil's advocate (because I understand your point, but I have to admit it's not as important to me):
Are the Wendigos (on both worlds) really that much more 'fantasy/fantastical' than surviving being crushed? I think it's all a matter of suspension of disbelief, and how you look at things. Both ideas seem, scientifically in our world, outrageous. But we somehow justify that killing someone in certain circumstances will turn their soul/energy/magic into a wraith of debatable sentience that seeks out revenge and may or may not cause cold weather. That seems a bit more stretched/out of my view of MLP-verse than super-durability.
But if everyone has it, is it really even super? It's basically natural law here; could be that their magic/soul holds a form blueprint of sorts, and functions to repair their body back to that state as long as they're not completely snuffed out. Could be that memories/sentience/some-form-of-brain-function is simply tied to the soul, and Tia skimmed over the large amounts of healing magic or time that would be required to fix the entire body given such an injury (though the latter seems unlikely, given phrasing).
Point is, if we're going this far (and the author has for the most part too), we have to assume that there's in depth explanations. We may not know what it is, but it's already been told to us on a basic level that it's there. Doesn't matter the subject matter; if you accept it, you do, and if you don't, you don't. Fiction's gonna fictitious.
dis gun b gud.gif
6774918 It's also silly that their cutiemarks connect them all as a sort of hive mind, only instead of branding their fates to their sides, they actually are nothing more than useful imprinting which lets them know, "Hey, this thing you did just now makes you really really happy. Do this, and stick with it, and I guarantee that you will not only not go hungry, but you'll also have a starting point in understanding yourself and the world around you much better."
I'm not saying they're completely invulnerable. They can still die, they can still grow sick or get concussions or get eaten by timberwolves. There's also another curious thing, that unicorns can't change one thing into another different thing because of something I can't quite recall right now, called within the lines of 'object permanence'. A bunch of crap pertaining to "morphic fields" and the such. I just thought, why not have that work in ponies' favor as well?
I tried to make this world out to be one where the person matters more than the laws of nature, since that's what this show entails. Dragons don't need to have a diet based on gems, nor Diamond Dogs. Gryphons don't really need to put up with this shit, but vengeful spirits are still a thing, even though they had no real reason to exist in the first place. Not really. Pegasi don't need to make cloud cities, but they still exist. Why? If a dumb foal were to fall off the side of a cloud, they'd have a long way down to ensure they died... unless they didn't need to worry about such an extreme outcome to begin with.
There's a name for a thing you do, where you give a written work the benefit of ignorance for the sake of enjoying it. I believe it's called 'suspension of disbelief'. I understand this might be a hard pill to swallow, but know that if it was impossible to swallow, I wouldn't have bothered feeding it to you in the first place. Or at least I'd like to consider that my multiple checks for glass shards are sufficient enough to filter out any especially contradictory mumbo jumbo.
6775010
Well, I had something rather nice typed up here but all-in-all, I feel like my opinion isn't being given the time of day. I don't want the author to change the story, I just wanted to put my opinion in the ring so to speak.
6775042
Good luck with your story. I'm glad others can swallow this pill because I sure as hell can't. I was willing to try but this post just killed it for me. Sorry.
6775076 Sorry you feel that way. I guess we might've ganged up on you there.
>> he expect to find of our kingdom today.
What?
6775104 He was expecting it to look like Castle Bran. Thanks for pointing that out.
6775114 I was trying to say that the wording was a bit incoherent.
6775121 yes, thanks for pointing that out.
6775123 No problem, guy!
6775102
Yeah but I'm also at work and couldn't really sit for minutes at a time trying to explain myself.
Overall, I feel it's similar to what happened between you and 'the other story' so to speak. I didn't feel at all even remotely similar to what you felt at the Cadence-Other Necromancer interaction but I didn't say anything because I know that everyone has their own limits. If you felt that strongly about it, I was willing to accept your views. I didn't and still don't agree with them but I accept them. This is my 'Cadence Moment.'
6775076
Ouch. Hey, please, post it if you had it written up. Everyone is allowed to voice an opinion; we're talking about some subjective world points here, after all. And, you were giving a constructive critique. It's comments like that that force people (especially authors) to think more and hopefully hone their craft.
Since you quoted me, I'll assume I'm the primary culprit, and apologize. I never wanted to silence you, just further the discussion of the point you brought up.
Just letting you know that I am totally fine with long author's notes.
Keep going mate, I love it.
If I remember correctly, that seal was placed on his powers while his body was forming right? I know someone as magi-sensitive as Necky ( wonder what his name was) would notice something like that. I wonder how they will handle it. I know Celestia wants to learn what he knows, (how to counter it for example). He would need his ablilities unlocked for practical demonstrations. This makes me super excited. Necromancy has always fascinated me. I can't wait for explanations of things.
Tell me if I'm wrong about that seal, it might be something else...
6775010
It wasn't restoration magic, sorry. I was literally trying to explain the fact that they can get cartoonishly flattened, then recover their shape, but yes, I didn't cover the reasoning behind that. I was hoping that the context this chapter offered gave the right idea.
Let's see. Remember that one scene where Twilight turned a frog into an orange, and then the orange started hopping around the room? Or the time she turned herself and her friends into breezies, and they all knew how to fly and whatnot, and everyone didn't give that much thought because it's just a childish cartoon for dinky little girls? Well, it just so happens that Twilight did force those changes, only not permanently. Since there literally always is an opposite force to everything, there was an opposite force to that as well. It's practically impossible to change every single atom in an object into other ones, no matter how much magical Deus Ex hocus pocus one might have. Not on their own. Letting them have that kind of power would tip us over the edge and make the fact that Celestia can wipe out an entire city with a single spell completely irrelevant in comparison.
We could use an intermediary and say that Twilight only temporarily changed matter itself. But how can you turn something temporarily into something else? It's not physically possible to tell something to break, then turn back to the way it was. So we need another intermediary. Let's say that she somehow tricked the matter which that frog was made of into thinking it was something else. That's what a 'morphic field' is. Objects remember what they're supposed to be, but they're willing to allow a grace period for any unicorn who wants to use magic to change that.
And when reality asks a pony, which is literally made of magic, to have its entire body crushed into a bloody heap of broken bone and splattered entrails, reality again offers them a small grace period to get the fuck out of dodge. If they were to remain flattened for longer than a few moments, I have no qualms with letting them die. If a boulder, or something of the like, were to flatten them like a pancake, the pony would receive a small grace period from reality itself in lenience.
By the same "memory of reality"(you were close enough with the soul blueprint thing), any restoration magic can be used, however the longer we wait, the harder it is for the caster to complete the spell. You can tell reality to "put my flesh back on my bone", but reality would need to remember what went where. Necromancy just takes everything into its own hands, and rebuilds everything manually without any help.
It's completely dependent on suspension of disbelief whether you're willing to accept that even one of these things would work, and if you could believe one thing, I was hoping that you could believe the rest.
6775332 No, that's the seal alright. He just needed something to happen just now in order to become certain of his suspicions. Regarding the sisters agreeing with his terms, I'm not so sure about that. I was inclined towards no, since that stuff was still hazardous to his body.
As far as I figure at the moment, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for him to meet Twilight for that explanation to finally take place. It's a long one, and you need context which only the nerdiest of bookworms had the patience to put together. Objectively, of course, since all she had to go by was objective material.
The last two chapters are giving off some serious Conversion Bureau vibes. Ponies are naturally stronger, faster, more peaceful, more durable (to an insane degree) and live longer than humans. Just copy and paste the idea that all of them are born with IQ's above 105 and you have the original conversion bureau ponies. Also, Luna seems to come off as condescending to me, the lesson she seems to have learned is that humans are boorish and violent...but only because they are so pathetically weak.
Sorry, but It's just a bit too difficult for me to reconcile the differences between a realistic(if magical) race of humans trapped on a Deathworld and a species of god-like Mary Sues in paradise.
6774761 If it makes you feel any better it's a big deal for me too. If people have to act as if the 'rule of funny' is in play then I much prefer the notion that the two universes in question have different laws of physics, rather than that it's a superpower.
6776146
You said it better than I managed. And it put my own feelings into a good perspective. Thank you for including me in your message and pardon me for adding yours to some earlier ones I feel the need to clarify.
6775188 6775102
It was more my own life and the timing of when I decided to try to respond to this chapter. I rushed it and became frazzled and instead of accepting that it was the wrong time for me to reply, I pushed the blame on others. That was wrong of me. I'm still going to drop out for reasons listed above and in more detail and with better sense than the reasons I gave (and honestly, I think what The Frozen North said was more in line with what I was actually feeling than the dribble I put out earlier) but please, don't think it was either of you. I should have been a bit more mature and sensible than I was. Thank you for listening to this old dog howl about nothing.
Despite how fragile you made us sound, we're still one of the species that can take the most damage and survive it of any of the mammals on the planet.
6776250 No problem, we all get in that frame of mind where we can't quite express our thoughts or even understand why we feel a certain way(it's usually my default setting, I just have moments of clarity where I randomly say something insightful and inadvertently fool people into believing me more interesting than I actually am). That's cool, I don't really mind being mentioned, just glad I could be of some service.
I swear this is the third time I read about luna freezing up while holding him after having been attacked by a fake monster.
6776780 Figure of speech. I imagine you were expecting here to go all anime-gray and with a mile-long stare. I was pointing out that she just put two and two together before the necromancer had the chance to explain everything. She didn't faint or anything extreme, but she didn't just get slightly drawn back in surprise either.
...Fake monster?
6776295 Yes, we can. We're built to survive and adapt ourselves and the world around us. Ponies, on the other hand, are designed to keep their own world from spiraling into chaos. Something which they failed, and Discord came into the picture. They have their own crap to deal with.
I think Necky may be a bad influence on Luna
<blink blink> Those are some tough ponies.
Hah! Necky did notice the seal!
And Necky now has a cannon moniker
(Until he gets stuck with an actual name, of course.)
6777529
So, you're having the ponies be closer to the fae (or even a force of nature) rather than a "natural" species? It would explain how they can get away with some of the things they pull ...
But hydras, "constellations" and dragons are considered a very real threat to life and limb ... just how powerful are the major "monsters" here in pony-land? (And the gods help them if a pony-land "big bad" got transplanted to a more "cardboard" world like the one Necky came from.)
what he expects
6777529 I believe in the second or first time I read about Luna freezing up, the necromancer created a "fake" monster to test how durable Luna are and some other motive that is really slipping the tip of my mind-tounge right now...
Perhaps if Luna couldn't handle it on her own, the necromancer could show her that he doesn't need a "babysitter", because he can take care of himself?..
6777894 ...what? Please start from the beginning. The first time around, Luna pulled him closer for a genuine heartfelt moment, what with figuring out what she did last chapter, as was explained in the beginning of this chapter. The following instance was in Tia's office. I'm not sure what the third time was, and I can guarantee you that the beast wasn't a fake.
6777591 Giant monsters that are magically enhanced uniquely to this planet. They're big, and a hydra can still literally reinstate the laws of nature by force. Even so, you don't need a giant monster threatening to make a meal out of you in order to want to get rid of it for making a ruckus.
Rainbow can crash at speeds faster than terminal velocity with only a broken wing to show for it. Even if she had a lot of practice falling, yes, they're still tough little fuckers. They also happen to have unreasonable restoration magic at their disposal, so you're right. You figured it out, and I thank you for it.
This is a world where we have the likes of alicorns (demigods), Discord (reality bending dream demons), a whole kingdom full of creatures on equal standing with Tirek... you get the idea. The law of the jungle is no longer an active component of this equation, or at least not as important of one.
6777679 what he expected*
6777935 I mean fake as in he summoned it... I might just have a bad case of memory mush, so it's probably for the best to just ignore everything weird I've said.
6778401
That works too—of course, with different author-intended meaning. I guessed your intent wrong.
6778401
Once again, your ability to practically read my mind is astonishing and I love it; there was no way in hell our MC (If his name came up, I forgot it during the loooooong wait),being a super caution magical prodigy/savant with a few decades (or centuries, still not sure on how many times he reincarnated) of experience dealing with all manner of magic meant to disable in one way or another, there was no way he wouldn't notice Luna's seal within 24 hours.
6783748 Alright, smart stuff, you come up with a better analogy.
So, how does this line of reasoning sound? The line between the spiritual world and the physical world in not-Equess is extremely blurry (do not confuse the spiritual world with the afterlife), allowing powerful spiritual beings moods to have a great impact on the world around them, possibly interacting with thaum (or whatever magical system) and making it charged with the idea of "negativity' or "positivity". Now say that combat works in a way strikingly similar to say, Undertale, where the hostile intent of a blow hurts far more than the actual physical strike does (I don't believe this needs further elaboration). Now let's say that ponies are extremely powerful spiritual beings, and without a body to constrain them or balance them a negatively charged spirit would have a conceivably incredible effect on the world with such a weak barrier and with such a capacity to exude negative emotion into the area, in addition to the fact that it is attracted to what makes it strong. Even after a while the charged emotions can still be found by these "corrupted" spirits even if it's not a stable and constant source, so residual emotions can have that effect if not immediately cancelled out by happiness positive emotional charges. On a separate note their spiritual and magical energy is enough to cancel out a good deal of physical laws allowing a lot of flexibility especially when a body has the predisposition to bend the energy in a specific way. This combined with an apparently rather low average intelligence that lacks the capability of realizing such things would also result in a greatly heightened effectiveness in the placebo effect (see flim flam brothers second appearance). Different magical energies also appear to result in different colors so that could explain any changes in color depending on situation. A: was that even vaguely decipherable. B: if so then does it sound correct?
6796945 Oh, and I forgot to mention in case their was confusion, I believe that except for a few exceptions in the general population, if the the spirituality gibberish I spat out is correct than it is almost entirely passive and not consciously used by anyone without extreme amounts of mental awareness. (Unicorns use magic, not spirituality consciously, there is a difference. Unless their isn't but I don't think your going for that) Meaning that it effects day to day life in a million somewhat subtle ways but doesn't do diddle squat to anything big unless you honest to god think it will. Oh god it's late and I know I sound stupid right now so please don't feed me to the wendigos. And what the hell do wendigos and windigos have to do with each other? Other than origin point they are completely separate creatures with few to no similarities! Passive/subconscious use, not active/conscious use. I wonder who will read this and wonder what I'm going on about?
6796945
"Spiritual" world is a bit indistinct, pointed towards the wrong direction. I prefer calling it the "magical" world, or rather just be more specific and refer to the magical leylines instead. I even refer to ley energies and commands as such.
Not so directly. We can't really have the line between reality and whim be that nondescript. The whole point of Reality Memory is to keep magic as tame as possible. I was going to elaborate next chapter...
...however it seems there are some things I didn't consider. I only thought about Cutiemarks as a things that's simply there, rather than a useful element that acts to dissipate most of that negative energy. What do you think?
Either way, you gave me a lot to think about. I'll be furthering on your train of thought, if you're okay with it and no one else has any objections, Minalkra.
The term of the mythological creature originates in native america, as far as I know. It's actually a means to counter something which might or might not be true, Wendigo Psychosis. Supposedly the legend states that the Wendigo was a tribe member who ate his hunting partner out of desperation. Windigos are just the spin which MLP put on the whole thing. Honestly, if they didn't do it, I might've considered keeping actual Wendigos in my spare villain list.
My decision to make the two creatures connected was purely on a whim, with the excuse that I wanted to do all I could in order to draw an artistic contrast between Luna and the Necromancer. Said idea didn't seem to float that well with you guys, and upon further deliberation I think I understand where you're coming from. Contrast still requires for the elements contained to be part of the same general category. Making the two worlds contradictory would've been good, but I seem to have made them completely alien from each other instead. Buck.
I also had another excuse to develop on this course. Primarily, cutiemarks and why these ponies keep breaking into choreographed song. Something which I would prefer to consider less a whim and more a very strong compulsion at this point, would be that I REALLY want to develop on cutiemarks and the "magic of friendship and harmony"(which describes the hive mind mentioned in other stories that attempted this theory I'm trying right now, and which you also thought of. Gj.), which is going to be a very important element of this story.
Nice chapter, good work.
6871426 https://www.fimfiction.net/story/237430/colt-necromancer
I am happy to see that someone has retaken the concept of Foal Necromancer and make it his own. So far I think that the story is good in my opinion, even better in many ways and I am looking forward to see more of this story in the future.
I like that the princesses have their own misgiving about the Necromancer and that they don’t just accept him in the world of Equestria and that they have taken precautions to prevent him from becoming an imitate threat to their subjects, rather than the original where he was just accepted into the royal family without much questions. I like that Luna has trouble trying accept the Necromancer as her son
I think that the kill switch idea was great as it give the Necromancer some leverage for himself to keep the princesses form just tampering with his mind to their own and that the fact that it was even contemplated by Luna feel like the Necromancers misgivings of them were justified as well. So far seeing that the Necromancer has only been in this world for less than 72 hours and already they the princess seem to be on guard against him, I wander if they will start to can down soon after and that the Necromancer will start letting his guard down for them, in sign of trust.
In the original story I felt that the Necromancer was way too over powered, especially with the fight with Chrysalis and her Changelings and he had a way too easy time to kill them off.
So far, I find that the Necromancer seem to be have more skills and powers with his necromancy then the original but it feel that his powers are more limited in terms of scope, in his current form, and that he was more powerful in his previous state and that he can compensate for it by being more judicious in how he uses it. I like that in this story, the Necromancer seem to have the other skills en just razing the dead that he can also restore flesh; and that his skill as non-lethal beneficial that can be helpful to others that it is not just evil in its applications. The idea that the Necromancer could have lived a normal life hiding one of the peasantry does not sit well with me as he could have continued his studies in secret during that time without risking much in the way of being attracted, I think that there must have had other reasons that he couldn’t be with people. In the original, the Necromancer couldn’t stay very long because his power where sucking the life out of everything around him over time and that his vey presence summonses the dead around him preventing any chance of having a normal like with other beings.
My biggest issue in the story so far is that I feel that the is the sheer robustness of the ponies that is implies in the story as well as mating cycle of the ponies is way too long as well as the lifespans that seem to be suggested in that universe which seem too much for me. I like the idea that murder in this world can attract malevolent spirits to them but it feel at the moment that it has too much bearing to the limitation of violence as to explain the peace in this world. I like how the Windigos in this story are describe as being very powerful, but I feel it’s
There is also the issue that I feel that the authors take too much importance in the understanding of the story so far, and I think that it can make doe to explain it all later in the story of the sake of the narration.
One character that I hope will make an appearance in this story is Bones and Corpsy. I would also like to see how the Necromancer interact with other foals and how he will do in school as well. I wander if his old problem from his home dimension will cross to this world as well.