Twilight woke up with a tap on the shoulder. "Wake up, breakfast is ready!" It was the voice of a young stallion. Twilight opened her eyes and was face to face with Lucky Apple. Lucky Apple smiled at her "Good to see you got some sleep. Come on, let's go get breakfast, shall we?" With that he walked out of Twilight's tent and back into the tunnel.
Twilight yawned and slowly got to her feet. She groggily walked outside of her tent, still half asleep, and looked around. Everyone else was up and already sitting around the fire. There was a spot for her right next to Sapphire and directly in front of Crystal Ember.
She walked up and took a seat. She looked at the fire with a tired smile and asked "What's for breakfast?"
One of the ponies who didn't tell Twilight their name responded "It's just plain old apples," he then levitated out three apples and dropped them right at Twilight's hooves.
"Thanks," Twilight said as she levitated an apple up to her mouth and took a bite. It wasn't as flavorful as Applejack's apples, not by a long shot, but it was still better than the week old hay she had been eating for the last few days.
Twilight thought longingly about her old friends. 'I wish I could see then again. Just one time as if nothing has happened,' she looked down at her hooves darkly, taking another bite of her apple 'But things have happened, things have changed, I have changed. Things can never go back to the way things once were, no matter how much I want them to.'
The group sat in silence as they ate. When they all had finished Crystal Ember broke the silence. "Now to the main course," he looked at Twilight "We would like to tell you about your new life."
Twilight nodded "Okay, what is it that you want to tell?"
"From now on until you finish your studies I will be your personal tutor. If you have any questions about necromancy just ask and I will answer. When we get to Zuhause des Nekromanten you will live with Sapphire until we get you a place of your own." Sapphire looked over at Twilight and smiled brightly, Twilight looked back at her with a smile of her own.
"When you get there you will most likely be swarmed by a crowd of onlookers, you are somewhat of a celebrity in Zuhause des Nekromanten."
Twilight looked back at Crystal Ember and tilted her head in confusion "I'm a celebrity, why?"
"Your coming has been awaited since you were young, ever since we found out how powerful you were. And when you were crowned the Princess of Friendship our people wanted to see you even more than before. You give our people hope, something that has been in low supply for hundreds of generations. You give them hope that we really can be good and that what the princesses tell the world are all lies and deceit."
Twilight looked at Crystal for a couple of seconds, stunned. "I ... okay," She looked at the old unicorn in front of her and asked "Do I really give them such hope?"
"Yes Twilight, you really do." Twilight shook her head as she looked down at her hooves with a small frown. She had something on her mind but decided against asking it, she didn't think it was the proper time. Something must have shown on her face though because Crystal asked "Do you have something to say, Twilight?"
Twilight sighed and nodded "I, yes I do," she looked up at Crystal with a sad, questioning frown on her face "I have to ask you something, is necromancy evil?"
He shook his head with a small frown "No, it's not. Necromancer itself is not evil and those who practice it are not inherently evil either," his frown got larger and his eyes took on a darker tone. Everyone but Twilight and Crystal Ember looked down at their hooves, they all knew what was coming. Twilight however was very confused by their reaction, looking at them with a confused frown. "The princesses however, for whatever reason believe that necromancy is one of the greatest evils in the world and must be eradicated at all costs. For the last few thousand years, ever since they got into power there has been a massive and widespread genocide all across Equestria, directed at us, necromancers."
There was silence for many seconds as Twilight tried to understand what was just said to her. She now understood the reactions of the others around her. Her ears were firmly against her head and she had a disbelieving look on her face. Her mouth was agape in pure disbelief and horror. "W-What? Genocide..." she shook her head, tears falling from her eyes "How could Celestia..."
Sapphire suddenly spoke up, malice in every word she spoke. "Celestial has been doing this for thousands of years, Twilight. She has killed hundreds of thousands of necromancers, maybe even millions. We try to save as many as possible but sometimes Celestia gets to them first," she sighed and looked over at Twilight with an empathetic frown "I bet it's hard for you to hear this. The person you have been looking up to since you were just a little filly turns out to be one of the greatest mass murderers in pony history."
"It is, it's really hard," Twilight said as she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at all five of the other necromancers before her. She looked at them grimly and said "When I first used necromancy again back in Whinnyapolis I thought I was doing something evil, that I was evil," she looked down at her hooves and shook her head "But now I know that I was being lied to, that necromancy is not evil. Now I know the truth." She looked at Sapphire Rain and then to Crystal Ember with an angry determination in her eyes "I now know who truly is the evil one. I will do everything in my power to end this, I promise."
Crystal Ember looked at her with a small, sad smile "I'm glad you want to help. But you can't, you need to learn the proper way to cast necromantic spells first. Then after you learn that I will allow you to leave and help save innocent ponies lives."
Twilight just sighed and shook her head "One more thing, how many ponies are there in Zuhause des Nekromanten? A thousand, a couple hundred, how many?"
Crystal responded with a smile accompanied by a small chuckle "I'm sorry Twilight but those guesses are way off. There is actually about a million, I think just over if I remember correctly."
"A million! What? How? I thought that it was just a fortress where you could learn necromancy, not a whole city!"
Lucky Apple spoke up and looked over at Twilight "It originally was just a fortress but about three thousand years ago the necromancers of Zuhause des Nekromanten saw the suffering and pain of their necromancer brethren and decided to act. They began finding those who practiced necromancy and invited them to Zuhause des Nekromanten. Over time more and more necromancers came to Zuhause des Nekromanten and slowly its population grew until eventually it got to where it is today, over a million necromancers in a single city. It honestly makes sense, it's the only place our kind can live in peace without constant fear of death."
Twilight nodded "It does make sense when you put it that way."
After a few seconds of silent Crystal Ember spoke into the silence and said "We should get going. We will never reach Zuhause des Nekromanten sitting down, will we?"
Everyone nodded and went to pack up their things and take down their tents. Twilight looked at those around her with a smile 'I have finally found a place where I am accepted, I have finally found friends.'
That doesn't sit right with me for some reason
9502817
If you really think about bit, it makes sense. I think it started out as Celestia killing Necromancers that WERE evil, then at some point I think she got it into her head that the only way to STOP truly evil Necromancers was to Exterminate ALL who Practice the art.
Necromancy is both sides of the Coin, it is both Good and evil. It can be evil when used to harm others, Conquer nations or just used as a tool of terror. But on the flip side it can also be used as a tool of good! You can used it to bring back those just killed to find the person who killed them, you can use it to bring back willing Warriors to fight once again in the defense of their home or even use it to make the death of those who can't be cured of a disease mean something in certain rituals.
Also ThatOneLittleBoy I love the name for the city, for those who don't know the Translation of Zuhause des Nekromanten it's German and the translation is "Home of the Necromancer" an apt name for a City full of them.
I do hope Twilight Will see her friends again. Just once so they see what she has chosen to become. They will most likely choose Princess Celestia’s side since that’s what happens every - AND I MEAN EVERY - time they find out Twilight has done something evil or just something they thinks is wrong.
Royal Canterlot Wedding...
Mlp the movie...
Lesson... wait no not that one.
I enjoyed the chapter too btw!
Apples have a lot of relatives, haven't they?
9502993
So what you're saying is that necromancy is perfectly balanced?
9503214
To be honest? Any type of Power, Magic or Supernatural force is Inherently Neutral. What makes something good or bad is based on how a Person (or Pony) uses it and what they use it for.
For Example, A spell used for Healing can be used to remove the life force from some one, but on the flipside a Spell Designed to Take the life force of a being can be used to heal by taking said life force from a being that isn't going to make it and using it to heal another that CAN be saved.
So really it's a matter of Perspective.
9503228
I have to wonder if Celestia is hunting down necromancers because it's the one practice of magic that she can't dictate the use of. Healing spells will usually default to the aid of others while attack spells will default to the protection of oneself or others. Necromancy seems to be able to pretty easily swing either way and I can't imagine that something so morally neutral would have a place in Celestia's "Perfect Harmony".
9503214
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/027/257/perfectly-balanced-as-all-things-should-be.jpg
9503445
I'm glad someone got it.
9502993
That makes sense but remember the saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely
9502993
Glad you like the name!
9499491
9498958
Thanks BlueHood for showing me where the mistake was, probably wouldn't have found it without your help. (I must of rolled a 1 on my perception check ) And thanks Jest for bringing this mistake to my attention. I've fixed it and now it should be just fine!
9503214
As all magic should be.
9503615
Power only reveals and amplifies desires, it doesn’t corrupt them.