//------------------------------// // The Coldest Night in Equestria // Story: Necromancy For Foals // by Queen Sanguine Dreams //------------------------------// Thousands upon thousands of hearts beat quickly, both of the city and the armies below. The Bright Moon had brought not only themselves but the vengeful remnants of nations destroyed by their own hoof at Celestia's command. Minotaur, Griffons, Bi-pedal dogs that caused Bone's blood to boil and other nameless yet brutish species that the young necromancer had never even heard of or seen mention in any story. They assembled in wide ranks, Bat ponies leading the way with enchanted shields floating to their side, blades held at the ready. Minotaur bellowed and stomped the floor working themselves into a blood-lust as they swung double-headed axes large enough to cleave a pony in half. Armor of steel, cloaks of skinned hide billowing in the wind. The Griffons hovered in the sky, screeching and threatening the ponies and skeletons along Canterlot's walls. Bone had seen them fight before in the town of Scoria, and they much preferred to grab hold of their victims and bring them soaring into the sky, biting their neck before dropping them onto the ground below. The sheltered citizens of Canterlot were terrified. Those who refused to fight were locked away securely with the few guards that the city could spare. All that remained readied themselves beyond Canterlot's main golden gate armed with swords, spears and sticks. Bone Marrow's skeletons were the bulk of the city's defense, each standing with an eerie stillness compared to their living counterparts nervous mutterings. Bone scratched his muzzle, his gaze sweeping over the army that assembled in the valley below. His eyes glowed fiercely from the beating hearts, the heavy breaths that accompanied shouted orders and speeches of morale. He could see Princess Celestia giving a speech of her own near the main gate, ponies listening attentively as if their lives depended on her every word. Scenic had remained by Bone's side, worried that the coming battle would cause the void to overpower and drive him insane. From the way her friend was acting, her concerns were threatening to become true. "I could end this battle now," Bone sighed, "I could kill every last one of them. Every death adds another skeleton, every skeleton gives me another pair of eyes to consume and kill from." She placed a hoof on her friend, "Maybe they'll want to parley first, like the manor?" He shook his head, a grin spreading on his face. "No, they came here to fight, not to talk." He pointed down to the group of Minotaur as they wrestled with one another, others cheering them on with the heavy bass of war drums thundering across the valley. "Do they look diplomatic, Scenic?" An icy chill was coming from the young necromancer. Carried by the wind, Scenic could see ponies shivering down in the city below their vantage point in the Palace. Bone didn't need to be on the front lines to have an impact on the battle, after all. "Shouldn't we give them a chance to talk?" Glowing skulls greeted her question. "They've had months to speak. They wanted me to be a monster for them to slay; to save villages from. They're not in this conflict for peace or for anything noble, they just want power." She placed a hoof on her friend's icy shoulder. "Bone, you need to be careful. I don't want to lose you because you gave in to the void. Try to take it easy, okay?" The necromancer chuckled at that. "Have they ever taken it easy on us? On anypony they've ever killed, burned or pillaged for supplies? They've come here to fight, Scenic." He swept his hoof across the army below, "They're all going to die whether they wish for peace or not." From the hordes of the Bright Moon below sounded a long note from a deep horn. The ranks of Bat Ponies moved forward as some took to the skies above and they advanced forward. Glinting steel of crossbow bolts shimmered in the moonlight, soaring towards the approaching ranks seeking flesh to embed into. Bone's grin turned into an awful cackle. "They're attacking!" The air was becoming arctic as hearts beat faster, as distant shouts sounded and cries of agony reached the young necromancer's ears. Each death was a rush, a spike of adrenaline. Skeletons chattered and clacked their bones together as they rattled with excitement mirroring their master's. Ponies had become more frightened of the dead than the Bright Moon, some abandoning their posts. Minotaur followed after the mages that shielded them with magic. Some opted to pick up the unicorns in front of them in order to charge ahead, spells and bolts glancing off of them as the terrified mages screamed. Griffons and Bat Ponies descended on the wall's defenders, plucking them into the sky or sheathing daggers in their necks. Blood began flowing in earnest as the Necromancer's body shook with glee. "Bone!" Scenic shouted, shaking her friend. "Get a hold of yourself!" The hooded necromancer gestured to the battle below, "But the death! The destruction and carnage... it's calling to me, Scenic. It's begging me to join in and-" Scenic delivered a swift strike across Bone's muzzle, knocking him to the marble tile floor. "Bone Marrow, control yourself!" Bone looked up to his friend, a hoof tenderly testing his face. The icy wind faded for a moment as he sat with stunned silence. "If you lose yourself to the void, this battle won't matter. Everypony will die, including me. Do you want that?" He slowly shook his head, looking out to the battle below. "Do what you can to help them, but you have to keep yourself in check, alright?" The necromancer nodded, standing back on his hooves and resting on the tower's railing. The void within noted the beating hearts, and those that had fallen in the battle already. They would never beat again, Bone knew, but he could give them a chance of revenge for their death. A massive pulse of dark blue magic eminated from the tower like an expanding sphere drawing the attention of the battle's participants. Flesh melted from bone, the dead shook and convulsed before standing once more to arm themselves. A second pulse crashed into the battlefield and the blue glowing eyes of new skeletons joined the battle. Skeletal minotaur empowered by their master wrestled with their fleshy counterparts, Griffon tackled Griffon in the air as the skeleton's tactics became suicidal, causing them to plummet to the ground by shearing wings from their opponent's body with their beaks and talons. Ponies along the wall watched with horror as their friends rose once again, as they lurched to life while being clutched by their lover to join the dead on the walls and to fend off more attackers. Bat Ponies and mages below broke ranks as the abominations of horror rose next to them, plunging steel into the tendons of their necks. Lances of fire and ice swept through the Bright Moon's formations as mages desperately tried to keep themselves alive from the quickly growing swarm of the dead. Bone could feel the void returning, begging him to do more. He could cast more than a single consume spell. The side of his face twitched, his ears flicking as he fought to remain in control of himself. He possessed a skeletal minotaur in the valley below near the main gate. The void within whispered wicked ideas born of the carnage and destruction. Consuming Darkness. He could still see through his minion's eyes as an absence of light eminated from it. Bodies nearby were devoured, their flesh and bones melting and turning into ash as he willed the minion forward into the ranks of the Bright Moon. He rolled directly through the front of a formation's shield wall sending them flying and melting, their screams cut short as the darkness consumed them. Bone was shaking once again, the deaths nearly overpowering him. He returned to his own vision after the minotaur was incinerated by a fireball and he witnessed what remained of the formation below become an inferno. He could imagine the Bat Ponies shrieking in terror as their fur and flesh melted from their bodies, crisping and charred with their armor becoming slag on their backs. Scenic shook her necromancer friend once again, "Bone! You're losing it again!" He shut his eyes and turned away from the battle below. He couldn't see the death and destruction but he could still feel it. Beating hearts being pierced with blades, skulls being split in half and limbs severing. "There's too many down there Scenic," Bone shakily replied, "Th-they all have to die or they'll take Canterlot!" She embraced her friend, witnessing his steadily losing battle against the void within him. "Bone, you have to focus, okay? Think of good things, happy thoughts!" Bone let out a maniacal laugh that caused him to double over onto the ground. "Ha-happy thoughts! You think happy thoughts are going to stop this!?" Scenic was quickly becoming overwhelmed herself, not knowing how to deal with her friend's suffering. "Bone, you have to keep yourself together!" It was all she could do to repeat what she had said before. It had worked, but as the battle continued she couldn't help but notice the icy cold creeping out of her friend. The necromancer was breathing quickly now, his eyes shining into the night like a beacon, "No, Scenic. If I'm going to keep myself together, I have to kill them as fast as possible. The longer this fight goes on, the more blood that spills over the hours, the more the void will have a chance to call to me!" He looked through the golden railings of the tower to the battle below. The skeletons outside of the wall had fallen, taking more of the living with them. It was the perfect moment to raise more of the dead. Two massive pulses of energy cascaded from the tower in quick succession and caused the recently perished to take up weapons against their former allies. Scenic could only watch in horror as the situation rapidly fell out of her hooves. Anything she yelled wouldn't get through to her friend; he wasn't listening anymore. She watched his head twitch as Bone shifted from skeleton to skeleton, waves of darkness and death hurling itself into the ranks of the Bright Moon below. She could see Princess Celestia in her armor wielding a golden battle axe, cleaving through Bat Pony after Minotaur as they attempted to kill her. More than once the alicorn had risked a glance to Bone's tower. Searching the battle below, she noticed that the Crystal Ponies had disappeared from where they last were. Looking into the skies as she remembered what happened in the manor. She turned around, noting the faint shimmer of a Crystal pony's eyes and yelped in surprise as the assassin grabbed hold of her. "Necromancer!" The pony shouted, and Bone immediately turned to face the newcomer. They were a Crystal Pony clad in black garbs to conceal their reflective body. A dark blade was threatening to plunge itself into his friend's neck. He nearly commanded the pony's death before remembering the manor, and the book's warning about spells glancing off. "What do you want!?" Bone shouted. "For you to look my way, idiot!" He turned just in time to see two Crystal pegasus swoop down on him, yanking him into the sky. "Bone, No!" Up and up the ponies carried Bone; the chill of the sky nothing compared to the frost and fog of the Necromancer's anger. "Bone Marrow!" A familiar voice shouted to him. Anvil. The young necromancer scowled, fighting the grasp of his abductors. "What do you want, Anvil? If you wanted me to kill you, you could've just asked!" The leader of the Bright Moon was shielded by a mage held aloft in the talons of a Griffon. Bone could do nothing against him, helplessly dangling far above the city. "Listen to reason, Bone Marrow!" His eyes glowed fiercely in reply, the colt quickly losing himself to madness. What had they done with Scenic? Had they killed her when he was taken? "I don't want anypony else to die here, Bone Marrow! I want peace for Equestria, but not with Celestia in power. You could help me! You could turn the tide of the battle and overthrow that golden tyrant and spare yourself in the process!" "You only want to use me, Anvil!" Bone yelled, kicking at the ponies that held him. "You want me to be your disposable monstrosity!" Anvil shook his head, "No, Bone Marrow, I want to return Princess Luna to her rightful place on the throne. She would reward you, I'm certain of it! "You have nothing I want!" The necromancer looked to himself and thought of a single word. Consume. His body writhed in agony as he began to disintegrate, his hooves falling apart as his heart failed him and turned to ash. He wouldn't be held captive and helpless by Anvil, he wouldn't place the lives of everypony in Canterlot in danger by being a prisoner. He wouldn't betray those he cared about for promises of reward. He had an army to kill, to slaughter to the last, to consume and devour and destroy. He couldn't do that from captivity, but he could if he died. If his remains fell to the city below. From all the ponies that had died, it would barely take any time for him to return, to resurrect. The necromancer's ashes fell and spread across the billowing wind like arctic ash. Anvil was dumbfounded, his jaw dropped open along with the other ponies and griffon present. "H-he..." Anvil muttered, following the descending ashes as they scattered to the wind. When Bone awakened once more, he found himself in the slums of Canterlot. Ponies had gathered around him, seemingly spared the death that would have come to them, had Bone not already slaughtered hundreds. He cracked his neck, noting that his clothing had remained intact. He placed a hoof on his neck, noticing a missing weight. The enchantments had prevented his magic from interacting with it, from causing it to re-form on his body when he returned to life. "No..." He looked around, the necklace nowhere to be found. If Scenic was dead as he feared, he wouldn't be able to resurrect her without it. "No!" The ponies nearby backed away as a swirling vortex of ice gathered around the necromancer. His eyes shone like lighthouses in the fog as he stormed off, his speed amplified by the power of the dead. Street after street he had flashbacks of Galloping Glades. He was searching for Scenic Sights all over again, even more worried than before. Across Canterlot his own skeletons fought on, their link to Bone Marrow causing them to emit an icy fog from their eyes and jaws. A pained cry sounded from the dead as their master frantically ran through the city in search of the pocket watch containing his friend's soul. The Bright Moon froze in fear before backing away. The skeletons no longer cared to defend themselves as blows glanced off their icy skeletal bodies. The skies began to cloud out the moon above gathering with a dark menace and ash began to fall on the battle below. The skeletons assembled themselves, some leaping from the tall walls of Canterlot's gate to join the rest. Mages jetted fire across them, incinerating large swaths of the dead only to have more take their place. "Where is it!?" Bone shouted to the empty streets of the golden city. "Where did it fall!?" Streets began to freeze over, lamp posts frosted and blood became crimson ice. A steady wailing of slaughtered thousands rang throughout the city with undead sympathy to their master's pain, the void rapidly clamping down on his mind. A single Crystal Pony advanced on the skeletons holding a box of diamond, a small silver locket contained within. Ponies of the Bright Moon backed away immediately, running for the nearby Everfree Forest. The pony walked calmly towards the army of the dead, opening the box. Shards of red screamed outward from the diamond box and swirled around the crystalline pony in a flurry of death. Skeletons splintered and shattered, they turned to ash and were blown apart as the energy holding their bodies together was torn from their bones. The gate was still raised, however. Celestia herself called upon her magic to contain the approaching pony in a dome shield, preventing their progress. Crystal hooves cautiously tapped against the shield before glowering at the Princess. Remaining skeletons gathered around the shield, each raising their weapons to strike. The Loathing Heart might remain, but nopony would be able to get close enough to move it again. As Celestia dropped her magical shield the skeletons swung their weapons, shattering the crystal pony to pieces. The skeletons themselves were obliterated entirely as well, the Loathing Heart undoing them as quickly as a thousand daggers. Bone was seething with hatred now, his horn sparking with dark energies. The void called to him, shouting in his ear. Kill them all, destroy the city. Use their bodies to find your loved one again. Beating hearts... He had a moment of clairity in his madness. If he could sense beating hearts, then perhaps not all was lost. He knew how to reach Scenic, after all. Scenic Sights. Black fog shifted to the tower, Scenic inspecting her own hooves and leaping up. She took to the skies looking frantically down to the city below. She was alive. Bone breathed a sigh of relief. "She's alright..." The colt made his way back to the Palace, his glowing eyes soon revealing his location. Griffons attempted to kill him, as did Bat Ponies. None were successful, and the necromancer killed them before they had a chance to plunge a sword into his heart. Would-be assassins became faithful skeletal body guards in his wake, soon fighting in the skies to bring more flying souls down to the cobblestone beneath to be reborn. He smiled, spotting a familiar face. "Scenic!" The necromancer walked along a bed of ice that followed his hoofsteps; a swirling maelstrom of the cold void. "Bone! Look around you!" Scenic called out, "Look what's happening to you!" He shook his head, "It doesn't matter any more Scenic, you're alive! If you stay with me, I can keep you alive long enough to find your Soul Jar together!" "Find my Soul Jar?" Scenic's eyes shot open, "Oh no!" "It's fine, Scenic! We can find it together!" Bone saw only too late as a Bat Pony swooped towards his only friend, a blacked dagger held in his mouth and pointed directly towards her chest. His heart nearly stopped as the two collided, both tumbling in a mass of feathers and blood on the cobblestone. "No!" The void inside of Bone deepened into an endless pit. Icy chill became a blizzard of death, unbridled rage built within the young necromancer as he rushed to the aid of his fallen friend. The Bat pony had barely a moment to catch his breath before his body was torn apart by skeletal griffons, shearing his limbs from his torso as his heart and lungs exploded, his torso melting into ash and his eyes rotting inside of their sockets. His ribs became spears as skeletons tore them from his dying body, impaling him with his own bones again and again like swords, what little life left in him convulsing in agony and torment. "Scenic..." Bone whispered. The dagger had gone directly into her heart. She wasn't moving. Heal! Heal Heal Heal! The necromancer held his friend's quickly freezing body in his hooves as her killer finally died. A cold numbness descended on Bone Marrow, a mind clearing iciness that laid everything bare. Scenic was dead. Her soul jar was lost because of him. His need to kill ponies, to not be taken captive, had ended with the death of his friend. If he couldn't find her Soul Jar, she would be dead and trapped forever, her soul unable to escape. He hadn't protected her. What did it matter now? She was dead. Canterlot is under siege, ponies are dying all around. Why did he think that she would be spared? Her body fell from Bone's hooves as he stood. It didn't matter anymore. Every single member of the Bright Moon was going to die. He would find Scenic's Soul Jar, he would bring her back, and he would leave Equestria behind. He would kill them all. When Celestia next saw Bone Marrow, she faced a horrifying reflection of her past she knew all too well. A necromancer that had fallen into madness. His eyes were shining beacons of death as griffons and ponies fell from the skies. The few Bright Moon that had managed to move past the Loathing Heart clutched their chest or disintegrated into ash in front of her. Minotaur bellowed their last as they were torn apart by ravenous hordes of the undead, any fallen soon rising up to join the skeletons that had killed them. Even her own inner warmth of the Sun left her chilled. The ice, frost and fog that eminated from Bone Marrow and his hordes caused a flash winter that mixed with the falling ash from the sky. His energies had poisoned the weather itself, his rage had been worked into a blizzard that she felt happened far too often. Princess Celestia knew what was happening. She had seen three others go through the same thing. There was only one artifact that might be able to save what remained of Bone Marrow. Celestia didn't want to risk killing him and having an even worse Necromancer eventually take his place. She thought of what he had said before; Luna was alive. She was not Nightmare Moon, but herself. Looking to the Palace, an idea came to the singular ruler of Equestria. He might be banished, but he would be alive...