//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Once a Necromancer Always a Necromancer // by ThatOneLittleBoy //------------------------------// Celestia sat in the chair in her bedroom, looking over a stack of papers over a foot tall. She normally had paperwork like this but for some reason today she had a lot more than normal. She sighed and was about to get started when a young filly barged into the room. Celestia looked over her shoulder to see who it was. She smiled when she saw a young lavender filly. The filly had a massive grin on her face and she was practically radiating pride and joy. As soon as the princesses eyes landed on the filly, she blurted out "I want to show you something Princess!" She could barely keep herself from shouting at the top of her lungs. "You're going to be so proud of me!" she yelled with a massive grin. Celestia stood up and looked at the young lavender filly standing in the doorway with a smile. The filly was jumping up and down with excitement, the book bag she had on flapping up and down with her. "Is that so Twilight?" Celestia said with a grin "Tell me, what it is I'm going to be so so proud of for?" "I can't tell you, it's a secret!" Twilight's grin somehow got even larger "You have to come and see it yourself!" Celestia smiled and shook her head, she was use to these sort of antics from her favorite student. "Then let's go," she walked to Twilight's side and gestured towards the hallway beyond "Shall we?" Twilight giggled in glee and ran out into the hallway quickly followed by Celestia. Twilight bounced up and down the hallway in a similar fashion to a pink pony from Twilight's future. Celestia walked alongside the young filly and asked "What is it that you are going to be showing me, Twilight? Is it magic, an invention, a discovery you made, or is it something more creative like writing or art?" Twilight smiled "It's a type of magic Princess. According to the book I'm reading this type of magic is very difficult to do, especially for someone as young as me. So when I show you that I can do it you're going to be more proud of me then you ever have been before!" Celestia smiled "Is that so? Well then what is this so-called 'very difficult magic' you're referring to called?" Twilight smiled and shook her head "I told you, it's a secret!" Celestia giggled and looked at Twilight with a large grin "Of course it is, my young student." As Celestia and Twilight walked down the hallway, Celestia silently pondered what the young pony beside her was going to show her. Was it telepathy? Was it teleportation? Was it disintegration? All Celestia knew was that it was going to be a terrific performance from her, admittedly, favorite student. She smiled at that thought. Twilight walked up to a pair of doors and opened them up. She then lead Celestia outside into the castle courtyard. It was currently night, about 11 o'clock, so only a few guards wielding spears and crossbows patrolled the courtyard. Celestia began to wonder, why exactly couldn't Twilight just show her this magic inside the castle? As the pair walked through the courtyard and into the city beyond Twilight said "It's a bit of a walk to where we are going." "And where are we going exactly?" Celestia asked. Twilight looked up at Celestia "The Canterlot graveyard, the magic only works in places like that." "What?" Celestia asked with a tilt of her head "I don't think I heard you correctly." "We're going to the graveyard. I'm pretty sure it's about fourish miles away." 'What is she going to be doing there?' Celestia thought 'What type magic do you need to be in a graveyard to do?' She shook her head 'I bet it's going to make perfect sense when we get there.' They continued walking in silence for the next few minutes. Celestia walked with her normal graceful trot alongside her giddy and energetic student. After about a mile of walking Celestia asked Twilight with a kind smile "How long have you been studying this magic of yours?" "For about a week," Twilight looked up at Celestia with a massive grin "And I just figured out how to do it about three hours ago! I can't wait to show it to you!" Celestia smiled warmly at Twilight "Neither can I, Twilight." Celestia turned her sights from her student next to her to the city around her. They passed next to a massive cathedral, its towers some of the highest in the city. The cathedral was built over a thousand years before she and her sister rose to the throne of Equestria. It was built by evil ponies, who did evil things, who worshipped a false god. She frowned as she walked past, it gave her memories, memories of a time past, of a city on fire, of a battle against good and evil. She shook her head 'That was a long time ago, just forget about it, they're gone.' She continued observing the city until Twilight stopped in front of a pair of intimidating iron gates. Along the top of the gates were the words 'Canterlot Graveyard'. Twilight stood and observed the gates until she asked "Can you get us inside princess?" "Yes, of course," Celestia responded with a smile. She walked over to the gates and unlocked them with her magic. "Here we are," she said as she pushed the gates open and walked in. Celestia looked around at the graveyard. It had been a long time since she had been here. Celestia sighed 'Last time I was here I was with Luna, on the thousand-year anniversary of mother and father's death.' She shook her head 'And I was alone three hundred years ago for their two thousand year anniversary.' At this she sighed and looked at the moon sadly. Celestia shook her head as the two ponies walked into the graveyard. Twilight lead them to the center of the grave yard where there stood a statue. Celestia looked at it with a sad frown. It was a statue of her father in his golden plate armor, the same armour she has worn into battle many a time. Celestia shook her head and looked over at Twilight "Now, what is it that you want to show me?" Twilight looked at Celestia with a smile "It's magic that can bring ponies back from the dead. It's called Necromancy. I'm pretty sure that's what it's called anyways." Celestia stood there, blinking, barely able to even comprehend what Twilight had just said. She was frozen in fear and terror. "Y-you can bring ponies back from the d-dead?" Celestia said in a shaky voice 'Please no, it can't be true, it just can't! Not that evil, not the greatest evil!' "Yep! Isn't that wonderful?" Twilight yelled excitedly "It's super hard to do but I can do it!" She jumped up and down excitedly "Do you want to see me do it?" Then Twilight, without an answer, sent a beam of black light from her horn directly into the ground right in front of a nearby gravestone. The whole world seemed to stop in anticipation for what was to come next. Even the crickets stoped chirping. Then all of a sudden a skeletal hoof broke the surface of the ground. Celestia screamed in shock and took a step back. Twilight looked at Celestia with a confused look "What is it princess, aren't you proud? This is really hard for me to do. Actually the book-" she pulled out a black book from the book bag she had on "-Saids that normally it takes years of practice to do what it took me just a week to learn, just a week! Aren't you proud of me?" Twilight looked at Celestia with eyes full of concern, and a want to be praised. Celestia just looked back, terrified. The animated skeleton finally finished climbing out of its grave and stood there waiting for its master to tell it what to do. Celestia looked at the skeleton, and then to Twilight, and then back to the skeleton. 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening! Twilight can't be a-a Necromancer!' She continued to look between the two beings in front of her. She had a mixture of sadness, terror, and shock on her face. She looked at a very confused Twilight with a fearful and sad frown "Do you know what you have done?" "I-I was just doing what the book told me to do. I thought you would be proud of me." Twilight looked down at her hooves. "Did I do something wrong?" "Twilight, Twilight look at me!" Twilight looked up at Celestia with a frown, tears welling up in her eyes. "Necromancy, Twilight, is one of the most evil of dark magics in existence, yes you did something wrong." From Twilight's eyes began to flow a river of sorrow. "W-what!? I-I-I didn't know..." Twilight then collapsed onto the grown and curled up into a ball, where she promptly began to sobbed heavily. In between sobs Twilight cried "I-Im s-so so so so so so so so sorry. I-I didn't know that what I was doing w-was e-e-evil." Celestia kneeled down to her favorite student and gave her a hug "Shh, it's okay, I forgive you. Don't worry about it, it was just a simple mistake." Twilight kept crying for almost a half hour before she finally stopped. She wiped her eyes of all her tears and then looked up into Celestia's eyes "D-do you still l-love me?" Celestia smiled "Of course I do, you just made a mistake. I forgive you Twilight." She kissed Twilight on the nose before she looked at Twilight with a stern look "Don't you ever do this again, do you here me?" Twilight looked up at Celestia and nodded "Yes I do, I'm so, so sorry. I didn't know that what I was doing was wrong, was e-evil." "I know," Celestia said "Now let's go back home and put this whole thing behind us, okay?" "Okay," Twilight said, nodding her head. She looked back at the skeleton with a terrified frown "What about him?" Celestia looked over at the skeleton and shook her head. She looked back at Twilight and smiled at her reassuringly "Don't worry about it," she looked back at the skeleton with a frown and said in a dark tone "I'll deal with him." Celestia looked back at Twilight "Just go home and get some sleep, okay? And what if I got you some pancakes for breakfast tomorrow?" "Okay, that sounds good," Twilight said with a small smile. She turned and began to walk away towards the castle with her head still bowed from before. Celestia looked back at the skeleton. She sighed and said to herself "It's been a long time since I last saw one of you." Then in a flash of light the skeleton was gone. All that was left was a pile of ash where the skeleton had stood before. Celestia sighed, there was going to be a lot of things she needed to think about that night, and even more things she was going to have to talk about with Twilight. Not to mention all of that paperwork. (Revised on March 23, 2019)