Twilight opened her eyes and looked around her. She was in a densely packed evergreen forest. Twilight smiled 'Thankfully it's summer and not winter right now. This area would be under multiple feet of snow if it was. Whinnysota's known for snowy and cold winters for a reason!'
Twilight turned and dug around in her bag and pulled out some food. She lifted up the hay and daisy sandwich up to her mouth and took a bite. She sighed and she swallowed 'This is my last one. What am I going to eat after this?'
She shook her head and dug around for her water canteen. She took it out but with it came out a few pictures. She lifted them up and studied them. When Twilight realized what they were she began to cry.
The photos were of her and her friends. One was of them all one Heart's Warming Eve. All of her friends had a warm mug of hot chocolate next to them. All of them had a bright smile on their faces. Another one was of all of Twilight's friends, including herself, swimming happily on a hot summer's day. Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were all in the water swimming and having a merry time. Spike was on the beach building a sand castle and Rarity and Fluttershy were talking as they sunbathed.
Twilight shook her head and wiped her eyes dry. "Stop thinking about them Twilight. You moping around all day won't help anything; and you have more pressing matters to attend to."
She put the photos back into her saddlebags and finished eating. She took a sip from her canteen and put it back as well. Twilight then began to think about her current situation.
'Who the hell gave me the note? Why do they want me to go to Totenberg Mountain? Why did they give me the book?' Twilight shook her head, "I need to know."
She stood up and stretched. She looked over at her saddlebags and got her map out. She laid the map out on the ground and at the corners she placed four small rocks.
She looked at the map with a frown. She trailed her hoof over the path that she has traveled over the past couple of days. From Ponyville she went straight north towards Detrot. From there she went north west through the forest Ottawa. Then her hoof moved over to where she was now. A large evergreen forest to the south of the city of Whinnyapolis. About 45 miles northeast of Whinnyapolis was Totenberg Mountain.
The problem was though that the only way to get to Totenberg Mountain would be to go over the Whinnysota River or go an extra 85 miles upstream to go around the river.
Twilight stomped her hoof in frustration "How am I going to do this?" She yelled "I can't just go over the river, I'll be seen. It is the busiest waterway in the world. Every hour of the day it has at least twenty-five boats for every mile of water. And if they see that I'm an alicorn then they will know who I am and if they know who I am then Celestia will know where I am and if she knows where I am then she will get me and if she gets me-" Twilight stopped only because she ran out of breath. She began hyperventilating uncontrollably. Twilight grabbed a paper bag and began breathing in it. In, out, in, out, in, out.
Finally Twilight got a hold of herself and sighed 'Twilight, you have to keep yourself together."
Twilight thought back to her earlier question. She sat down and thought for a minute. A thought kept coming back to her time and time again but she kept pushing it out of her head, trying to think of a better option. 'No there has to be a better way,' she thought 'There has to be.' No matter how hard she thought though she couldn't think of anything better. She had to go through the city of Whinnyapolis and go over one of the city's seven bridges.
Twilight sighed, finally giving up and decided to go with that plan, no matter how much she doesn't like it. "It makes sense though," she said to herself "Celestia has soldiers and police all over the countryside looking for me. If I blend into the general populous and sneak my way through."
She sat up and turned back towards her saddlebags. She looked through the contents of the bags until she found a rolled up piece of parchment. She grabbed it, laid it right next to the map and placed four small rocks on each of its corners.
She looked at the paper, a map of the greater Whinnyapolis area. She stole the map from a library in Detrot about a 5ish days ago. Twilight sighed "I hate stealing. I really, really hate stealing!" She looked down at the map "I had to though. I needed to know the city just in case I needed to go through it."
Twilight thought about what she knew about the city. Whinnyapolis is much like Manehattan, a densely populated center with skyscrapers and other large or important buildings slowly fading outward into smaller, less important buildings. It has one of the most modern police forces in the country. Cutting the city in half was the Whinnysota River. Going over the river were seven large bridges.
Twilight took out a pencil and circled where her current location was, just roughly nine miles south of the most southern edge of the city. She thought 'Now what route through should I take?' She thought for a second, looking over the map. 'Should I go over the southern bridges or the northernmost ones? Or maybe right through the center of the city?" After a few seconds of thought she had made her derision. "I should go through the center, right down main street. Most travelers would go down main street if they were just passing through." She slowly drew a route through the streets of Whinnyapolis to the center of the city, the one she was planning on going through.
'Okay, good. Now that that's done and dusted with I should probably plan on what I would do If I'm caught. It's a matter of life or ... imprisonment maybe?' Twilight thought, shoving her plan to the back of her head so that she could think this now and that later.
Her mind filled with thoughts and images of what would happen if she was caught. 'Would Celestia send me to the Canterlot dungeon? Would she give me mercy and spare me criminal charges?' She gulped 'Would she just kill me? Maybe even public execution?' She shook her head 'She would never do that, would she?'' She shivered just thinking about it.
She looked back down at the map, returning her focus on how to get through the city. She thought for another few minutes before she thought of how to get through the other half of the city. She would keep walking through main street until she got to the edge of the city. She then would go northeast to a forest that would hide her all the way to the slopes of Totenberg Mountain.
She frowned as she thought about her plan and all that could go wrong, but it was the best she could come up with.
"I hope I'm not forgetting anything," Twilight said, worry in her voice. She shook her head "First things first, I need a disguise. I can't just walk through the city like this!" She picked up and packed all of her stuff and put it into her saddlebags. 'I should go at night time though to get the disguise. It will be easier to "borrow" the needed supplies then.' Twilight frowned at the thought.
She then sat down, looked towards the sky and frowned. It was going to be a very long time until nightfall. She looked up at the sky. The sun was directly above her head. 'It looks like it's about 12ish. That gives me about 9 hours to do whatever I like,' she looked around her "But what can I do…" She looked over at her saddlebags and realized how she could preoccupy herself.
She gulped and went over the bags and dug through them until she found what she was looking for. A book with a featureless, black cover. She pulled the book out. It was the first time since she left for the mountain that she had laid eyes on the black book.
Twilight sighed "I've got nothing better to do," she then sat down next to a tree and opened the book back up to the page she left on.
She read as much of the book as she could with the time available to her. Every word sunk into Twilight as she processed the information being fed to her.
Twilight, when she got to the last spell in the "Single Necromancy Spells" section, gasped. It was a spell called simply "Life". Twilight read the words of the book very carefully.
Life is much different from other necromancy spells. Instead of reanimating a corpse and having it do as you command, Life truly brings back whomever you cast the spell upon. Life is the only known necromancy spell in existence to truly bring ponies back from the dead.
The only downside to the spell is that no pony can cast it. Only the most powerful necromancer to ever walk this earth, The Lich King Maradicta, was able to use this power. No necromancer ever since has been able to recast the spell, even though we know exactly how to cast the spell.
Twilight then flipped to the next page and read the step-by-step instructions on how to cast the spell.
Twilight reread this section of the book over and over again. She then bookmarked the page. 'I hate myself and am disgusted at myself for even thinking this but-' Twilight took a shaky breath '-I have to learn this.'
With that she went back to reading the book. She got about three quarters done by the time it got dark.
When Twilight realized how dark it was getting she set the book down and placed it in her saddlebags. Twilight then piled up leaves and branches on top of her possessions so that if anyone walked by they wouldn't realized anything was amiss
Twilight walked towards the great city of Whinnyapolis "Time to go shopping."
Twilight slowly and carefully opened the glass door into the small clothing shop. The shop was at the very southern edge of Whinnyapolis. She moved into the shop, making sure to step as lightly as she could.
Twilight then moved into the shop looking for cloaks. She took a quick glance at the store and it seemed to be void of any sort of cloak at all. 'Come on, there has to be something here!' Twilight thought in frustration 'There has to be something ... wait over there!' She ran over to the one and only clock she could see in the entire store, it was by the cash register. She completely forgot about stealth as she ran over to grab it.
Twilight quickly grabbed the black cloak. It looked like it could cover her entire body. She looked at it and frowned. Her horn was going to be visible but it was the best she got.
She put the cloak on and walked over to a mirror on the wall. Her entire body including her wings were hidden from view. The only parts of her body not hidden were the bottoms of her hooves and her horn. Even her face was hidden underneath the cloak. She chuckled 'I look like a character from a fantasy novel.'
She turned around and began to make her way back to her camp when she locked eyes with a very angry pony staring at her. They looked at each other for a couple of seconds. Twilight's eyes wide and fearful, his were full of burning fury.
"Hand over the coat and you won't get hurt!" the pony said with a snarl. He then pulled out a knife "And we don't want you to get hurt doncha know!" Twilight took a step backwards, her mind beginning to fill with panic. She was backed into a corner with nowhere to run. The only way out blocked by what she presumed to be the shop owner.
Twilight focused on her magic and tried to teleport. It didn't work. 'What the hell? Why can't I teleport!?'
Then Twilight realized what was happening. 'Me and the princesses just equipped the police force in Whinnyapolis and Manehattan with anti-teleportation technology to try and make it impossible for unicorn thieves to just teleport away. How did I forget about this? How am I so stupid?' Her entire body was shaking in panic and fear.
Right at that very moment the entire store was flooded with bright, blinding light. Then a very loud and powerful voice boomed out "Come out with your hooves where we can see them! And if you have wings those as well!"
'No way,' Twilight thought as she began to look around the shop. 'What can I do to get out of here?' She smiled as her eyes laid upon a window to her left, just behind the shop owner.
Twilight formulated a plan. She first grabbed the cash register in her telekinesis. "What are yo-" the shop owner was never able to finish his sentence as the cash register crashed against his head and knocked him unconscious.
The police outside of the store saw this though and ran inside the shop. All of them were running straight for Twilight. Twilight turned and ran to the window and put up a magical shield around herself and jumped through. She landed on the other side on all fours and ran off as fast as her hooves could take her.
Twilight ran through the streets and alleyways of Whinnyapolis back the way she came.
Twilight emerged from an alleyway into the street beyond as she was about to run across when a police car came out of nowhere and almost hit her. Out came two police officers, both of which had guns. Twilight instantly turned around and headed back down the alleyway she came from. Both of the officers were right on her tail.
Twilight kept running until she tried to take a shortcut through a graveyard. Twilight ran in and was about to leave the graveyard when three officers cut her off from her escape route. She turned to the other exit, it was already blocked off. She was spinning around looking for an eskape. She looked towards the sky 'What if I just fly out? No that wouldn't work, I can't let them know that I'm a pegasus! There's no way out!'
'NO!' Twilight was in full on panic mode. 'What am I going to do? I'm trapped with nowhere to go. I can't go anywhere and can't escape. So what can I do...' She realized what she could do. The only thing she could do.
'No, no, no, no, no, no! I will not practice necromancy, ever!' Twilight thought to herself.
"We have you trapped, there is nothing you can do. Give up and come with us peacefully," a police officer with a megaphone just outside of the graveyard yelled. Twilight was not listening to him at all.
'But I have to. It's the only way I can get out of this. I know how to do that one mass necromancy spell. I just read it this afternoon,' Twilight took a very shaky breath, tears falling from her eyes as she realized what she was about to do, what she was about to become.
She looked at the tomb stones around her, reading some of the names as she did. John Turtle, Marry Muffin, Glitter Cherry, all pony's bodys she was going to disgrace.
Twilight concentrated on her magic, grunting in effort as she did. A black cloud enveloped Twilight's horn as she concentrated.
"Everyone watch out, they're doing magic! Take cover!" A police officer yelled as she ducked behind a police car. Twilight didn't even notice.
Twilight then pointed her horn torwards the earth. A beam of black magic erupted from the tip of her horn towards the ground. It hit the ground and nothing happened.
A police officer laughed and yelled "Looks like ya missed mate!" His laugh was short lived and replaced by a scream as a skeletal hoof shot up from the earth. The hoof was followed by many more as hoof after hoof rose from the ground.
The police officer's scream was followed by many others as the other officers realized what was happening. Most of them dropped their weapons and ran as fast and as far as they could. As for the others they were frozen in fear. For one poor officer she watched as the half rotten corps of her grandmother dug its way out of the ground.
All Twilight felt was deep, deep shame and sadness. She watched as the police ran in fear from her and her undead.
She took a shaky breath, rivers of tears falling from her face. She then thought 'All of you things go and chase the police, don't hurt or kill them, and make sure no one knows where I'm going or follows me.'
As soon as the thought was over the undead did as commanded. Twilight watched as just over a hundred reanimated skeletons and corpses ran out and followed the police. The few police who were left ran for their lives.
Twilight then used a type of magic usually only used by miners to blow up large amounts of land and rock on all of the police cars around her. They all exploded in with brilliant, blinding explosions.
Twilight tried to teleport, and lo and behold she was able to. The anti teleportation machine must of been in one of the cars. In a literal flash she was back at her campsite. Instead of celebrating and opening the metaphorical bottle of champagne though, she sat down, crying, and let the sobs she has been holding back all this time leave her throat.
'I'm a monster,' Twilight thought as she cried. 'I'm a necromancer,' she looked up at the moon, her entire face wet with tears "I'm a necromancer!"
Twilight wrapped her stolen cloak around herself. She then put her saddlebags over her cloak and securely fastened them to her body.
Her face had a look of sadness, disappointment, and disgust firmly upon it. Every few seconds she looked at herself with all of those emotions but stronger.
Twilight sighed as she began walking towards the city. 'This is not the time for self loathing, that comes later. First I need to somehow get through the city undetected.' She shook her head, trying to rid herself of as much self contempt as possible. It didn't really help much "Let's just hope that everypony's too busy to look for me."
Twilight kept walking for about a mile through the woods. She looked at the trees and animals of the forest with admiration and a small, sad smile. She loved the innocence and peace of the forest, both things she had lost last night. She shook her head in sadness.
She stopped walking until she was about a mile south of the city and was perched up on top of a tall hill. She looked out at the city below and instantly all of her plans came crashing down around her. Twilight's ears fell against her head as she looked on in horror.
All around the city she saw thousands of pegasus flying around, all of them with guns ready to fire. On the ground there was a small army of police, a sizable militia, and about one thousand equestrian troops. All of them had guns or old muskets around their necks. There were even a few tanks.
All hope left Twilight's body as she looked at the city. Her legs buckled and she fell flat on the ground, her eyes still taking in the scene before her. Twilight was shaking in terror.
"What am I going to do now!" tears began to fall from Twilight's eyes "It's hopeless, there's nothing I can do against an army!"
'But what if I had an army?' Twilight shook her head, tears falling even faster 'NO, I can't make other ponies die! I can't make an army and then send them to kill others, I can't! I'm not a murderer!'
Twilight gave up, it was hopeless. There was nothing she could do against that sort of firepower without killing anypony.
Twilight began to walk back towards her camp. Her head down, defeated. She then suddenly stopped as a plan popped into her head. A plan that might actually work, and best of all no pony was going to die.
'If I make an army and just tell it to scare the soldiers and draw them to one side of the city that means that I can go to the other side of the city and get away! That would work!' She sighed "I'd have to use necromancy though…"
She shook her head and pulled out of her bags the map of Whinnyapolis. Then she placed four small rocks on each corner of the map. She looked at the pencil markings she had drawn the day prior with sorrow. 'It's so weird that so much can happen and change in just a few hours.'
Twilight shook her head again and refocused on the task at hoof. She levitated a pencil out of her saddlebags and erased the old plan and thought of a new one. She thought for a second 'Where can I find a lot of dead body's in one place?'
A small smile appeared on Twilight's face as she thought of just the place. 'The battle of Appleville happened just south of here, I could get an army in the thousands in seconds!'
Twilight's joy and smiles were short lived as Twilight realized what she was thinking. "I really am a monster aren't I?" She frowned "Smiling about a plan that will use necromancy and could get people hurt. Dear Celestia I'm losing it." She frowned as fresh new tears began to rush down her cheeks 'I'm a sick monster, doing evil things with a smile.'
She let a sob escaping her mouth as she turned around and began to walk south towards the ruins of Appleville. She cried in self loathing, her head was bowed low and her ears flat against her head. The only thing that Twilight could think the entire way to Appleville was 'I'm a monster, a sick, sick monster.'
Twilight finally reached the ruins of Appleville. She looked around at the ancient stone buildings of the city. They were practically crumbling under their own weight. Twilight though about the great battle that happened here long ago.
The battle happened between the Solar Loyalists under Celestia and the Lunar Insurgency under Nightmare Moon. The battle happened during the Equestrian Civil War right after Luna became Nightmare Moon.
This battle was the second biggest battle in the war with almost 75 thousands ponies fighting in the battle. The battle was widely considered the turning point in the civil war. Nightmare Moon's forces were completely destroyed. Nearly all 40 thousands of her troops were slaughtered with only about 5 thousands dead on Celestia's side.
'That means 45 thousand dead ponies just waiting to be used,' Twilight stopped dead in her tracks as she took in what she just thought. She buckled over, so disgusted with herself that she began to gag and almost threw up. 'I need to stop thinking like that! If I don't stop now I will lose it!'
New and fresh tears joined the old ones as Twilight rebegan to cry. Her entire body shook violently with each and every sob that escaped her mouth.
Twilight stayed like that for almost half an hour, crying and sobbing, before she finally got a hold of herself and stopped. She looked at her surroundings and sighed. "I-I have to do it," She took a deep and shaky breath "L-let’s just get this over with." She sighed 'I don't even need all of them anyways I can just take a few thousand and that will be enough.'
Twilight concentrated on her magic. A black mist formed around Twilight's horn and seconds later a beam of black light flew from Twilight's horn and into the ground. After she cast the spell she realized something. Even though she was casting a more difficult spell it was infinitely easier this time.
She looked around herself at the countless corpses digging themselves out of their unmarked graves. She was filled with a mixture of dread, disgust ... and to Twilight's great discontent, pride. 'This spell I just cast was a much more powerful spell then the one I cast yesterday, and it was much easier this time! According to the book it normally took a group of nearly 25 necromancers to do the spell that I just cast with ease!'
She just shook her head and thought 'Come with me,' all of the dead obeyed and followed Twilight into the forest. Twilight now had an army of the dead thousands strong, and she was planning on using it.
Twilight looked down at the map below her with a small smile. She had just finished outlining the plan.
Her army was to go to the western side of the city and attack from there. On the other hoof, Twilight would be at the very eastern point of the city looking at the battle from afar. The undead would run at the defenders in a horde like fashion and just case after the soldiers without causing any damage or loss of life.
Hopefully the defenders will move all of their forces to try and stop the undead, leaving the rest of the city empty. This would make it easy for Twilight to get through the city and onward to her true destination, Totenberg Mountain.
'This seems like it will actually work!' Twilight thought with a slightly larger smile spreading across her face. 'Go to your positions!' she thought to the undead. They instantly obeyed and all three thousand of them started walking towards the east.
Twilight grabbed the map, put it in her saddlebags, and walked to the west.
As she walked she once again admired the forest with a small, sad smile. She looked at the forest's beauty and it's brilliant innocence. She glanced at the forest with longing, wishing that the forest's innocence was hers.
She shook her head and said "But you will never regain the innocence you have lost." A few tears fell down Twilight's face before she wiped them off and forced herself to stop crying.
After just over an hour of walking later she got to her destination. A place called Henry's Hill, the tallest point in Whinnyapolis.
She got up to the top of Henry's Hill, layed down, and pulled out a pair of binoculars. She then commanded with a small frown 'Go, attack! Don't kill anypony!'
She watched with her binoculars as her hordes of undead galloped out from the trees and into the streets. The few police who were in the undead's way tried to fire their weapons at the undead but it was to little effect. They began to run away, shooting as they ran.
Twilight smiled as the rest of the city was emptied of armed personnel. The defenders ran and tried to reinforce the area being attacked.
Twilight stood up and ran towards the city with a small smile on her face. Her cloak flapped in the wind as she ran, a wide grin on her face. 'Everything is going perfectly, finally something goes my way!'
Twilight looked up into the sky and her eyes widened in surprise. Above her was Celestia's and Luna's royal chariots, flying above her head.
Twilight's eyes widened with dread. 'No, it can't be!' She stopped running and leaned on a tree for support, her legs wanting to give out under her 'The princesses are here!'
Twilight got back to her hooves and ran as fast as she could. Her eyes wide with terror and fear. Her breathing rapid and sporadic. As she ran, she could hear the sound of explosions in the distance. 'No, no, no! Everything is starting to fall apart!'
She finally got into the city. The streets were empty and the only sound she could hear was the sounds of distant gunfire.
Twilight ran in and out of alleyways, trying to stay in the shadows. She ran out of an alleyway and into an empty street. She pulled out her map and took a quick look at it as she ran. She smiled as she looked at the map 'I'm almost to the bridge! After that it's the home stretch!'
She then rolled up the map and put it back into her saddlebags. She kept running down the road as fast as she could until it went over a highway. She jumped down onto the empty highway and ran towards the north.
She could see the bridge in the distance. It was a black suspension bridge and was just under half a mile away. She ran to it and onto it with a small cheer "Yes! I'm almost through!"
She kept running but as she approached the opposite side a line of royal guards blocked her approach. She came to a screeching halt. She looked behind her and saw another line of guards back the way she came. She was trapped.
'Shit! What am I going to do!' She looked around for any sort of escape. She looked over at the river. 'Yes, I can just jump!' She moved a hoof to her left but as soon as she moved a muscle all of the guards raised their guns directly at her.
"Don't even think of running, Necromancer!" A loud, booming voice spat behind Twilight. She turned around and saw Celestia standing tall with golden plate armor covering her entire body except her head. Her mane flew in the wind. It was a sight to behold.
As Twilight stared at Celestia her face twisted into a look of true horror. Her eyes wide with fear and her mouth agape. She took a step backwards trying to put some distance between herself and Celestia.
Behind Twilight another voice boomed out. Luna using the Royal Canterlot Voice yelled "We have fought your kind before! We are masters at defeating the people of death, and you will be next!" She said in a much quieter voice "I'm sorry Twilight, I wish it didn't have to come to this, goodbye." She nodded at Celestia and both of them then in unison shot a beam of white light directly at Twilight.
In the split second Twilight had to react she swiftly rose a magical shield around herself. The beams of light collided with Twilight's shield. Twilight grunted with effort, all ready beads of sweat were forming on her forehead. The shield slowly got smaller and smaller around Twilight as time went on.
The shield was about to fail when Celestia and Luna gave up their attack. As soon as they stopped Twilight fell to her knees, panting and filled with panic. She raised her head and looked at the guards. She saw that two of them had a lot of heavy explosives. A new plan formed in her mind.
Celestia walked over to the kneeling figure, still protected by the purple shield around their body. She couldn't even believe what she was seeing. Twilight Sparkle, necromancer..
"You are quite powerful," Celestia said not noticing the commotion on the ends of the bridge. Celestia frowned "It's a pity that all of your power and potential was wasted on you."
Celestia looked over at Luna and nodded. Luna cast the same spell as before at Twilight. This time though instead of holding strong Twilight's shield shattered and she was blown backwards towards the northern end of the bridge.
They began to walk over to Twilight when they were stopped by a loud bang. Twilight laughed even through the burning pain she felt where Luna's spell hit her side. 'Can't believe they didn't see that coming!' shethought.
The explosion happened at the piers of the bridge, completely blowing them apart and leaving the whole bridge floating on thin air with nothing supporting it. The entire bridge fell into the river, collapsing under its own weight.
Celestia and Luna flew into the air away from the bridge. Twilight on the other hoof just put up a shield around her again and fell into the water. She looked up at Celestia and Luna with a mixture of longing and sadness. 'I wish things could go back to how they were before all of this,' Twilight sobbed as tears fell down her face 'If only it could.'
She traveled for about ten minutes downstream until she hit the bank of the river and climbed out. She ran north into the woods, teleporting every once in awhile just to try and make it harder for someone to follow her.
After two hours of running she finally stopped and sat down. She took off her saddlebags and laid them down next to her. She dug in her bags until she found her blanket, put it down, and layed on top of it. As soon as her head touched the ground she was out. She had a dreamless sleep that night. It was possibly one of the best nights of sleep she ever had. If only she had a great day to go with it.