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.'