//------------------------------// // Dark Beginnings // Story: Tale of the Narcissistic Skeleton // by Magna85 //------------------------------// Yo. My name is Larry Crawford. Or that was my name. My name now is Mortis Magister, or “death master” in Latin, give or take some grammatical stuff, maybe. You see, I was a normal human, just like you reading this. Or maybe you’re a pony who found this, in which case, drop this book now. Anyway, I was just wandering through the streets on a dark night during All Hallows Eve. Kinda stereotypical when you think about it. I saw this guy walking towards me. He was hunched over, about 5 feet tall, and might bruise in a stiff wind. But, and I kid you not, he was carrying a frigging seven foot tall scythe! Now, I was no slouch in the body department, what with my near six foot frame along with an over six foot armspan. I exercised semi-regularly, so I would say that I did have enough muscle to at least give a single low weight wrestler a work out. But I was also no slouch in the mind department either. If anyone had a weapon, I automatically thought that they could use it. So, I quickly moved into a nearby alley and placed my back on a nearby wall, hoping that my blindingly red hair hadn’t given away my position. It also helped that I saw that the man had a hood up, so I couldn’t really see his face, which means he probably couldn’t have seen me either. Holding my breath, I waited for the obviously unstable man to pass. I mean, who in their right mind would have a huge scythe right out in the open? I sure wouldn’t. Anyway, I saw the back of his brown hoodie as he shuffled his way past. However, as he reached the entrance, he turned towards me. The curved scythe blade glinted in the light of the moon. Except the moon wasn’t out. Remember when I said it was a dark night? Yeah, it was the night of a new moon. There was no way it could have shined in my face, but it did. And only now do I understand why. Had I taken a closer look at the blade, I would have seen galaxies and stars in the blade, spaced out by the utter absence of light. I could have only seen it because it was blacker than the night surrounding it. Fear raced through my body as the suddenly very threatening man crept up in front of me before he said in a raspy voice, “Hope you have a nice trip.” Just as I was about to ask what he meant, the nothingness of the scythe flew forward and stabbed straight into my heart. Instantly, blackness surrounded me. --POV: Unranked Self-- --2000 Years Later-- Leading a war against two goddesses was probably not the best idea in hindsight. Using what they saw as their own ponies as soldiers was most likely even worse. And that’s not including those that I assassinated by tearing their hearts from their chests. Being encased in stone was not what I had in mind for the rest of my now probably immortal life. But, I can feel a change in the air. A certain, fragility. For so long, all I could do was think, plot, and feel the emotions of everything in what felt like a twenty mile radius. But, after these long years I could finally feel the bonds that held this stone to my form breaking. Something must be causing a tremendous ruckus topside. The emotions felt like sheer glee from whatever it was doing. It reminded me of an old friend that I knew a dozen centuries ago. Grinning to myself, I forced my right arm to move, cracking the stone covering my body. I moved it again, feeling the shoulder break its hold. I bent my arm at the elbow while clenching my hand, freeing both from the stone. After repeating the process with my other arm, I twisted my head to the left, shifting the stone on my neck. Using both hands, I forced my head to the right, both cracking my neck and breaking the stone’s connection with my body. After that was done, I slammed both of my hands into the sides of my head, breaking the stone into tiny pieces. After I shook the rest of the stone out of my hair, I reached to my right for the scythe that I came to Equestria with. Or the First came with. It wasn't a true replica, but it would do. Grabbing the hilt, fond memories of the many creatures that had fallen to it came to me, causing my face to pull into a sadistic grin. The silver blade with a black edge glinted in the dim light of somehow-still-burning torches. As I looked into the blade, I saw that my skin had apparently grown back in my imprisonment. Perhaps the skin would camouflage my aura, perhaps not. Returning to the task at hand, I bashed the blunt end of my scythe against the stone covering my legs, breaking the now weak stone to pieces. I smashed my left hand to my chest, breaking the stone there as well. Now completely free of the stone, I stepped down off of the pedestal. Breathing in, I felt my chest expand in the stale air of the tomb. Hearing cracking to my right, I saw that a statue of myself was also climbing out, yet was me as a girl. With the hood down, she could have been called beautiful by men. Since I was a guy, being called beautiful and the mere fact that I was looking at a girl me would have freaked me out long ago, but I had gotten used to such thoughts. Shoulder length flaming red hair framed a slightly elfin face. Her face was pulled into a neutral expression as she stared at me with red eyes. The First’s eyes, also mine and hers, were originally green, but changed to red upon his arrival to Equestria. Due to our nature, we shared a small conversation with nothing but a look. All of my, or our, selves follow the same logic process that the First would go through. Thus, we both arrived at the conclusion to help the rest of our selves. We nodded together, and went to break the rest of myself out of their prisons. Sounds of cracking and smashing sounded out of the tomb as our scythes cracked millennia old stone from our brothers/sisters/selves. But no one heard it. No one had come to my tomb in the 2000 years that I had been here. After we had broken out the rest of us, the only objective in my mind was to set up a base where we could safely expand without being discovered. Just I started plotting, I saw fog rise from the ground as my forgotten misdirection power became active again. Grinning, as I’m sure the rest of my selves were doing, I let it do its work, twisting signs and roads away from my position, weaving brambles together to keep prying eyes away, and causing the fog to thicken into something that none but us could see through, but inside and outside my/our tomb. Thus satisfied with making sure nothing could find us, short of scrying our location and directly teleporting, I turned towards the door that kept me sealed off from the outside world. All twenty of my selves, as one, smashed into the door. Our scythes crashed and bashed, breaking the wood open quite easily. As I stepped out into the light, I smiled at the feeling of warmth that flooded my skin. The warmth of happiness flooded my mind as the rest of me did the same thing, momentarily blocking out the myriad of ambient emotions that usually held their place in my head. Two thousand years of nothing but listening to emotions had almost completely deadened my own, or our own, emotional capacity. Feeling such joy at nothing but the light of the sun, regardless of who controlled it, was now a rare pleasure. Looking around, I saw that I was in front of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, falling in on itself due to age. The two stupid Princesses had just left me under the crumbling building. Windows were shattered, the top floor looked completely exploded, and walls that hadn’t collapsed looked like they were about to. I was slightly angry that the princesses had simply thought I would roll over and die. Me, or, well, the First, Mortis Magister! I, who taught them the arts of war! Well, I had a plan to take them down. Or, we did. And it wasn't going to be pretty. After scouting around to see if any of the various creatures of the Everfree Forest were around the ruined castle from before my misdirection power did its job, I regrouped with the rest of me to discuss about who was going to do what. Suddenly, a very specific draconequus popped into existence beside me. No, he literally spawned a balloon next to me and it popped open with his smug mix and matched face staring at the castle. However, I sensed a smidge of confusion from him. Looking around in surprise, he said, "Well, I hadn't expected you to get out until I personally pumped some chaos into your statues, why did you have to go and ruin my fun?" He adopted a slightly humorous pose, crossing his mismatched arms and pouting comically. Sighing, I said, or, we said at once, "Discord. Why am I not surprised that you would instantly turn the world upside down once you got free?" A smirk made itself known on our lips as we watched Discord turn himself upside down and float that way with a huge grin on his face. His antics always seemed to bring a smile to my face, regardless of what mistake I had done. As such, Discord had gotten used to me speaking with one voice in the time we had been partners, whenever I had done it. "It's because you know me so well!" Discord said, tapping my nose with a lion claw. I brushed my nose off as he turned himself right side up. Friend though he may be, Discord still finds ways to get under my skin. Crossing my arms, I asked, "Discord, what has happened in the time we were imprisoned?" still speaking with my entire voice. Seeing all of me cross my arms in sync got a shiver out of him. Apparently the Order we exuded from a synchronized gesture still made him disgusted, but he quickly forgot and said, "Well, I could tell you, but where's the fun in that? Why don't you go do what you do best and grab some memories from a poor pony’s head?" Bringing my fingers to my forehead in the wake of a growing headache, I said, "You very well know that such a tactic would only work in the historian had no other contacts. Such a prodigious target would almost immediately be missed, especially if he or she was a professor." "But has that ever stopped you before? Come now Larry, you and I both know that you're just itching to get back at Celly and Luna. Don't worry too much about missing ponies, I'll be spreading so much wonderful chaos that they will hardly be missed!" Discord said, a huge smile planted on his mixed muzzle. Placing a hand to my chin in thought, I went over the possibilities. The collective knowledge of a dozen or so assimilated pony geniuses helped me in making a battle plan. It only took me a few seconds, but I reached the conclusion that Discord was actually right for once. If he wasn't speaking madness again, that is. Thus, I said, "Ok Discord, go spread around as much chaos as you like. Just tell me if the Elements of Harmony are still in the Princess' control." Adopting a semi-serious pose, complete with a bubble pipe, Discord said, "I can tell you, good sir, that dear old ‘Tia and Luna do not have control over them anymore. However, there are six new bearers, whom I have taken care of already." With that, the pipe popped and he said, "Well, it's been fun seeing you again, but I have so much to do and so little time to do it. Arrivederchi!" Then he snapped his claws and teleported somewhere. I sighed from his antics, slightly irritated by his lack of help. But I couldn't bring myself to be truly angry with him, since that’s just how Discord works. Or doesn't. You can never tell with him. Turning to my selves, we said, "We need to designate a Commander." We then replied, "Of course." Suddenly, all of my selves turned to me, probably because I was the first out of my prison. Nodding, I started designating other commanding positions such as Chief Assimilator, Recon Specialist, Osteo-Officer, and General of the Bones. This left 15 other of my selves noticeably upset due to not getting a higher position in the small force I had. This was mostly due to how I acted, because I would never want to be under the authority of someone else. However, once they realized that they would technically be taking orders from his/herself, their emotions and faces returned to a neutral expression. Because they hadn’t been chosen, the fifteen soldiers lined themselves up in front of us. Speaking up, I said, "Alright, we need to focus on recon and assimilation, so the CA and RS get more soldiers than the OO or GB. I hope we understand the logic of this. I will start off the counting by picking out one Bone Guard." I pointed to a female me closest to the left end of the line. They all nodded once and started taking turns picking out soldiers. I left the sub-commanders to choose their soldiers, not that it had much difference on who picked who. We were all clones of the First, who was in every one of us. We never die when our bodies are destroyed, we just get sucked back into the main consciousness of me. He had already died and been reborn as the first new assimilated taken once he had died several times over. Currently, he did not have a body to inhabit and was simply waiting for us to get a move on. Not that we could hear him, but we could sense his impatience from inside our heads. The girl self I picked out walked up beside me and seemed to be about to ask me a question, but came to a resolution before she could open her mouth. Most likely this was because I would have asked if I was better, to which I would have replied, "No, I just picked you out because you were the first from the left." Such patterns make me predictable, but when you have to fight with yourself over something, neither side will win due to equal amounts of intelligence or strength. So we take turns in getting what we want. It seems very childish now that I focus on it… Once all the new sub-commanders had their chosen soldiers, I said, "Now that you have your personnel, I will be giving specific instructions to each of you. RS, you are to scout out the town close by for any potential targets. Look for historians that no one will miss as a priority. You will report to the CA once you find a suitable target." She nodded and sprinted into the forest, her Shadow Eyes following in her wake. I turned to the CA and said, "While she is scouting out the area, you are to look for any candidates in the immediate forestry. The first will be the one to take over the historian, due to his experience. We must make a greater army before then, Celestia might have already detected our presence." He nodded and stalked his way over the rickety bridge, his Adepts close behind him. I faced the OO and said, "Use the knowledge of the doctors and herbalists we have assimilated, try to find healing medicine for those that need to have a healthy complexion." She nodded and walked over the bridge as her Scalpels trailed behind her. Finally, I looked towards the GB, saying, "Set up this place as our temporary or possibly permanent base of operations. Make it as secure as possible against those not of our specific body type." With that, the final sub-commander nodded and took his Scythe Masters into the castle, surveying just where to place the greatest traps. Finally done with giving orders, I thought "At long last, our plan is coming to fruition."