For those of you readers who are new to this, what you are seeing is not a typical gathering of ponies. Nor is the gathering comprised solely of ponies, though the majority of them are. No, what you are seeing, or perhaps more aptly described, reading, is a gathering of the most clandestine kind. A sort of gathering that makes mobsters shiver, drug dealers scurry and the most hardened of criminals think twice about entering into, no matter what the proposition.
For the average extra-Equestrial being to describe a pony, certain adjectives such as ‘adorable’, ‘cute’, ‘colourful’ and ‘friendly’, would be more than adequate and very accurate in describing the greater populace of Equestria. However, a stranger stumbling into a meeting such as this would most likely fall victim to shock and horror. Their minds would implode in the familiar sequence of events that would be akin to a similar circumstance involving a world-view or entire philosophy or perception viciously and utterly gutted for the pleasure of these members.
Reading this, you would probably think: Who are these people?
A better question would be: What are they doing?
A biologist would be able to name the physical outward appearance of many of these associates. A hippogriff, a griffon, some ponies, a manticore, diamond dogs and even a dragon would be among the few that had gathered here tonight.
When Kibitz mentioned crimes against magic as being a high-class felony, he was serious. When it came to necromancy, he was dead serious.
Necromancy had not been such an outlawed magic in ages past. Indeed it had been greatly sought after, especially during the pre-classical era. When unicorns first discovered how to reanimate the dead, innocent ponies were delighted to welcome their deceased pets back to the living. Those pets, which were not sapient, were almost indistinguishable, and with enough magical charge, the stench of decay and the appearance of a decomposing body were spelled away to give their lovable pets back.
The problem stemmed from sapience, the higher level of consciousness that all animals aspired to. Though necromancy certainly conquered death, the revived beings all lacked something essential required to bring them back fully.
There were no memories.
There were no emotions.
Some would say, there were no souls.
Anguished, many turned to necromancy as a way to get their loved ones back. Countless people tried reviving their closest friends, or lovers, or even just people they knew but blamed themselves for their death. Whatever the requirements were, be it a physical or magical one, it was never enough and many gave up their lives in an attempt to bring back the dead to the land of the living.
Necromancy became a darker and darker art as many followers were suddenly convinced it was a matter of exchange: one living soul for a dead one.
The tragedy that was the necromancy history culminated when one unicorn made the ultimate sacrifice and a living pony was sacrificed to the dead.
Amazingly, it had worked, but the results were tragic.
The unicorn responsible had tried to bring back his lover and it appeared to have worked, she remembered who she was and what had happened. She had registered pain, quite a lot of it but attributed it to the accident that originally killed her.
When she saw her body though and what was sacrificed for her soul… she screamed inanely. For hours on end. In fact, she only stopped screaming when magic failed to keep her voice box from operating. After two full days of horrific psychological agony, finally she ‘died’ her soul leaving her body, unable to bear the weight of guilt that lay on her dead shoulders.
Such pain and misery finally prompted the royal pony sisters to intervene. They decreed that from that incident on, necromancy was prohibited, unconditionally.
Protests broke out. Necromancy had become entrenched in pony society and tendrils of its temptation had crossed borders into griffon territory. One by one, after more and more horror stories of sacrifice and soul exchange were reported. As each incident ended in loss and even more grief, the voices of rebellion was crushed by incriminating self-admission.
The ponies saw the irony was necromancy was declared dead.
Many moved on trying to forget.
But nothing tempting is ever truly eradicated and extremists are few but constant in any illegal or esoteric field. Members for tribalism, speciesism and dark magic receded from the light and their followers grew ever more fanatical and radical as time wore on.
Necromancy though, was a little different.
At its core necromancy separated itself from the other groups by trying to keep their morals. There were grey areas for sure but the benefits that necromancy offered to this world was the best bet out the alternatives. Dark magic corrupted but necromancy was neither bad nor good. It was just magic. The founders had reasoned this and had worked it all out.
Their charter was built from the shadows but contained a speck of light. Members were committed to finding a solution to the problem of soul exchange. No longer would they sacrifice sapient beings on this world.
So necromancy continued to persevere for thousands of years, hidden in the dark.
The code of necromancy was held strong and moral and those that practiced never sacrificed a soul. Those who did were exiled from necromancy, to fare how they would with the authorities. Time wore on and there was no solution in sight. Members dropped and necromancy became just a fringe group for those seeking to revive inconsequential lives.
Until one day, when a certain unicorn member of the Modern Necromancy Guild found a solution to the multi millennium old problem.
It had been devastatingly simple. Soul exchange would occur, that couldn’t be gotten around, but the souls that would be sacrificed would not be on Equus anymore. They had found a new outlet for souls, after obtaining a long forgotten book from Star Swirl the Bearded in his search for a null being.
His book had warned that the null being summoning spell had a fatal flaw. Teleportation had been Star Swirl’s solution to procuring a null being. Since teleportation magic created a tear for which ponies could ‘step through’ to the other side, the magic was not directly affecting the null being and thus could possibly stay viable enough to pass it through.
However Star Swirl discovered that without mirror magic to stabilise the connection (a null being passing through a mirror would shatter on contact), the spell would collapse on itself partway through the traversal stage and the soul which had been moving through with its memories, either flung backwards or forwards (with no guarantee that the memories would come back with it), be damaged irreversibly on the way back or to the destination or finally arrive completely intact without the body.
Without enough of an energy boost from the other side of the connection or the framework for laying out the spell on the other side, transferring an intact being would be impossible. With no way to establish communications on the null world without the spell degrading before contact there was no potential for setup. The spell had been scrapped and relegated to a small appendix in an obscure volume.
The Modern Necromancy Guild though, found a perfect use for the spell and practiced it with wild abandon.
At first it was just animals and plants using the energy of the souls they had gained through the null world. Then they moved onto soul exchange when they found it worked. The problem of wasted and decayed flesh was solved by a simple matter conversion. Souls contained energy and with enough souls, approximately one thousand, new bodies could be created. Excited, they revived all members of the necromancy guild and were exalted for their discovery.
But progress was rarely bothered with ethics and in their enthusiasm they had forgotten important information. Where had the souls really come from? What cost did it have on lives on another world? Blinded by ambition and greed, the members of the Modern Necromancy Guild kept going, with the toll on Earth steadily rising.
After reviving the founding guild member, they were reminded of their original charter. The founder, a black female dragon named Sharp, had been furious when the cost of the necromancy was relayed. She immediately ordered no further spells be cast but the damage had already been done.
Half a million on Earth were affected and for only a measly one hundred souls.