Shadow of the Necromancer

by Cynewulf

The Account of Silver Corner

Dear Uncle Poets,

I hope this letter finds you well. In any case, it can’t find you any worse than what I’d been led to believe was your fate... I’m getting ahead of myself. Sorry. It’s been a long day, and I just got back in from Ponyville two days ago. I’ve literally had five hours of sleep in the last forty-eight, and it’s bound to show, so sorry in advance.

I thought you were dead until a little after noon today when I received a hoofwritten note from my father that you two were staying in my old room upstairs. I’ll admit, I probably shed a tear or two right there; you have no idea how hard it was, seeing your shop. Well, no, I guess you would know. Crap.

I’m sorry, I’m kind of trying to write this quickly... but I don’t wanna miss anything, you know? I feel like it’s important. Like... if I don’t say it, nopony will. It’ll just have never happened. Maybe that would be good, if it simply never happened. But it would be a lie, even if only by omission. Because as awful and unholy as it was, it’s real and it happened and...

I’m not sure where I was going with that. Sorry, Uncle. Let me think here. Think. Right, your store.

Corner Books is actually in surprisingly good shape. Aunt Star’s little barrista counter is fine, if dirty. The right wall is totally gone, and there were... remains behind the register. I found some notebooks that looked important or personal, I guess full of poems or a story or two. I didn’t read it, I just flipped through to see if it was something personal so I could justify adding it to the catalogued items. All of your stuff is in the back room, I moved most of it myself. It’ll be checked for taint by mages and then shipped to Canterlot or something. I promise if they’re free of any taint from the incident, you’ll have them back. Tell Aunt Star her keepsake chest is safe, I made sure of it.

Gods... Uncle, Ponyville. I’m glad I saw it when we last visited you, and really had a good look. It was such a pretty village. I remember loving it. It’s just gone now. All of that charm just vanished. It’s dead. The streets are filled with rubble. Blood on some of the walls, overturned carts and what I guess were market stalls? It was impossible to tell what some things were before the incident. It was just chaos. I’ve seen what a hurricane can do to coastal towns, Uncle, and even the worst of them has nothing on what happened to Ponyville.

Thank Celestia for family get-togethers, huh?

The rest of the street was wreckage, but the store survived. I mean, it took damage and there’re some rather disturbing symbols scrawled on your walls in what I’m pretty sure is blood, but it’s still standing.

They only sent twenty-four of us. I was really confused at first, but I get it now: containment of information, but also all those sent had personal connections there. They swore us to secrecy before we left camp, and then reminded us of our vows when we entered town and when we left. The two mages who administered the rites of the Sun on us stayed outside the village, watching. The magic keeps you safe from necromantic energies, but not forever. And it doesn’t take away the feeling of it, Uncle. The air felt thick, like you’re walking through soup or something. Weird mist pooled in some of the houses, and those we avoided.

The dead littered the streets. We tried to identify them if there was enough left to identify. Often, there wasn’t. I have no idea what ran through those streets. None. I wasn’t there when the Princesses fired the shot that ended it. But it must have been awful. Huge chunks torn out of just everything, ponies literally shreds...

Gods, I can’t describe it. I don’t have time. When I told you I’d gotten five hours of sleep... Uncle, they gave me a whole day off after that day, and couldn’t sleep. Everytime I closed my eyes I saw this one pony. Her dead eyes. I saw this swirling design scrawled on a wall, one that I think continued into the street and just twisted around and around all over the place. I tried to follow it that day and I just couldn’t find an end. Maybe there wasn’t one. Maybe it goes on forever. Maybe it’ll be burned into the air when they demolish the walls and just keep going forever. It was so wrong, Uncle! It shouldn’t have existed! My partner on the street pulled me away from it and she told me I was babbling and sobbing and I believe her.

The whole town... it’s just wrong. It’s all so wrong.

I’m telling you this partially because as someone who escaped the massacre, you deserve to know. It was your home, after all. But also because right after I received that letter, my commanding officer asked me about you.

I talk about you a lot, Uncle. Writer, bookworm. I probably mentioned how many languages you know at some point, and I guess that’s what Captain Shining remembered.

So they’ll be coming by, probably with me in tow, to ask you to help them. They’ve got... diaries. Papers. Things. They need your help to translate them as quickly as you can. You’re free to say no, I guess... it’s all secret. But please, if you can help, do.

It was me who found them. The diaries, I mean. Day Star and I were checking the library. I won’t try to describe the inside of the library tree. If I start writing about the things we saw in there, I’ll lose it. I’ll start crying all over this stupid letter and burn it and go to bed. And then probably have nightmares about it and wake up in a cold sweat like last night. Over and over and over.

But we found these diaries. It’s really just one, but in volumes. I was so afraid I almost just burned it with magic and ran. I started reading and there... there was just meaningless scribbling. It didn’t mean anything to me. I recognized like one out of every eight words, maybe. And even then...

But it burned in my magic’s hold, and I started screaming. Traps, obviously, of course. I should’ve checked first for latent enchantment, but I was scared out of my mind. Fear makes you stupid. Day Star saved me, cut the connection between me and the book... but I’m afraid.

You knew Twilight Sparkle, didn’t you? The Princess’s student. I met her once, actually.

They’re her diaries, with a few clippings and letters from the Princess. Captain Shining Armor tells me that it’s encoded. He told me that it’s really important.

The mages tell me I’ll stop having nightmares soon. I just got a little taste of it, really. Only a smidgen. Anyway.

It’s really important, Uncle. I think it’s life or death, with these things. They have to know what happened, and this is the only record we probably have.

Tell Aunt Star that I send my love. If I can, I’ll try to come see you under less pressing circumstances.

Your Niece,

Silver Corner

Comments

[hypervelocity]

/remembers reading MM
/realizes this is a sequel
...oh dear.

[dragonus85]

read memento mori and immediately went to this. i am highly intrigued