Live/Death
I slowly stand out of the black liquid, letting it drip gently down from my body.
I guess it was time to let go. Even the best flesh preservation spells can only do so much against two years of wear and tear.
I shake a bit to get rid of most of the remaining droplets and carefully step out of the caustic bath in which I spent the past three hours scrubbing the dead flesh from my bones. The scraping tools float gently on the surface of the black, foaming liquid, and I can even spot the hook I had to use to get my brain out. Apparently the explosion that killed me did so by discharging massive bolts of electricity in the room, one of which decided to pass right through my skull. I can now tell from experience that a two-year old cooked brain pickled in preservation magic is annoyingly difficult to work with.
I ponder for a moment what to do with this rotting corpse stew. The smell must be gut-wrenching for anyone with a nose.
After a while, I decide that the easiest solution is to simply teleport the whole mess into the nearest volcano. No water pollution or ruined ground, and the smell won’t bother anyone for more than a few seconds. It's far from a proper burial, but I'm far from properly dead anyway, am I?
Goodbye, organs. I enjoyed our time together.
I then turn the brand-new faucet on, just to rinse myself. Can’t be too careful about the risk of eroding my bones with too long an exposure to acid. They’re not ready yet.
…
Fluttershy isn’t ready either. She still hasn’t been able to work up the courage to see me in person again. We just exchange letters for now. It’s… okay.
My thoughts drift to the rest of my friends while I slosh around in the water to make sure I’m rinsed properly.
Most of them take some time out of their week to visit me in the newly-renovated Everfree castle. Princess Celestia formally gave it to me, saying it was to give me time and space to adjust to my new… existence. I know it’s mostly to keep me away from the normal populace so they don’t freak out as much, but it’s okay. I can’t blame them. Someone recently told me I was starting to smell really bad.
Besides, with the riots caused by the announcement of my… condition, I agree that it’s best to keep me far from civilization. The only ponies I ever see nowadays are the really brave ones who know what they’re getting into by walking into the Everfree. Most of my friends included.
Rarity always brings something to liven up the place, or to work a bit on the existing decorations. Even the older sections of the castle look better with each passing month. I don’t really see the point, but if it gives her a motive to visit me every so often, I’m not against it.
Rainbow either spends our times together in my personal, greatly-improved library; or up above the castle, trying to wrestle the wild weather of the forest. Or just bringing me along on casual flights. We sometimes go to fly all the way over Ponyville. ...I honestly prefer to stay here.
I need to remember to check if I can still fly with just these puny little bones I have for wings now.
Pinkie… just doesn’t seem to understand that I don’t eat anymore. She keeps bringing cakes and candy. She says maybe if I considered hiring guards and staff I could give it to them. I feel it’s not entirely necessary; the wildlife tends to steer clear of the castle for some reason. Besides, I don’t think we need to worry about any attempts on my life.
I sometimes get the feeling Applejack doesn’t visit as often as she could. But she’s probably just really busy.
Standing up again, I let the water drain and begin drying myself with a towel. My checklist is still where I left it, near the door. Up next is… the few hours in the kiln to make sure my bones are as desiccated as possible. Fair enough. It’ll give me some more time to think, even more than usual.
I move to the hallway, my bones making a new, clattering sound on the stone floor. I never knew how much muffled hooves were compared to bare bones. You learn something new every day, I suppose. Even in death.
The dark corridors are silent as I make my way downstairs to the ancient blacksmith’s workshop. No one lives here. Literally. Visits from my friends and Spike are the most activity this castle sees, although Spike says he wants to move in with me again. While it would certainly give the castle some more life, I’m not sure this is a good place for him.
A mass of old furniture grabs my attention as I walk by, a single object among the others in particular. I pause, then levitate the tall object out and away from the pile.
Under an old, mold-stained blanket rests a mirror. I haven’t looked at my reflection since that night I woke up, two years ago.
I shake my head at the sudden rush of memories. Of course, leave it to me to invent a new, never-before-seen form of necromancy while I’m too dead to remember how I did it. Despite my best efforts, I’m still far from figuring out a way to undo this. Turns out what I remember of the time I spent fully dead has absolutely nothing to do with what I actually did to lock myself away from the afterlife.
Knowing that would certainly be useful.
I pull the cloth away from the mirror. In front of me now stands the horrific sight of an alicorn’s skeleton, scrubbed clean of its flesh. Two dots of purple, necromantic light shine in the black, empty eye sockets.
I’m not as terrified as I expected. It merely reminds me of the old anatomy models in school.
I open and close my jaw a few times, my teeth clacking together rhythmically. That is a slightly more unnerving sight, but it quickly starts looking like some theater prop in action.
“Alas, poor Twilight! I knew her well!”
My chuckle echoes down the halls, strangely amplified and distorted by the ventriloquism spell I had to invent just to be able to speak when my vocal cords snapped from too much use and the incapacity to heal. That had been a ‘fun’, mute week.
I concentrate a little, creating a small orb of light with my magic. Moving it somewhere between the mirror and my face, I notice that the light seems incapable of piercing the shroud of pitch-black darkness inside my eye sockets. That’s strange and somewhat creepy, but mostly disappointing; I would have liked to observe the back of my eyeholes. I draw a leg closer, noticing for the first time the minuscule tendrils of magic flowing within the joints. Huh. Is that how my bones are bound together? Is that how I can still move?
No matter, those are questions for another day. I turn away from the mirror, making a mental note to move it somewhere I frequent more often some time later. For now, it’s time to go lounge in an oven for twelve to twenty hours. After that will be the three-day soak in the special resin formula I concocted with help from Zecora, and then a few more days in the kiln to make sure the resin can set and harden properly.
And then my bones will be nearly indestructible. Just because I don’t enjoy my undeath doesn’t mean I should be careless with it; who knows how long I’ll be stuck like this, and I’d rather spend that time in a still-somewhat-functioning shell. No sense in vaporizing what I have left when I have no clue whether or not it ends me or just traps me in an even worse existence. I'm not ready to risk that just yet.
Still, days upon days of just sitting in place… it’s going to be a long, long week.
Oh well. I do have all the time in the world now, don’t I?
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Sequal! I dunno why I'd just like to see a continuation either into her research, or just various adventures based on LichLight.
What kind of self-respecting lich doesn't have a phylactery, I ask you? Shameful!
I quite enjoyed this little romp, though. It was a fun idea and well-executed. Bravo!
I am now interested in a series about this. I think it could be very interesting. But if this the final end, then I must say it has been a good ride and you have woven a magnificent tale. I applaud you, author, and wish you good fortune on your future endeavors. This has been a truly riveting time.
Well that was an interesting read...though I feel like there could be a sequel.
SEQUEL! SEQUEL!
Sequel! Thy gods demand it!
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
Decent enough ending, but no mention of her family at all? Or the fate of the guard she nearly killed? And a time skip after the reunion with Celestia in the throne room?
It's been a good story, and I think I'll even leave a thumbs up on account of the overall idea and the strength of the scene with Celestia (and the conclusion with Twilight turning herself into an industrially preserved skeleton, that was pretty cool), but I just can't help but be a bit disappointed at all the character interaction we didn't get.
Sequel! Seriously, you have a great idea, either write a sequel or get someone else to do it, but there must be a sequel!
Rarity could probably put together a fake skin for her. Add a little stuffing, and Twilight can look like a life-size plush doll with an unholy calcified center!
Just gotta watch out for mold. Don't need odor problems again.
There is a solution to the Cake Problem: the Magic Jar spell. Lich's best friend. Ultimate vacation! You can party all night, eat all the ice cream you want and, in the morning, your
victimassistant has to deal with the STDs.I also would like a sequel. Everybody loves the undead. Some people REALLY love the undead. Some people love the undead so much that they've spent time in jail for it.
I agree SEQUEL!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, you could make something really awesome with that. Undead Twilight is something I haven't seen like that on this here site. Could you find it within you to write a sequel for this?
Heh. Yeah, sorry about that.
Well no wonder Winona was barking at her, she just wanted a bone. Dem magic undead bones must be especially delicious.
Great story! I'm glad Twilight got a somewhat
happyerr... hopeful ending. Do you see a sequel in our future?Great Story!!!
Although I was wondering if Twilight became evil...
Hmm Guess we'll never know...
I would love a sequel to this, though I am in no way disappointed with the ending. So I would be happy whether there was a sequel or not.
Hopefully Twilight can figure things out and lead a more normal "life" someday soon.
wow....that ending was...depressing...and a little disappointing...I'm sorry to say that the start feels like it was way better then the ending though. I feel like so much could have been done with this and now...its over.
I think I can speak for most of us who found this story early on that we were kind of hoping for more.
There are just so many ways I think this could have been better.
It would have been great to see things like: Twilight meeting and friends and family again, their reactions to her being back and actually getting to talk to her and trying to work out exactly what happened to her.
I also feel a better ending would have been either bringing her back to life completely or something more deep and emotional, provide a way for her to die properly and after a touching final good bye scene have her pass on.
The first chapter in this story was by far the best, its kind of a shame the pacing and writing quality seen there wasn't really carried out through the rest of the story. As it is, this story is good, but its a long way from fantastic.
What really holds this story back for me is the unused potential. As said above there are so many things this story could have done and it just...ends...without actually doing any off them. Sure some ideas were started and began to develop, but they were never finished. It All just ends so abruptly it left me thinking "That's it?"
Please understand I still love this. I'm just disappointed that this ended up being just an idea release and not the fully developed epic story it could have been.
The idea is great, The spelling is good, The grammar is good, the potential is there for something fantastic. Its just sad to see this story not use that full potential and end on what is a rather depressing note like this.
A squeal could possibly help resolve these issues however. *hint hint*
Edit: Other points that could have been addressed that I didn't mention. Her nearly killing a guard is looked over and there is no mention of her family at all after that fight they had.
4851372
You missed one: Did Winona make it? For all we know, she could have anything from a cracked rib to a cracked skull.
I wish to see a "The Life and Times of Lich Twilight" continuation...
4851338 4851357 4851360 4851365 4851366 4851377 4851401 4851404 4851412
You know, when I said (4836782) "Undead Princess Twilight Sparkle: Monster Slayer"...
I... wasn't entirely joking.
It would stray a lot more into comedy, be composed more of random episodic slices of (badass action) life than a chronologically flowing single narrative, and would update with absolutely ridiculous unreliability (basically "whenever I get an idea")...
But I'm seriously considering it.
Especially with the reception this one had.
Damnit guys! I already have way too many ongoing stories to juggle!
4851494 Then you shouldn't have made another great story then!
4851489
I think you mean "The Life and Times of a Winning Lich".
Sad to see the time skip over most of the stuff that I was interested in. I'm not quite clear on how much of the "real" Twilight was left in her... She's so dispassionate here, and has gone from being the Princess of Friendship to not really caring about living a solitary existence with only occasional visits from some of her friends and no thought of her family. Following her raging anger from the earlier chapters, it seems like Twilight did indeed lose an important part of herself after death.
Regardless, it was an entertaining read and a very intriguing premise! Thanks for sharing it.
4851494 That sounds... interesting. Not bad, just interesting. I would honestly love to see it, would be like it's own TV series, you know just written instead. I hope to see it sometime. Especially if it is directed by Michael Bay.
4851489 same
This was amazing and it is perfect for a sequel.
Twilich is best skeleton.
EDIT: I wouldn't mind a follow-up in which she comes out on Nightmare Night.
4851494 Yes, please.
So I guess with her situation she's a bit... Boned.
4851494
More!
I could imagine Rarity coming up with some sort of, um... for lack of better word, "outfit", to cover up much of the skeleton and give her a more acceptable appearance -- perhaps even downright artistic, in an abstract way.
Why punctuated for emphasis?
And why not a Phylactery? Did she just skip making one when she accidentally invented liches? Could she make one if the idea occurred to her?
Hooray! for the Twilich. May she always be the element of magic.
Well, i think this fic really need a sequel. Like time jump on 100-200 years in future there CMC/Elements childrens going in Everfree Castle for... i dunno... for info to historic class? about first Elements or mythic princess Twilight Sparkle? and they will find alicorn skeleton in throne wear old dark purple robe with hood... Oh! and spiderweb everythere! add some new forgoten threats and... you have AU/Adventure fic. But i think that sequel really need time jump. Pony must forgot about Twilight.
4851578
That was bad, and you should feel bad.
This story had me glued from the moment I started reading, and now that it's over I dind myself wanting more...
Off to the undead group to see if I can find any, I suppose. Necromancer Foal hasn't updated in a while...
Well duuh silly! Why would she even have a box containing Hebrew texts? People think the weirdest things
4851631
I just decided it would be an unnecessary complication to the story, and that I didn't want to have to go into detail about it in a short little one-shot, so I left out that concept entirely. She's just not that exact flavor of lich.
As for the punctuation emphasis, it's because "what's her phylactery" sums up about half of all the comments, and I wanted to make sure we were all on the same track.
#SEQUEL
I'd say that I was happy to see that Twilight has learned to live with her condition, but that'd be in bad taste.
It is somewhat morbidly sweet about her acceptance, and how her friend still care about her.
4851676 Fair enough all around.
Bravo! I enjoyed this immensly and would love to see it continued particulary as it seems Discord knew something in the last chapter plus I would love to see how her friends deal with a undead Twilight Sparkle.
4851471
This is pretty much my feelings about this as well.
I think that part of the problem (or at least the reason for this, it's not necessarily a problem if it's what he intended) is that Lord Destrustor very specifically wrote a Dark fic. Not a Dark/Adventure fic, not a Dark/Comedy fic, not a Dark/Slice of Life fic, not a Dark/Sad fic, and not a Dark/Anthro/Human/Romance/Comedy/Random fic. It's just a Dark fic. It tells just enough to give the story a sense of completion, but it manages to do so while leaving out all the details that would add in some sadness, comedy, adventure or anything like that, and thus possibly distract away from the darkness of the story.
In a way, I'm actually kind of impressed by it.
That being said, I think that while that makes the story an interesting exercise in writing dark fics and maybe gives us a good look at what goes into them, I feel that the story itself has suffered from it. Most of what would normally be the most interesting parts of this story are missing, having been tossed out because they're not dark enough. This leaves us with a story where (in my opinion, at least) the middle three chapters are pretty boring, and the readers are left with a feeling of incompleteness and want more.
Fortunately, it looks like Lord Destrustor has plans to continue this.
You know. I was almost expecting a sad ending where Twilich get turned to dust, or something.
But it's nice to see that you realize that PonyLiches are ponies too, and deserve to be treated as such.
4851658 Guess I can't always... knock 'em dead.
4849523 Well, as long as everyone is happy.
That was morbid I liked it
I really want to see a sequel to this now. The life and adventures of the Lich Princess of the Everfree! To be honest, I do kind of want to see her eventually reintegrate back into Ponyville. They did get fairly used to the fact that the world could end starting with their little town every Tuesday morning. I'm sure that a living skeleton wouldn't be off the table eventually, especially if she acts like herself like normal. Plus that'd be hilarious seeing the reactions of newcomers.
wow, just wow.
An ending like this feels right, as nothing really does get fixed. It fits better then a pure happy ending.