Winter Aurora is a Lich. She didn't intend on becoming one, but now she can't help it. All she wants in her life is to be accepted by other ponies.
Part 1 of The Winter Memoirs
Note: This story will rapidly fluctuate between extremely sad, and absolutely hilarious, depending on the mood I'm in when I write. In addition, even I have no clue where this story's going, so I may be adding character tags over time.
Now with a prereader! Servo in Chapters 17, 18!
Now with another prereader! Pixel_Spark in Chapter 18!
Now with a group! The Winter Memoirs
Now with a needlessly added extra line!
Amazing art created by Pixel_Spark
Chapters (25)
Well you have my attention I'll be lurking around. I'll never miss a story with a liche in it.
5081729 Liches are as awesome as they are underused. The idea of a friendly one is even rarer. I like the idea of turning things most people think are inherently evil into innocent good guys.
Interesting story and I am looking forward to see the next chapter
Hmmm... not bad for a start. I have to question, how and why does everypony know she's a litch? Undead features, somewhat intelligent, does not automatically mean Litch. Also, is there like Litchs roaming to countryside? How would common villagers know what a litch is? These are minor complaints which could easily be explained in the world lore, but right now just kind of stand out as trouble elements with little to no reason.
5081745 If you saw her face, you'd instantly know she's undead. It's kind of rotting and smashed in a bit. That will be explained later. Secondly, I'm no undead expert. However, her phylactery should make it fairly obvious what type she probably is. I should go back and make sure I say she's got her phylactery on. Thirdly, in this world Lichees are dangerous and common enough that everypony is warned about them, yet still fairly rare. Basically it's like how parents warn children about thieves: They're fairly rare, but you need to know about them because their threat level is high.
Thank you!
Edit: the phylactery bit is fixed now.
5081757
That's what bothers me, they are rare. But between zombies, vampires, mummies, and what not litchs should not be immediately recognizable at least not to someone who has no experince with them. So unless undead are as common as say bears, where people of the area can recognize the difference between a black bear and a brown bear the standard response should be, "Aaahhh, Monster!" Or "Z z zu ZOMBIE!" the guard most likely would recognize a litch, or an undead hunter. But standard villager has a fair bit of ignorance. I guess the reason I have trouble with it being common knowledge is that it makes the common ponies look like they are fairly experienced with undead and different types of them.
Litch lore dictates that only the most powerful of spell caster's can make themselves into Litchs, so the idea that a pegasus filly could become one is almost inconceivable. From what I've read it seems like a curse, so lay pony like her mom with basic knowledge would think something is wrong and get her checked out. But if the population has no knowledge of such things they would assume she died as was raised as a monster.
5081828 You make a good point, I may be changing the response, or maybe that pony was a lore keeper... or something.
She's a pegasus filly who accidentally got turned into a Lich due to an accident involving a magic staff (mentioned) at the moment of her 'death'. The staff is very powerful, and the raw emotion the filly felt at the moment of her 'death' caused a spell to be cast accidentally. Not a curse exactly, but she didn't really want the eternal unlife of loneliness. She'd be perfectly happy if ponies cared for her. As for the ponies who assume she died and was raised by a monster? Well, think back to Zecora. Her only difference was a striped coat. How do you think ponies would feel about a pony who is literally dead on their hooves, practically immortal, with a rotting and smashed-in face?
Thanks!
5081844
Hmm.. He was in the gave yard maybe he could be the grave digger, or mortician. Also about that stick I can't help but imagine her as a sick twisted version of a magical girl. You got to give her some gruesome familiar as a parody of the genera.
Also yep standard pony response to strange is fear, also for the form of your terror being a little filly it would be extra terrifying. There is an undead, I can't recall at the moment that would take the form of a crying child all to draw the victim in to eat them. So many experts would guard themselves against such a trap.
5081883 This is why I love comments so much: they help me improve my story to address the concerns of the readers, while improving the accuracy of my story! Thanks so much!
By the way, how does a dead cat sound for a familiar?
5081922
Your welcome, I like the idea behind your story. Sad lonely girl, forced to endure hardships forced on her by society, blessed with a power she never wanted. It rather standard fare, but with a nice twist. I look forward to seeing more.
5081844
There's a lot of potential here, but there's also a lot of questions.
It's usually very difficult for even a powerful wizard to become a lich. Like some vampire mythos, the individual usually wants it to happen, because the state of undeath enhances their power, as well as makes them night invulnerable as long as their phylactery is intact. Voldemort wasn't considered a lich, but he's a good example of what one would be.
Average ponies wouldn't recognize the difference between a lich and a zombie, especially if she looks like she's rotting away. I get the impression that the staff itself is the antagonist in this story... some kind of semi-sentient artifact that took away her life (and death for that matter) and gave her some additional powers like control over corpses. Being a pegasus, Winter obviously doesn't (or didn't) have the magical proficiency that unicorns do, but there is a line from a story set in a D&D realm that went "So what if he wasn't a wizard. Wizards can be made." If the staff has any intelligence, it used her naivety about magical things when it created her, and now exerts a measure of control over her actions.
Since most authors don't write about liches at all, never mind benevolent ones in pastel pony land, as the author, one of the things you'll need to do is establish a headcanon about what it means to be a lich in Equestria. What makes your lich different from an intelligent zombie? If she has magic, why doesn't she just use a glamour spell to hide her rotting, smashed in face? Is the staff her phylactery, and if so, shouldn't she either be worried about it getting destroyed or be actively trying to destroy it so she can finally rest? How many years has she lived like this?
If she does have a familiar, the idea of an undead cat is interesting. Possibly another accident... most of the zombies and skeletons she raises are mindless automations, but this cat has a spark of intelligence and free will that doesn't exist in the others. She doesn't know how or why it happened, but is glad for it anyway.
Just throwing some stuff your way... maybe it sticks, maybe it doesn't.
5082186 I like it when people throw things at me! Once in a while, it's useful.
First off, her Lichiness was an accident caused my the staff. (Her soul wasn't bonded to it, however, it was bonded to her necklace. The staff just cast the spell.) In this case it happened because of the emotion she felt as she 'died', and to quote the future story, "I don't want to die." is what she says as she is passing away. The wand takes that wish, her emotions, and its own magic and swirls them together to get a Lich. No, the staff is not sentient.
Wizards can be made? Exactly. It's only been a few months since her 'death', so she can't do much, but next chapter will have her at a year since her 'death' and she will have learned a total of... 5 spells. So, if she can find a pony who can teach her a glamor spell to cover her face, she could totally do that. However, the issue with that is that nopony will go near her for long enough to teach her anything. She has to figure it out for herself. That hasn't even occurred to her yet.
I just can't get this out of my head...
Slight intelligence for her undead cat friend? Sounds good to me. Now all I need is a name...
Thank you for the advice!
5082401
I think you should consider how she uses magic, very carefully. Magic for a litch is not unusual, but for a pegasus it is. Imagine if in some Harry Potter Fic a muggle was suddenly able to cast magic without a magic wand, it kind of goes against the rules of magic in that world. so in the pony world, having a Pegasus become a magic class would be unusual, she might as well have sprouted a horn. now if all her magic was borrowed from say the magic stick, and all power came from said stick things would fit a little better into the setting. not saying that Lichs don't have powers of their own, but lich hood shouldn't grant the power of wizardry. The reason for this is wizards created Lich spells to extend their lives, but they alredy are powerful casters, what create a for that grants them a power they alredy have?
If you want her to learn and grow as a caster she could learn to use the stick and how to channel her pegasus magic into it in order to power it.
As for suggestions for a familiar, a zombie cat named Stitches. =P just a suggestion.
5082654 Heh... Stitches...
Well, the staff is what she uses to cast spells, just the phylactery is what keeps her alive... depending on your definition of alive. The only thing she can do without the staff is summon it from a dimensional pocket, for convenience's sake.
Hhaha, lazy villagers. Waiting half a year to call the guard. I'm surprised the town didn't try to hire adventurers to slay her. BTW she should hide when ponies come around, it would make more sense for how she was able to stay there all this time.
5082727 I'm afraid all the adventures in the near vicinity... took an arrow to the knee.
If she hid, I wouldn't get her to meet Snowflake.
5082738
True, but one thing to remember about writing, it's best to show not tell. Instead of a 6 month skip you should have written about the villagers reaction and their response to the threat. Then you could explain how the villagers came into knowledge of the litch. All things to consider as you grow as a writer.
A light hearted undead story. Loving it so far.
Accidentally immortal. Should be interesting to see how the princesses deal with this.
5085688 The Princesses won't actually encounter her for a good long while, Winter's afraid and she's not just gonna sit there and take it from them. She thinks they'd kill them. That is going to be a difficult chapter to write, though. The hardest chapters are either the best or the worst chapters... Well, we'll have to see how it goes!
As for the light-hearted undead? We don't seem to have enough of those.
Wow. Winter's mom is awful.
5086388 She is pretty mean. Then again, her job is to know about evil things and artifacts, and she's learned that Liches are evil, and she thinks her daughter intentionally cast dark magic. Still, her overreaction was very mean, and she's beating herself up over it. She will come back into the story... eventually.
Silly little Litch, forgetting she has Polymorph on her list of prepared spells at a caster level of 11.
5086395 She'd better feel awful.
5086650 I originally wasn't going to bring her back in and have her feel awful, but then I thought about it... No mother could possibly not feel guilt from something like this unless they were completely evil or a complete psychopath.
Best Parent EVAH
5087030 Well... Have you read a few sentences onward from that? Complete 180 opinion...
5086436 Heh... That would certainly be nice and convenient...
5087038 Uh, I mean, who the fuck says 'yes.' when their daughter questions about her death?
5087079 At least she's honest. What would you say if your son/daughter was dying in front of you and asked you if they were going to die?
5087086 i mean, There is this scene in countless movie and novels, and I've never seen reply being "Yep. yur gonna die. Too bad :P"
5087089 True. I've never really been good at writing those touching speeches, or those rousing ones. Or any type of speech at all. I really suck at speeches.
Winter's mother is just cold blooded. Makes me wonder if she actually loved Winter at all
5088294 She's coming back into the picture eventually, begging for forgiveness. Read comments below for more information. You're right, Winter's mom was really mean, but for reasons that will be explained. Including a deeply ingrained fear of dark magic. Which her little filly just cast, and she doesn't realize was accidental.
5088325 Oh ok
5088333 Thanks for the comment, though! I always try to answer comments to help the reader get a better feel for the story, improve my own writing, and because it's fun.
5088365 Your welcome
And uh... what's the name of the town?
5107381
Ugh. How coud I forget. 
How. Could. I. Forget. 
to. name. the. TOWN?! 
5107381 Got any good ideas for the name? I got nothing right now...
5107428 Just sleep on it or something.
5107428 Calypsion, after the Greek god of hiding, Calypso.
id draw a better cover-art if i could, but i cant draw worth two shits... sorry...
5108155 Thanks for the thought!
5108132 Thanks for the idea!
Finally a new chapter
I vote for Winter since that is the name we know her as throughout this story
I vote Little Winter or LW to close friends she makes. The town certinly sounds interesting and it will be interesting to see what spells she knows/ learns
5107792 I'll probably put that in somewhere, now that I've looked it up. Not as the name of this town, but it'll be in there.
Um, Windigos. There's no 'e' at all.
5206844
this is why I need comments like this. Thank you! I fixed both instances.
Where did you get the covert art?