While the princesses of Equestria do a very good job keeping their land a peaceful and bright place, this does not mean that darker and more insidious forces do not exist.
In order to combat these powers, one must understand them, and Celestia has ensured that there is always at least one living pony in Canterlot who does. For the past several years that pony has been Pale Bones, aided by his assistant Scarlet Shade. They spend most of their time in a hidden archive beneath Canterlot's library, researching the dark underbelly of Equestria and the dangerous abilities its denizens wield.
Chapters (9)
Anything with necromancy earns a like from me, the black magic practicer!
Okay, I wanna see where you go with this.
772694
Rampage? Wow, we're both reading this!
I wanna see where this goes! This story has the potential to be awesome! Only found one mistake: over the years Bones had been in service to Celestia, he had begun to suspect that she secretly despised being treated like a royal mare. the o should be capitalized!
This is interesting stuff, and very unlike a typical piece of fanfiction (in the best way). Interesting premise, solid writing, I know I'll be watching to see what happens.
772819 That we are, dark fics are my mantra, my forte, my cup of tea, etc. I LOVE them! They're amazing, and I hate happy endings in fics:3 unless the happiness comes after a few ponies die
While it's somewhat of a break in the narrative, it is extremely helpful in understanding the additional lore in your story. I imagine getting all this across in a conversation would have been a fairly boring chapter, while getting to read your interpretation of necromancy here was actually entertaining.
774880
I considered the possibility of slowly dropping all this informaton over the course of the story, but it would have been really difficult for me to do well, and the reader would have problems putting it all together. Plus, by setting the ground rules now, I cant be accused of just pulling some ability nobody knew revenants had out of thin air later.
Some interesting ideas on how necromancy would work...
How about the classic "Speak with dead" magic? I can see it working by either calling up the soul of the departed, or examining the 'imprint' the soul left on the bones.
While I don't see where you intend to take this plot-wise, you might consider Pale Bones doing an essay on common misconceptions about necromancy.
774915
I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going to take this story. You'll probably have a better idea of what his job entails by the end of the next chapter. I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to make the essay thing a common theme. I actually really REALLY like to explain magical things in a way that almost makes sense. I'm going to try to integrate these explanations into the story from now on, but we'll see how things go.
774904 Ah, I like the whole, "ground rules," idea. That purpose never occurred to me; I just saw the title and got excited at the prospect of storing another fictional interpretation of a kind of magic in the back of my mind. Come to think of it, I may get excited by some strange things.
774980
I'm all in favor of authors having good, solid explanations for things ahead of time, and sticking to them as the story progresses. (That doesn't mean you have to SHOW all of those explanations, but...) It's a very good way to avoid plot holes and inconsistencies later on, which can kill a story's immersion.
Anyway, added to faves so I can see when you update this.
Heinhoof Kemmler? Might you be referring to Heinrich Kemmler, necromancer extraordinaire responsible for starting World War One and Two in a certain book series about a wizard?
776214
Maybe.
You're going to be my new favourite author if you update this quickly, consistently.
You know, having a job description that includes 'be on call in case Cthulu shows up' must suck.
If you keep this up, I will consider you a god among men.
776489
Who else are they going to call?
Yes I am implying Bones is a Ghostbuster.
Great story, will be tracking.
I wonder if Twilight's security clearance is high enough to know about Pale Bones yet? She does have unrestricted access to the library of Omega Level spells and if Pale Bones encounters a form of black magic too powerful for him to handle odds are the Elements of Harmony are Plan B. Finally a lot of Black Sorcerers have "Gunslinger Syndrome" and are obsessed with being the best and Twilight is known as the personal student of Princess Celestia and is renowned in some circles as the most magically talented unicorn alive making her a potential target. She'd need to know at least the basic principles of black magic to defend herself from it if nothing else.
I wanted to finish chapter 4 before I went to sleep, but I'm afraid I'm too tired to judge its quality correctly. I'll read over it in the morning I think. I'm being distracted by wires. I think that means I'm too tired to write any more.
I am loving how Twilight's a wild card in all this. Something tells me Bones doesn't want to memory charm Celestia's personal student.
Oh, snap.
780970
Yeah, wonder how that conversation would go down.
"Oh yeah, I used black magic to screw with the brain of your favored student! Hope you don't mind!"
FFFFFUUUUUUU...
782220
Fear not! I'm writing up the next chapter now.
782240
You left it on one hell of a cliffhanger, my good man.
ooooh, somebody got a few feelings for their "soul" mate?
I can just imagine the wedding now
*envisions Cadence as the preacher presiding over the ceremonies*
Do you Bones of Canterlot take Scarlet as your wife to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?....
Bones: "uuuhh....er... could you rephrase the question?"
also I still hope Sweetie belle doesn't end up with a dark arts cutie mark :p doesn't sound like its a very er... cheerful life to live.
I am absolutely fascinated by this story, and I'm thrilled with the quick updates, too!
I was really impressed with the lengthy and intelligently thought out rules set in Chapter 2, nicely done
...Bones and Scarlet have to contend with Twilight now? Oh horseapples, this isn't going to be pretty
782922
I AM BORED
AND SO I MUST WRITE
Best creative motivator I've ever experienced.
773588 Whoa, dude
. I think you may need to balance that out somehow.
I love dark fics as much as the next guy, but that last line of yours was spoken a little too easily to be healthy.
Most of the headaches from a job like this must come from keeping everything quiet rather than actually dealing with honest trouble.
You thought you could update this and I wouldn't notice. You were wrong, because I AM ETERNAL.
i am loving this story please more i require more
Can't get enough of this story. Very amusing, in my favorite sort of black humor way. Can't wait to see how Scarlet and Twi get along lol
GLORIOUS! Seriously, keep it up. This is great.
Woooooo. Updates!!!! NOW MAKE MORE!!!
if that's ok with you. 
POWER UP THE FINGERS
Yay! and though its probably not going happen as it would probably make for an entirely different story now it would be really funny if Sweetie belle ended up with a dark arts cutie mark as now that she would have a cutie mark but no idea what it is!
Also this mentioning of twilight meeting him in a book shelf, was this in another story of yours?
785780
I really considered having Sweetie Belle get a dark arts cutie mark, but I realized that would saddle Bones and Scarlet with a young filly, and I think that would interfere with any darker plans I had for the future. Its kind of difficult to go gallivanting about chasing monsters with a small child in tow.
And the bookcase incident is explained in chapter 3.
Hmmm.
Something about this seems off.
It would have been easy for Celestia to send a separate message that Twilight Sparkle was allowed to read, instructing her to trust Pale Bones for now and to not pry deeper into things, and Twilight would have obeyed. Without such instruction...
So either *redacted for possible spoiler* or *redacted for possible spoiler*. Either way, could be interesting.
786887
True, that would have been convenient, though keep in mind that the letter Bones sent wasn't exactly heavy on the details either, Celestia had no idea what the exact situation is, other than that Bones is 'compromised'.
Edit: Though in this case it probably was a large risk sending her reply through Spike considering she wasnt positive if the letter would be read by Twilight or Bones fir-DAMMIT I'M DOING MY BEST HERE.
786900
Oh, I'm not making ANY assumptions about what Celestia does or does not know. The Princess said she had a solution in her letter (And in that letter I think you mean 'will' not 'with') and that solution may involve Twilight Sparkle's active, independent involvement in what is to come, rather than simply "containing" the damage to security.
After all, it worked with Nightmare Moon...
786957
Thanks for catching that.
Edit: About halfway finished with the next chapter by the way.
786265
As far as Sweetie belle is concerned I did kind of figure that something as significant as that would have to take a story all its own, though it might be nice for a "sequel" or something of that nature... *shrug*
....
FUDGE i HATE YOU NOW!
You have given me another fan fic idea I will probably never get to actually pursue as I am to much of a scatter brain but is so great its going torture me for not writing it.
Oh also one other question, this material you are sort of "crossing over" it comes from the sort of area of the "hell boy" series correct? I mean not direct but like there are sub sections in the comic book world like entire lines of "super man" comics and so fourth.
787121
Never even occurred to me this was similar to hell boy, I liked some of those comics. If anything, my inspiration came more from the X-files or The SCP Foundation. I've also attempted to emulate the writing style of The Dresden Files somewhat, though I've adapted it to third person, because I'm better at it.
This promises to be one of my favorite fics when all is said and done. The blend of comedy and a little bit of darkness is excellent. Keep at it, I love where this is going!
Okay, now I'm seeing two MORE things Celestia might have in mind with all of this! One serious, one less serious.
787160
ah, okay, cool!
By the way I thought I should at least let you catch a glimpse of what you have seeded in my poor old nogen.
PREPAIR FOR A LONG POST FOUL BEAST!.... jk, though it may be long
I am unsure of title and basically all that I have is the character creation bits, and its all still sort of chopped up so you will have to ignore that.
Just before the royal wedding the CMC just feel they have to go, they don't know why but they feel they have to and after some convincing they manage to convince rarity and applejack to take all three of them.
They do their flower fillie bits and all seems normal but then the attack happens and they try to hide feeling like they are being drawn to somewhere and some how end up in a dark spooky part of the castle where they eventually find three things.
Sweetie: Is drawn to an old looking book with funny writting, but when she touches it she could swear the writting changed, and it is now in something she can read and does so finding it almost reads like a song book with no notes.
Apple Bloom: a weird thin metal loop that fits right over her hoof and has a claw like thing comming of it which she finds is fun to draw on the ground with.
Scootaloo: finds a thin thread necklace with pendant, it seems to be like an eagle foot clutching a clear glass ball.
When the invasion is over they hurridly put everything back and go home.
Then comes the day when sweetie is all alone like in your story and she just hums to herself and tries to think up something then remembers the wierd book in canterlot,
- she sings some spooky song about wishing others would notice her and there is a bunch of lighting and the odd book just "poofs" infront of ber but she is quickly distracted as Rarity suddenly opens the door saying she will do,
"anything the princess desirers...."
After it is all over she finds she has a wierd cutie mark, its a black music note that looks to be on rageing up-swept black fire, but then it "fades" back and fourth from that to a pretty purple note with a light pink haze until it stoped on the cute pink one though she can still feel the other dark one hiding just beneth if she wants to call it out.
Next day Scoot and Rainbow are talking and Scootaloo learns that pegusi have special eyes and ears so they can see and hear stuff from way up or see things at a fast pace if they are near the ground.
Scoot soon finds this to be benificial to her scooter tricks as she can see so many more angles to bounce around, gage exact distances to jump and so fourth.
She stops at the tree house on sweet apple achers and still useing her sight and hearing finds an old orangey stalion at the tree house, they talk for a bit then go their seperate ways.
Later she tells sweetie and Apple bloom about it and discribs the stalion and Apple starts laughing then saying thats impossible because Grampa smith has been dead for ages.
Shortly there after scoot finds she has a cutie mark of a wheel on fire! looks just like her scooter ones, but then it begins to fade back and fourth from a wheel with orange flames to an eye with black ones but eventually stops at the wheel one, then as she turns to leave she finds that wierd necklace on the ground.
Day after that they are in school and apple bloom is half listining to cheerilie as she talks about how earth ponies powers come from the ground itself.
Later at recess silver spoon and diamond tiara are picking on her for being the only crusader to not have a mark.
Feeling angry and defeated she goes to a quite corner and moves her forehoof on the ground. Slowly she draws a picture, but its kind of unusual and as she finnishes putting the final touches on it, a big circle around the entire art she still feels mad and slams her hoof into the center out of rage. She jumps back as the circle ignites with a green flame.
She walks backwards from the strange fire then notices the same green flame all over the wood pile by the school house. From it imerge three freaky looking timber wolves that dash as quickly and as silently as shadoes until they reach diamond tiara and silver spoon. As they tower over the bullies said bullies look up wimpering tails high in fright and then
there is a sudden *fissssssss* from silver spoon as she promptly wets herself and a
*flop- plop- plop* from diamond taira as she has the crap scared out of her.
Though a moment ago Apple bloom was scared to death that she might be about to watch two fillies (though be it nasty ones) about to be torn up by savage beasts with green glowy flames about them she can't help but laugh and point as they foul themselves.
At this laughing the wolves flicker and shake then fall apart as heaps of brush right before every pony else (save for apple bloom and sweetie who were also already watching) turns to look at what has apple laughing so much only to see the two bullies standing infront of a bunch of lumper having broken the sanitation rules.
After this the other two quickly point to Blooms flank that has a alternating mark just like theirs.
The mark appears as a pencil sketching out a blooming apple tree with a blazing circular sun behind it then switches to a flaming circle with a branch like diagram steming to strange shapes where the flowers on the tree had been moments ago.
Oh and when she looks back to the circle she finds the weird metal loop thing with the drawing claw at the end.
and so far thats all I got.
I KNEW IT!!! You regularly visit the SCP site don't you.
I should have put my thoughts down the last chapter that way I could shout "I CALLED IT", but hindsight is 20/20.
Now that my geeking out of how you named the last three chapters is over, I shall now read the latest release.
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THE SHORTNESS!!!
IT'S SO...
...SHORT!!!
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!