Into the Black Magic: A Lich's Tale
Darkness...
Silence...
Cold...
These were the only things Twilight Sparkle was aware of. As she floated in the void, she was left with nothing but her thoughts.
What happened?
Where am I?
How did I get here?
As she pondered these thoughts, she recalled her last memories before she found herself in this place.
She remembered confronting Xander.
She remembered the scuffle, and the dark portal.
She remembered Xander losing his grip and hurtling through the air, falling into his own trap.
She remembered the tapestry she was clinging to ripping.
She remembered the portal destabilizing as she hurtled toward it.
She remembered the cold of the void as engulfed her head, then her neck... and then nothing.
She couldn't remember anything past that before waking up to this strange place.
Twisting around, Twilight tried to see anything at all. Up, down, left, right, forward, backward... there was nothing but darkness and silence. Even her own voice failed. She could feel her vocal cords vibrating, her throat straining, but no sound escaped. Was she just deaf, or...
A sound cut through the darkness. It was quiet, almost inaudible. Twilight's ears swiveled around, trying to get a bearing on its origin, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Slowly, but steadily, it began to get louder.
It was chanting.
Twilight listened, trying to decipher the strange language. It was unlike anything she had ever heard, and she had heard every language on Avol. Whatever it was, it made her uncomfortable. It felt... arcane.
Why would she be hearing arcane chanting? It made no sense. That kind of chanting is used in summoning, conjuring or binding rituals, usually. She wasn't an ethereal or planar being, so it couldn't be a summoning. Despite Rainbow Dash's jokes, she wasn't a force of nature, so it couldn't be a conjuring.
That left one option. Somepony was binding her. Was it Xander? Did he defeat her? As her panic began to rise, she almost failed to see a growing light spreading from the distance.
The chanting reached a crescendo and suddenly she felt as if she was falling. Simple panic was replaced by outright fear. This was no binding. She was being summoned, but there was only one kind of magic that can summon a pony. The only problem was in order for it to work, the pony had to be...
Twilight gasped for air as she sat upright. She rolled over and retched, expelling nothing but bile. The unicorn looked up, examining the five robed figures in blue and black robes standing in a circle around her.
One of them took a step forward, removing its hood to reveal a bronze reptilian face with a crest of green feathers along its head. It knelt down, bowing its head.
“On behalf of Holy Dratali Empire, we welcome you, Mistress, back to the realm of the living.”
I have just 6 words for you...
This is going TO BE EPIC!!!
Yiss
Well this is something I would love to see more of even if it was a short spin off
love your work by the way
Uh-oh... as if TS wasn't powerful already, now she's more or less immortal too! (well, undead, semantics :P )
4937276 4937300 I might write this some day, but chances are this is it.
4937334 With an army of religious zealots at her back
4937395
All the cultists have to do is pretend they're the good guys... I give it two weeks, tops, before they slip up, and Twilight joins the humans. Then, the Dratali are even more fucked than before.
4937484 Or she'd use her position to convince the Dratali that they're wrong, and Avol will never be invaded.
Another question you have to ask; if she's in Xander's place, what's Xander doing?
4937536
Xander pops in, tries to kill a few humans, the humans (thanks you a millenia of DnD) recognize a lich and preoceed to destroy him and then dunk him in free-flowing acid to keep him from regenerating. They may not know what his phylactery is, but if he can't reform, he can't cast.
4937544 He's not a lich, though. The Dratali used his head to recreate him as one, but here it was Twilight that lost her head and got reanimated. Also, he's obviously good at deception as he had Celestia's trust before he turned on them.
4937536 wrote : " >> Quantum_Shift Or she'd use her position to convince the Dratali that they're wrong, and Avol will never be invaded.
Another question you have to ask; if she's in Xander's place, what's Xander doing? "
Nothing, he's dead and not coming back.
4937593
Ah, sorry. I thought he turned into a lich when he was found out, and started with the Dratali.
In that case, then he finds himself with a very large group of people already on high alert about magic, and if he slips up even once... Twilight got lucky the first time. I don't know if Xander has the Luck of the Protagonist on his side, so I don't know if he'd make it. It'd certainly be an interesting read, looking over the inverse of the story.
Y'know, just once I want to see a story that starts off with the poor lost pony being found by the bad guys, who try to convince her they're the good guys. And either she does evil things thinking they're good, or slowly turns the bad guys good from them trying so hard to keep up the ruse that being a good person becomes habitual to them. first version for serious, second version for funny.
You have my attention ... again
4937610 Nah, this is an alternate opening. Basically asking what if Twilight was brought back by the Dratali and Xander was rescued by the Alliance.
4937621 The Luck of the Antagonist is stronger.
4937658
But it spins so differently, it might end up having Xander fighting 'for' the humans until he betrays them, and Twilight fighting for the Dratali until they show their true colors.
Either way,, though, what do you think of my idea for a 'Twilight gets rescued by the bad guys' idea? I think it'd be an interesting story, no matter which of the two outcomes are used.
4937669 It would be interesting.
Are you really gonna tack this onto the existing story? Or is this just a trial run.
4938351 Just an alternate opening. What if Xander went through the portal first and Twilight was the one to get killed and resurrected by the Dratali.
This alternate beginning suggests that the dratalli some how got a hold of the book I would have assumed that xander would not have given that thing up
4938483 You've officially put more thought into this than I did . Seriously, though, this was just a fun little non-canon 'what if' chapter. Small details like that aren't really important.
4939484
Even so, continue this alt? Or let others do it? I want to see how it'd go, what with them wanting everything dead...
4941935 I might eventually, but if someone else wants to, I have no problem with it.
4943692 I always read Starswirl in the voice of Deckard Cain from Diablo.
"Stay a while and listen."
4939484 sorry I tend to over think things sometimes but if some body like
4941935 would like to continue it they would need to work around that somehow like maybe having them both be dead and brought back. then maybe twilight could find her way towards the humans side of things and they can run some jack harkness jokes about how she cannot die
4945776 Or one could say he stumbled away in a daze. Twilight would take it easier because she teleports all the time, but few unicorns do.
4944524 Deckard Cain is best Star Swirl xD
4949448 Unless you count the perverts that did it before
so this is some alternate 'what if?' scenario here?
4952863 Eeyup, an alternate beginning.
In this alternate reality I could see things, in theory, changing for the better for everywhere but Avol.
Twilight won't stay in the dark very long so the possibility of her working from the inside to bring it down, or defecting seems to me very likely.
Xander, while a masterful manipulator isn't cute like Twilight. Therefore it could be argued that the Alliance would never save him to begin with, that and the fact he may already be a tad angry when meeting the Alliance troops thus never gaining sympathy like Twilight had. Besides that however, if he still was saved I'd assume he'd try and manipulate the Alliance by spinning lies about Celestia and what not. However I can't see the Alliance falling for it once they arrive on the planet.
As for the book, I see Xander stumbling away before attempting to retrieve the book from the Dratali mages. Thus making everything above useless since he'd have never been found by the Alliance.
4957317 Or, perhaps, the dark magic corrupts Twilight and she slowly becomes evil. You know, if I end up writing this I just might go that route.
She shall now be known as 'Darthlight Sparkle', fiercest of all
SithPoniesWitches.4958994 The most powerful bi-*ahem* Lich ever!
4957952
How ever I cant see twilight becoming corrupted in that manner because of her connection with the element of magic
4960651 Dark magic is still magic. Also, just being connected to the Elements of Harmony doesn't mean she's incorruptible. After all, Luna was corrupted.
4961140 True but they never said that she was connected to the elements only that she could use them
4960651 Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I put off opening this chapter thinking it was a sequel link :/
4978990 Nah, the sequel will be posted in the group.
4979347 there's a sequel to this
yay
5017360 There's actually four, but they're still in production and aren't out yet. You can find the group here: http://www.fimfiction.net/group/198267/into-the-black
5017943 I can't wait to read them all this is one of my top favorite fics
5017943 so when is the next story please make it soon