Prelude
There is nothing innocent about necromancy.
The words of her mentor Princess Celestia invaded her mind as her spell was finally cast. Years of study had led to this moment.
Her legs gave way under her, and she fell to the ground, exhausted. The spell had taken most of her energy. Staying conscious was a challenge.
The corpse of a stallion was the target of this particular spell. A spell created to raise the dead.
She heard a loud intake of breath from the once lifeless corpse. The stallion began to cough, and quickly sat up, covering his mouth with a hoof.
It had worked. More than five years of her life had led up to this point, and it had worked.
"Is this the afterlife?" he asked himself, his accident burning in his mind. The building he had been working in was more unstable than he had thought, and a collapse had led to his demise.
"It... it worked..."
He heard the heavy breathing of a mare from behind him. As he turned, he noticed the wreckage of the building he had perished in.
"Who are you?" he asked, "What happened?"
She weakly smiled at him as she started to stand. "Welcome back to the world of the living."
He tilted his head slightly. "What?"
"Don't you remember?" she asked him.
"Remember?"
"You died here."
"I... did. So then this is..."
She shook her head. "No... You are very much alive. Or... I suppose... You're not exactly alive. You're undead. I brought you back."
"You... brought me... back?" he eyed her with a questioning gaze. The feeling of his body being crushed was fresh in his mind. It wasn't his imagination, it truly happened.
"That's right. I revived you."
"Don't joke about that sort of thing."
"It's true. You've been resurrected."
"Are you just here to make fun of me? That's not possible, and even if it was, necromancy is a taboo."
He began to stand up. As he did, he realized that his body had been stained red with blood in various places. He wasn't hurt at all. The ground underneath him was covered in blood.
"It’s true whether you believe me or not." She started to cough into her forearm. As she pulled away from it, they both noticed that blood had stained her fur. A small trail was dripping from her mouth. She looked at him, then her eyes briefly rolled back, and she fell to the side once more. After a few moments, she shot back awake.
He reached his hoof towards her, and she grabbed it. "Are you-" He looked at himself one more time and hesitated before finishing, "alright? Am I alright?"
"You're fine. I hope. I haven't had much practice on a pony before."
He let go of her, and she dropped back to the ground. "You… You what?"
"Rats last for a few hours… Bears only manage to come back for a few minutes. It was never meant to work on beasts."
He was becoming afraid of this mare. This frail, sickly mare that was stuck on the ground was scaring him. Her voice was uncaring, and her words were tainted. Necromancy and animals was an evil combination.
"What's your name?"
"What?"
"Your name. You have one, don't you?"
"Of course I do. My name is Nero."
"Arcana."
"So... you're a necromancer..."
She nodded.
He stared at her with a blank gaze. "I guess I owe you."
"Yes... Yes you do."
"Does resurrecting me make me your servant? I'm grateful to you, but if you did this just to make me your slave then you have another thing coming. You may as well remove the spell you casted if that's the case."
"It doesn't work like that, Nero. You died once, you can't die again. Even I don't have the power to make that happen."
"I can't die?"
"No. Your powers are tied to mine, Nero. Until I die, you will stay alive. Undead, rather."
"Until you die? What does this mean?"
"Necromancers are much more powerful than regular ponies. I can keep myself alive for as long as I want. I won't age, and incidentally, neither will you. And there's something else. Since you're undead, you're going to have a number of abilities that you didn't have before."
"I... can't die..." he looked down in shock. He had ignored what she said. "But... what about my friends? My life?"
"I'm sorry, Nero. It's just the way things are."
"Just the way things are? That's the excuse my mother would give when I was told I couldn't have sweets before I went to sleep. This isn't the way things are, Arcana. Why did you do this? Why have you done this to me?"
"Stop thinking of it like that." she said to him, trying to calm him down, "Think of it as a gift."
"A gift? How is this a gift?!" he shouted at her.
"I-I'm sorry..."
"Sorry? You're sorry? Is that all you can say? What have you done to me?!"
She looked away from him. Her body cowered from him on its own. He was scaring her. "Wh-when I found you, you were already as good as dead. You told me to help you, and... and I panicked. I-I couldn't just sit there and let it happen."
He took in a deep breath. In his mind, he was thinking about how this could be a gift. In truth, he was curious. He slowly calmed down. There was nothing he could do to change what had happened. Anger wouldn't solve anything, and she knew how he felt.
"Nero, I'm so sorry... I never thought that... that you..."
"Arcana." he said calmly.
She whimpered, unable to look at him. She was on the verge of tears.
Nero wasn't able to stay mad at her. He had never been a temperamental pony, and now, as he stared at her, he found himself unable to hate her. He couldn't bring himself to be angry at a mare like her. A mare who was holding back tears because she was given no choice but to do something she regretted.
"Arcana." He repeated himself, just as calm as before.
"Y-yes?" She paused as she spoke her one word in an effort to stop herself from shaking.
"I'm sorry... that... I exploded at you." Even in this situation, shouting at her seemed wrong to him.
"You had every right to... What I did to you was... It was..."
"It was what I asked you for, wasn't it?"
"Wh..."
"Tell me what happened, Arcana."
"A-alright." She sniffed. "I w-was nearby when you died. I could see the building fall, but by the time I got there it was too late. You were dead before I was able to get to you. Nopony else was around, so... I started to free you. Then I... I brought you back. J-just for a few moments. It... It's easy to bring things back for a minute or two. You looked at yourself, then at me... And then..."
"I was begging for my life... wasn't I, Arcana?"
"Y-you were."
He slowly nodded. He had accepted his fate for as much as his mind would allow, and nodded in sorrow. He felt like he had died once more. As she rose to face him, all he could think of was her smile. He wanted to see it again, as he had when he first saw her. There was no charm in his mind, yet he was charmed by her. Not one of love, but of friendship.
"Then... Thank you, Arcana." he said quietly, almost in a whisper.
"You're... not mad?"
"I don't know how I feel about this. Nothing will be the same for me anymore, will it?"
She shook her head. Her attitude didn't change. "I... I have some more bad news."
"Hmm?"
"It's about Princess Celestia."
He blankly stared at her, still processing what had happened.
"She... most likely already knows what I've just done, and... she is not going to be pleased."
"What do you mean by that?"
Arcana nodded.
At the same time, they both felt a powerful presence. Arcana knew it instantly to be the Princess. Nero, however, had no idea what was happening.
"A-Arcana?" he asked fearfully.
"That feeling is magic. It's one of your new abilities, Nero. There's no time to explain it now, we have to go. She's here!"
She backed away from the direction of the Princess, but fell to the ground. Her body was too exhausted to move.
"Help me, Nero... please..." she let out as she stared at him, "Take me away from here..."
What she said had more meaning than she could ever know.
He took one last look in Princess Celestia's direction before hastily putting her onto his back.
He started to run. Arcana had already fallen asleep on top of him. He didn't know where to run, but he kept moving. He didn't feel tired, and he was moving faster than he ever had before. She had said new abilities, but he didn't expect anything like this.
He ran as fast as he could, as far as he could. Away from the Princess. Away from danger. He didn't know what else to do. All he could think about was protecting the mare who had fallen asleep on his back. The mare he had just met who had changed his life so much in the blink of an eye.
The powerful presence that was Princess Celestia slowly disappeared behind them. He made an assumption that she was unable to track them, which calmed him down. He was miles from the nearest town. Running at full speed for this long would wipe anypony out, but he wasn't even sweating. There was no way she could track them now.
She was still fast asleep on his back. The mare he had just met. The one who had done this to him.
"I could just have left you there." he said to her as he began to slow, "And I could've gone on my merry way and pretend that none of this had happened."
He looked behind him. There weren't any buildings in sight. He was walking now, still moving away from the Princess. Not knowing where he was going, and not knowing what to do, he kept moving.
Hours later, the mare on his back started to cough again. He felt something drip onto his back where her mouth was. She was coughing blood again.
"Where are we?"
"Far away from Princess Celestia." he replied, not knowing himself.
"Thank you. I'm sorry."
"What do I do now?"
"I don't know. Did she see you running?"
"I don't think so. I didn't check."
"I have somewhere safe for us to stay." she said, removing a scroll from her saddlebag. Her magic quickly faded, and the scroll dropped to the ground.
He unrolled it, and examined its contents. It was a rough map of the forest near his home with a trail leading deep into the heart of it.
"It's where I stayed after I left Celestia's care. She doesn't know about it. We'll be safe."
"Why do we need a safe place?" he asked her, fear filling his voice
"I did something bad. I've created a monster. Princess Celestia is going to-"
Suddenly, Nero dropped her hard onto the ground.
"A monster? Is that what I am? Just a monster?"
"N-no! I didn't mean…"
"I'm not the monster here, you are. What you did to me, it's… it's…" He let out a sigh of defeat. "How do we get there?"
She had a pained expression on her face, and held back her emotions as she touched the map. "I-I may… have enough in me to teleport us there but after that…"
He nodded. She gathered her map, and started to stand. Her legs wobbled as she did, but she was able to stand on her own. As soon as she tried to walk, however, she fell back to the ground
"Maybe not. C-can I have your hoof?"
"My… hoof?"
He reached out towards her, and she touched her hoof against his. Her horn began to glow, and he started feeling tired. He instinctively pulled his away. "What are you doing?" he exclaimed, looking to his hoof.
She smiled. "Don't worry. This should be more than enough."
She cast her spell, and with a bright flash of light, they were both transported into Arcana's home.
He looked around to find that he was now in an empty cave. The only thing of note was a small cot in the corner of it. Other than that, it was completely empty. A small hole led away, presumably leading outside.
Arcana dragged herself to her cot, and laid on her side. "I don't know what to say other than… I'm sorry."
"You're sleeping at a time like this?"
She didn't turn towards him as she said, "I'm strong. I'm not a child without a home, I'm the most powerful unicorn you'll ever meet. You don't have to worry about me, Nero. Once I get some rest, I can protect myself. If you want to go, I wouldn't blame you. If you… want to find Princess Celestia, then I'm not going to stop you."
"I'm not the one that owes you. You're the one that owes me." he said before laying on the cold rock floor.
She mumbled in response. She had barely heard him.
Arcana had fallen asleep first, and shortly after he began to drift into an uneasy slumber.
Seven hundred years, give or take a hundred or two. The power of necromancy can never grant true immortality, but it is not a power to be taken lightly either.
A pair of ponies sat near each other facing their campfire. A mare and a stallion. Neither of them could be considered normal. One of these ponies had died before, and the other had brought them back.
The mare, who wore a dark cloak which concealed her body, had taught herself the forbidden art of necromancy long ago.
The stallion, whose eyes were as dark as the midnight sky, was once a simple carpenter. That was many years ago. An accident in his place of work had caused him to lose his life, but not for long. Mere hours after his passing, his lungs took in air once again. Ever since then, he had become her guardian, her servant, and most importantly, her friend.
Time and time again, this duo had escaped persecution and punishment for the crime of reviving the dead. In time though, even they were forgotten. Now they lived their life in hiding, a peaceful life away from the stares of others.