> The Thrill of The Kill > by Warmachine > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue- The Vision > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twas a dark and stormy night, the kind that all scary campfire stories begin with. The moon was invisible due to the amount of clouds that filled the sky, ominously seeping into every crack of sky that could be seen from below. I didn’t even have to open my eyes to know my circumstances; my limp body was soaked to the point that it was numbing the bones underneath my thin layer of wet matted fur. I moved my right legs enough to roll me over from my stomach onto my back. I winced slightly as the weight of my body rolled over my left for leg causing its flesh to dig into the uneven road upon which I lay. I slowly opened my eyes to take in my surroundings when a bright flash of light canceled my efforts. I immediately opened my eyes again (partly out of panic and partly out of my natural reaction to waking up) to see a pair of rather large hooves about two feet away from my muzzle. I swiftly rolled over and continued using my momentum to stand up in the same motion, unfortunately I wasn't graceful enough. I fell directly back on by right side extracting a groan of pain out of me; I had never been very dexterous. I looked up at the figures face just to see that it was in the shadow of a hood that seemed to be made equally large for the possessor’s personal use. After staring at the still figure for what felt like an hour but was more like a minute before deducing that the figure had no intention of moving. I moved my legs so that my hooves were flat on the ground and my knees were bent facing strait up. My mind had not comprehended the fatigue that coursed through my body, making standing up a lot more of a challenge than it usually was. Through determination and the use of what little energy I had left I lifted myself into a standing position. Once I was positive I wasn’t going to fall over again, I unclenched my eyes and instantly wondered why I had bothered. I was extremely mature for my age, even though i was just a little colt; I was born two days before a white filly with pink and purple swirls in her mane that i knew from my school. She was the only student in the twenty kids that made up our school to which I was older. She was book smart while i was magic smart. Together we would be unstoppable, that is, if I had ever worked up the courage to talk to her. I snapped out of my trance when I saw the creature in front of me raising its gnarled hands up toward its face. I took a step back, not knowing how to proceed or if I should just wait for the inevitable. The creatures hands finally came up to meet its hood which dropped back to reveal a rather elongated face that included the colors black and red with two small horns protruding from its skull. Tirek. The only reason I knew the name is because I had heard twilight mention it during one of the many times I had eavesdropped on her, most of the other villagers just referred to him as "the big guy" due to them never having heard his name before. In this form, Iwasn't scared of him; I was much more powerful than he was. I had pursued my magic studies to the point that I made frequent trips to the regal sister’s old castle in the everfree forest. All unicorns that desired power went there to seek one thing, Dark magic. Most were consumed by it, or driven mad to the point that they threw themselves off of the highest tower in the castle; nopony ever made it out of the castle with new powers. But I had a different approach. Many ponies just called evil magic "Dark magic" because in the land of equestria, such a thing was frowned upon to even mention. All ponies that have gone power hungry in the past few millennia have gone straight for magic to cause pain, or even to kill. I went for something more. It hit me while i was striding through ponyville on a Sunday morning when the church bell rang. If what ponies worship is holy, then the way to go was the opposite of that, in other words unholy magic. This is where I had found my section of magic wielding, the most unholy thing anypony could possible imagine. I took up necromancy. I had gotten good at it very quickly. I learned early on that to cast more powerful spells easier, I had to swap into a specific form (A bit like Luna changing into nightmare moon). Unfortunately, I didn't read the fine print on the spell that told me that I would have evil intentions. I swapped forms to discover that my mind had changed to and now all i wanted to do was kill and raise the courses of my victims to kill more. But, deep in my subconscious i was able to convince my new self that the most evil thing that I could do was take away the epic new powers from myself and leave me completely helpless, and By some miracle, my mind accepted and changed me back to my original form. I was sure to cast a mental stability spell on myself before I changed forms again and this time I was able to maintain both my new necrotic form, and my usual sensibility. By now I had raised dozens of insects and mice from the dead, I had used my powers to sweep the floor for a mound of little pebbles which I transferred the live essence of five different star spiders into so that I could craft a golem to do my bidding. It wasn't until very recently that I was strolling through the forest to the castle when i came across the slightly decaying bones of a pony. I dug the bones out of the dirt and created a skeleton to which i revived the cells that made up the bones causing it to gain the ability to move around freely, he accompanied me to the castle and back to my house, but then i though it would be a good idea to lay the weary bones back to rest. I was drawn back out of my second flashback/trance by a low muttering from the creature in front of me. He raised his thin arms even higher above his head and looked up toward the sky still muttering. The scrawny figure stopped muttering and opened his mouth at a rate in which a snail could crawl it, do a lap around his uvula and scoot out before he was done opening. Once he was finished small gashes started to appear in the world above him causing me to jump back in surprise. The slits in the air opened slightly through which a stream of golden mist swirled through and down tirek’s throat. As a necromancer i could tell that what he was eating was life essence, the very stuff that gives you personality, a will to do things, and your very own train of thought. This wasn't what shocked me as much as the fact that he was growing at an alarming rate, forcing me to back up to avoid being crushed by his now shed sized hooves. He continued to grow until the pillars that were his legs could fit Ponyville's town hall inside at which time he closed his mouth, causing the life essence to stop flowing and the gaps in the world to close. The giant centaur let out a very low stuttering noise that I could only assume was laughter as he lowered his hands to his chest in the same fashion as someone who was holding an orb. A light green glow began to emanate from his hands, being that I was too fatigued to teleport up onto his arm I had to squint from down here to make out what the spell he was casting looked like. The spell had one large light in the very center with little blade thin wisps constantly flying around it in an orbit, much like what modern scientists believe an atom looks like. I didn't recognize the spell, but I did know that more powerful spells looked more complex making it easy to tell what tier the spell was. This spell was huge, like major bustling city demolishing huge. The spell grew in size forcing Tirek to open the gap between his hands more and more until after a moment he began shrinking again. Once he had gotten too small to fit the still growing spell in his hands he raised it above his head and gave it room to continue getting bigger. not only was the spell getting bigger, the wisps around the center orb were becoming more pronounced than wisps and began moving at a faster pace causing them to appear more like pure light emitters themselves. After a few minutes of watching in horror as the spell that could have ended a city turned to one that could annihilate canterlot and the entire mountain range that it sat on. Once Tirek was back to his small form and the spell he was creating was at full mass he put the spell back in front of him. It looked like he was moving a moon with his bare hands. The creature gave a low chuckle once again and pulled his elbows back causing the massive orb of flowing magic to come in contact with his chest. A blinding light erupted from the centaur as he consumed the ball of magic, forcing me to close my eyes to protect my vision. The last thing I heard was a deep roar emanating from where Tirek once stood. Even after the light faded to a dim glow, I found myself unable to open my eyes for a long time. After what seemed like an eternity, my mind returned to my fatigue which quickly became overwhelming. I lost my balance and fell on my side, although to my delight and surprise my body did not come in contact with a hard, cemented surface, but rather a comfy, fluffy pillow like substance. “Wait…” I thought to myself, confused. “A pillow!” is exclaimed, bolting upright in my bed. “It was just a dream!” or was it something more…