Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FIM, or anything that is copyrighted.
If a pony were to look over the tall garden bushes that surrounded the castle royal garden, they would be able to see the mass amounts of solar guards were patrolling the area and appeared to be staring at the statues that resided in the since there were no ponies in the city that were interested in entering the garden, the royal guards were able to continue their search of the area for dark magic and their silent watch over the other dangerous stone prisoners. The guards in the area continued these tasks with a dedicated vigilance that was enforced into them by their training, even to the extent that the guards completely ignored the bright flash in the centre of the garden that was followed by the sudden appearance of three royal Alicorns princesses and the elements of harmony.
The three princesses quickly looked around their surroundings to get an understanding of the area, before Twilight quickly bolted away from the group and headed towards one of the pony statues. Meanwhile Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash attempted to try and wake up Fluttershy and Rarity from their faint spell, while Princess Luna and Celestia walked over to where Twilight was current covering one of the statues with a magical aura. After a few moments of silence, the rest of the mane six walked over to the statue in curiosity of what Twilight was doing, who appeared to be a state of concentration. After a few moments the glow around Twilight's horn and the pony statue faded from view, which was followed by her saying "I don't understand. Why would one pony that got turned to stone expire while another pony would remain unaffected by the time that they spent within stone?"
Princess Luna looked at Twilight and said "As we hath said before, the necromancer was the first case of a pony being turned to stone due to their deeds, so the spell may not have been perfected at the time. There is also the fact that the power that the pony had control over was as mysterious as it was powerful and dangerous." After a few moments, Applejack asked "Beg your pardon, princesses, but who exactly was the necromancer and how strong was he when he was casting spells?"
Princess Celestia looked at the elements and said in a doubtful tone "We do not know exactly how powerful the necromancer was or what he was called, as all the stories about him had been spread through generations of rumours before anypony recorded the notes on paper. However, the few recorded notes on him say that he was able to raise an entire graveyard of ponies without effort, and that he was a master of the dark arts more so than even Sombra. However, we have yet to find out if these were simple rumours that everypony believed or if they were true tales of his life."
The ponies stood there in the garden in thought for a moment, before Pinkie Pie's yelped in surprise as her tail and her hind legs started to twitch intensely. The ponies looked at Pinkie for a second as Princess Luna asked "What's wrong, friend Pinkie? Why is your leg and tail shivering?" Before anypony could tell Princess Luna about Pinkie's pinkie sense™, a loud CRACK radiated from the castle which was shortly followed by multiple terrified screams. The Ponies looked at each other in shock, before quickly running towards the source of the screaming as the Royal Guards that were guarding the garden quickly followed them.
5 minutes earlier, in the Canterlot dungons
The glowing orb floated down the halls of the dungeon was starting to grow tired of searching for the remains of his its mortal body. "Why is it so hard to find by body? I spent the majority of my mortal life in it, so why is so damn hard to find the bloody thing?" The glowing orb floated through another wall, and was surprised to find that Discord, the spirit of chaos itself, was talking into a cell about bird seed and fancy hats before teleporting away. The glowing orb became curious about who or what Discord was talking to, since he was unable to feel any sort of life radiate from within the cell as he floated closer.
When the orb finally floated into view of the cell it was pleasantly surprised to find the statue that trapped him, as well as his remains sitting in a pile under the statue. The orb mentally sighed to itself as it floated into the cell, before thinking "Thank the blessed earths I have finally found my own body. I was starting to feel as if they had already put my remains into another statue. I do not want to spend another 2 millenniums waiting for my body to escape the statue again." As the orb floated closer to its remains, it sighed in annoyance at the body's condition. "Damn it. Why did my body have to decompose? Then again I didn't expect to find my body in perfect condition, and by the feel of it, I can still use re-enter it. I just wish that I had something more to work with than bones."
The orb slowly floated into the pony's skull, before stopping in the centre as the orb started to softly chant a spell. "O magnum Saint omnium," The glowing orb slowly floated out of the skull as it followed the skeleton's spine. "miserere mei da imperium" The orb slowly floated into the skeleton's ribcage, before slowly stopping. "placuit coniungere rebus viventium" The orb slowly started to fade from view before becoming non-existent. "ut pia sim." As the chant was finished, the skeletal remains of the orb's previous body began to respond to the actions and speech of the orb.
The skeleton slowly rose from the ground onto his 4 legs, before lifting his head to look around the cell he was in. The bars of the cell seemed to be close enough to prevent any normal pony from walking out, but it was obvious that the bars was designed for ponies that had muscle, organs and flesh. As the skeleton walked towards the bars he suddenly found himself falling over one of his legs and slamming into the ground, which caused his skull to fall off the floor. He sighed as he rotated his head to see what he tripped over and saw that he had fallen over his cape that were tangled in his leg bones.
He sighed in annoyance, but suddenly realised that he could still feel and see his fore hoofs struggle out of the cloak. He sighed as he thought "Great. Now I'm going to have to figure out a way to calm my body down so that I can untangle my legs from the cloak and re-attach my head." However as soon as he finished this thought, the skeletal body seemed to pause in mid-flail before slowly shaking one of its hoofs until the cloak fell off. The skull stared at the rest of his body as it slowly untangled its other hoof, before walking towards the skull and picking it up gently. The skull thought for a moment as he felt himself re-connect with the rest of his body, before saying to himself "So even if my body breaks apart, it will still respond to my commands and thoughts. That's helpful to know in the future."
He was about to walk between the bars of his cell and out into the hallway, before paused for a moment as he looked back at the cloak that tripped him a second ago. After mentally debating taking the cloak with him, he walked back over to it while saying "Ah, what the hell. I kept it with me for this long, I may as well continue to wear it at least until I can find something more modern to wear. Plus I think it would be best to hide my current form from the public eye, and this is the best thing I have to do that at the moment." The skeleton threw the cloak across his back and secured the cloak around his neck, before lifting his hood over his skull as he turned back to the cell bars.
The cloaked skeleton stepped though the gap in the cell bars easily and looked down the hallway, where he could sense that there were at least two sources of life-force beyond the door at the end of the hall. As the skeleton walked towards the door, he started to go over his plan of action "Alright, I don't know how people are going to react to seeing a skeleton necromancer stranger walk out of the dungeon unexpectedly. Maybe I should try and sneak around them, even if they see me then i just need to talk them into the idea of letting me walk out undisturbed. Let's just hope that nothing complicated the matter anymore than it already is."
He walked up to the wooden door that separated him from the two life forms and placed a bone hoof against the door, before sighing as he said "Alright, here goes nothing…" He pushed against the door, only for the door not to move an inch. The skeleton looked at the door in annoyance as removed his hoof from the door, before thinking "Of course the wood door in the dungeon is locked, why would I've expect it to be open for everyone to use? Well, at least I know a spell that allows me to clear my paths. But it would help if I could ever remember if the damn chant ended with Meam Abire or Meam Cedit. I guess there's only one way to find out for sure, let's just hope I pick the right one…"
The necromancer slowly lifted his hoof one again and moved it so that it hovered an inch from the door's centre, before mentally closing his eyes and softly chanting the spell "O potens custos peregrinatione Amen impedimenta in potestatem meam abire." As the necromancer finished his chant, he moved his hoof forward and jabbed it into the door.
The door suddenly flung itself away from the skeleton's hoof at a rapid speed, before slamming itself into the stone wall opposite with a solid CRUNCH as the wood cracked and splintered from the force that had thrust it from its hinges. The skeleton stared at the remains of the door in surprise for only a moment, before walking into the room as he muttered "I must try harder to remember which chants do what, else I'm going to end up causing a lot of trouble for everyone."
The necromancer then turned to the only source of life that was in the room, which appeared to be a pale earth pony with golden armour and a large spear, who was currently staring at the wall the door had crushed itself against in shock. The skeleton necromancer looked at the guard for a moment in case it decided to try and attack him, but soon it became obvious that the door was much more interesting to the guard than necromancer was. After a few moments, the skeleton cleared his throat to catch the guard's attention, before saying "Excuse me sir, but would you kindly be able to show me the way out of this castle? I feel that I need to feed my bird before she decides to start attacking innocent creatures again."
As soon as the skeleton was finished talking the only sound that could be heard was heavy breathing, which was shortly followed by a loud thump as the royal guard fainted and fell onto the floor. The skeleton looked at the fallen figure for a moment, before walking out of the room and saying "They really don't train guards like they used to. Well I better try and find someone else to point me towards the way out."
As the skeleton continued to walk around the halls of the castle, he came across several more life-forms as well as wandering souls of the decease. However every time he walked up towards one of the living creatures they ran away from him in fear while screaming, and he knew that it would be wise to avoid the dead souls as all they ever ask for is to be brought to life. "Don't they understand that if I bring them into the physical existence again, that they won't be brought back properly? That they would most likely become a shadow of their former selves, servants whose only desire can be over-ridden by a single word from me? And don't they understand the amount of peroration, resources and energy it takes to bring back any creature to unaltered by resurrection for anything longer than an hour?"
He suddenly stopped trotting down hallways when a yellow beam of magic shot through his cloak and his ribcage before striking the tiled floor, leaving a black burn mark on the ground. Instinctively, the skeleton turned around to face whoever decided to attack him, only to see a large group of ponies staring at him with a look of what appeared to be a fearful anger. One of the larger ponies, the white horned-winged one, took a step towards him and said "Stop where you are, Necromancer. Your reign of fear and terror will end now!"
The necromancer in question looked at the tall pony and the group of ponies that stood behind her, and finally noticed that there were also a large number of armed royal guards behind the large group. Even though he was vastly outnumbered, he felt as if he needed to correct the tall white pony as he said "Reign of fear and terror? How can I do so much as to warrant such as harsh claim against me in the ten minutes that I have been alive for? Also I would prefer it if you didn't refer to me by my title, but to instead to referred to me by my name, Open Grave the Undying."
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and feel free to leave a comment down below.