The Lich of the Ancient World

Chapters

The Digsite
Can't Sleep
Awakening

The Digsite

The blanket of clouds blotted out the crescent moon’s light, shrouding the land below in darkness, particularly a trail along a mountainside. Just up the mountain was an archeological dig site, where one young sorceress had set her sights on a few valuables she wanted to get a head start on digging for, before the others would come after dawn. The path was empty, as she expected it to be. No one would want to come up here at this abhorrent hour in the night, but she wore a black cloak to blend into the darkness, just in case. She quickly cast a simple spell on herself to improve her night vision that she’d learned from the archeologists who were used to delving into dark tombs. With the snow on the ground reflecting even the faintest light from the crescent moon, it was just enough to make the spell work at its best.

Having been ostracized from most Equestrian towns and cities because of her failure with the ursa minor, and the Alicorn Amulet fiasco, Trixie was forced to go into hiding in an obscure and isolated archipelago where no one knew her name. Twilight Sparkle might have forgiven her, but that was just one person. The rest of Equestria was a little harder to win back after enslaving an entire town.

When she reached the site dug into the cliff, she pulled the hood off of her head, and she pushed her blue-ish silver hair to one side. Trixie smiled as she looked over the empty camp. By now the clouds were breaking, and in the thin moonlight she could see a few tents with desks for eggheads, and several holes were already dug into the stone where the diggers worked. Trixie was simply a hired muscle in this case, keeping the workers safe from any undead creatures they might happen to find.

She strode onto the dig site silently and kept an eye out for anyone else who might’ve decided to hang around. With Hearth's Warming coming up, even these archaeologists might get desperate for some quick coin for their families. Most of the tools still lied about since the important archaeologists had only arrived on the island yesterday and haven’t had time to get to work.

A few months ago, a local herding sheep happened across a runestone inscribed with Ogham, the ancient language of the thaumaturge tribe. Outside of historians, scholars, and professors, few could still read it. Whenever it was found in the wilderness, some university-funded expedition was quick to dig up whatever ruins lay hidden.

Trixie gazed at the small obelisk that started it all. With her nightvision spell, she could clearly see the carved words, but she couldn’t read them. She knelt down to get a better look since it was her first time seeing anything authentic like this. Across the islands were faux slabs written in modern Equestrian with Ogham symbols, but they were nothing like the authentic stones from thousands of years ago. She gently touched the runes and then stood up. There’s no point in staring at words I can’t read, she thought.

Trixie looked around again. Many tools hung about still neatly in their bags, and some posts and a makeshift fence have been set up already, and there was a big hole in the ground with a wooden ladder in it, but there was nothing else. She looked at the fresh layer of snow blanketing the ground. Maybe I shouldn’t go down that ladder. It could be covered in ice. She removed her right glove, and created a small flame in her hand. Then again, if I’m careful, I should be able to melt the ice without burning the ladder. Plus if it hasn’t rained, then it’s unlikely there will be any ice.

Trixie hesitated for a moment. Maybe I should wait until tomorrow night, she thought, At least then the other diggers will have made a mess, and I won’t be digging around in fresh snow. The flame in her hand ceased and she slipped her glove back on. Maybe tomorrow they’ll dig into a cavern or something nice that I can pull something out of? She closed her eyes and smiled at the wealth she could find down there. She’d buy herself a new cart, or maybe even an actual house that she could live in; people would stop calling her a gypsy and she’d finally be able to make a family.

Trixie opened her eyes when a cold breeze touched her skin. She glanced up at the waning moon nearly overhead, meaning it would be dawn in a few hours. By now the clouds had almost completely broken, as the weather here seemed to do regularly. She turned her gaze back to the path down the mountain.

Suddenly, something glowing on the ground caught her eye. She glanced down at the stone, and found the Ogham runes were glowing slightly. She strode over to the stone and knelt down in front of it. She touched the runes and focused as she tried to feel any magical energy coming off of them. What she felt surprised her. From there runes came no tangible magic, but below the snow deep in the hole was a very powerful warding magic radiating into the air.

Only in stories of the most evil creatures had Trixie ever heard of this kind of ward. The Crystal Empire and King Sombra in particular came to mind. The Princesses trapped King Sombra away, and kept him at bay with a warding spell. After a thousand years or so, whether the ward ran out or King Sombra figured out how to break it wasn’t known, however. There’s no telling what this ward could be holding, and I don’t want to be the idiot who breaks it. Trixie quickly turned her back on the ruins and fled down the mountain towards the town.

The candle-lit inn sat quietly in the fog blanketing the small town. Suddenly a young sorceress draped in a long black cloak bursted through the door. Her eyes looked like they’d seen a ghost, and her breathing was so heavy she seemed on the verge of dying. The sweat clinging to her face could have frozen in the frigid air at any moment. If there was anyone still awake to see her, they’d have certainly thought she was running from an invading army.

Trixie closed the door behind her and sighed as she took in the warmth of the inn. She closed her eyes and sat down on the floor for a moment. Hopefully I didn’t accidentally wake anything, she thought, But I didn’t tamper with much, so I probably don’t have much to worry about, she told herself to feel better. She opened her eyes and stood up. No one was awake at this hour, surprisingly not even the innkeeper, whom Trixie expected to be up through the night. I guess in a quiet town like this, an innkeeper would know he’s not going to get any travelers at this hour in this town.

She strode up the stairs towards her room for the night. I’ll have to talk to my new boss tomorrow about quitting this dig.

Can't Sleep

Trixie suddenly awoke from her sleep quite abruptly, almost as though she was shaken awake. Perhaps she had a bad dream? It was possible since she couldn’t seem to remember it. When she looked around the room, she noticed it was still dark out. Celestia, conjectured goddess of the sun, hadn’t raised her amber jewel just yet; and Luna’s pearl moon hung lazily in the obsidian sky. Feeling she couldn’t go back to sleep even if she tried, Trixie decided she would get up and see about making herself some tea from the barkeep’s supply to help her sleep. If she left some bits on the counter for him, he surely wouldn’t mind.

As she poured the ground tealeaves into her cup, she used her own magic to bind the air into water which she brought to a boil by using fire spawned in her hands. After she finished the hot brew, she still wasn’t tired so she decided she would expend some energy by going for a walk, even if it was cold outside. Draping her old stage cloak - which she kept as a keepsake these days - over her shoulders as a type of jacket, she went outside into the cold night air.

As soon as Trixie was outside, she got a good glimpse of the full moon. It was at its zenith, so it was midnight which meant Trixie had only gotten about an hour of sleep. She decided to just pass that notion off as she walked: it didn’t matter anyway. She looked over the ocean and thought she saw the fog or steam the barkeep was talking about. She mused to herself for a few minutes about it when she saw a small boat and its oars. It surely wouldn’t take that long to row out there, make sure there was no island and come back. She wasn’t even tired anyway, but she quickly remembered her task at hand: trying to get sleepy so she could go to bed, and she quickly turned her head from the fog. Her curiosity would not get the best of her this night, or any other.

Immediately betraying herself, Trixie strode quickly to a nearby dock and got into a raft. She would be back in an hour or so, so she saw no harm in just borrowing the raft for the time being. With little hesitation, Trixie began slowly rowing her way to the island.

Along the way, she saw no signs of any kind of seamonsters, although she did see several fish near the shore, and they were about four or five feet long and very fat. Maybe when the drunk saw them, the fish appeared bigger? She internally laughed at the drunk’s fantasies and continued her way to the fog.

The ocean was calm, and reflected the moon beautifully, which illuminated her surroundings much better than she anticipated. She could still see the cloud of fog in the distance and she continued her journey. Even though she was almost certain that the drunk’s story about the seamonster was a fake; the constant thought of such a creature kept her momentum up.

After a while of rowing, Trixie wasn’t sure how long exactly, she finally reached the fog. She could clearly see where it began and where it ended, as if it was being kept in a confined area. She ignored the fog and kept rowing into it. Inside the cloud, the visibility was much lower than Trixie anticipated, and she could barely see more than ten feet away from her raft. Still, she continued against her better judgment, and soon she could see rocks poking from the water. Exactly as the barkeep told her, the waters were very shallow like the rocks implied; and if it was daytime, Trixie could probably see the bottom.

She continued until her raft bumped into something. She quickly turned her head around and saw that she had actually bumped into a cliff. She looked around, but the fog kept her vision obscured; she couldn’t see more than four or five feet away in the dense cloud. Still she imagined the cliff as part of a very big island, and that the island used to have a beach, but it was since eroded and now was just a cliff. Trixie pulled the oars in and looked closely at the rocky cliff. It was smooth, but there were strange markings on it. Not pictures or words, but scars, as if from magic. She examined them more closely and lost all doubt that those markings were natural. Even though her experience with erosion was limited, she could see the engraved scars of magic, insisting to exist despite the possible centuries of weathering.

“It almost looks like it was meant to be like that,” Trixie thought as she remembered the artificially cut stones from the numerous crypts she ventured through, “Like someone cut the island like that. I wonder who would be powerful enough to do that, and why would they even want to?”

Even so, the cliffs were at least twenty feet tall, and she didn’t bring any ropes or any kind of climbing tools with her. After some thinking, she decided she would try the gravity spell she learned about while hearing of Twilight’s adventure in the Crystal Empire. With some concentration and determination, she felt her weight shift from the raft to the stone walls where she landed with a soft thud. She stood upright and saw the world sideways, meaning the spell had worked! She rejoiced until the realizations of the world completely sideways set in, which made her very uneasy. Still, she thought, “Take that, Twilight!”

Doing her best to ignore the fact everything was the wrong way, she carefully walked up the stone cliffs. When she reached the top, she made her way onto the grass while still holding onto the cliff to keep herself from sliding along the ground. She cancelled her gravity spell and her weight shifted back to normal. She stood up on the grassy ground and looked inland. Even though there was a full moon, the many trees and fog blocked its light so she could barely see in. Curiously, the fog didn’t seem to touch the island, but instead made a type of shell around it. She sparked a small flame in her hand which gave enough light that she could easily see around her. She began her walk into the island, and small pockets of fog sat in ditches and other low areas, making this one of the creepiest ruins she’s ever been in, especially since she was alone. Regardless, she had a lot of questions about this place, and exploring was the best way to get them answered. She walked keeping her guard up even though it was unlikely she’d run into anything more than an owl and whatever animals might still be left on this island, if any.

As she made her way into the dense foliage, the moonlight waned until it was almost too dark to see without her magical torch. She spawned another fire for the sake of comfort, even though common sense told her there wouldn’t be any animals on this island that could harm her: they would have died by now, and whatever birds decided to make this island their home would leave her alone.

Soon, she found her way to the castle, and as she went inside, she could have sworn she saw a solid white line encompass the entire structure and disappear; but it happened so fast that she wasn’t sure if it really happened.

“The fires just reflected onto the castle walls for a second when I walked by them,” Trixie thought to herself, “That’s all.”

She continued her way into the crumbling castle, and made her way into the main foyer. There were a few holes in the walls that looked like they used to hold windows, and small bits of weathered glass still lay under the holes. Trees and other foliage were well on their way to reclaiming this castle back into nature. She continued her way deeper into the castle, seeing that any furniture had rotted away and was reduced to piles of dirt. Scraps of metal still lingered, disfigured and weathered, but still metal nonetheless. That really gave no indication to Trixie how old this castle was, or how long it’d been sitting dormant.

Author's Note

Any and all feedback is highly appreciated.

Awakening

In the foyer were traces of ancient furniture and mirrors, reduced to piles of wood, dirt and dull glass with little luster. There wouldn’t be any magic in those piles, but gold or anything else of value might yield Trixie a spellbook or magic scrolls. It was worth a shot and Trixie was low on cash, anyway. At last her efforts were fruitless—save for nearly cutting herself on some ancient mirror—to little surprise to the young sorceress. She stood up and went through an old arch, finding herself in what looked like the kitchen.

There was nothing of use to her, coinciding with her expectations. A metal counter was still there rusted and weathered, but it could still be recognized a counter. There weren’t any ovens, though they would have stuck around like the counters.

The old residents must’ve just used magic to cook their food. But why doesn't anyone use magic to cook anymore? She stopped her exploring as she temporarily forgot her mission and examined the old kitchen. A pile of dirt and a few metal scraps were all that was left of what Trixie guessed was a larder, rotted wood and dirt sat on the metal and stone counter tops with fractured porcelain in the mix. Few materials existed which meant that the castle was old beyond her assumptions, and any traces of energy would be long gone by now. Whatever traces of magic that had persisted this long wouldn’t be of use, anyway. After all, Twilight wouldn’t yield to Trixie’s great and powerful pies in a duel. She left the kitchen and went back to the central foyer where she considered going upstairs. The only problem was that the stones built into the staircase were falling apart and dissolving.

Having her fill of the front room, she continued her walk into the next room, the clomping of her boots echoing against the stone walls now that she no longer felt the need to stay quiet: if there was anyone else in this castle, they would have shown themselves by now. This larger room with many old, broken windows lined the walls with their weathered and dull glass lying on the floor beneath, and two thrones made of stone and metal sat on the far end of the room. Trixie strode into the room and towards the thrones until she lost her focus on the room when she heard the clanging of metal below her. Looking down, she realized she was walking on a sheet of silver. Excitedly jumping off of it and picking it up, Trixie began thinking of the great prices she could get for this metal. Breaking her from her fantasies of wealth and a new cart was a strange glow coming from below: a sun heavily resembling Celestia’s cutie mark.

She tossed the silver aside and kneeled down to get a better look at the engraved sun. It felt to her like it was putting out some kind of warding magic, but Trixie couldn’t tell what exactly. It was definitely holding something, but there was nothing in this castle for it to hold, and it certainly wasn’t keeping anything intact. Still, something significant must have happened, and hopefully this ward was still very strong even though it seemed very weak; but it was also the first ancient magic she had found that might be of some use to her. There had to be more in this castle, and it was her mission to find them. But first, she would see how this ward was working. She cast a kind of exposure spell on the sun expecting it to show her what kind of magic was going on, but the sun disappeared and was replaced by a glowing blue septagram. Trixie jumped and backpedaled away from the strange star, keeping her eyes on the engraving and not where she was going.

She tripped and staggered backwards and bumped into a wall. A stone slab that she bumped into budged slightly, indenting into the wall. Trixie jumped away, expecting it to be some ancient trap. She turned around as fast as she could, readying her magic. In the dim blue glow of her fires, she scanned the area and relaxed when she found nothing was going to jump out to challenge her. Taking a deep breath and wiping the nervous sweat from her brow, she looked at the stone slab closely. It was part of some ancient trap door, but by now its hinges were rusted and broken leaving the stone free to break from the wall at the slightest whim. Pushing it with some effort, it tipped over and fell down a spiral staircase. Loud booms and bangs rang through the castle, and Trixie flinched when she heard the final crack at the bottom of the staircase.

Hesitating, she placed one foot in front of the other and slowly went down the black shaft. Candlesticks hung from the walls, which Trixie lit so she could relax her magic a little more and still be able to see.

What is this place? I should stay out, but whatever’s down there could be answered so easily just by looking...but what if there’s some necromancer down there looking for a new thrall? She quietly gasped at the thought of becoming some necromancer’s sex slave. Whatever, I can so take him...but what if he’s got a small army of thralls down there...oh right I have this charm. I’ll be fine. But I might not be...I’ll flip a coin...but I really wanna see...I’ll go. But it’s a bad idea...damn this...just a quick look then I’m out. She looked at the exit to the ground floor and back into the black shaft with her heart pounding in her ears before she continued.

Reaching the bottom, she saw that there was a large double door that the stone slab had broken and burst through. One of the door’s upper hinges were broken from the shock of the stone slab. She went through the doors and stepped over the slap, delving into the dark underbuilding. Trixie enhanced her flames so she could see better, and in the blue light, she looked around the room and saw some kind of sarcophagus was lying on the opposite side of the room. Between it and the door was a path outlined by candles.

Trixie halted before approaching the stone coffin. She knew she wouldn’t learn any magic by checking out whoever died here, but maybe he was buried with a lot of his valuables? Trixie proceeded and grabbed a hold of the stone lid and pushed. It took a lot of effort on her part, and she resorted to lifting it off with her magic, but eventually she opened the ancient stone casket. Inside lay a skeleton, his bones well preserved but everything else rotted away except for his tattered robe. He also wore a weird necklace that seemed to have a swirling cloud inside it. More than likely, it was probably a magical charm like the Alicorn Amulet in nature, but maybe not as powerful or dangerous.

That looks useful, she thought and it’s not like this guy’s gonna come back from the dead. It wasn’t that Trixie didn’t have a heart, it was just that whoever was buried here had been dead a really long time, plus it would be better for the pendant to be used rather than just sit in some old casket for the rest of eternity.

Reaching for the necklace, a glowing blue swirl emerged in each of the eye sockets of the skull, and they were staring right at Trixie. A skeletal hand grabbed Trixie’s wrist, but she lurched back in fear and escaped the skeleton’s grasp. All the candles in the room simultaneously ignited with yellow flames, illuminating the room as the skeleton sat up and made its way out of the coffin. It kept its “pupils” locked on Trixie as stood up and limped towards her. Sinew hung from its wrists and arms, and more seemed to show up, even patches of skin seemed to develop. Some tendons even began to materialize along its face.

Trixie stopped backing away when she bumped into the wall. At this point her lucidity came back and she readied her magical fire. The skeleton raised its hand in front of it, almost in a surrendering manner. To Trixie the skeleton was trying to do its own magic or fool her into thinking it was giving up, and the Great and Powerful Trixie was not about to be bested by a pile of bones. With a powerful blast of magic to the chest, the skeleton stumbled backwards and most of the blue energy flowed into him almost as if he was absorbing it. Trixie fired several more blasts, but the skeleton was able to shake them off fairly well.

The candle flames shifted from yellow to a bluish-green color and the skeleton stood upright for the first time. It lowered its gaze to Trixie’s chest, namely her charm—which apparently had stopped working—and she took the opportunity to punch the skeleton’s breastbone as hard as she could, knocking the creature onto the floor. Trixie approached her opponent and readied her boot to stomp the skeleton’s skull into dust, but it protectively threw its arms up and rolled out of the way too quickly. Trixie’s boot followed its target well, but the skeleton managed to stand up before she could kick its skull in. Purple mist began weeping from its eye sockets as green and black energy appeared around its hand. It made a pushing gesture, forcing Trixie off her feet. She landed with a hard thud on the ground and plopped onto her back. Before she could stand up, however, the skeleton firmly gripped her shoulder and forehead. Trixie’s blue energy flowed out of her and into the skeleton’s hands where its color changed to a dark green color.

The room became increasingly warmer, but Trixie still felt a chill. She began to feel dizzy and lightheaded as spots filled her vision and she went completely blind for a few seconds as she felt the skeleton’s grasp release her. She collapsed onto her back where her vision returned and she stared up at the skeleton watching her closely. She was convinced this was her last moment alive as her vision faded, the last thing she saw was that skeleton keeping its eyes locked on her.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editors TheLordSiffer and Luna1337