The Vampony Chronicles
Chapter 16: Black Magic 101

By: SteampunkBrony
Edited By: DoomManta

“There are many aspects to dark magic, of this I'm sure you know,” Zecora said as we sat around the fire pit. “Some are easier in practice than others though.” She nodded to a few tomes that had been set beside my seat. “I set those out for you to study when you return to your home. Some of those are all the way from Roam.”

My eyes must have betrayed my emotions as Zecora chuckled. “Eager to learn are we?”

“You could say that,” I replied with a sheepish grin. “I've always been interested in the dark arts, despite books on them being rare. It's just been so interesting to see the various ways magic can be used.”

“As a student of magic your curiosity is a good thing, although you must be careful of the consequences such curiosity can bring,” Zecora said as she took out a jar of green powder and tossed a hoofful into the fire. The flames hissed as they turned from yellow and orange to green and blue, the embers glowing purple. “The first of the dark arts I will be teaching you is summoning, as it is one of the simplest, yet holds the greatest margin for error. We will be starting with summoning an imp, as even the toughest will hold no challenge against you, unlike a greater void terror,” she said as a glowing arcane circle burst to life to her right, and a small squirrel-like creature appeared. Its fur was pitch black and it had long fangs. Its solid green eyes glanced around before landing on Zecora. “Come now little one, simply watch and I may let you have a little fun.”

“Woah...” I said as it scurried up Zecora's foreleg and sat on her shoulder. I had been studying the magic patterns as Zecora cast the spell and was fairly confident that I could pull it off.

“Did you catch the spell? A botched summoning usually doesn't end well.”

“I believe I did.” As I concentrated, an arcane circle appeared to my left as my horn lit up. The spell took a surprisingly small amount of energy to cast.

Suddenly black flames sprouted within the circle, growing until they were slightly taller than the average pony. “Cancel it!” Zecora yelped as two large circles appeared beside her. The imp hid behind her as she did this. I tried to cut off the flow of my magic, but it was slow going. Something was holding the connection in place. “Summon your blades Twilight, for it seems we may have to fight.” As two large creatures appeared in bursts of black flame beside Zecora, she turned to them, “Ready yourselves for battle.”

The creatures nodded as my blades appeared at my side. Zecora summoned a bladed staff and sunk into a crouch, the staff clutched in her hooves. “If you pass out, do not fear, no harm will come to you while I am here.” I stumbled from a large pull on my magic reserves from the circle, “Break your connection to the spell or else you may end up quite unwell!”

I fought against the drain on my magic, and slowly severed the connection, the world going dark around me as Zecora gave a yell, and her summonings threw themselves at whatever appeared.

I groaned as I woke up, my magic reserves far more intact than I thought they'd be.

“Ah, I was wondering when you'd awaken.” Zecora said as she looked up from a tome she was reading. “Now, back to training we should hasten.”

“Quite the drill sergeant, aren’t you, Zecora?” I said with a small smile.

She chuckled, petting the imp that was resting on her shoulder. “One must be firm with lessons such as these, when it comes to dark magic, hard work and persistence are the keys.”

“Well, let's try again then, what did I do wrong?”

“You forgot to make sure it was an imp you were calling, that small mistake led to your spell failing.”

“Ah, right. So how do I do that?”

“Simply picture the creature you're summoning in your mind, the spell will do the rest you'll find.”

I nodded and started up the spell again, letting the magic flow as the circle blazed into existence. With a small pull at my magic, a small, black, fox-like creature appeared in a puff of black fire. It had purple lines webbed through its fur, and its purple eyes lit up as it glanced around, stopping when it spotted me. “Hello there,” I said with a small smile.

It yipped and hopped up beside me, nuzzling my side. “Now, make a contract with it, simply state your terms and see if it accepts, although make sure to cover your bases or there may be more surprises like the last one to expect.”

“Okay...” I said thinking for a moment. “Do you agree to do as I ask, and ask for my permission before you do anything that could bring harm to anyone in this world?” The imp nodded. “And do you agree to not reveal yourself to anyone else without my permission?” Again, it nodded. “Alright, those are the contract terms.” The imp nodded and lowered its muzzle to my fetlock, and a black ring appeared around my foreleg. “I think I'll call you Dusk.” I thought aloud, the imp giving a happy yip as it nuzzled my side again before curling up beside me.

“Very good, now, don't go summoning anything that you can't personally defeat without trouble, as that's how many summoners find themselves dead in a pile of rubble,” Zecora said, a hint of pride leaking into her voice. “Now, on to something a bit more difficult, and a fair bit more occult.” Her imp hopped down and brought out two small boxes. “Inside here are the bones of two mice, the next lesson is one in necromancy, something most ponies don't think of as very nice.”

“Th... that's an understatement.” I was surprised that something so taboo would be the next lesson.

“Do not be worried, it has been quite a while since these two last scurried. For this lesson, I will speak more plain to prevent any confusion.” She said as she opened the boxes. In each was a set of small white bones. “The trick to this is to place enough magic in the bones to bring them to life. These mice won't have any will of their own, but something that's just passed may still have its soul tied to it, and will be more difficult to control.” Her set of bones was surrounded by a soft green glow as they organized themselves into their proper places. Two points of green light flickered to life in the skull's eye sockets as the skeleton shook itself, before scurrying out of the box and up Zecora's foreleg. “In some ways this is simpler than summoning, but in others it is more difficult.”

I nodded, examining the spell matrix around the bones before starting to cast. The bones glowed purple as they re-arranged themselves. Sure enough, the skull's eye sockets glowed a deep purple as I willed the bones to come over to me. Dusk watched intently as the reanimated mouse curled up beside him. He lifted a paw and poked at it, giving a small yip as the mouse fell apart, only to re-assemble. This repeated a few times, drawing a chuckle out of Zecora.

“A curious little one isn't he? He will be a good companion I foresee. Now keep in mind that the larger the creature you are bringing to life, the more magic will be needed. Death can be the penalty if this warning isn't heeded.”

“Okay.” I willed the mouse back to its box and let the spell dissipate. “That's all there is to it?”

“Yes, as you can see dark magic isn't much for difficulty, most fear it for the potential to cause damage quite easily,” Zecora said. “In the hooves of one who is responsible and not a fool, it can be quite the useful tool. Now, you should get yourself home, and be sure to carefully hide those tomes.”

“I will, when will the next lesson be?”

“Hmm... I am quite busy this week and will be working late, so I will contact you with a date.”

“Thank you, and merry meet.”

“Until we merry meet again.” Zecora said with a smile as I stepped out the door, Dusk riding on my back.

“You really should stop trying that jump...” Spike said as he helped Dusk dig me out from a pile of books.

“I'm sure I can get it, I overshot it that time,” I said as I stood up, the books floating back to the shelf.

“So who, and what, is this?” Spike said, petting Dusk.

“That's Dusk, he's an imp I summoned,” I said, chuckling at Dusk's expression. He was nearly strutting under the attention Spike was giving him.

“He won't be taking my job will he?” Spike asked, sounding a little worried.

“Don't worry Spike, nothing could replace you,” I said with a smile. “Say, Dusk, how good are you at hiding?”

Dusk smirked as he gave a yip, before shimmering out of view. “Woah, cool,” Spike said, clearly impressed.

“That's convenient, can you stay like that when we're in public? I don't want to get found out quite yet.”

Dusk faded back into view and gave a yip and nodded. “What else can you do?” Spike asked. Dusk gave a yip before summoning a ball of purple fire in front of him. “Woah...”

“I take it you use that to defend yourself?” I asked and Dusk nodded before the ball of fire suddenly lengthened and whipped out, stopping a few inches in front of me. “Wow, neat.”

“So what? I can breathe fire...” Spike muttered, sounding a little peeved. Dusk just gave a small chuckling sound as I smiled.

“I have a feeling that Dusk's fire does a little more than just burn, Spike,” I said, smiling as I thought back to a time Spike tried to protect me from some drunken colts in Canterlot.

“Yeah but still...”

“Spike, listen...” I said as I trotted over to him. “Dusk is a summoned creature, an imp, if he takes enough damage to do any serious harm, he will just dissipate and reform in the void, good as new. You're a dragon, while that means you are tough, you’re not expendable.” I said, my voice taking a serious tone. “I don't think I could handle that. I don't think I've ever told you this, but you're like a younger brother to me. If you got hurt trying to protect me again...” I trailed off as I hugged him. “A lot has happened these past few days, and I was thinking about it on the way back from Zecora's... Luna thinks an old enemy of Equestria has returned, and that means things are probably going to get a little crazy soon and... well... I don't want to lose you.”

“I... I know.” Spike quietly sobbed into my shoulder. “It's just... I've felt so useless ever since you told me about the timberwolf... I don't want to lose you either...”

We sat there hugging each other for quite some time until I felt the sun's warmth on my back. Yawning, I kissed the top of his head. “Don't worry about that Spike, I’ve learned a few tricks since then, I'll be fine. And on top of those, I'm a vampony now, from what I hear we're really hard to kill.”

Spike chuckled at that. “I guess.” He said smiling as we let go of each other. “I better go open up the library, we usually get a few foals who need to borrow books for school.”

“See, business as usual. Dusk, do you mind helping Spike out today? Stay out of sight, but lend a hoof... er... paw where you can.”

Dusk gave a happy yip and ran over to Spike, nuzzling his side as I climbed into the bed.

I slowly woke from my sleep to the sound of somepony arguing downstairs.

“... will let me speak with her or I swear to Celestia I will buck you through the wall, dragon.” Well that’s an interesting thing to wake up to.

“And I told you she's sleeping. She was up all night studying and has to recover,” Spike retorted, clearly annoyed with whoever was down there. I felt something nuzzling me as Dusk faded into view.

“Should I go down there?” I asked him, and received only a shrug in response. Some help he was. “Probably.”

I pushed the door open and headed downstairs to find Spike standing at the base of the stairs, barring the way of a rather annoyed looking unicorn.

“Finally. I was wondering if I'd have to knock out your pet in order to speak with you...” The blue unicorn said, glaring at me through his green bangs.

“Well what do you want? I'm trying to recover from an all-nighter, and I do not appreciate being woken up after only a few hours of sleep.” I nearly growled at him.

“Oh relax, will you, I promise you'll be glad I woke you. But first, allow me to introduce myself.” He sounded quite a bit more pleasant now that he was talking to me.

“Well get on with it,” Spike said, earning a glare from the unicorn.

“I am Silver Stake, Monster hunter extraordinaire. And I, my purple friend, believe there is a vampony residing somewhere in Ponyville.”

Author's Note

There's a chunk of this that I decided not to include, you can find it Here.
Big thanks to Doom for sticking with this even after that painfully long hiatus.