Revenge of Humanity

by DevourMistress

Rating: mature
Tags: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human, Dark
Length: 8247

The story of Humans, after being almost wiped out by ponies and their allies, gather their forces and search for new allies so that they can avenge those who died, and take their rightful place as rulers of the world.

There is no mention of humans in MLP. It however doesn't mean they didn't exist. The old legends of all the species of Equis talk about a race of dark creatures, who enslaved and killed all who stood in their way. Legends tell that Celestia gathered the other races and marched their united armies against this darkness and wiped them out.

This is a story of their return for revenge.

WARNING: COMMENTS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-09-07 19:26:26 UTC

Prologue

”KILL THEM ALL!”

A lone shout carried over a battlefield as two armies met in the middle, the sound of metal against metal ringing through the open field as bolts of light and explosions were being fired from the both sides, with arrows raining down on the enemies as one side focused on killing the flyers in the sky, watching as they crashed down to the ground, killed or severely wounded by either arrows or magic.

In the other side of battlefield stood a white horse, wearing golden battle armor as she stood in higher ground, watching the battle in front of her. On the opposite side of battlefield stood the leaders of the army her ponies fought. Two bipedal creatures, one of them male while another was female, the King and Queen of country hers was in war with.

The male was a tall creature, wearing a dark steel armor, which covered everything but the two black feather wings that came from its back. The helmet covered its entire face, leaving the glowing crimson eyes only visible parts. The Helmet had a set of horns, starting from above the creature’s ears and curving so that the tips would point towards the direction the wearer was looking for. Below of these horns were on both sides 2 sets of curved spikes in similar positioning with the horns, with smaller ones on top of the helmet and one huge on top of the helmet, made in the spot where the creature would have a horn if it was unicorn.

The same curved spikes were on both shoulders of the creature’s armor, which had double plating. The spikes were much bigger than the ones in helmet, pointing upwards. There was also spikes on both knees of the armored figure’s legs and set on smaller ones in the chest. On the left of the creature was its blade, standing proudly on the ground as its master’s arms were pointing forward, with swarm of small lines of red magic connecting from the creature’s fingertips to the collars of enslaved warriors on the battlefield, binding dragons, minotaurs, diamond dogs, hydras and much, much more species to its will.

The female was shorter than the male, but still taller than most of her own species as she reached the collar of the male beside her. She was wearing much lighter armor, leaving much of her skin exposed as her armor covered partially her arms and legs, with armor covering her chest, stomach and genitals. However, the armor left sides and back exposed, just as it left the upper arms and upper thighs of her legs exposed, with only brown cloth hanging from her hips as it covered the front and backside of her lower body.

Her helmet left partial view of wearer’s face, covering her cheeks, neck and head while leaving front of her helmet open and back of her hair flow free. Her helmet had smaller sets of curved horns on the sides, with spikes only on the shoulders of her armor. She was wearing sadistic smile as her eyes glowed blue, her arms spread on her sides as she levitated a little of the ground and channeled her magic, summoning lighting to strike down the flying Pegasus and ponies on the battlefield.

In front of these two leaders was a small army of spell casters, wearing dark robes as they threw spells of dark magic at her ponies, some of her precious ponies blowing up, turning against each other or simply fall down, their souls ripped apart by dark magic. However, her ponies did not stand alone as army of griffins were striking another force of their enemies, with third army of dragons striking the remaining forces of this vile species.

The three armies formed a circle around a single city, which stood tall as its pure white towers held massive crystals on top of them, magic going through them as they formed a powerful shield around the last city of humans.

Humans, these vile creatures, had enslaved and experimented with her dear ponies, as well as other species of Equis. Their kingdom had remained hidden for centuries, until the greedy nobles of humans wanted to expand beyond the barrier that shielded them from the eyes of outside world.

They were not so dark as today however, before the war started ten years ago. No, they were quite pure species, their species united together for the good of their species while holding a society and laws of purest kind. However, this had ended when they had accidently expanded on the lands of dragons. This had caused thousands of humans die even though they were ready to withdraw from the lands of dragons. This caused their inner darkness to rise as the humans wanted revenge for the deaths of innocents.

The humans started fighting back, first with mercy and normal magic, however as the time went by, their morals suddenly disappeared as they started wielding dark magic, killing and enslaving whoever stood in their way. Her ponies and numerous other species had been caught in middle of this, sparking the all-out war against humanity.

The species itself was once peaceful, but when their inner darkness was exposed, the battlefields turned into chaos as their enemies died left and right. It wasn’t until the other races started working together that they managed to push back the humans back to their original lands.

The humans were at this point ready to submit, but Celestia’s rage had finally released, so she didn’t listen to reason as she and her allies continued to push into human lands, slowly decreasing the barrier size in last ten years until the capital city remained.

Those who fought today were the last of human’s warriors, with rest of the remaining population being women, children, old and the sick ones. Celestia showed no mercy, too blinded by her rage, which had slowly started to bottle up once she had been forced to imprison her own sister to the moon.

Celestia was snapped out of her recollection of events as she noticed that the humans were slowly retreating towards the capital, leaving the enslaved creatures to hold her and her allies while the humans moved back to capital, readying themselves for what would be final battle.

Celestia narrowed her eyes as she took flight and used her magic to strike at the retreating humans. She would not allow them to rise to power ever again, even if it meant death of entire species….

Her line of though was suddenly broken as the loud boom echoed through the battlefield. Turning her eyes back to the Capital city of humans, Eden, her eyes widened as the shield around the city broke apart as Crimson beam of magic rose to the skies from tallest tower, which was in middle of the city.

Looking up, she noticed that the beam of magic expanded on the top as the tear appeared in the sky, hellish fires spewing forth. Her mouth hang open in mute horror as the demons of Tartarus started swarming through the tear, smaller portals opening in the ground as the ones without wings came through and started attacking the dragons, griffins and her precious ponies.

Her rage skyrocketed as the shield slowly started forming around Eden, with tear in the sky slowly closing as the last of demons came through, most likely leaving only Cerberus behind to guard the prisoners.

This would be a long battle…..

2 months later –

Finally, the last few demons outside the barricade of Eden died away as the ponies and dragons continued attacking the barricade, fire, magic and brute force shaking the shield. Her ponies continued attacking the barricade as the griffins readied to strike down everyone in their way after the barricade breaks down.

The Queen of Demons, who resembled humans, had joined the King and Queen of humans in the royal palace, waiting for the final battle to begin. What Celestia wasn’t aware of was that humans and demons would not die that day as she would first think, as the young and healthy demons and humans were being teleported away, leaving an illusion that those who remained behind were the last ones left.

The remaining forces gladly gave their lives to ensure that the rest would escape safely and without future troubles, so that they could be avenged. The reason of demons allying with humans was the continuing existence of their kind, as their spies had confirmed that Celestia had plans to purge the Tartarus and leave her own guardians there to make sure none of the prisoners escaped.

As the barricade around the city broke, the three royals gathered in top of tallest tower of the city, Spire of dark magic. The huge crystal was held by spiky pillars above their head as the King started gathering the remaining magic of the city within it, the two Queens drawing a magical circle around them.

They could hear the screams of their people dying as the flames and magic tore through the city, destroying entire buildings and clearing the streets as the enemy forces slowly advance to the middle of the city, killing all who came across.

The King noticed something white flying towards them, raising shield around himself and the two Queens just before blast of golden light hit it, shaking it but not breaking it. The Queens turned their attention to newcomer as they finished drawing the circle, watching as Celestia landed, her eyes narrowed.

“Surrender, vile creatures. You have lost this war, and you’re only delaying your death. Surrender now and you will die quickly” She demanded in her royal voice, the ground shaking below them a little as the city continued being destroyed around them.

“We will never surrender. You have slaughtered our people long enough, Tyrant, and today you will die by my hands. My people shall be avenged, you miserable whore!” the King yelled as he spread his hands and started gathering rather aggressively the magic around them into crystal above, which started slowly glowing.

“And we will not die by your hands, Tyrant. If we must die, we shall take everything with us” The King yelled as the crystal above started cracking, causing Celestia’s eyes to widen in horror as she realized what he was going to do.

“Let the gods forgive me” The lone line left his lips as Celestia turned around and took flight, sounding the retreat as the crystal cracked open and formed ball of light, which started expanding rapidly, erasing everything it touched from existence.

Rei-Skalen smiled as Lilith and Sharon both laughed aloud next to him, watching Celestia flee in terror “Fool” he simply said as the circle below them glowed, teleporting them away as the ball of pure magic washed over where they were standing moments ago.

Celestia on other hand was hit by magical pressure wave, which knocked her out of the skies. She managed to however land far enough, away from the city as she crashed to the ground hard. Shaking her head, she turned her head back to the city with look of terror on her face as she looked at the direction of where the city once stood. Now, only a wide crater replaced it as the last remains of magical force vanished into the air, raising the pillar of dust around the crater.

As the dust slowly began to settle down, Celestia saw the true damage that had happened. Lying on the edge of crater was large amount of bodies, having been cut half when the unfortunate troops had been caught in the blast.

As she rose to her hooves and started to walk towards the crater, her mind was still in shock of what happened, with true horror of her decisions of last ten years hitting her hard.

She had just caused not one, but two xenocides against the races she fought, killing their races mercilessly as they fought for survival. As the remains of ponies, dragons and griffins started to gather the wounded and the dead, she let herself cry for the sins she had made.

She made herself a promise to never kill anyone again, directly or by order, no matter what crimes the offenders did.

Meanwhile in unknown underground cavern –

“Today, we might have lost. Today, we were almost killed completely by those who sought our destruction and extinction. However, we survived, and we shall rebuild what was lost. We shall resurrect our dying races and we shall take our revenge on those who have wronged us, no matter if it takes centuries or millenniums to achieve!!” Rei-Skalen shouted as the crowd below him cheered, Queen of demons, Lilith, and Rei-Skalen's wife, Sharon, Stood on both sides of him with smiles on their faces.

Their march of revenge would not be stopped, no matter what it took to achieve it….

Chapter 1

Celestia watched with tired eyes as the ponies, dragons, Minotaurs, griffins, diamond dogs and other members of ‘unified front against humans’ threw the bodies of dead humans down the crater. The war was finally over, and even though some of the races were against it, they had agreed to collect the remains of humans from their fallen cities and mass graves to be buried within the remains of Eden.

The amount of dead bodies, while some heavily decayed and damaged, were in hundreds of thousands. The crater was a perfect circle, having almost 2 kilometer diameter. As Celestia watched the massive crater, she could see that even it would barely be able to contain the massive amounts of bodies that had been formed by this…sinful war.

It would take few days before the last of human remains would arrive, which would then be buried under the large amount of ground that dragons had transporter just for the burial. While they were predators and violent creatures, they held respect to humans for their effort of trying to defend themselves. The griffins held similar thoughts, but ponies and other races still hated the now dead race.

She turned away as she started walking back to the camp nearby, feeling too tired to stay awake much longer. The last few months were too painful to her emotionally as she started slowly realizing the true extend of her actions and those of her allies. While the dragons had started the war, it was her and her ponies that had the most sinful of campaigns against the humans and their late war allies, the demons of Tartarus.

She had given orders to historians of Equestria to erase this war from history books, but she knew fully that the stories would not die away, and it would remain as dark spot in their history, even if in form of legend or myth.

As she arrived at the camp, she looked around at her dear subjects, seeing some of them in bandages or missing entire limps. The cost of this war was high to all those involved, but they would recover eventually once they returned home. It would be after the burial of humans that she would lead her ponies back to Equestria, where the council was impatient of her return.

It was unfortunate that they could not salvage any of their history, culture or traditions. The humans may have turned into race of darkness because of the war, but pre-war culture and history would have been perfect to try and resurrect in small community of her ponies.

Just as she was about to enter her tent, she heard someone shout her name. Turning around, she noticed a group of unicorns walking in fast pace towards her, carrying a…… glass casket with human female inside?

She blinked as she turned her attention to the group that stopped in front of her “What is it, my ponies? And why do you carry a casket of human female with you?” she questioned as one of the unicorns answered after gathering her breath

“Well, we just received it from a city called ‘Necropolis’, where it was recently found in underground grave. There were hundreds of caskets in there, but they seemed to have been raided or emptied when the war was going on. Only thing that was found was her” The unicorn pointed at the casket “Protected by powerful rune shield. After the unicorns there managed to dispel it, it was transported here. We wanted to know what you want to do with it. Do we open the casket and dumb the body with the rest or do we bury her in the casket?” The unicorn questioned as she waited for Celestia to answer, standing in attention and waiting for her orders.

Celestia turned her head to look at the casket, her horn glowing as she brought it closer for inspection. The female inside was in good condition. But she could see the signs of starting decay within the casket, most likely unicorns having accidently dispel the preservation spells. The female herself was wearing a long black skirt from waist down, which had red line on bottom of it and holding it around the waist a golden belt with skull on the middle. She was also wearing the black shoes on her feet.

The stomach area was left bare, but the chest area was covered in black silk, starting from base of her neck and ending just below her breasts, covering the chest and the shoulders, leaving the neck and upper arms uncovered. She had her forearms covered in black leather, but her hands were visible.

Her skin was pure white, even though there were small spots here and there decaying, with her long black hair almost reaching her waist. She had a golden necklace around her head, with small red gem in golden frame on the end of it, currently on top of her chest. The female looked quite young and beautiful in her current state.

All in all, the female was most likely a mage when she had died, and judging from what she heard from her subjects, possibly someone with great importance. With a quick spell to preserve the body, she turned her attention back to the group of unicorns in front of her “keep her here until the rest of humans are buried. She will be buried after the rest, so keep her body protected from any who wish to destroy it” she ordered as the unicorns bowed with “of course, your highness” before turning around and heading towards one of the tents.

Celestia let out a tired sigh as she turned around and entered her own tent, quickly moving to her bed as she collapsed, too tired to stay awake much longer. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep, with her dreams haunted by her past mistakes.

Meanwhile on the outside, the group of unicorns entered their tent, closing the doorway behind them as they looked around, seeing that they were alone. A smile came to their faces as their eyes started glowing red, with dark chuckle of their master echoing in their mind.

“Now, open the casket and carefully remove the top around her chest” the dark voice whispered as two of the unicorns carefully unsealed and levitated the heavy glass off, while one of the others removed the top, revealing the bra which covered the breasts and a hole in middle of them, which was only 4 centimeters in diameter.

“Now, put the dark heart into the hole and put the top back on” The dark voice instructed as one of the unicorns opened his saddlebag and levitated a small machine, shaped like a ball, which gave a sick green glow, in top of the hole, before lowering it in. The unicorn who had removed the top carefully replaced it before stepping back as the glass of the casket was replaced and sealed once again.

“Thank you, my dear servants. Your usefulness to me has ended” the dark voice whispered as the unicorns’ eyes stopped glowing and their memories replaced themselves with false ones. The unicorns blinked before looking around, before taking their positions and following the orders of their princess to keep the body protected.

They would never know their part in the dark intentions of the one, who had controlled them, or the aftermath of their actions while under his command….

Meanwhile in the unknown underground cavern –

Rei-Skalen laughter echoed in the cavern as the soldiers guarding him smiled, fully aware what their king had just done. Necromancy was one of the magic paths that had been fully explored, though it had not held any use before now. The cavern the humans and demons were currently residing was one of the many connected to network below the lands called “Badlands”, where the ancient ones had, once exploring them to their full potential, sealed all magic knowledge that could be classified as ‘evil’ or ‘dark’.

Currently only ones with full access to them were the King and Queen, with ancient spirit guardians protecting the vault that contained all of culture, magic and traditions of humans (irony in a way that Celestia though it was all lost) before and after the war. The humans and demons had taken their hold of the cavern system, slowly building the homes and buildings to house the resurrecting races in question.

While the necromancy was quick answer to replace the soldiers, in the long run it would still take centuries before they could march to war once again and take their rightful place as rulers of this world. Meanwhile the undead, once resurrected, would protect them while the living would slowly gain the numbers they had lost in this dark war.

Lilith watched from her sitting place on top of large rock as her subjects started digging in the cavern wall, slowly starting to build housing network within the stone, which would house the children of her subjects in few decades.

She kept the neutral look on her face, but she was seething inside. How that arrogant bitch had dared to smile like nothing was wrong when she visited her in Tartarus to check on how prisoners were doing, even though she had been planning to replace her kind with those guardians of hers.

She had known Celestia ever since Tirek had first been send to her realm, and now the only one who would protect Tartarus would be Cerberus, the last hell dog in existence. She would make sure that when the time came, Celestia would have a nice experience of dealing with Tirek while she and her human allies secured a power place in Equestria for invasion.

Of course, they could invade another country and then continue conquering the world, but Equestria was biggest threat with those filthy ponies controlling nature with their magic. Taking out Celestia and her precious ponies would secure their dominance in this world.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when the laughter of Rei-Skalen reached her ears, making her turn her head towards the general direction of the sound as she raised her eyebrow. Apparently he was having great time despite the fact that they were in bad situation, but it was clear that whatever had made him laugh would make her also laugh when she would later find out what it was that he laughed for.

Shaking her head, she returned her attention back to the housing network as her subjects moved the waste rocks out of the way, some of it stored to be used for later while other would simply be dumbed somewhere. From the looks of it, it would take long time before the network would be finished. Maybe she should encourage her subjects and her human allies to research more into technology and not just into magic…..

her thoughts were interrupted once again as someone took a seat next to her, causing her to turn her head to see who it was. To her surprise, Sharon was sitting there with strange smile on her lips as she looked at the workers build the housing network, right leg over the left one.

“What brings you here? Too bored to watch your own subjects work?” Lilith questioned as Sharon let out a small chuckle at that “yes, it’s quite boring to watch them work and try to impress me, even though I'm married to Rei-Skalen. I really don’t understand why they don’t realize that I'm not going to cheat on my dear husband” She said, before her smile widened as she lowered her head and placed her hand on her stomach “Especially not after this one” she said as Lilith’s mouth hanged open, her eyes wide with realization of what Sharon meant.

“You mean you’re…” Lilith said as Sharon only turned her head towards her and smiled, giving clear answer without saying anything. Excited squeal left them Lilith’s mouth as she hugged Sharon excitedly, both of them smiling at the good news.

They had been friends since they were children, and thanks to experimentation that involved both of them, Rei-Skalen and huge amount of blood magic, they had received immortality that so far hadn’t given up. Only downside was that they would need to draw life force of other living creatures once in a while to extend their own, but it was easy to find some animal or sentient creature that would lose its life force to extend their own.

And now after 860 years (give or take few years) Rei-Skalen and Sharon had managed to start a family, so to say that both of the women were excited would be understatement. There wasn’t any reason why they couldn’t start a family, just that they hadn’t started one yet. Now it would only be a matter of making the child in question immortal as well, and they would have great time.

“Does Rei-Skalen know yet?” Lilith asked as Sharon shook her head, smile still on her lips “No, I wanted you to be the first one to know. He will most likely throw a party for celebration of this, but at least you won’t give me too much about it” She said as Lilith nodded, knowing fully that Rei-Skalen would enjoy raising a family with Sharon.

“Well, now i need to start searching for suitable husband and then i too could start a family. But enough of that, i have eternity to search for someone suitable “ Lilith said as she and Sharon started chatting and planning for possibly future of Sharon’s child, whichever gender it would be.

A week later, crater of Eden –

Celestia watched as the ground was thrown over the mass grave of humans; the glass casket next to her with tower shaped out of granite (4 meters tall) was on the other side of her, lying on the ground as she waited for the crater to be filled. Few of her subjects and high ranking officers of griffins and dragons gave the monumental tower and the glass casket hateful looks, hating the fact that Celestia wanted to honor the dark race they had fought for last ten years.

it took few hours before the mass grave was filled, with dragons and unicorns moving out of the way as Celestia levitated the casket and the granite tower with her as she moved to what she assumed to be middle of the grave, before raising the ground below her into air as she lowered the casket into the hole, before lowering the ground on top of it.

After this was done, she moved the monument so that it would stand next to the casket, just in the position of where it would be next to the head of the female she buried. With few selected words as last goodbye to humans and demons, she turned around and walked away, starting to lead her precious ponies back to Equestria as other races too started heading back to their home countries.

The day went silently as the monument stood in middle of dead land, burned ground and sand being the only things around it. As the sun slowly went down below the horizon, the moon started to shine above the wasteland that was once home to humans.

There was no one around as purple portal opened few feet away, with dark figure stepping through, his wings folded on his back as he looked around before heading towards the monument tower.

There was no one around as his eyes glowed as he let out a dark laugh, which carried far and wide in empty wasteland. No one to witness as the figure moved his hand above the grave below, his gauntlet glowing in sick green glow as ancient words left his lips.

No one saw as the dark heart below pulsed in strength, with green magic spreading through the body that it was within. No one to witness as the female in glass casket opened her eyes and wicket smile came to her decaying lips as her eyes glowed in same sick green color as the dark heart within her chest….

Chapter 2

A sigh of relieve left Rei-Skalen’s lips as he felt the dark heart pulse below him, responding to his magic. He was lucky that Celestia hadn’t bothered to check the body of Ner’Shal before burying it, otherwise his plan would be ruined and Ner’Shal would most likely have her body incinerated. A smile came to his lips as he lowered his hand and sat down, feeling his body being tired.

As he waited for Ner’Shal to slowly realize what had happened and how to get out, he turned his head towards the night sky, seeing the sea of stars in the night sky. His smile widened as he noticed that the moon still shines brightly, even though its surface was tainted with picture of a pony.

He let out a tired yawn as he lowered his back to the ground and brought his hands behind his head, shifting a little because of his wings. The night sky reminded him of the days of his youth, when there were no worries in the world that could drag him down. Those days were filled with peace and joy, the love and happiness all around him.

He could still remember the old days when he was a child, running around the royal palace with his big sister, the white corridors with paintings of former royals on the walls, the colored windows and high ceiling, the expensive chandelier of feasting hall covering most of the ceiling, the worried calls of his mother and peaceful laughter of his father.

As he lied on the ground, he raised his hand towards the sky, as if to take hold of the stars above. His smile faded a little as his eyes turned to dark gauntlet he was wearing, remembering the day he had forsaken the teachings of light and reopened the gates of Eden to dark magic his ancestors had sealed away so long ago.

He lowered his hand to the ground as he turned his attention back to the sky, fully aware that Ner’Shal was trying to figure out how to get above ground. It was hilarious to him, that after searching weeks for secrets of Necromancy, Celestia and her allies had made his job easier by moving the dead humans to be buried in mass grave.

He shook his head in amusement as he returned his gaze back to the night sky, just watching it. It wasn't long before another purple portal opened near him, with familiar woman walking through with her hair still messy from earlier ‘activities’ they had performed upon the good news he had heard from her.

“Really, your job was to resurrect a master of magic and here you are, laying in the ground with stupid smile on your face” Sharon said in amused tone as she held her hands on her hips, which gained her a chuckle from her husband “oh, but I'm simply waiting for Ner’Shal to dig herself up. It’s not my fault it’s taking her so long” he said as Sharon shook her head in amusement and started walking towards him, shaking her hips more than normally.

“Oh, and what should we do in meanwhile, my dear husband?” She questioned as she stopped next to him, smile on her face and arms crossed as she waited Rei-Skalen to answer her question “oh, I don’t know. Watch the night sky and lie on the ground?” He questioned as Sharon uncrossed her hands and moved her leg to other side of him, before kneeling so that she was straddling him with seductive smile on her face.

A smile spread on Rei-Skalen’s lips as he felt his wife sit on his lap, his hands taking hold of her waist as her hands rested on his chest plate, her back bending backwards as her chest came forward seductively “I have another idea we could do my dear, but I need you to take that heavy armor off” She said in seductive voice as Rei-Skalen moved himself back into sitting positing, with his wife still on his lap as he moved his left arm on her upper  back and drew her into a kiss, which she eagerly answered as her arms wrapped around his neck.

This was however the same time Ner’Shal dug herself up from her grave, her hand breaking the surface as it took hold Rei-Skalen’s left leg. With this sudden motion, he accidently slapped his wife on her right ass check, which gained surprised gasp from his wife as she held the knowing look on her face as she drew away from the kiss, opening her mouth to comment.

“not now, it seems we’re not alone anymore” Rei-Skalen said in serious tone as he motioned behind his wife, who turned to look behind her, just in time for second hand to breach the surface as it started to claw the dirt away. With disappointed sigh and look that promised ‘rough sex later’ to her husband, she raised herself from his lap as he started digging the intruder out of the ground.

After a few minutes, Ner’Shal was standing in front of them, shaking the last of the dirt out of her body as she raised an eyebrow at her decaying skin “really? Couldn’t wait until i was fully a skeleton before resurrecting me?” She asked sarcastically, before her eyes widened and her hand went to her throat, not used to the echoing, cold voice of lich.

“I could have, but then you would have been expecting the voice change. The look on your face is quite amusing” Rei-Skalen said with smile, before his expression went into serious “Arch-Mage Ner’Shal Elhalment, our species as a whole is in great danger. You have been resurrected to serve and protect those who are alive, so that we may once again rise above others and crush those who seek our extinction. The royal decree number 2648 has now been made invalid, so you will be given full access to necromancy and all related magic for good of your people. Do you accept your new duties?” Rei-Skalen spoke in dark, but serious tone as Ner’Shal had a blank expression on her face.

After a moment of thinking, she smiled as she kneeled and bowed her head “I, Ner’Shal Elhalment, Shall accept my duties until further notice, for the good of my people” She said in calm, but strong voice before rising back to her feet with small chuckle “now that the official thing is over, what would you like for me to do, Rei-Skalen?” She asked as Rei-Skalen looked around, still seeing the marks of war on the land around them.

He stayed silent a while, before letting out a sigh as his body visibly showed the signs of being tired “Destroy the land” He said simply, causing the both women to look at him like he was insane. Rei-Skalen noticed this and answered their unasked question “I would rather see the lands of our empire being a wasteland, tainted with dark magic and hostile to all life rather than watch as these animals steal the land that was rightfully ours. When the time comes, it will be they who will be forced to either die or flee as we take over their lands, starting with Equestria. Celestia will be forced to watch as her dear ponies will pay for destroying our empire by rebuilding it in slavery” Rei-Skalen said in angry tone as Ner’Shal nodded in understanding. It had been her death that had caused the dark magic to be used, so it was no surprise that Rei-Skalen would rather watch the lands of empire turn lifeless than lose them to the arrogant animals who defied them.

“Are the pillars of might still standing?” Ner’Shal asked as Sharon nodded, knowing that they were important to what Rei-Skalen had planned. Her spies had carefully checked the land in last few months to see what remained, only to notice that the Towers that marked the borders of Empire, still (surprisingly) standing, though no longer connected to Eden.

“Now, sister” Ner’Shal crossed her arms as she looked at Sharon “While it would be great to start the work i have ahead, I still don’t know anything about necromancy or poisoning the land. So, can you-“ She was interrupted as the flash of light appearing above Rei-Skalen’s hand, with leather book levitating above it “It took few months to make, but this book details all you need to know to resurrect the dead and taint the land, so that the filthy animals don’t get anything” Rei-Skalen said with smile on his lips.

As the book was passed to her, Ner’Shal asked the question that started bothering her “My lord, what would you like to do to those that are buried below us?” She asked carefully, noticing the pained look on Rei-Skalen’s face as he bowed his head. After a moment of silence, he answered in sad tone “No. The people who died to protect us have earned their rest. I will not allow their bodies to be turned into mindless husks” he answered as Ner’Shal nodded in understanding, even though Rei-Skalen wasn’t looking at her.

“Their sacrifice will be honored. However, we shall make sure that the lands that they died protecting will not be tainted by the filth that killed them” Sharon said in angry tone as she looked around, painful memories of watching her people die flashing in her mind “It will take months to prepare, and the mages we have left will be weak for weeks after the spell is done and the taint starts spreading. We might have been the most powerful race in this world, but we no longer possess the strength we used to” she said in depressed tone as Ner’Shal hugged her, with Rei-Skalen preparing the portal back to their new home.

It would be years before they could start focusing on gaining more strength, as the people would need functional society to grow in order to ensure their survival. However, the knowledge of the magic their ancestors’ studies would help greatly, even though it would take decades to access the full knowledge of magic left behind, even more so because it would take at least 3 to 4 decades to stabilize the lives of humans and demons.

5 Years later –

Celestia watched the landscape as she stood in top of the hill, her face showing hint of pity and sadness as she watched the green magic corrupt the land she had taken over only few years ago. The taint (as her ponies had called it) had started spreading only a year after the destruction of Eden, which according to her ponies was the source of this taint.

In last four years, the taint hadn’t spread far from the source, only few kilometers, but the land that had been protected by the human barrier had started to die away as it stopped responding to her ponies, slowly turning the area into an area similar to Everfree Forest, only difference being that the land starting to dry ahead of the taint.

It was sad; the land that the humans (and later demons) had died protecting was destroying itself with raw, tainted magic. She suspected that the ancient humans had built Eden to control the raw magic, but there was no way to tell what the reason of this taint really was, as the land corrupted by the taint became too unstable to travel through. It would take months to figure out the reason and how to stop it, but the land and nature denied the access to the source itself, with winds and storms disobeying her ponies as they ravaged the dying lands.

Shaking her head, she turned away as she took flight, flying towards the nearest town settlement that her ponies had started building when the war was still going. As she continued to fly, her eyes wandered the forest below as the forest slowly repaired the damage done by the horrible war. Her ponies had assisted the nature to repair the damage, but now that the lands no longer obeyed the magic of her ponies, it continued to grow naturally.

It would take decades, even centuries (which the land didn’t have, thanks to the dark taint that was spreading) before it would have naturally repaired the damage done by her ponies and their allies.

She shook her head as she banished the dark thoughts, not willing to be tortured by them right now. Her own dreams we’re haunted by the horrors of her actions, so it was better when she distracted herself from her own deeds in these…forbidden lands.

Celestia’s flight took few hours, even in max speed that she was unconsciously flying in to escape the darkness her thoughts filled her mind with. Had she been focusing however, she would have seen the raven flying few hundred meters behind her, its eyes glowing red as the tainted magic was spread along its body.

There were hundreds of them all around the world by now, keeping an eye on important things that the mages of demons and humans kept constant watch over, keeping the tap on current events for their leaders as they helped their people over the hardship of getting back together (well, Rei-Skalen was mostly with Sharon, her sister Ner’Shal and Lilith taking turns of watching the little Elizabeth while they worked).

As Celestia arrived at the settlement, she slowed down before landing, her breathing heavy when her mind finally started to realize how exhausted she was after flying so long at top speed. She took deep breath to calm herself as she looked around, seeing the ponies quickly continuing whatever they were doing before she had landed.

The settlement was in progress of being taken down, as the ponies didn’t wish to wait for the taint to reach them and take it down by force. It would simply be easier to move back to Equestria, where they could live peacefully without a worry about the land around them dying and not obeying their commands, leaving earth ponies unavailable to grow anything and Pegasus unavailable to change the weather.

As Celestia took a look around the settlement (or what wasn’t yet taken down), on other parts of the world a group of minotaurs were gathering in a recently build church, wearing white robes as the amulets under the robes glowed red, although it wasn’t visible to outside.

“Report” the leader of the group, wearing white robes with red and golden runes and symbols on them, making him visually much more important than the rest. Unlike the others, He wasn’t wearing an amulet under his robes however, only a golden ring with in his left hand, with gem on it giving the familiar sick green glow.

“The preparations are complete. We are ready to start the first phase, though it’s highly likely that we will receive much hatred among the others at first. Second phase is being prepared, but it will take longer to complete, with requiring a few thousand followers and a great amount of resources” one of the Minotaurs, his fur brow, reported.

The leader nodded in satisfaction as the others gave more detailed reports on their specific tasks, before he turned to the last one, who had entered the room only few minutes ago, wearing a red robes “What’s the situation with packages? Are they ready for transfer?”  The leader asked, with Minotaur in red nodding as she answered “The packages are ready, as per instructed. The farms nearby are producing the most of what is needed, leaving themselves enough to keep themselves and their businesses up. The town nearby has been hired to start the mining of the resources in nearby location, with most of the town people under our command, as are the farmers” The female reported as she too held the golden ring with green gem on her finger.

The Priest (leader of the group) nodded as he answered “Go get the Rune Master from his quarters and return here. As for the rest of you, return to your work. We will initialize the first phase tomorrow” The priest finished giving orders as the rest bowed and moved out, leaving him alone in the room.

Finally alone, he turned around as he watched the statue that towered over him, the creature wearing an armor with wings on its back outstretched, standing still as one hand held a sword while the other was held high, with a construct in its grasp. The statue itself was black and made of stone, while the construct was added to it later.

The construct in question was a cube with gold corners, with length (from one side to other) being 30 centimeters. The sides of it (which were being held together by golden corners) were made of pure, see-through crystal, with the cube itself being willed with blue liquid of unknown origins.

The most noticeable thing however, was the red liquid within, forming a ball of 15 centimeters in diameter as its core was black. The liquid had a black spot on its surface, making it look like an eye as the red liquid acted like an iris, with black spot taking the role of pupil.

The strangest thing however, was that it acted like an eye, following the movement of everyone within its sight unless it found something else to look at. The eye dilation and constriction reacted like a normal eye, making it unnerving to watch as it looked right back at you, with the dark core being the only thing within.

Those who were close to the statue could hear faint whispering of unknown language, but it was clear to everyone who had seen it just who had created it. Unknown to them however, the eye possessed the soul of ancient mage, who had taken his duties to serve his majesties very seriously, going so far as to dump his old body (it was already 98 years old) to continue his service in his now immortal home.

It took 20 minutes for the Minotaur in red to return with Rune Master (who was wearing blue robes willed with runes), who nervously glanced at the eye, feeling like it was judging him as it stared deeply at him. Turning his gaze from the fear spreading eye, he bowed deeply to the Priest in front of him “What is it that you need, my lord? The seducer didn’t inform me what you wanted, only that you summoned me here” He asked in intrigued tone, wondering what the leader wanted.

Turning around, the Priest held a smile on his lips as he looked at the young Minotaur in front of him “I summoned you here to inform you that we will be starting phase one tomorrow. I want those golems you and your followers have been preparing to be ready in case of…some unwanted attention from people who will no doubt dislike our believes” He said in tired tone, his age already at 60, while the Seducer and Rune Master were in their early twenties.

“They are ready to deploy by tonight. Was there something else, or shall I return to my work?” the Rune Master asked, patiently waiting for the Priest to answer. He held high respect for the Minotaur in front of him, as did the rest of Inner Circle of Crimson Eye.

“I need you also to start researching more into technology. The masters want it to be more developed without the usage of magic or runes, so your duties are to focus on them after the Golems are deployed. However, take your time with the project, because masters are expecting it to take centuries before the technology will be high enough to perform the same tasks as the magic and runes” The Priest instructed, before motioning his hand towards Rune Master, who took his leave.

Turning to Seducer, Priest gave her a warm smile and loving look “Now, go ahead and give your father a hug. I haven’t had free time with you in weeks, daughter” he said as the young female eagerly embraced her father, who chuckled in response.

The start of something beautiful and sinister was starting to come closer with each day….