Dead in civilization

Twilight finished scouting the soon to be party, she had come to the conclusion that everything was in order and that it was time to get Dead. Twilight was about to knock on the door when a hoof stopped her in her tracks.

"Sorry Twilight, but you really don't want to go in there." Cadance stated as she pulled Twilight back from the door. "They're busy..." Cadance chuckled as Twilight blushed slightly.

"Thanks Cadance, would not like to have walked in that." Twilight sternly said. "Do you know how long they will be?" Twilight asked.

"Well we will know when they are finished because Rarity will come out looking like she has been to a spa, Rainbow will come out looking confident and proud..." Cadance started, however before she could go on Twilight signaled her to stop.

"Alright... I think I get it." Twilight sighed happily. "Dead just had to wake up. And Grim just had to have that idea." Twilight chuckled happily as she sat down.

"Ain't no sex like birthday sex. And yes, I know from experience." Cadance chuckled madly as Twilight blushed furiously.

"Cadance, you seem to have changed a bit..." Twilight sighed, Cadance stopped laughing and looked seriously. Twilight took this as a signal to keep talking. "Since you started studying necromancy you sense of humor has gotten rather dark..." Twilight sighed. "Dead warned us that necromancy can change ponies and make them evil. I don't want to see you go down that dark path."

"Twilight." Cadance placed her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "I'm still Cadance, I will never stop being Cadance. Nothing will ever change me or make me evil. And besides if I ever did turn evil I would totally get you on my side." Cadance laughed happily and Twilight joined in.

"Apparently if anypony is turning evil and I am the pony you want on your side!" Twilight laughed. "Speaking of evil things, hows your studies going along?" Twilight asked.

"Its going well, I have gotten the basic spell down. Nazz did something rather nice for me." Cadance said smugly. Twilight nodded her head slowly. "He is currently 'spying' on me. And by that I mean helping me out a fair amount. I'm catching on rather fast apparently." Cadance said proudly.

"I see, well I won't lie to you. I have been studying a fair amount of necromancy. Since Dead arrived really. However recently she showed me something." Twilight slowly said. "I'm just asking, but do you know about any scrolls that are used to help novice necromancers?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, Nazz told me about them. Some of them can be used to advance skills, some can be used to learn spells that a pony would not be able to cast. And finally they can be used to open mental blocks on the mind. Since necromancy was always considered a dark art it only seemed fitting that some sort of mental block was put in place by Celestia." Cadance explained.

"Celestia put a magical block on everypony? How did she manage that?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Not everypony, only those that showed potential to get corrupted. And those she holds dearly. Like you Twilight!" Cadance exclaimed happily.

"Really? When did she do that?" Twilight asked. "And wouldn't I have noticed it at some point or other?"

"Well she probably did it over time, so that you wouldn't notice it." Cadance said. "I don't blame her though, dark magic can be highly volatile, even the simplest of spells can backfire and have negative reactions." Cadance sighed. "Trust me, I know that from experience."

"Well, then I guess I haven't had any spells backfire on me then. I have covered the basics but Dead seems to think I could learn some of the more advanced spells. I don't really know what to do about it though... What would Celestia think?" Twilight sorrowfully said.

"I will tell you what she told me. Its your life Twilight, you do what you want. Just make sure you don't forget who you are and what you fight for, remember those you love and friends..." Cadance said happily and smiled at Twilight who returned the smile.

"Thanks Cadance, I needed that." Twilight sighed happily. "So... Have any idea when they will be out?"

"Nope, to be honest I am kind of shocked they have been going at it for this long. Good thing we soundproofed it." Cadance chuckled happily. Cadance twitched slightly and shivered. "That was odd... Did you feel that Twilight?" Cadance quickly scanned the nearby area. "Twilight does anything look out of place to you?" Cadance's eyes darted around. "Something feels out of place!"

"Yes..." Twilight sighed. "I feel something, something familiar. Something odd..." Twilight scanned the nearby area. "That plant pot has moved." Twilight pointed to a plant pot that was in the middle of the pathway. "And there is an extra flower."

"Oh boo! You found me!" A voice boomed. "Well I admit defeat." The voice chuckled madly. Twilight jumped back.

"Discord! I knew something felt familiar!" Twilight shouted. "Show yourself!" Twilight ordered.

"Very well. But only if you don't blast me away." Discord asked pleasantly. "Pretty please?"

Twilight sighed. "Only if you don't do anything radical." Twilight insisted. "If you promise me that I will not blast you." Twilight rubbed her chin slightly. "And tell me what you are doing here!"

Discord magically appeared in front of Twilight. "Repaying a favor. I may have said a few upstart things to Dead a long time ago. I had always intended to show up when she was celebrating something, but she never did. This is the first time Dead will experience the pleasures of a birthday party." Discord floated down to Twilight's level. "And before you ask, the spell that freed me will send me back after the party."

Twilight sighed. "Alright, but I am doing this for Dead okay? And if you do anything to hurt anypony I will make you regret it!" Twilight threatened. "Now that's out of the way, what do you have planned?"

"Nothing to extreme. Nothing to major until the skeletons show up!" Discord happily announced.

"How do you know skeletons will be at the party?" Cadance asked.

"Well, there are four advance necromancers and two trainees. How can there not be any skeletons?" Discord announced happily as he flew a circle.

"Good point..." Cadance sighed. "Maybe we should have rethink the guest list." Cadance chuckled. "Wait... How did you know?"

"You reek of necromatic energy. That magic has a strong signature." Discord clicked his fingers and purple energy pulsed out of Cadance and Twilight. "That's what you look like to me." Discord chucked madly and then vanished. "See you at the party!"

"Wait!" Twilight shouted, when Discord failed to return Twilight sighed. "Well this is going to be hard to explain." Twilight looked at her hoof as it pulsated purple. "I mean, how do you explain a strange pulsating energy?"

"Well it will be easy to explain if Discord shows up, however until then... We could just tell everypony?" Cadance asked, however before Twilight could respond Cadance went on. "No that's a terrible idea, only you, the others, Princess Celestia and Shining know about me. And I doubt anyone apart from me and Dead know about you."

"Yep... I have kept the quiet..." Twilight sighed. "Everypony is going to be upset that I lied to them..."

"No they won't, trust me Twilight your friends won't hate you because you hid this from them." Cadance said, reassuring Twilight. Cadance then gently placed her hoof of Twilight's should and smiled at her. Twilight smiled weakly back at her. "And trust me, nopony will thing you are evil. I know this because I can still hear Shining laughing from when I told him." Cadance rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, he has a tendency to do that. Laugh at something for a long time." Twilight chuckled weakly. "But what if they think less of me?"

"Trust me Twilight, they won't." Cadance said firmly.

"Alright Cadance! Lets get ready for the party then!" Twilight announced triumphantly.

The door to the clothes shop slowly opened. Rarity, Dead, Ditzy, Cherilee and Rainbow dash all walked out looking rather happy. However the group stopped when they saw Cadance and Twilight outside the clothes shop. Dead paused and looked around at the party decorations. "Hey, is there some sort of holiday that nopony told me about?" Dead asked, ignoring the energy pulsating out of Cadance and Twilight.

"I guess you could say that Dead, tell me what you think of the decorations!" Twilight happily asked, forgetting about the energy that pulsated out of her and her former foalsitter. "Also have you noticed anything different about me and Cadance?"

The other four ponies that had come out of the clothes shop had obviously noticed the energy, they were speechless and were just staring at Twilight and Cadance. Meanwhile Dead just rubbed her chin. "Nope! Nothing odd about you two. Now tell me what the holiday is about!" Dead happily insisted. "I need to no if it was okay to have sex on it." Dead chuckled as her four marefriends snapped out of their trances and blushed. After a few moments of light blushing and the odd murmur Rarity finally said what was one everypony's mind except Dead's.

"Twilight, Cadance. What happened to you? You look like you're about to explode." Rarity asked. "Who did this to you?"

"Well Rarity, first of all..." Twilight started. "I have been studying necromancy for a while now." Twilight paused and waited for one of the four ponies to say something. When none of them did she decided to go on. "Well, Discord showed up a while ago and made it so that the magical signature of necromancy a bit more... Telling." Twilight started to giggle slightly.

"Oh he did that?" Dead said abruptly. "I have seen that since you started studying. It helps me identify possible students... Or it did." Dead chuckled happily. "I have never had a student to teach in my entire life."

"Maybe you should teach Twilight, it would seem like a good idea." Rarity said.

"Hm, Celestia already teaches Twilight... So I won't for now. It would be a tad bit too much for Twilight." Dead smirked. "Now tell me what is going on!"

"We need to find the others first. The I will tell you what is going on." Twilight said as the group started to search for the other necromancers and the other elements.

"Alright Twilight, we have found the rest of your... Our friends, the necromancers and we also managed to get Discord to stick around for a bit. Now please tell me what is going on." Dead sighed as the rather large group of lifeforms were stood outside of the decorated clothes shop. Rainbow had pulled a few dark clouds over from a nearby storm. The clouds were dark but would not rain.

"Well Dead, I think it would be best for Pinkie to explain..." Twilight said as Pinkie started shaking uncontrollably.

"Happy happy happy birthday! Happy birthday to you!" Pinkie sang happily as Dead's expression turned into one that was dumbstruck. Pinkie kept singing her song until... "Happy five thousand six hundred and twenty eighth birthday!" Pinkie stopped singing and rubbed her chin. "Wow I don't think we have that many candles!"

"Pinkie... I thought we said we weren't going to shout out how old she was..." Rarity sighed. "That was rather unladylike."

"Sorry Rarity..." Pinkie stopped in her tracks and calmed down. "I guess I got carried away." Pinkie's mane started to deflated until she saw Dead laughing.

"Five thousand!" Dead laughed. "I am really, really old. I should be in a museum!" Dead fell on the floor at started pounding it with her fore-hooves. "I just... I am so happy! You don't know how happy this has made me!" Dead got up slowly and calmed down. "Alright then, lets kick this party up to an eleven!" Dead announced happily.