The Reaper and his Apprentice

“Twilight… where are you going at this hour…?” Celestia asked.

It was around eleven o’clock when she caught Twilight leaving her room out into the hallway. Not many lies got past Celestia, but Twilight knew she was an exception… as Celestia trusted her with her very life.

“I’m just… out on a moonlight stroll Celestia… I’ll be back shortly…” Twilight spoke with much hesitation, but Celestia shook it off.

To be honest, Twilight never really did know why she liked a walk at midnight every time she visited Canterlot. Maybe to just… escape… Luna’s night was always more humble towards her than the light of day… maybe it was merely to think. Whatever the reason was, Twilight always knew this was a good way to put her mind at ease.

Tonight was different though. Tonight Twilight felt much uncertainty… something did not fit tonight. She could feel a chilling breeze run down her spine as she walked through the courtyard. Dread seemed quite still in the air, she could feel some kind of… presence that drew her to the crypts.

“This way…” a voice beckoned in the dreary night. It was so soft and raspy it was almost like slowly sliding sandpaper across a smooth surface.

“Who’s… who’s there…?” Twilight could feel fear arising in her heart. She reluctantly walked further into the long path in beside the various tombs of fallen heroes.

Twilight could feel her body move by itself as she tried to stop, and she slowly felt her mind driven to the voice… its words compelled her to get to the voice. No matter how hard she tried she could not escape, even with all of her alicorn magic she still couldn’t resist the powerful spell now cast upon her body.

“This way child… follow my voice…” the voice seemed louder than before and whispers began to hum in Twilight’s ears.

Twilight walked down a flight of stairs around the outer wall of the castle. She could’ve sworn it hadn’t been there before. Perhaps this was the work of the odd voice that kept beckoning to her. The stairs seemed endless as she descended further into the depths, like an endless void. The walls were quite dusty, and seemed to accent the emptiness very nicely to her dismay. As she went further into the depths it became very dark, and much of the light now came from the strange glow coming from the bottom of the stairs.

“Ahmmmph!!!” A brief cry escaped Twilight’s lips as one of the stone steps crumbled beneath her hooves, dropping her several feet further… until she hit the hard ground bellow and became winded.

In her mind she wanted to lay there and catch her breath, but Twilight was once again compelled by the strange entity that guided her as it forced her body to press on through into the chamber ahead. What was in the next room had shocked Twilight, as a massive coffin surrounded by thousands of candles floating above the massive stone coffin. The door sealed behind her in a flash, and she felt her body relieved from the grasp of the unknown influence.

“Where am I…? Who are you…?” Twilight asked, as her soul quivered in fear from the terrifying reply.

“I am the necromancer Ni’kaad… and you have fallen into a trap my young friend…” The voice boomed.

The massive lid on the stone coffin burst as a shrouded figure floated from the casket. It hovered towards her menacingly, large black tendrils escaped from the hooded pony’s hoof and grappled on tightly around Twilight’s neck.

“Mmmm… Yessss… your alicorn soul will fuel my power young one…” The necromancer’s skeletal jaw opened up, and began to extract a glowing white substance from Twilight as her mouth forcefully stretched wide and gaping.

Twilight could feel her body grow weak as the necromancer sucked the life from her body. She wanted to scream, but the tendril around her neck choked her cries of agony. She could feel eyes roll back as she felt the tendril wrap tighter around her neck, choking her violently. Just as she almost lost consciousness, the tendril completely let go of her and disintegrated, the hooded necromancer wailed in pain as the rest of his tendril retracted.

“Hey! Plothole! Why don’t you pick on someone better than you?” Another voice had shouted from behind the necromancer, as a massive scythe was tossed out of the darkness towards the hooded fiend, cutting off his front-leg.

“Arrgghh! Do not interfere!” The necromancer shouted at the voice shrouded in darkness. “Who do you think you are attacking the great Ni’kaad?!”

Two glowing white eyes peered out of the darkness as the scythe that had been thrown towards the necromancer flew back into the unknown pony’s hoof. The white eyes looked like hot fire as they fluttered and crackled with embers.

“Does it really matter who I am? All that matters is you have been a bad…bad colt…” The figure walked out of the shadows and revealed his form.

The figure was a large stallion earthpony with a spiky black mane and very light brown fur. His hair jutted backwards like it was windblown, revealing his emerald eyes as the white flames died down. His cutie mark showed a pony-skull surrounded in white flame, and his eyes showed much determination and tenacity as he readied his scythe floating next to him.

“Die, insolent fool!” The necromancer raised his front leg and shot a mass of black tendrils towards the earthpony.

He dodged the attack with impossible speed and cleaved the other leg off with a slash from his scythe. Twilight had never seen agility this sharpened from even the most experienced pegasi, and certainly not from any earthpony. The stallion strafed to the necromancer’s right, and slashed him across the side.

“Rrragglllhhh…” The necromancer staggered as thick black liquid sprayed out from his side. “You’ll pay for that reaper-scum!”

A blast of black slime shot out from the necromancer’s mouth, the slime then turned into jagged blades and spears as they tried to pierce the strange stallion. He blocked with his scythe, but was struggling to overpower the mass of slimy weaponry.

“Rrrghh… Hey! You look pretty capable… you think you could help me out here?” The stallion looked to Twilight as he tried to hold back the dark blob.

Twilight sprung into action quickly as she fired a magical bolt at the necromancer. His body flew back from the force, releasing the stallion from his struggle. Twilight quickly helped the stallion back to his feet whilst the necromancer recovered from the blow.

“Nice shot…” The stallion readied his scythe once more. “This particular creep is a tricky one… could you keep him occupied while I try and get a good slice in?”

“Yeah…” Twilight then raised her head and cast another blast at the necromancer, but he recovered quicker than last time and began to attack Twilight.

The necromancer lashed out at Twilight with large tendril-whips and tried to smash her, his attacks had been blocked however by a force-field she had created. The necromancer then turned back to the stallion and stretched out a long whip to lash him, but missed. Twilight then sought her opportunity and charged at him with magical swords, the two large blades cut him as they crossed his torso. While he was stunned the earthpony then took a slash at the necromancer’s back, and he was cleaved in half whilst a shower of black sludge gushed from his lower-half. The necromancer then disintegrated into slime, and slipped through the cracks in the stone surrounding the chamber.

“And good riddance…” The stallion spat.

There was a prolonged pause for a moment after the stallion spoke, as Twilight tried to process all that had happened in a mere couple of minutes. There were a thousand questions she wanted to ask the strange earthpony, but one question stuck out among the rest.

“What… just happened?” Twilight looked to the stallion before her, as he sheathed his scythe and strapped it on his back.

“You want the novel, or just the short version…?” His green eyes met Twilight’s.

“I think the short version would be a lot more beneficial at this point…” Twilight answered.

“Well… what that pony there was a pretty nasty necromancer as you may have gathered, and he wanted to drain you of your soul. The good news is we beat him… the bad news is he absorbed enough of your soul to escape. Luckily he didn’t absorb enough to cause any permanent damage…” The stallion picked up some black slime with his hoof and put it in a vial from the bag strapped to his side.

“Who… are you?” Twilight asked the strange stallion.

“Back home people call me “Black Briar”, but you may call me Kraven Blightflame. I am part of an organization known as the B.D.M.C.P or Bureau of Dark Magic Control and Protection yada yada yada. The point is… I stop bad ponies from doing harm to others before anyone knows about the threat in the first place.” Kraven explained.

“You seem very… forthcoming about that apparent “secret information” don’t you think?” Twilight questioned.

“There are usually protocols that involve a memory-wipe spell, but seeing as you are an alicorn princess… to be honest I’ve never had somepony of your political standing witness an event such as this…” Kraven replied.

“Thing is… you must appear to my superiors … the rules say I have to bring you in to the academy as soon as possible.” Kraven waved his hoof across Twilight’s cutie-mark, and a magical seal appeared on Twilight’s side. “There… this should keep us in contact! I’ll get you in the morning… oh, and don’t keep me waiting… I’m a very impatient pony… see ya… oh wait! I never asked you your name!”

“It’s… Twilight Sparkle…” Twilight could barely keep on track with all of this nonsense. “I have so many questions! Where is this academy?”

White fire engulfed the stallion as a magic seal appeared beneath his hooves.  “Listen, just wait until tomorrow and then we’ll talk!”

“W-wait… Come back!” Twilight tried grabbing the stallion’s leg before he left, but he disappeared in a burst of white-flame. “How will I get back-…”

The fire engulfed Twilight and swept her up in a flash. She fell onto her bed in a puff of smoke. Her house…

“Home…?”