Life of a Necromancer

It was a bright, clear night, the moon was full and shining down almost like the sun among the stars. In the capital of Equestria, in a small (by noble standers) house, a baby was being born. He was being born at home and not delivered at a hospital because of his parents worry's, not that they were poor or even unusually shy and didn't want others to intrude on this most intimate of moments, no. You see, the baby's mother was herself a doctor and throughout her pregnancy she had been keeping a close eye on her unborn child, making sure that he was healthy and safe and looking for any defects. She found one, though not a physical deformity. By some's standards it would have been preferable if it was.

You see, all magical creatures had a type of 'magical circulatory system' called their 'Mana lines', not to be confused with Lay lines which were postulated to be the Mana lines of the world itself. It was through these Mana lines that all beings, from Princess Celestia to Discord and everything in between, used magic. However, depending on how they were laid out in your body, the type of magic you could use was altered. That's not to say that anyone was restricted to one kind of magic, for instance more than a few unicorns Mana lines were geared to chaos magic, however they could use arcane as well. Yet a pony would always find it easier to use the magic their Mana lines were meant to use.

Had the boy's Mana lines been in the arcane format it wouldn't have been a problem, he could have easily costed through life without a care.

Had his Mana lines been nature magic aligned it would have been fine, even during the industrial revolution they were having agriculture was a very well looked on field of expertise, not to mention the medical applications! Why he could have been the most famous doctor or herbologist of his age!

Had his Mana lines been chaos magic aligned it would have been somewhat troublesome, but there was medication to ensure that he wouldn't become the next Discord and besides, they say that Starswerl the Bearded was chaos aligned as well and many great inventors were chaos aligned.

But no, this baby, this innocent little child who had done nothing wrong, had an alignment nopony had ever seen before. His Mana lines were formatted to use dark magic.

Dark magic was (thought to be by most) a corruptive force and as such was illegal across the known world at Princess Celestia's command. It wasn't like any nation could stop her and even if they could, all agreed that it was for the best that it was banned. While very few nations actually enforced Celestia's punishment for the use of dark magic, death by petrification, they would imprison any who were suspected of using it.

That was why his parents were delivering him at home instead of at the local hospital, it was common practice to check every aspect of the new born foal to ensure health, but if they found out that he was geared to use dark magic he could be taken away. While his parents worried about his Mana lines they were absolutely adamant about keeping him, not even the Princess would get in between them and their child! This was going to be a happy day, no matter what!

After much huffing and pushing and pain, the baby was born into a world that if it could, would break him. He was cleaned and then wrapped in a soft blanket to keep warm by his father, who then handed him to his mother. Her expression was one of love, but twinged with sadness, as she knew that his life, if gone wrong at the worst time, would be a hard one, and as the magic of the world gave her child a name she whispered "Pitch Black. My little Colt, Pitch Black."

Her baby looked up at her without tears, breathing quietly, with a small smile on his face. His coat was a light yellowish-gray almost the color of old bone, his mane was an oily black, such that when the light hit it just right it became a rainbow of colors before turning back to black and his eyes were the richest green that you were likely to see.

His family hugged him, his father leaning down to kiss the top of his head while his mother nuzzled him gently, bringing him close as if afraid that he would disappear. He giggled and rubbed back at his mother, making several other baby noises and huffing at his father.

"I think everything will be fine, we'll teach him how to use arcane magic before sending him to school, maybe use a mana lock if he really needs it, but everything will be fine." His father said to his mother, filled with pride and fear and several other emotions he had never had before.

"You're right. As long as we make sure and plan for as much as we can, we'll be fine. I just hope everything turns out okay... It feels like our little guy has a big destiny ahead of him, I just hope he'll be ready for it." His mother said while trying not to cry as she held him close.

"I'm sure he'll be fine and when he grows up he'll find a nice mare, settle down, and get to experience all the stress I just did! I will say though, I didn't expect him to be so big! I thought baby's were supposed to be small?" His father said with a chuckle.

"Well what do you expect when your whole family is gigantic! We're lucky he came out that way at all, if he had been any bigger I would have needed a c section!" his mother joked back at his father as everypony in the room quickly lost their adrenalin rush and, after positioning themselves so that everypony would be comfortable, fell asleep, cuddling their bundle of joy between themselves. As long as they worked to keep him safe, everything would be fine.

It's too bad that thing's rarely go as well as that.

This was how the birthday of the greatest necromancer to ever exist in Equestria ended.