Into the Light

I watched as all four guards passed below me. I would have thought, that with all their training, and with the knowledge that I was notorious for 'vanishing into thin air', that they would be a bit more meticulous in their search for me. All it had taken to escape them was turning down an alleyway and teleporting up to a fire escape.

Really, I'm suprised they ever caught anypony. I mean, there was snow on the ground! I could see where my hoofprints stopped! They walked right past that spot though, deeper into the darkness. I would never understand how these bumbling morons protected the capital of Equestria.

I shook my head. That wasn't important right now, I needed to leave before they realized I had given them the slip and doubled back. At least, I assumed they would. Maybe they would think I simply ceased to be, and would cheerfully go about their day of standing around, doing absolutely nothing productive. Whatever.

I teleported back to the ground, snowflakes blowing back slightly from the displaced air. I quickly checked under my cloak, looking at the three empty vials on my belt, as well as the dagger on my thigh. I didn't like using it, but sometimes ponies needed to be temporarily disabled.

Satisfied that they were all in place, I pulled the gray cloak tight around me again. It was the same color as my coat, and I knew that my mane was only slightly darker. With the hood pulled over my face, I was one of the most monochromatic ponies in the city, which suited me just fine. Not standing out was a good thing when you're the most wanted pony in Equestria.

I stepped out of the alley, and looked up and down the street. Not a soul to be seen. There weren't even any guards at the ends of the street. Again I shook my head, amazed at the level of stupidity. At least some three hundred years ago they actually gave a damn about the safety of the city. As soon as the guards realized they had lost me, they would report my presence in Canterlot, and then the whole city would be after me.

I had at least an hour before that though, so I began walking down the street.

Some shops I went past were open, holiday music and wonderful scents wafting out to the street, though most were shut tight against winter's fury. But tasty treats were not what I was here for. I only had one destination in mind: the hospital.

I had tried this before, three hundred and something years ago. The exact date alludes me, though that had been the day I decided I needed to learn how to fight, and it was after that day I had started keeping a weapon with me. After all, being killed in combat three times, then being hit with the sun was quite traumatic.

I suppose I understand their reaction. At the time, I had been known as a monster. I still was, to be honest. Nopony believed I wanted to help them. I was a creature straight from legend, an abomination of the highest magnitude.

I'm a natural-born necromancer.

Anypony could, of course, perform necromancy to some extent through the use of dark magic. Though not only was it extremely difficult to do that way, but their knowledge of the art was always incomplete, or their abilities limited by their magic, not to mention the fact that prolonged use of that kind of magic would eventually drive the user insane.

But natural-borns? We were few and far between, and for good reason. Our abilities as necromancers were expansive, and completely separate from our normal magical capabilities.

There had been, including me, four natural necromancers, and we were all branded the same way: a pony skull for a cutie mark. Even if somepony didn't know what that meant, they could probably guess it didn't mean 'professional cuddler' or something. So I always had my cloak on, no matter how hot, awkward or rude it was. Not when I showered, but you know what I mean.

Each of the ones before me had eventually died, permanently, at the hooves of the Princesses. After destroying cities and killing tens of thousands of ponies, that is. There were only three confirmed ways to kill a natural necromancer: using the full power of the sun against them, throwing them into a volcano, or killing them normally many times until they stopped resurrecting. Obviously, each method had been discovered with one of the previous necromancers, and I had no intentions whatsoever of helping ponykind find a fourth.

It was odd though, in my last visit to Canterlot, Celestia had tried to kill me the same way she had killed the first necromancer: a blast of fire so hot that it had melted the majority of the throne room in the castle. It had been such a spectacular display of power, that it had been rightly dubbed 'getting hit with the sun'. How I survived is still beyond me, but I know for a fact that if I ever come anywhere near her again, I'm teleporting myself off the mountain.

I looked up, and realized I had nearly made it my destination. Unsurprisingly, there were no guards outside the hospital.

I looked around me, still not a single pony to be seen. Not even the useless guards that should have been patrolling the streets. This was definitely a setup. There was no other reason for all the guards in the city to be missing after I had been spotted. There should have been more of the idiots, not less.

I shook my head again. I'd been doing that a lot recently.

I pushed the doors open, entered the warm room and quickly shut them again. There was a stallion at the reception desk. I began gathering power in my horn for a simple, well, relatively simple, spell that had gotten me out of many sticky situations. He looked up as I neared the desk, but before he had the chance to speak, I sent the spell flying at him.

The ball of silver magic hit him in the chest, though at first it didn't seem to have any effect. He looked up and down, panicked, trying to see what I had done, but he quickly calmed. When he looked at me again, his eyes where unfocused and his expression blank. I smiled, he would be like that for a few moments, with no memories of what had happened.

I stepped past the desk and through the doors deeper into the building. I moved to the right of the hall, hugging the wall. I closed my eyes and slowed my pace. I reached out, but not physically, or magically. I simply did, and felt the hearts of the ponies of Canterlot. Thousands of beating, living hearts. It was really too much to distinctly tell what was going on, so I restricted my senses to the hospital alone. I could feel the staff, with their strong hearts, and the patients whose hearts were weaker. Around them was also the feeling of death, like a shroud, constantly beaten off of them by the doctors and nurses who watched them like hawks.

Besides both of those, though, I could feel more hearts still. I knew they must be guards, laying in wait for me. There usually weren't any, but maybe they had finally caught on to what I did in every city I visited. Maybe they weren't quite as incompetent as I thought, knowing that I would make my way here eventually. But that didn't matter. I knew where they were, I would just have to avoid them.

I opened my eyes and picked up my pace again. There was an intersection ahead of me. The signs on the wall indicated that the Intensive Care Unit was to the right. As much as would like to help those ponies, I would never be able to get through the army of doctors to them. I would never be left alone long enough to help the them.

So I turned left, heading toward the pony whose shroud felt thickest, the pony who was closest to paying death's due. They, whomever they may have been, were on the second floor though. In a room to my right, however, was a pony in nearly as grave a condition.

I pushed the door open, unafraid of what I might find. I had seen many ponies in gruesome conditions. It was a normal room, the only occupant being the one on the bed. It was a pegasus, with an orange coat that was mostly missing, and their mane, whatever color it had been, was gone. It was clear they had been horribly burned. As I got closer to them, I restricted my senses to them alone.

Their heartbeat was weak and sporadic, their breath labored. If they had been awake, they would have been in great pain. I closed my eyes and focused on them, on the shroud that hung menacingly over them. I pushed it back, forced it, forced death, away from them. I opened my eyes and watched as the burns faded, their coat and mane grew back. Their heart returned to a normal rate and their breath came easy once again.

I smiled. There was nothing I liked more than helping others, even if they might never know I was the one who saved them. In the end, they survived, which was more than many did.

I turned away from them, and once again reached out to feel the rest of the hospital. My smile quickly faded. There were eight of the hearts that I assumed to be guards outside the door, and one that I assumed to be a doctor. Those of the guards were beating erratically, probably scared out of their skin of the thing they were waiting for. The doctor though, was completely calm. So it might not actually be a doctor.

Thinking about it, I really didn't want to know who would be calm in the face of the most feared pony in Equestria, so I decided to teleport straight to the pony I had originally intended on seeing first.

I gathered the necessary magic in an instant, then the world went white.

Vision came back with it's friend Pain, apparently.

I landed on my hooves, but collapsed to my knees immediately. My horn, lungs, and gut were having a competition for 'Most Painful Body Part', and I couldn't tell who was winning. I stayed like that for a moment, seething through my teeth, both from the pain and fear. There was only one reason something like this would have happened.

I looked up. Not a lot, just enough to see past my nose. There, in front of me, were the most terrifying set of white legs I'd ever seen in my life. Remember how I said that if I ever came face-to-face with Celestia again, I'd teleport myself off the mountain?

Well I tried. But that effort put my horn squarely in first place in its previous contest. I buckled over again, and my vision darkened. I thought I was still on my knees, though I might have fallen after that.

I didn't understand. She should have been in court right now. How had she gotten all this ready in time? She would have had fifteen minutes to set all these enchantments up, assuming she got here as soon as those first guards left the alley. Not even she was capable of doing something like this that fast.

I don't know how long it took, but I could eventually see again. Yes, I had fallen down. How humiliating. My breathing returned to something resembling normal, though my horn continued to be the unchallenged champion of pain.

"You should really calm down, Silver Lining. I would like to ask you for your help."

By being dead, right?

I had met literal demons that scared me less than that beautiful, melodic voice did. I knew how stupid, how useless it was, but despite the pain, I tried to teleport again. If she was going to kill me, I wasn't going to let her have any fun torturing me. And, if nothing else, I was not going to simply give up and surrender to her.

If she had me executed, I would simply wake back up. Hopefully she would actually kill kill me while I was still unconscious.

For the first time in a very long time, I welcomed the darkness.