Corruption

The shadow realm was a terrible place. Titanic crystals the size of mountain ranges floated through an endless black expanse. Celestia stood on the island that Tambelon had become. The ruins bathed in the blue light of a dead star. Sounds that reminded the Princess of the deep shifting groans and cracking of glacial ice echoed through the valley and sky. A sky that held nothing but the ember of a sun, no stars or moon. Just a shattered world and the echoes of what once was. Jagged fragments thrust out from beneath the surface. Monoliths that varied in angle, height and size. Her nose was filled with the scent of decay with every breath and an acrid sour taste filled the air. A dark mist clung to everything that remained still for more than a moment, coalescing in floating blots that numbered in the thousands scattered across the sky. She walked down the path to the main gate of this wretched place. The unkept stone and metal looked ancient, the wood that should have been nothing but dust was somehow preserved, not well but still intact. The gates themselves were open... No not open, they were gone. Turned into piles of wood fibers and rust. The metal of the pikes and girding of the fortress walls were still present. (Curious.)

Making her way, slowly, cautiously beneath the arches through the remains of the door, she witnessed the city proper. The towers and parapets were nothing but vague shapes seen through the mists from the outside. (I hate this so much but I haven't a choice. I wish Luna was with me.) Her steps were quiet and methodical. The shambling dead responded to sight and movement as well as sound to a lesser extent. Weaker undead she could handle easily enough but wraiths, wrights and corpse goliaths were another story entirely. Grogar would have had the time to resurrect and raise tens of thousands of them by now, and that's if he hadn't gotten more creative in the interim. There was no need for invisibility spells when the only creatures she truly needed to worry about had some version of soul-sight. Looking from the main road to...(They're gone.) When this place was first cast into the shadow realm there was an army of the undead that poured from It's portal. Grogar opened a doorway to Tambelon when he first laid siege to Equestria.

The Necromancer and his city were always partially contained within the realm of shadows. Only after Grogar was cast back to this damnable place and its anchor to Equestria destroyed, could the plane be sealed from the outside. Nothing of the teeming undead that once resided here was left besides piles of bones littering the streets. Seeing the broken and rotting homes, lightless torches and lamp posts. The silence of civilization devoid of life and all of it framed with the scent of decay. The surroundings putting her on edge more than what was expected would have.(It feels like a trap, but I can't feel the presence of any undead at all.) As she walked through the disheveled streets her mind was continually assaulted with memories of a bygone age. Flashes of the battlegrounds, sacrifice, war and strife. The blood of her ponies staining the streets and their haunting cries echoing in her mindscape. As a tear rolled from her cheek and fell to the ashen dust, she couldn't hold them back any longer. Not the tears or the memories.

{Flashback}

"Sister! The fallen are rising once more!"

"What do you mean Luna?" Celestia asked quickly. She wore a face of sorrow as she cut down a mare that was striking at her with a blacksmith's hammer. Her eyes devoid of the light of life, white, dull and hollow. Her sister was doing the same with a stallion wielding a hoe.

"The ones that fell before. The bodies of the villagers that died by these abominations. It seems if they're killed by these things then... They get back up!"

The expression she now wore was of horrified realization. Jumping to Luna's side, she held her shoulder as her magic manifested in a blazing gold. "What ar..." They appeared outside of a school house on the outskirts of the village. The doors and windows had been hastily barricaded from the inside with anything that could be found. Celestia had noticed the building as she and her sister flew overhead during their arrival not an hour ago. Rushing forward the two teleported just to the inside of the hall behind the blocked door. The oranges and yellows of the fires roaring outside flickered through the uncovered portions of the windows and cracks between the furniture used for the barricades. Lighting the interior with just enough of its faint glow to reveal the atrocities within.

"No, no, no, no." Celestia whispered as she looked across the bloody hallway. Luna remained silent, only giving the sound of a wretch as her stomach tried to escape her throat.

The body of a teacher that seemed to be guarding her class laid before a broken door in front of them. The mare began to twitch with a shuttering death-rattle. A small form shuffled with an unsteady sway from behind the door frame. Looking forward with cold dead eyes, the soft sound of a high voice rang out with a quiet wail, the cry of a child. Raising her axe, Celestia froze for an instant as she looked downward with a dull stare, much like the shambling corpses around her. With a shallow shuddering breath through quivering lips and tears flowing freely... Her blade came down.

{End Flashback}

The constant silence rolled through her mind like thunder as she continued onward. Still keeping her senses open for any possible threats or an ambush. She tried to keep her thoughts focused on the task at hoof. Tambelon wasn't monumental in scope but it still was very much a city. She would have been content in flying over it all and going straight for the castle at its heart but the unknown of what was contained in that black mist filled sky made her prefer walking. Wraiths tended to fly and she would rather stay away from them if it all possible. Her journey for answers would be cut short if she encountered another of the shadow realm sky dwellers... Fighting a void dragon wasn't an option.

If one appeared then her priority would be escape. Void dragons themselves were not only more powerful than a normal one but that in and of itself wouldn't pose too much of a threat. No, The reason they couldn't be defeated was just that. In the shadow realm they couldn't die. Even she grew hungry and fatigued over time, they didn't. Celestia continued on, constantly aware of her surroundings and an eye on the sky. Turning the corner past a building that looked to be the barracks, she stopped as the sound of clattering called her attention. The skull of a trog rolled down a pile of bones and came to rest in front of her hooves.(It's been a long time since I've seen a living trog, not since...)

{Flashback}

The mountaintop village was consumed with fire and decay. The clouds rolled and boiled as smoke filled the air. Lightning skittered across an angry red sky as thunder boomed over rocky peaks. A haze of death and the scent of charred flesh and fur couldn't be ignored. The fires burned with strange colors as magic concentrated and infused them as well as the surrounding area. That abomination stood surrounded by the living and dead alike. Troggs, equines and griffin's as well as other unfortunate souls he was able to trick or control.

"Grogar you vile bastard! Your end will neither be painless nor quick!"

Celestia was filled with a hatred so great and rage so deep it burned like the heart of the sun. It's power flared and writhed in her breast. Her eyes shone like two stars and all the color of her coat and hair was replaced with the glowing white of plasma. Her regalia burned away, turning into liquid metal that dripped from her form like rivulets of mercury. Stepping forward the ground beneath her hooves was left as nothing but boiling rock.

"Sol Invictus, the "Invincible Sun." Because of the elements of nature you and your sister embody, you are hailed as Goddesses! Which means that anyone with enough power can ascend to the pantheon. But even Gods die Celestia! I have become death itself and once I have shown everyone that the Invincible can bleed, can die, then all will bow before me!"

"For your crimes against equinety, you Grogar will know endless pain!" Luna exclaimed as she landed at her sister's side.

"I am death! I cannot die!" The battlefield erupted. Bone golems, corpse goliaths, wraiths, ghouls and more seethed forward as the war began.

{End Flashback}

The skull looked blankly forward with a hollow stare as Celestia stepped over it and continued on. As she came closer to the castle the temperature seemed to plummet. She had noticed the gradual increase in the feeling of cold but she had thought it was normal for this horrid place. Some of the crystals she passed by gave off a silver or gray Mist that mixed with the black surrounding them. Stepping closer, she realized some of the crystal monoliths were infused with ice magic, massive amounts of it. Moving closer still, the ground turned to permafrost and the nearby homes sparkled with a thin film of ice. She could now see her breath and this place felt colder than she had ever felt before. As the black mist gave way and the shadow of the castle cleared to reveal its form, Celestia stopped.

Creatures littered the grounds, wraiths and wrights were frozen to the stones of the walls and steps. Some of them had shattered along with a few of the blackened dead trees and stones. Falling like shards of glass to the ground. Frozen in place they glistened in the light of the ember above. Flecks of light sparkled and shimmered off of their still forms as she walked past these twisted statues.(The crystals that are filled with ice magic must be preventing it all from melting.) This place looked like it had been sieged in a conflict on a scale of a full-blown war. Entire sections of the castle had been shattered. Bodies of the undead laid contained in ice.(What happened here? We never made it this far past the army before he was banished. Did the higher undead like the wrights somehow revolt or the wraiths? Grogar somehow controlled the wraiths and he had never used cryomancy. Void dragons used something else entirely. I've never seen them turn on each other, I didn't think it was possible.)

Her senses didn't pick up on anything unliving or otherwise. A legion of the dead that numbered twenty thousand strong and all that was left was fragments of corpses, ice and dust. Slowly she walked up the steps, she looked down a large hallway that ended in stairs. The doors laid on the floor as a pile of rust and wood fiber just like the main gates. (If Shade forged a contract with a shadow wraith then that meant Grogar allowed it. The Necromancer wouldn't seek anything besides his freedom. Whether it be through the human opening a portal or Grogar controlling him to do it. If he has found a way out then the world is going to need to be prepared.) The stone floor and walls as well as the ceiling was covered in a thick layer of ice. Huge icicles hung from the rafters and arches. Trying not to slip and make a sound, she ventured inside. As she kept herself aware and listened to the surroundings she eventually made it past all of the side doors and to the stairs. Keeping a steady step and head low, she was in front of the...Throne... Room... Celestia's legs locked in place. The windows of the room let in what little light there was and what was seen made her body go rigid.

There, sitting on a Throne in the light of a dead star, the blue glow shining through the windows reflected off of the white of bone that made up his seat. Grogar The Necromancer sat, his head leaned to the side and unblinking eyes stared into the infinite distance. His fur was gone and the leathery skin barely clung to his bones. Rips and tears that let the light through, he had no organs, rotted away with the passage of time. Celestia walked to the center of the room shocked at what was before her. The scourge of all living things, Grogar the undying. And the old goat was... Very dead. The Throne Room itself was untouched which didn't make any sense. (How could this be possible?)

{Flashback}

The very air was tainted, wandering clouds of blight would strip the flesh from any creature unfortunate enough to find themselves in its path. The ground was infused with unholy magic. Desecrated lands with boney grasping claws that would entrap, slow and tear at anything that tread upon the cursed earth. The scent of boiled marrow and blood mixed with burnt fur and decay filled what could only be described as a war zone. 30 hours, 30 hours had passed since the conflict began. No matter how many of the enemy was felled, they just kept coming. Pouring from the portal in endless number came a menagerie of undead and denizens of the shadow realm. That horrid necromancer had somehow convinced or controlled those that dwelled within to fight for him. Shadow wraiths were some of the most powerful among them. Malevolent tangible spirits that sought the souls of anything that possessed one. The same power source as the only thing more dangerous, the void Dragon. Ghouls, geist's, banshees, skeletons and more would fight on even as only half of their bodies remained. The once living troggs and others would be killed in battle only to rise again as undead. For every one of their allies number, the guard or ponys that would fall, his army would grow stronger.

"Every time we were able to get close enough to strike we are nearly overrun. I have dismembered, disemboweled and cut him in half! Yet he still stands! That black blood of his stretches and contorts to reclaim and reattach any lost pieces of him. Perhaps he is truly incapable of dying. What are we to do sister?" Luna asked as she stood to the side of Celestia. Their position atop one of the few buildings still standing. Kept just beyond the reach of most of the Mindless horde.

Vaporizing a wraith that flew to close Celestia answered. " I'm going to need you to cast Starfall Luna"

Her sister's eyes widened in surprise."Tia!? That would destroy a good portion of this mountain and that's if it's focused... Why? What about the living still in the area?"

Giving a nod in agreement with her sisters observation." I know, but we are fighting in the dark here. In order to understand what exactly that monster has become we need to change tactics. I will teleport what remains of our number further down the mountain as you cast Starfall. The Horde tends to concentrate around him as the more powerful of his army fall. As temporary as it may be I think he becomes weaker in that moment. If I can get close enough and bypass whatever he is using to block our magi-sight then we can at least have better information to work with."

"So be it. Ready yourself sister, its center will be on him. Be careful, I do not wish to harm you and he may yet have tricks we do not know of."

As Luna's magic flared and Celestia kept any distractions at bay, the sky began to darken and pinpricks of light flashed into existence from above. It began as a faint whistling sound increasing over a few seconds and becoming an almost deafening scream. Celestia's magic manifested and what remained of their allies vanished mid-battle, leaving their opponents confused. Dozens of silver streaks of light rained from above in the blink of an eye. Grogar barely had the time to look surprised before the mountainside was consumed in shimmering silver. The ground shook as a cloud of dust, fire and rock filled the air. Celestia teleported behind the goat and overrode the safety measures that prevented blinking into objects, appearing with most of her horn embedded within the back of the goat.

"Rawww!" He exclaimed with a harsh and broken sounding breath. The wheeze of a large piece of bone impaling a lung. As quickly as possible she cast every scanning spell she thought viable from the inside of the weakened necromancer. One among their number was a variation on a life force spell. With a wide-eyed expression Celestia pulled her horn from him and teleported back to her sister's side.

"His soul isn't held within his body, only tethered to it! The liquid shadow that's flowing through his veins is repairing the body as if it's an object and not a corpse. It's like his soul is controlling a doll and it's stored in that Bell!"

"Hahaha! Well done! I can't say I expected that but it doesn't matter. My pendant is no ordinary bauble or trinket! It's a relic from the outer realms. Deaths Bell!" Grogar reached up to his pendant and held it tightly. The dead that laid within the craters, broken and torn to pieces began to twitch. The goats wounds closed as the oozing tar stitched them together from the inside. Broken bones snapped together and fur was regrown anew. Flesh remolded back into shape and reattached itself to bone.

"The Bell is indestructible, it's Eternal and as long as it exists then so will I!"

(He's unkillable...)

As his eyes glowed a deep crimson he struck the pendant. It rang with a sound that seemed to resonate with the earth. The ground shook as its ringing echoed over the mountains. The shadows started to seep into the bodies strewn across the battlegrounds as they heaved and shuttered into motion. No fear, no pain, no fatigue or remorse. Driven forever onward by their masters desire to consume and conquer.

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls as it rings for thee!"

{End Flashback}

Celestia stood with her gaze locked onto the one sitting in the throne.(H-how...When..) The Bell was gone. They had tried anything and everything to remove it, to destroy it. They had fought for days on end. But nothing they had tried worked. Yet here was the desiccated corpse of The unkillable Necromancer. The heart of his power gone. His City in ruin and his army of unrelenting killing machines turned to ice and dust. Hanging her head in thought she breathed out as the mists of her breath spread along the floor.(I am glad this place will serve as his tomb rather than a prison but I need to...) She could see a pattern that disrupted the dust that coated the floor... Hooves, two hooves. Their step by two instead of four, like a minotaur. The left side dragged with each step as it moved forwar... They were new.

The sound of a window shattering rang out as a white streak flew from the castle and through the city of Tambelon.