The house I lived in, since I was a foal, was small, but it wasn’t anything bad for me, my father and my mother. It was peaceful and pleasant and we lived a relatively comfortable, though not easy, life. There were very few disturbances of this serenity. The price dropping was the most ‘crucial’ news to the family, but that was it. Other than that, we ate breakfast, father would go to work in his position as a teacher at one of the local schools and I would go to a different school, whilst mother would take care of the house. She used to work as well, but that was before I was born. Mother was not unhappy about it, though she did miss the days, when she was working. She thought they were a lot more interesting than her current daily life. She loved me and so did my father, although I was much closer to my mother than to my father. I just could not communicate with my pa just as well, I suppose. Rest assured; I liked the way I lived in Equestria. At school we learned the usual maths, language, magic, and other things a pony and in my case, a unicorn, should know. To be honest, I found school exceedingly boring, when I was young. It was very ordinary, so to speak. You were there to be taught some very specific things and while nothing less, also nothing more. I found that reality of school to be extremely irritating. Whenever I got home, I often looked frustrated, sometimes even angered. That was, because for one more day, I had to put up with things I considered of minuscule importance and which, by all means, I already knew, since I had taught them to myself. When I would return home and eat with my mother, she would, as usual, calm me down. I always looked up to her. She was more than simply potent in the use of her magic as a unicorn and she always looked so dazzlingly beautiful. With a fair white coat and black hair and tail. I suppose the contrast added a certain degree of mystery to her. My coat was pink to purple, but that was because my father’ s color was dark purple.

When mother saw me, she called out to me in her usual cheerful tone.

‘Welcome home, sweetheart. How was school today?’

I would have preferred not to answer...

‘It was fine, mommy. They were teaching us those magic spells again, but I couldn’t pay attention.’

‘Why not, Rosa? Was something wrong?’

‘Not really. I just already knew those spells. At the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about those other spells I had seen in that book the other day. It feels like I can do them but whenever I try nothing happens. My horn glows and everything but there are no results. But every time I try, I feel as if I should be able to execute them but I can’t.’

Mother looked puzzled and also curious.

‘I might be able to help you. What kind of spells were those, Rosa?’

I hesitated to answer. But I felt I had no other choice, so I did.

‘They were the spells from one of… your books mother.’

‘If that is the case, then I do not think it would be very difficult for me to- ‘

‘Not the books from the bookcase. The books you have in that chest in your room. I know you have said, I was not to touch that, but I felt so very curious and just took one of them and read it. I am very sorry mommy.’

With a teary face I looked up to mother for her response. But mother stood silent and frozen in place. Then she started shaking. With a trembling voice she asked me:

‘Which... one?’

‘The one with the rose and the swords’, I answered reluctantly.

Mother’s eyes widened and she looked frightened, yet in a way, she seemed to have actually expected this to happen, even though she really wished it wouldn’t. She took a deep breath, yet she looked no calmer.

‘When you finish eating come to my and your father’s room’

‘Yes, mother!’

I answered in a cheerful manner, as I thought, I had been forgiven for my ‘wrong’ behavior. Not that I had ever been severely punished by my parents. Quite the contrary. But, still, I felt I had done something wrong and felt guilty about it. So, once I finished my lunch I went straight to mother’s room.

‘Mommy, I am here!’

Mother had considerably calmed down but now she looked saddened and slightly distant.

‘Mother?’

She turned to face me and she was holding that book in her hoofs, while she was lying on the big double bed. She beckoned for me to lay next to her and so I did. She put her hoofs around me and held the book open in front of me.

‘I did not intend for this to happen and in a way that’s a failure of me as your mother, but, on the other hand, it is in your nature, so I might have been wrong to be hiding this from you. Your capabilities at magic are boundless, sweetheart. But there is a special reason for that. Remember that I told you to always cover your flank at all times no matter the circumstances?’

‘Yes, mommy. You told me it was important, so that bad people don’t attack me.’

‘Well, that’s true, but in a way, I did not tell you the entire truth. On your flank, you have a mark, a cutie mark, as all ponies do. But mine and yours are special. Do you remember the mark?’

‘Yes, it is a rose dropping its petals.’

‘Exactly. There is a reason I told you to hide your mark, Rosa. That is because that sign is considered a cursed one. But it is also the reason you have such potency with magic and knowledge in the first place. It is the mark of a necromancer for a pony. A blessing and a curse.’

I don’t know why, but I think mother was trembling a bit behind me, as she said that.

‘The ponies from all tribes think of us as creatures that are evil, cruel, calculating and murderous, no less than the changelings. However, we are not and you should not hate what you are. Your mother has the same mark too, darling. To be able to raise the dead and the spirits of the old is something feared, but it is not evil, as long as you don’t use it to bring harm to others or yourself. The spell you are trying to learn is the basic one. I will teach you that, but you must promise me not to ever use it unless there is a very good reason to do so. Okay?’

I turned to mother with a big smile and shining eyes.

‘Yes, mommy. I will do that!’

Mother then went over to the window on the other side of the room. There was a plant there. I had not seen that plant in mother’s room before. It was hidden, apparently, outside the window, in a chasm on the side of the outside wall. Let alone that, I had also never seen a flower like the one inside that pot ever before in my life. Mother knelt next to the bed and let the plant down.

‘This flower is called Amaranth. I prefer it among all other flowers, because as its name suggests it never wilts, even when it is killed by chopping it off. It is not easily found in Equestria, but it exists in the jungles in the south.’

Then her horn started to glow and the plant slowly died. A shiver ran through my spine. Could I do that too? More importantly if I could, I never wanted to have to do that. To take life. Mother noticed.

‘Don’t worry. It is dead, but between life and death the only change is that of material, at least for plants. For ponies or griffons or any creatures the issue is more complicated, as they have a body and a soul, but that’s why we are doing this experiment on a plant. And besides, we can fix this plant. Whether it is dead or not depends on how you want to think of it. You were not able to execute the spell before, because, thankfully, there was nothing dead around you to focus on. Try imagining the plant, when it was still alive.’

That was complicated in my mind, but, regardless, me and my little mind attempted the best we could. I closed my eyes and imagined the flower otherwise than it currently was. All I knew of that flower was its image, when it died. So, all I could think of was that image of it. Suddenly, I felt as if I was very warm and then very tired to the point of exhaustion. I reluctantly opened my eyes and in front of me the flower in the pot was not only ‘not dead’, but it had overgrown.

‘You are gifted, Rosa. But this amaranth is only a start. After all, amaranths retain their color and shape even in death. Still, for it to grow back so fast and so much. Even I could barely do that at your age. But you must be tired now.’

I couldn’t even reply. I held my eyes half open with great difficulty and shortly before I passed out, I could feel mother’s gentle touch and then a feeling, as if I was being lifted by her. When I woke up, I was in my room surrounded by my books, as my room normally is. Yet, in a corner of the room the amaranth was standing proudly with its purple hanging spikes. From inside mother and father’s room I could hear shouting. Father had returned and was quarrelling with mother. Thing is, I had never heard them quarrel before, so I was scared and so innocently went towards their room, still feeling very dizzy. When I got close, I could barely hear them talking on the inside.

‘Why did you teach her that? You know if they find what she is, then we won’t be able to stay here anymore? What were you thinking?’

‘Even if I had found some excuse to say nothing today, she would find out herself sooner or later. It is in her nature, just as much as it is in mine. It is better that she learns this from us. If we teach her to control her abilities, then she can hide them, just as I do and am forced to do for ages.’

‘For her good, I hope you are right. I love you but I love our daughter just as much. I don’t know what I would do if either of you were harmed. You are both my darling necromancers in this unbelievable reality, after all.’

‘Unbelievable but true. After all, love always finds a way, darling. I would have turned out to be much worse without you, so I needed you much more than you think.’

‘I don’t think that is true. You did everything yourself. If I ever helped it was more out of chance. But I do love you. But we both love and want the best for our daughter so she is a prio- ‘

At that moment I entered the room and quite foalishly exclaimed.

‘I love you too ma and pa!’

We hugged together for a while and I thought that was the happiest day of my life. Yet, things changed. From that day onwards mother would teach me new necromancer spells, as often as she could. Still, she would always specify how dangerous the spells were for me and those around me and thus, why they should only be used, if they were utterly necessary. After all, the spells themselves, when cast by a single caster, drain the user and I really felt that. Especially in the beginning, casting even the simplest of summoning spells for any dead plants would throw me unconscious in a matter of seconds, after I had cast the spell.

Father’s attitude changed as well. Before he would regularly pass me many books, aimed towards the things I was learning at school. Those were a major reason I already knew the school subjects before we were taught them. But now he would give me some very strange tomes, all of which were aimed towards special types of magic or necromancy and stated how the user could control the usage of such magic. Around that time, I also developed a great interest for the history of Griffonia, as much of the information on magic usage was actually developed in that continent in times long gone.

To my surprise though I would very soon be part of a history in the making, that I never hoped to be. Before 994 the ponies in the north of Equestria, having struggled with famine for far too long and with no apparent help from Canterlot, revolted and the Equestrian Guard was sent to put them down. The fights were bloody and they were being constantly broadcast on the radio. For my family though, this revolt was even more scary. The students in the school, where my father taught were known to be more or less affiliated with the communists. Father came home one day and he looked exhausted, muddy and very nervous. I could tell something was very wrong, but I was too afraid to ask. He talked with mother and they went to their room. They closed the door, but I could still hear mother cry. I wanted to go in, but even if I did, I wouldn’t know what to say. Whenever we ate together from that day onwards, my parents stayed eerily silent. Mother also stopped teaching me magic and the books father brought me were very often in a terrible condition for some reason. This went on for around two weeks. At the beginning of the third I could bear it no longer. I felt as if I was being left out of something important by ma and pa and they wouldn’t tell me a thing and they very much seemed to ignore me. I lashed out at them.

‘For a while now you have both been brushing me aside! You don’t even talk to me anymore! And we were so happy! Mother was even teaching me her special magic and dad was bringing me books with interesting stories in them! But all that stopped and I know you are both hiding something from me! I don’t wanna be left alone! I love you both, so why are you doing this to me?’

Ma and Pa looked at each other with a sad expression and then looked down again. I thought they were going to stay silent again but father spoke up.

‘Your father, sweetheart, will have to go on a trip far away and he doesn’t really want to. He wants to stay with you and your mother, but he has to go on that trip. I just- ‘

Mother interrupted him before he could finish.

‘Don’t lie to her. She may be young, but she is my daughter and my daughter is not a fool.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, I am.’

Father took a deep breath and spoke in a much more serious tone than before. His voice was so ‘fatherly’ in most cases. Now it sounded sad and I did not like that at all.

‘Bad ponies have risen up north and around where we live, Rosa. They are not bad per say but they are starving and that is because of faults made by Equestria and her ponies. And all that leads them to do bad things. Equestria, sweetheart, was no better in response. Just as mom teaches you not to use your powers without very good reason, so must nations. But nations are not taught. And they are led around to do horrible things. Your father tried to teach these creatures not to do horrible things. But what happens when those creatures don’t want to learn? They hate those that want to help them.’

As father’s tone dimmed, mother began to cry next to him.

‘I will have to atone for things I never did. Rosa, I only wished for ponies not to kill each other and put himself between them, whenever I could. For this, one side deemed me a traitor and another, a scheming liar. Equestria reached a compromise with those ponies that went north. But Equestria thinks that I and many other people were collaborating with those revolting ponies and wants to send them north inside the borders of the new state of the ponies in the north, as punishment.’

‘But why can’t we come with you, pa?’

‘Because sweetheart things are very bad up north. And I want you to live a long and decent life, so I want you to stay here. That’s why I have arranged for you and your mother to move south to a friend, on the mountains east of Canterlot.’

My mother broke her silence at that point. Her voice was pained.

‘But why, why pray tell, can’t you do the same? We can explain our situation and avoid all this…’

‘We went over this before. If I do that, we risk all of us being sent north without any further questions. Do not forget you and our daughter are both necromancers. The order for us and for most people in these provinces, that were, in any way, involved with the riots, was for us to move north with the rebels. If we go to the Equestrian officials, in particular the officers of the Equestrian Guard in our case, and explained that a teacher from a school, whose students rebelled wholesale and his family of two necromancers, had no involvement in the uprising, what do you imagine they will think? Equestria might be a nation of harmony, but they will most certainly not receive the fact that you are both necromancers positively and there are plenty of past examples proving that. Not to mention, that the deportation, because that is what it is, is unavoidable. Our situation is handled by the troops of the army and the Royal Guard, not by the higher ups from Canterlot. And trust me, these troops, officers and men, fought the rebels, so they are most certainly not going to show any leniency to anypony that they may deem rebellious. The orders they have from Canterlot are to ensure that the rebelling ponies are allowed to move north unharmed, but who is revolting and who is not and, in that manner, who must move north and who can stay, is up to them to decide. Not to mention that a major reason that we are living in southern Severyana in the first place is so that we wouldn’t have to deal with Equestrian officials, who might have their doubts about your nature, to say the least. To willingly give ourselves up by going to any official, let alone those of the army, is like sentencing ourselves. In short, I know it is painful, but for the best of both of you, it is better that I comply and go, lest I risk having us all sent north to Steel Stallion’s nation.’

‘And what’s so…’

‘Bad about that? I think I said that before. People are starving and I don’t mean simply that they have little to eat. They are dying of starvation on the streets. The mob Steel Stallion led north was made out of ponies, who were more or less moving corpses. Steel Stallion is sick and dying himself. Not to mention, if our family’s special kind of magic is detested in Equestria, I am sure the situation will be much worse for us in Steel Stallion’s nation. Or so I think from the rhetoric the communists have exercised up to this. In harmonic Equestria both of you can at least hide, since we are not actively persecuted. Outside of it, they will hunt you or might even-’

Father noticed that I had been observing that last exchange with horror and desperation. I do not know what face I was making, but it must have been a very unpleasant one.

‘Sweetheart, I didn't mean to. I mean, I had no choice.’

Inside me I wanted to scream till my lungs would split apart. I felt so much fear, anger, sadness to the point of depression, frustration and a lot of regret. Why was I born with that silly symbol on my body? If I wasn’t father wouldn’t have to go away. Mother had it too, but at that moment I couldn’t think clearly. My mind blanked out. I remember my vision turning white and then it was all pure white outside. Inside I burned or so I felt. I could only feel and hear. Things were swirling around me in an uncontrolled manner and falling all over. Ma and Pa were saying something, but their voices were blurred in my head. Was I screaming just now? I don’t know. I fell somewhere but it was soft. A cooling aura spread over my body. Then just darkness.

I must have been asleep after that for a very long time. When I woke up, ma, who was wearing a hood, noticed and she put her hoof in front of her mouth signaling for me to stay silent and then whispered in my ear.

‘All is okay, sweetheart. Please go back to sleep. Everything is fine.’

My mind was hazy. I couldn’t remember what had happened the last time I was awake and I still felt very tired, as if I had my strength drained from my body by someone else. I must have murmured some incomprehensible words and then fell back into a deep slumber. All I could feel were bumps beneath me and for a while it went like that, ‘bump, bump, bump’. When it stopped, I was still asleep.

Author's Note

Amaranth is an actual flower, that has the shape, colour and properties described in this chapter.