Necrosis

Personal Log: Entry no. 781228

Three days with Trixie disguised as Hex have gone by swimmingly. Over the course of those three days, she has learned to drop the third-person context. The first day was spent trying to catch her up in my progress so far, which included letting her read this logbook. The second day involved practical experimentation of her magical abilities. Fortunately, she retained her power even in death; which leads me to wonder if the magic of a unicorn is actually tied in part to the body, rather than the soul as everypony believes, though it’s more likely that the Amulet of Sion did more than resurrect her, but also returned her soul to her body. Yesterday was more difficult. Introducing her to my friends as somepony else proved difficult, seeing as how I still perceive her as Trixie, I almost blew her cover a few times. Fortunately, my friends remain none the wiser, and Trixie seems happier now she has friends, despite her previous relationship with them.

On the down side, Pinkie’s hosting a welcoming party for ‘Hex’ and it occurred to me that I would have to get Trixie a present. I noticed something missing from her when I brought her back and I thought that some old amenities of hers would go a long way to gaining her trust. I plan to give them to her before the party so as not to arouse suspicion amongst the others, or ‘outsiders’ as Trixie has feverishly taken to calling them. When I say feverishly, I mean I like the notion of calling them that also, yet I restrain myself out of respect to them… but not for long.

It’s public knowledge now that ‘Hex’ is helping me with some private research and so as an added gift for the party, I’ll be giving her ‘Grimoire du Trixie’ (Insert chuckle). As my fellow researcher, it only makes sense that she should have a logbook of her own.

Returning to the research topics, I believe Trixie has made terrific progress in picking up the pace. Though she isn’t quite as interested as I am when it comes to the researching, the desire to be better (than me probably) keeps her going. With that in mind, I believe it may be time to introduce her to the practical laboratory. Needless to say I’m not foolish enough to practice such dark magic in my own basement.

My secondary objective is to make Trixie an independent being, in other words, to bring her back to life fully without the aid of the Amulet or anything else. Then she too could become a necromancer like myself. Just thinking of the possibilities makes me giddy… and for some reason, the thought of creating a necromancer from the dead makes me strangely aroused…hmm. I’ll have to think on that later this evening, after Pinkie’s party…

I closed the logbook and hid it in the hidden drawer. I then proceeded to look at the box with the ribbon around it. Trixie’s pre-party present. I heard the door on the latch open and I quickly slid the hidden drawer shut and out of sight. To my relief, Trixie descended, seeming unusually cheery.

“Twilight.” she addressed me. It took her only a moment to notice the box, with it’s blue cover and sliver ribbon, matching her ‘real’ colours. I smiled as she went wide-eyed.

“Twilight… is that for… me?” she asked, pointing her hoof at the box, then to herself as she spoke. I just grinned widely and nodded, reaching over to grab the present and… present it to her. She was speechless as she took it by the sides, gawking at it like it were her wildest fantasy come true (such as me lying dead in front of her or something).

“I… I don’t know what to say… I’ve never been given anything before, at least not without having to give something in exchange… thank you.” she said with as much modesty as she could muster.

“In the profession, we call that Alchemy.” I jested. As she began to neatly open the present, trying not to tear the wrapping, I spoke up. “It’s just a small thing, but I thought you’d appreciate it. I’d have given it to you at the party, but… well you’ll probably find out why that would be a bad idea.” Trixie paused as she laid her eyes upon the gift inside the box. Without saying a word, she pulled out her magician’s hat and her cape examining them with disbelief.

“I thought these were destroyed when the Ursa Major attacked me.” she said.

“They were, but I had them restored. That’s what remains of the original inlayed into new fabric. They should be identical to the original hat and cape you used to wear.” I clarified, watching her reaction. It wasn’t what I expected. She began to tear up and as she dropped them back into the box, she fell onto her haunches and began to cry. Instinctively, I ran to her side as though she were one of my friends crying. She wrapped herself around me and cried into my shoulder, much to my discomfort.

“Perhaps nostalgia’s not the best gift after all.” I said, trying to lighten the mood. She squeezed me tighter.

“No, Twilight… I love the gift, but it just sank in this moment… I’m dead and I’m masquerading as somepony else and I won’t ever get to wear these again.” I understood now why she was suffering during a happy moment; torn between delight at the gift and agony over what it represented, she realised the cold hard truth that she was little more than a zompony. I consoled her and rubbed her back to try and make her feel better, which seemed to work to a degree. An idea hit me as I ran through what she’d said about never wearing those items of clothing again. Not one to spoil a surprise, I simply smiled at her with a kind-hearted warmth to it and helped her up.

“Trixie, you’re as alive as you want to be, and someday, you won’t need the amulet to live anymore because I’m going to see what I can do about fully resurrecting you.” I said. The possibility breached her mind and she destroyed the sadness she was displaying in an instant. I could see it in her eyes that she had begun to think we were best friends. While she didn’t say anything, I knew that was what she was thinking, but I wasn’t on that page just yet. However, to spare her more tears and embarrassment, I said nothing about it, letting her believe I shared the same feeling as her.

“Thank you, Twilight… Oh look at me, bawling my eyes out in front of you of all ponies. I’m so ashamed.” she began. I shook my head with as modest an expression as I could manage.

“Don’t be. Come on; let’s get you to your welcoming party. I wonder what Pinkie’s themed it after?” I asked, citing a chuckle from the mare.

I led Trixie to Applejack’s barn, where it was decided that all the future parties would be held because of its spacious interior and the fact that it was free compared to the town hall. My cousin, Vinyl Scratch was kind enough to be the DJ once again, Ponyville being the second most frequented gig site for her. As I opened the barn doors to let her through, the darkness overwhelmed us. A second later, light blinded us and a single word deafened us for a few moments.

“SURPRISE!!!” ponies came out of the woodwork to celebrate ‘Hex’s’ arrival. She was overly stunned by the sudden appearance of Ponyville’s occupants that she went so far as to hug me for protection, but after realising the truth, that hug for protection became a hug of gratitude as she began to get into the swing of things. Turned out that Pinkie went with the Zebrika theme because of her supposed previous research. Trixie and I shared a laugh at that. Throughout the party, I managed to watch her like a hawk, observing her social interactions with a dexterous eye. I excluded myself from the party mostly, just content to watching Trixie socialise. She seemed to be doing pretty well, even getting Vinyl’s attention as she did what she did best. Games and activities went much better than Gilda’s and I found myself immersed in pride as my experiment was proving to be a huge success. I made a mental note not to refer to Trixie as an experiment either in person or in the logbook, for she could have curious eyes when it came to that book. I began to think that perhaps bringing Trixie back was a good thing for more than my research, but for me as well. Needless to say I cared about how she felt towards everything, but at first, I thought that was just because I was worried about her blowing our cover. But as I thought about it, I began to think that we were indeed friends, though I still hadn’t reached the best friend page yet.

My train of thought was interrupted by the final activity of the day, the presents. I found myself standing by her side as she began to open the first present. From Rarity, it was a beautiful zebra patterned scarf (not made from actual zebra, thank goodness). Trixie wasted no time wrapping it around herself. Watching her, I suddenly felt the temperature in the barn was freezing. I stifled a shudder as she opened the next one.

Shoddily wrapped, I knew this was from Rainbow Dash. I began to feel like another Mare-do-well intervention was due when the present revealed a signed photograph of Rainbow Dash. Trixie just laughed good-naturedly at the funny gift and hugged the Pegasus accordingly. I flashed an instant venomous look at her as she asked me to hold the stupid thing. But keeping up appearances, the look only lasted a second.

Fluttershy’s gift was something that could have proven useful in our research. A dark grey baby bunny rabbit wrapped in a nice warm blanket greeted Trixie, and her cute response made me think again about experimentation. Trixie proceeded to take the baby bunny from its warm box and blanket and tucked it in between her neck and the scarf Rarity had given her. Despite the possibility of it falling out, it was a cute sight to behold.

Pinkie Pie’s gift was surprisingly well thought out. Knowing for a fact that animal bones were used in most Zebra magic, Trixie received a Dragoon bone hairbrush. Dragoons were the Zebrikan equivalent of Equestrian whales. Basically sea dragons, the Dragoon was the number one underwater predator and very difficult to kill outside of the fishing profession. Trixie dared to brush her mane a few times, straightening it after the party had ruffled it a bit. I was then given the honour of holding onto it as well.

Applejack got her a year’s supply of free apples. The number of apples was dependent on how many apples she’d want from the farm within the year. Having gotten to know Trixie pretty well, I knew she loved apples and secretly loved the Apple Family’s apples the most. I felt a twinge of jealousy as I began to wonder where my year’s supply of apples went the year I came to Ponyville. I made a mental note to tease Applejack about that later on.

My present was next. Though its importance seemed rather diminished to me after comparing it to all the other gifts (Rainbow Dash’s gift excluded), Trixie seemed to like it all the same. “I promise you I’m going to make good use of this over the course of our time together.” she said. I smiled at her as she made my effort feel appreciated. The gifts from the rest of Ponyville were trivial things, though Vinyl’s album of Zebrikan music stuck out like Scootaloo in a chicken farm, just making itself known apart from the rest.

As the party came to a close, I managed to tease Applejack about the apples, which recited a nervous blush from the usually iron-willed Earth pony.

“Uh, s-sorry Twi… It’s just that business wasn’t as… successful as it is now, so we couldn’t afford to give ya the same courtesy, y’know?” I had her backed against the barn door. Had I not been wearing my contact lenses, I was sure they would have been glowing with excitement at my superiority in the situation. I chuckled and rested my hoof on her shoulder.

“That’s alright, AJ. I completely understand. Clearly you have a thing for yellow ponies.” I began to walk away as she caught on to my insinuation and began to stumble over her words.

“N-no, that ain't why–.”

“Ooh, maybe it’s a sister complex? You love your sister so much you want a pony just like her, gender and all.” I continued to tease her. She brought her Stetson over her face to hide the huge blush. It occurred to me that she didn’t deny it and I knew I had her. She was putty in my hooves, a good source of potential research into the sub-emotions of love.” I gently whispered into her ear with a sly tone to my voice.

“Don’t worry about it AJ. I swear not to tell as soul. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” I finished it off with a Pinkie Promise. AJ just continued to bury her face into her Stetson. I heard the muffled gratitude as I leaned in closer.

“No matter what, Applejack, you’re still one of my closest friends.” I whispered, proceeding to depart. Trixie had waited for me at the entrance to the barn.

“What kept you?” she asked. I shrugged and smiled with a sinister look on my face.

“Just creating a new branch of research.” I replied, giving the little bunny in her scarf a gentle pat. It yawned at me and I almost found it too cute to want to experiment on; almost.

“I’m surprised Spike’s not back yet.” Trixie said as we entered the Library. I turned the lights on, igniting the lanterns and looked around at the state of the Library to make sure everything was where I’d left it.

“Yeah, he’s gone to an after party with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. He’s developing feelings for Applebloom.” I replied, then an idea struck me. “Oh, research into love triangles!” I blurted out.

“Okay, I think you need to relax, you’re beginning to consider research into trivial life matters now.” Trixie said. I yawned, agreeing fully with her.

“Mm. But before I do, there’s one last thing I want to show you. You’ll want to take your hat and cape along too.” I replied, leading her back to the basement. I watched as she actually donned the clothes over her scarf. Even I knew that the two clashed hideously with each other, but I said nothing.

“Alright, take a look at this.” I said, motioning to the wall on the far end of the basement. On it was a seven pointed star-glyph drawn in chalk. On each of the points of the star was a symbol of specific meaning.

I observed Trixie’s less than excited reaction. Clearly, she wasn’t aware of the importance of the glyph.

“It’s a Necromancy symbol.” I said dumbly. Trixie raised her brows and nodded, still not seeing the importance of it.

“Yeah, and? What’s so special about this particular symbol?” she asked.

“This one has seven points to it. Normal glyphs only have five or six, so this one serves a special purpose which I discovered has to do with the six basic principles of travel.” I explained. Trixie seemed intrigued now as I went on. “The six principles are as follows: distance, duration, height, amount, endurance and atmosphere. But as I pondered the dilemma with the spare point, I realised that there was a seventh principle not yet discovered; ‘destination’.” Trixie’s eyes lit up as she began to comprehend what I was getting at.

“You mean this glyph is…”

“Yep! A method to create interdimensional doors. In short,”

“It’s a portal!” she finished for me. As I smiled at her, I released a bit of my magic into the glyph and although the star was chalk, it rotated and opened up from the centre, revealing the familiar scene of the old Castle of the sisters, where my friends and I faced off against Nightmare Moon all those years ago. There were some obvious changes, which Trixie began to see as she followed me through the portal. It was literally like stepping into another room. There was no feeling from the doorway as we stepped through except for the slight shift in temperature from one room to the other.

The throne room was outfitted with some basic scientific equipment and although it was simple equipment, it was abundant.

“How did you get all of this?” Trixie asked as she looked around at all the amenities.

“Princess Celestia funds me for my studies and although I can survive on the Library’s wages alone, I still invested in what you see here.” I replied. Trixie smiled an open smile as she continued to circle around, unable to take enough of the place in. After a moment, she looked down to her pet bunny in her scarf and grinned.

“Oh I can’t wait for you to grow old and die. We’ll have so much more fun afterward.” It was at that moment that I turned the page. Trixie was thinking exactly what I had thought when I first saw the bunny. It was a potential experiment. Now we were on the same page; now I considered her my best friend. With that in my mind, I felt my eyes glow from beneath my contacts and I saw in one of the mirrors, that the red was seeping through the violet tint.