Black Dawn Rising

[unknown]

For when the nights are lone and long;
And the willows whisper their saddest song,
You may catch a glimpse of a forbidding ghoul,
Dweller of places where the spirits mourn.

A trio of Unicorns clothed in robes black as the midnight that surrounded them slowly shambled across the fields littered with headstones and charnel houses, seemingly without a goal or a destination. Occasionally one of them would stop, his horn would glow a green, unnatural and ill-boding light that faded away as soon as it had appeared, and continue on his way in dead silence. Only their hooves against the muddy earth caused any sort of sound, if not for the occasional, quiet and low-toned, rhythmic chanting that never lasted long or was heard far.

Despite their seemingly pointless, unmotivated trotting, there were things happening that shouldn't have ever been set into motion. Under the earth, beneath the soil, the dead were restless. One by one, the bones and corpses of perished ponies would stir and begin to slowly, but surely and inevitably as death itself, to dig their way free, roused from their slumber by the wicked magic of these three sorcerers.

But why would they be here, in Ponyville, so close to Canterlot, so openly calling forth their dark magic? Necromancers were reclusive, and the fear and disgust they instilled in the common folk often drove them far from civilization to practice their black art. But these three had banded together for some reason and taken up a risky task of raising a graveyard near the Princesses' own city. These questions were difficult to answer, even if somepony had been present to witness the grim things that took place on that moonless light at the Ponyville Cemetery.

[Necrose]

It was midnight, or maybe shortly before or after, Necrose hadn't looked at a clock in a while, but he was restless tonight. Looking out the window, he noted yet again this night that the moon was not present. The Princess had raised it as she had been doing every night since she was purified by the Elements of Harmony after Nightmare Moon returned, but tonight, the moon was New, and the cemetery was almost pitch black, but the undertaker could see in his mind's eye where everything was, having seen it in both sunlight and moonlight from this window so many times before. Tonight was no different, the graveyard still and quiet. Nopony came this far out of town after dark, and even if the cemetery were closer to or in town, most were superstitious enough not to dare enter the place for fear of being cursed by the spirits of the dead. Even Zecora, the zebra who made her residence nearby in the Everfree Forest, wouldn't try to perform one of her strange rituals without Necrose's permission, assuming she even knew any that needed to be performed in cemeteries after dark. The black-coated earth pony was somewhat ashamed of the fact that they lived so close to one another, yet he knew next to nothing about her or her customs.

Necrose was about to lay down and attempt to sleep again when something caught his eye. Or at least he thought something did. Across the dirt path that separated the house from the actual cemetery, near one of the closer charnel houses, an unnatural green light flashed, illuminating for a fraction of a second the tombstone that lay next to the intersection of the path leading to his house and another that lead deeper into the cemetery. What was this? Had the pony's lack of sleep caused him to see things? He had to be sure. The stallion remained at the window, watching his cemetery for anything out of the ordinary. Insomnia never caused him to see things before, so why would he start now? It was too early in the year for lightning bugs, and even if they were out now, that light was too bright for one bug, or even several together. So he watched and waited, and his patience was quickly rewarded. Not long or far from the first, another light flashed, the same sickening green. The big pony's eyes scanned the cemetery now, and all at once, he became aware of the lights occasionally blinking. They were moving slow, or seemed to be, but somepony or something was in the cemetery.

Necrose was not particularly intolerant of visitors to the cemetery after dark, mostly because he was usually asleep. It was rare considering the superstitous nature of most ponies, but every now and again, somepony not quite a mare or a stallion yet would accept a dare from a friend to go into the cemetery after dark and leave proof they were there, as a test of courage. Then there were ponies new to Equestria with different customs, ignorant of the fact that ponies in Equestria tend not to enter cemeteries after dark. Considering this, the stallion was prepared to tell whatever pony was here tonight that visiting hours had long passed and lead them back to town, to an inn or home, whichever the case may be. He went down to the cemetery, taking a lantern so he could see, but nothing could prepare him for what was really going on.

[unknown]

The three necromancers did not notice anypony approaching them right away; they continued their grisly work in silence, until during one of their murmured, ominous chants, one of them, a red-coated mare, fell dead quiet and turned her stare at the path that led to the cemetery from Necrose's abode. She lowered her hood, revealing a gaunt face, that still possessed some charm and beauty that had once been there; now she looked like one of the passed her magic revolved around. The two others halted as well, and turned their attention to where the first pony was still staring at.

"We have company", Grimlore, a skull-gray stallion with pale blue, unkempt mane said in a matter-of-fact way, to which his partners in crime replied with a nod. "The master will not be pleased if somepony lives to tell of this night", added the mare, Hollowheart, who had first spotted Necrose in a whisper. "We must deal with him, then", the final necromancer decided, stepping forth, her horn aglow in a ghastly greenish light - she was the youngest of the trio, and her features were still untainted by the black sorcery they all wielded, her mane a rich red and auburn, and her coat a beautiful red-tinged lavender.

"Halt, Bonecinder", Grimlore commanded the temperamental young mare. "We address the situation first. There is no need for bloodshed yet." The older, gray stallion began to walk up the path, motioning with his horn, and his two colleagues joined him in a wedge formation, following closely behind. They approached the black, larger stallion calmly, until within twenty feet, all three stopped.

"Greetings, whoever you be. I am Grimlore. What might take you to a place often as dreaded as this on this strange hour?" He inquired in a peaceful voice, his wrinkled eyes amendable and serene. The elder would have preferred to settle this matter through diplomacy and bluff, but he didn't know who he was dealing with - the tender of this particular graveyard would not be easily frightened, and would most certainly not take kindly to the trio's actions this night.

[Necrose]

The first pony to speak, a unicorn stallion, introduced himself as Grimlore and spoke with a peaceful tone, indicating to Necrose a desire for diplomacy. "My name is Necrose, and I'm the keeper of this cemetery," he began, taking notice of the other two ponies with him, also unicorns, both mares. "That's my house, over there," he said, turning to indicate the mansion on the hill. "Begging your pardon, Grimlore, but the fact of the matter is, visiting hours to the cemetery have long passed. I don't really know whom you three might know who's been laid to rest here, but I'm afraid I have to ask that you leave and come back after daybreak." He didn't want to make assumptions about their purpose, maybe the green lights were their attempts to see in the dark, but being that they were all unicorns, if that were true, why wouldn't they use standard light spells? Their appearance didn't help make keeping judgmental thoughts at bay easy. Grimlore's coat was gray as bone and he appeared to be somewhat advanced in age, though not as old as Granny Smith, while one of the mares, obviously older than the other mare, was somewhat pretty, but looked like a walking corpse. It was only the young mare who still appeared to have the spark of life and vitality.

[unknown]

"Well met, Necrose. These are my wife and daughter, and we are sorry to bother you in the middle of the night", Grimlore apologized courteously. His companions still stayed back behind him, quiet and waiting for the situation to unfold - Bonecinder shifted around uncomfortably behind Grimlore, and Hollowheart observed Necrose from afar with her sunken eyes. The gray-coated stallion smiled in a friendly manner, before continuing the discussion with the undertaker.

"Alas, we've come a long way and we'll be gone when it dawns." The elderly stallion knew that the keeper would not let them stay, and he could hardly explain their presence.. but they couldn't leave either. There was still much to do before the sun rose again for a new day. Some forty feet behind the trio, one of the soil of one of the graves was disturbed - the dead were still digging their way out, and their meager disguise would be blown.

"We've come to visit a relative we heard has passed away recently - we know this is an odd time for a visit, but we couldn't just.. you see, we had to see for ourselves as soon as possible. We'll pay our respects and be gone, if you just allow us.. my daughter here is broken because of our loss. She loved her uncle greatly", Grimlore was a bad liar, even as he gestured towards Bonecinder.

All three stared at Necrose now in complete silence. They all knew that nopony in his right mind would believe that story, but the two mares dared not act before Grimlore permitted them, and the old stallion did not move a muscle, simply smiling in a sorrowful way while looking at the gravekeeper, waiting for him to react.

[Necrose]

A dead relative? Necrose saw the ponies who were to be buried as he put them in their caskets, and nopony from Ponyville who was buried recently bore any resemblance he could recall to Grimlore or his daughter. Further, given their physical condition, he couldn't make out any resemblance between the young mare and the two older ponies, but then, the lantern cast poor light, and there was hardly any resemblance between himself and his own brother who also passed away not long ago. There was something odd going on here, but the younger of the two stallions couldn't put his hoof on what.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Grimlore, I really am," the black-coated earth pony began, noting the young mare hardly looked like somepony overcome with grief, "but rules are rules. You all seem like nice enough ponies, and I don't want to have to do anything to any of you, but if you insist on staying, I will be well within my rights to do whatever I feel necesary to get you out of my cemetery and into the custody of the town guard." The older stallion was the only pony who looked grieved, but if what he said was true, that they'd come a long way to get here, why would they come straight to the cemetery as opposed to checking into an inn and then coming in the morning, assuming they'd arrived in town late? Furthermore, since he'd never seen them before, Necrose couldn't help but assume they'd never been to Ponyville before, and if that were true, how would they even know where the cemetery was without asking somepony who did know? "But you did come all this way. How were you to know? I can let you have ten minutes at your brother's grave, Grimlore, but that's it," he continued, keeping his tone in check to hide his growing suspicion, turning his gaze on each of the three of them before turning his full attention back to the gray-coated stallion again, "Simply tell me his name and I'll lead you to his grave so you can say your goodbyes. After that, you and your family have to go." Something about Grimlore's story just didn't add up to Necrose, and if he couldn't provide a satisfactory answer, then the undertaker had all the proof he needed that their purpose was something else, even if he had yet to figure out what they were here for.

[unknown]

"Enough of this already, let's just--" Bonecinder began, but the young mare was silenced by a sharp, cold look from Hollowheart, who hushed between her teeth and gestured towards Grimlore, who still stood between the two mares and the undertaker, firm and seemingly not intending to move any time soon. For a moment, the darkness engulfed the four ponies and the graveyard was silent around them, if not for ominous, barely audible scraping and scratching noises all around the group.

"I'm we cannot accept your offer", Grimlore finally said with a slightly sad tone. "It is a shame that you decided to come here this night. You leave us no other choice but to use force", he claimed, and his horn began to glow the same, ill-coloured light that Necrose had seen earlier from his window. "Alas, you give me no other choice."

Bonecinder and Hollowheart stepped forth, their horns aglow as well, sparking emerald bolts of lightning into the soil around them, invigorating the husks underneath into a cursed unlife. While the two continued their wicked undertaking, Grimlore kept his eyes on Necrose. "I apologize. Were it that you had not come down here this night, friend. Only death awaits you now.." His voice contained real grief now, not just a badly faked one.

[Necrose]

The three unicorns' horns began to glow the same sickening green light as Necrose had been seeing before coming down, the mares shooting bolts into the graves while Grimlore maintained his focus on the undertaker. "So you're not here to visit the grave of a loved one? What are you here for, then? Graverobbing?" the younger stallion demanded, showing no sign he even registered what the gray-coated pony said about death awaiting him. "I don't know what you hope to find in this cemetery, Grimlore, and part of me doesn't care. You've got one chance to take those two mares and get out of here before I get mean." In truth, Necrose began to worry about their intent the moment the two mares began to shoot bolts of magic at the graves. Why were they doing this? What were they trying to do? No conclusion he could draw provided sufficient answers, but one thing he knew for certain, unicorns needed to concentrate to cast spells. Without thinking about it a moment longer, the black-coated earth pony lowered his head and charged straight at Grimlore, aiming for the older stallion's own head in an attempt to knock him out. Hopefully, he could take out the three unicorns and halt their plan without any bloodshed.

[unknown]

"We merely do the bidding of our lord and master, my friend", Grimlore replied, the light of his horn intensifying as he prepared to cast some sort of sorcery at the stallion, confident that he'd not dare to assault an Unicorn who was aiming a spell at him - but from the tone of the undertaker's voice, and the way he confronted the trio, Grimlore should have known better. "I'm sorry, but we cannot leave yet. Not until a dawn rises. A Black Dawn."

Grimlore's attention faltered for a moment at the end of his melodramatic sentence as he gazed up at the moonless sky, and then it was that he was knocked down by the charging, much larger stallion. The elderly pony yelled in both surprise and pain as he hit the dirt, and the two mares quickly turned their attention towards Necrose.

"Can I strip his flesh from his bones?" The youngest of the trio asked, the red-maned mare, and her question was answered by a quick nod from Hollowheart, who calmly proceeded the reanimations. Bonecinder's horn flashed, and the air around her turned hot, a blast of scalding air shooting from the tip of her horn towards Necrose who was wrestling with Grimlore.

Meanwhile, the dead arose from their slumber; hooves, in varying states of decay, began surfacing through the gravesoil as the undead climbed out of their resting places to obey the will of the dark unicorns. First there were only a few, lumbering, groaning and clumsy zombified ponies, but more appeared gradually; most wandered off, towards the Everfree Forest as soon as they unearthed themselves; half a dozen would eventually remain behind, shuffling around the cemetery, seeking for somepony to devour.

[Necrose]

This did not go as Necrose had planned. He was hoping to knock Grimlore out in one blow, then turn his attention on the two mares, but the older stallion remained conscious and able to put up a struggle, forcing the younger pony to rethink his strategy. A flash caught his attention, and he looked up in time to see the younger mare preparing a spell. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of whatever spell she was casting, the undertaker shifted his weight to the side to allow the older stallion to gain control. Hopefully, either the spell would do his work on the gray-coated stallion for him or at least disorient him long enough for Necrose to attempt to do something about the mares.

It was then that the scarred younger stallion became aware of the dead rising from the graves. That was their purpose?! To raise the dead?! Ponies in varying states of decay were breaking out of their caskets and digging themselves out of their graves, with some wandering off into the Everfree Forest, but a few remained in the cemetery, staring out at nothing through dead eyes or empty eye sockets. The weren't trying to do anything to him yet, so Necrose could only assume they weren't completely under the unicorns' control yet.

[unknown]

Necrose's gambit succeeded, and Bonecinder's heatwave was mostly blocked by Grimlore, who let out a shocked, painful-sounding groan as he was hurled off Necrose and straight into a large headstone with a disgusting crunch; the elderly pony didn't get up again, leaving only the two mares left, only one of which seemed to even be aware of Necrose anymore. Hollowheart was too busy raising the dead to pay the black stallion any kind of heed.

Bonecinder wasn't as unobservant. She kept her focus at Necrose at all times, even after blasting Grimlore away; it seemed the young mare didn't even care about that, having a sadistic grin on her features. Her horn gathered a dark green glow around it once more, and shot a devastating charge of green lightning, that went wide by several feet, however, striking through several headstones and disintegrating a skeletal pony into a pile of dust. Bonecinder herself was brought to her hind legs due to the sheer knockback from the spell, but she simply chuckled, and fired off another similar blast, missing again.

Meanwhile, Hollowheart had wandered at the edge of the graveyard. She glanced back at Necrose and Bonecinder battling, and with all but a few of the undead in tow, departed towards the Everfree, leaving her companions behind to their fate.

"I'll flay you alive.. and then bring you back as a horrible, twisted abomination, and have your mindless shell slaughter everypony you love and devour their carcasses, all the while your trapped soul is forced to watch in a state of constant torment!" The young mare screamed in a high pitched voice, letting loose another volley of those obliterating blasts of force that she seemed to have absolutely no control over.

[Necrose]

Grimlore was blown off of Necrose due to the younger mare's spell, and it seemed his neck was broken in the impact with the tombstone he hit. Not how he wanted this to end, but considering the unicorn would have killed him, better it turned out this way. The younger stallion noticed as he was getting up the older of the two mares wandering deeper into the cemetery and closer to the Everfree Forest, after the zombies and skeletons that had gone that way earlier. Either she was more concerned with rounding up the undead or she didn't want to die, herself. Maybe both, but the scarred earth pony didn't have time to ponder the implications. The third unicorn, the younger mare who cast the spell that lead to Grimlore's demise, was still on her hooves and readying another spell. Before he could do anything, the young mare fired a green bolt, but it became all at once apparent that he didn't need to try to move as the bolt flew wide of him and obliterated several tombstones and the animated skeleton of some poor pony. The spell apparently had considerable kickback as the mare unintentionally reared up after firing the bolt. If there was a time to strike her, that would be it.

"Keep talking, you crazy hinny," Necrose called across the cemetery, "And while you're at it, try aiming!" She fired another bolt at him, but again, it missed, giving the undertaker a brief moment to close the distance before she could fire again. If he got close enough, maybe he could force her to stop, as she would have a clear shot then. Or failing that, maybe he'd do what he had to and give the zombies who remained in the cemetery with them something to eat before putting them down, too. As he charged headlong toward the mare, he hoped her next blast would miss as well and that she'd surrender.

[unknown]

"Don't call me that!" The mare screamed back furiously, shooting off a forked blast of lightning that barely missed Necrose this time, annihilating all it struck and causing a booming sound as it passed the stallion. "You cannot understand what terrifying sorceries I have within my beck and call! The dead wake at my hooves, and their tormented spirits assail my enemies with ear-shattering wails! Die! Die! Die!"

Her wild yells and shrieks ended when Necrose tackled the much smaller pony, causing her to tumble into the ground with a pained yell. She rolled around and locked her eyes with the stallion's a wild, mad look in her eyes. "You will not get away with this! Nopony opposes the master's plan and lives! Black Dawn rises! Ash and dust and night everlasting are nigh! You will ALL die!" The mare laughed in a manner a lunatic would have - and that's what she probably was.

She didn't even try to get up - the stronger stallion would have easily overpowered her if she even tried, and her spells wouldn't have time to charge at this range. The walking dead had been mostly destroyed by the out of control magic of the mare, though two still shuffled about the cemetery, slowly turning and heading towards the Everfree with the rest, ignoring the two living ponies.