Princess Celestia sat in her bedroom, writing letters and doing paperwork at the study. He hummed a tune as she signed the last letter and yawned. She has just realized how tired she was.

"It'll almost be time for Luna to raise the moon. I should go check on her." She said to herself, opening the door with a hoof and walking out into the seemingly endless spiral stairwell, whose walls were adorned with gorgeous artwork and trinkets from all across the globe. (A/N: If you're wondering why I'm saying "the globe" instead of "equestria", please refer to this.)

She made it to the bottom of the stairwell, only to be greeted by her bipedal apprentice, Marloc Fyrestone. He had been living in equestria for the past two years now, his sanity slowly but surely returning over time. "Princess! I think I've finally mastered it!" He said extatically, practically bouncing with joy.

"Mastered what?" Celestia asked. He really needs to explain things better.

"Here, I'll show you!" Marloc walked quickly over to the end of the hall, and motioned for Celestia to follow.

I'd love to see what he's been doing all this time. The alicorn thought to herself. Maybe it's a new spell, or something along the lines. Either way, I'm happy for him. Her thoughts wer cut off by the sound of a door unlocking. Marloc walked into his room, Celestia following him hesitantly. His room was a huge library of magic and intellect, the first level had walls lined with bookshelves, all of them were either spell tomes or fantasy novels. Two staircases went up the wall into the second floor, which had Marlocs study and bedroom behind two closed doors.

"I love what you've done with the place, Marloc." Celestia complimented Marloc, smiling as she eyed a wisp that floated around the library"Oh, and good afternoon Drewbie!" She waved a hoof at the blue will-o-wisp, who replied to her with a magical chirp as it floated over to Marloc, handing him a thick reddish-brown book. He walked up the stairwell and beckoned Celestia over, opening the door to the study and walking in. As she walked up the stairs, a faint green light came out of the room, making the alicorn feel a bit uneasy. She peeked her head into the doorway, and was immediately drawn to the decor. The walls were decorated with sigils and markings that had been drawn on with chalk, pony skulls and bones tied into windchimes with rope were hanging from parts of the room. Marloc sat at his large desk, the book open and glowing with a green light. "Well, this sure is some.. interesting decor!" She hesitated, glaring at a pony skull that seemed to be staring into her soul.

"..Graveyard soil, Formaldehyde, Blood.." Marloc spoke over the eerie whispers coming from the book, looking through a list and placing the items he read. "Blood! I almost forgot." He said, pulling out an empty vial and a knife. He waved his hand over the vial and placed the blade onto the palm of his hand as he slit the palm open, blood draining into the vial. Celestia couldn't watch, she had always been disgusted by that sort of thing. Marloc began laughing, Celestia moved her hoof from her eyes and watched marloc. He was tossing the many ingredients into the book, making the light shine even brighter and the whispers pierce her mind ever harder. Drewbie floated into the room, wondering what all the commotion was about. Marloc raised a hand towards Drewbie which began to glow with magical energy, as he brought Drewbie over to the table. Grabbing a pony skull, Marloc threw it and Drewbie into the book, which glowed with a blinding green light.

"Marloc! What are you doing!?" The princess shouted over the whispers that filled the room. He ignored her, chanting in a daemonic tongue which sounded like the babbling of a drowning madpony. Celestia's mane began to blow back from the energy the book was emitting. Suddenly, the light died down, the room now only lit by candles. Celestia, regained her sight back, only to be greeted by a floating pony skull. She yelped and jumped backwards. The skull was green with runes carved on every part of it. It was alight with a green flame which seemed to service as a mane, and it had shining emeralds in place where a pony would have eyes.

"Yes! It worked!" Marloc was ecstatic, he picked himself up off of his fallen chair and ran over to the skull. "Drewbie? Can you hear me?"

YES, MASTER. The skulls jaw had not moved at all. It was as if it was speaking through their minds. Celestia was petrified.

"Th-that's Drewbie?!" She managed to squeak, the skull turned to her.

YES. Once again, in that not-talking voice that emitted through her mind. THE MASTER HAS WANTED ME TO HAVE A PHYSICAL FORM, SO THAT I MAY BE OF MORE ASSISTENCE AND BE EASIER TO SPOT, AS HIS EXACT WORDS WERE. Celestia was dumbfounded. She, in all her life, had never seen magic like this.

"Marloc.. this is.." She said hesitantly, still looking into the gemmed eyes of Drewbie which stared into her soul. "..Amazing! I have never seen such magic like this in all my days! Granted the preperation is a tad disturbing, but still! Marloc, you have possibly just created an entirely new school of magic." She walked into the room, and stood in front of the desk. "What book is this, anyway?" Her horn glowed with a white light as she floated the book up to eyelevel.

A pony's screaming face was etched into the hard cover, there was no title or writing to be found on the binding. "How.. interesting." She tried to hide her fear but failed. She opened the book, and instead of words, she found markings and sigils identical to the ones on the wall. She tried to read the print but it wasn't in Equestrian. In fact, it wasn't in any kind of language she has ever seen. It didn't even use the same letters. She continued to turn the pages, some of them showing horrifying images that made her jump and turn the page in an instant, and others that were completely blank with the exception of bloodstains splattered over the pages.

She closed the book, and turned to Marloc, her face was as though she had just seen a ghost. "Marloc.." She said so quietly it was almost a whisper. "..What kind of magic is this?"

Marloc seemed to have predicted the question, and smiled. "Necromancy!" He said happily, his arms behind his back. Then it hit her. An ancient evil that had plagued Equestria for aeons. She was glad she had erased those memories from her mind, but now they are back to haunt her.

"Marloc. I don't want you to have anything to do with this anymore. This magic is evil and acursed." Marloc's smile faded into a frown. "Get rid of this book and clean those markings off of the wall."

"What!? You can't-" Marloc was cut off by the alicorn.

"I know this seems unfair to you, but this is for the safety of Equestria." The princess said sternly, walking out the door. "No offense, Drewbie." She said to the floating skull as she walked down the stairs and out the door to the hallway.

NONE TAKEN. The skull stated reassuringly. He floated over to Marloc, who had a grim look on his face. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO HER, ARE YOU?

"You know me so well." Marloc said, closing the door to the study as he picked the book off of the floor and placed it back onto the desk.

Next Chapter: Chapter I Estimated time remaining: 30 Minutes