Lazarus

I looked down, making sure no clouds were in my way. It’d be rather disappointing if one little cloud ruined my fun. Luckily for me, everything seemed clear. My spell was still holding, evident by my lack of falling through the little white puff on which I stood. Unicorns don’t typically walk in the skies, but I was far from a typical unicorn. I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out a single gold coin. I kissed the bit and then grabbed it with my horn, the coin grasped by a wispy white light. The coin went from my hooves all the way up to the tip of my horn. I gave myself a mental countdown. 5. 4. 3. 2. When I reached 1, four things happened near-simultaneously: I released my magic on the coin, I stomped as hard as I could, the cloud puffed away, and both me and the coin fell from the very top of the troposphere.

The coin and I raced towards the ground, and it looked like I would win. I twisted so that my face would be looking up and my body was parallel with the ground, my necklace threatening to fly from my neck. I felt my heart stop ages before I even thought about hitting the ground. A smile crept on my face, a small, madman’s grin. I passed the coin and, before I could reason how long I’d be falling, it happened. I hit the hot desert sandstone.

My spine shattered, along with nearly every bone in my body. I felt the flesh of my back give in several places, and blood surely gushed from the wounds. My brain smashed against the inside of my skull, bending and melting into soup. A small sound escaped me, a low groan that went on for a few moments. Then, the bit landed on the tip of my nose, further ruining the already shattered bone. I screamed loudly, warping it into a manic laugh.

“Oh my lords and ladies!” a voice yelped. I couldn’t see the body it came from, but it was definitely a mare. I heard the clinking and clanking of armor as she ran forward.

“For the love of Faustia, he’s alive!” she exclaimed. I craned my neck to get a view of her. She was a unicorn, her mane was pale pink and tied up into a tight ponytail. Her armor was light chainmail, which, despite the shortsword on her hip, clearly displayed that she was not a warrior. She had a large saddlebag strapped to her back, no doubt a magically-enhanced camp pack. She was practically glowing, a white brighter than even my own skin despite the soft orange dust coating what I could see of her legs. Her eyes were shining magenta, twinkling with intrigue.

“So I am,” I growled. Rather difficult with a dislocated jaw. “Hello. How may I help you?”

“How in the name of the sun and the moon did you survive that fall?!” she demanded. I closed my eyes and puffed out a sigh.

“Will you let me come down from my high first, please? It was a hell of a fall.”

I sat up and went about my normal ritual. I gripped my wounds with my magic and pushed the skin together, soldering it into one piece. I used my telekinesis to twist my legs, just enough for them to support me. I did a similar process with my arms and pushed myself to my hooves.

“You weren’t supposed to see that,” I said, popping my jaw back into place. “I don’t like to brag.”

“What are you?” she asked.

“You’re a mage. A rather bad one, too,” I noted suddenly. She seemed shocked and was about to open her mouth, but was silenced by my raised palm. “Perhaps it’s wrong to say that you’re bad. You’re learning.”

“How can you be so certain?” she asked.

“Your armor is light, so you can’t reasonably be a proper warrior. That said, you didn’t cast any detection spells when you saw a strange stallion survive a drop that would kill a man thrice over,” I reasoned. “You don’t know any detection spells, and they are a rather novice-level magic. You must be just getting into the Academy, no?”

She shed her camp pack and ripped her blade from her sheath, holding it parallel to her body. Her expression shifted from confusion to an intense glare.

“You have insulted and slandered my name. I, as witnessed by King Solaris, Queen Faustia, and all of the Lords and Ladies of their courts, challenge you to a duel,” she said fiercely. “You shall battle me so that I may reclaim my honor.”

“Slandered your name? I don’t even know it,” I said, shaking my head. “Very well. I will duel you.” I reached into my saddlebags and drew a small knife. “I have no sword, but this shall suffice. Shall we meet blades now?”

She nodded and tilted her sword in my direction. I pressed the base of my blade to hers and waited. We stepped backwards, and the duel began.

She leapt forward and slashed at my chest. Blood dripped from the gnash, causing my skin tingle. I barely flinched as she cut me again and again, grinning at her growingly frustrated expression.

“What did you expect to happen?” I asked. I buried my knife in my own neck. “Did you truly think that you could harm me?”

“You are truly a strange unicorn,” she noted. “Is there anything you cannot endure?”

“Nope. Try as you might, you won’t be able to do anything more but excite me,” I ripped the knife from my neck and leapt forward at her. “It was foolish of you to challenge a man to a duel without knowing what he is capable of.”

“You do not know what I am capable of,” she spat.

“It is irrelevant, mare, for you will not be able to defeat me.” I returned. She parried my swing, rolled forward, and placed the edge of her blade to my neck.

“No?” she asked. I grabbed the blade and pressed it into my own flesh.

“Oh, no. We fight to the death,” I gripped her wrist with my magic. “Do it, or I shall do it for you.”

To my shock, she nodded and brought her blade through me, severing my head. My body fell to the left, my head bouncing and rolling to the right. She sheathed her blade and stared at my body, waiting for me to react.

“Well? You won,” I said. “Mind rolling my head over to my body?” She shrugged her shoulders and lifted it up with her telekinesis, my head floating in a yellow glow. She plopped it down nearer to my body, where I went about soldering my head back to the rest of me.

“Very good. I was afraid that you didn’t have the will,” I said. I sat up and offered her my hand. “Hello. My name is Lazarus. What’s yours?”

Celestia

Despite my better judgement, I grasped Lazarus’ hand in my own. We shook, thus binding me as the winner of our duel. For an impossible stallion whom disrespected every single rule of nature and magic that I know, he was rather polite.

He was dressed plainly, a simple grey shirt and pants. The only thing of much note was a golden necklace around his neck, in the shape of a cross from a religion that must have faded into nothing many centuries ago.

“I am Celestia,” I said. “Do you… Do you enjoy being decapitated?”

“Well, it’s not my favorite, but it is rather enjoyable, yes,” said Lazarus. “It has been nice meeting you, Celestia. I pray that you have the sense to keep this to yourself. People will think you’ve gone mad if you tell them what you saw.”

“You seem to be under the delusion that I am going to let you walk away,” I said. “I won the duel, and you are at my mercy until such time as I dismiss you. Tis the rule of the land.”

“Since when?”

“Since I, as a princess, declared it to be. You will accompany me to my castle so that I may examine you,” I said with a devious smirk. Surely, as soon as he heard “princess”, he would fold in my hand.

“Princess of what exactly?” asked Lazarus. It took all my power to refrain from challenging him again. How dare he disrespect me in such a way! But, no matter how angry I was, there was one fact I could not deny: He had not been trying to beat me.

“I am Princess Celestia, Princess of Equestria! First-born daughter to the King and Queen, and the highest Lady of their court!” I declared. “Known also as Princess of the Rising Sun and All Its Light Touches!”

“So you’re a big deal?” he scoffed. Lazarus clearly had his reservations about my title, but he rose and bowed his head slightly.

“In so many words, yes. Are you ready to go?” I asked. Lazarus took a step, groaning as he did.

"I suppose so," said Lazarus. Without warning, he grasped my hand in his own. In one quick move, I drew my blade, severed his hand, and returned my blade to its sheath.

"You will show me respect," I warned. "Lest you offend me again."

"That was rather sudden," said Lazarus, quite calmly for someone who had just lost a hand. "And forgive me for complying with your wishes, Celestia."

In an instant, I drew my sword again and pressed its sharp tip to Lazarus' Adams apple. He stared at me boredly for a moment before I gestured downward with my sword. Still, he didn't understand.

"You are supposed to bend the knee," I growled impatiently. "Show some respect to your future queen."

Lazarus, still looking quite unbothered, took his merry time thinking, over a minute passing before he slowly knelt into a bow, resting his arms on his bent knee.

"Are you happy now, Princess?" asked Lazarus. He grabbed his fallen hand and reattached it to his wrist. "What was the purpose of that? Were we not headed for your castle?"

"We were indeed," I said. "Tis a rather lengthy journey, about five days."

"I beg pardon?"

"Five days and five nights by hoof, three days and two nights by air carriage," I said. "You live quite a ways from Canterlot."

"Five days and five nights? Are you mad?" demanded Lazarus, sounding quite mad himself. "Why in the name of all things holy would we walk five days and five nights?"

"I suppose you have an alternative, then," I said, crossing my arms. If I wasn't so intrigued, I'd have left Lazarus where he stood. My curiosity overtook my pride, and, ostensibly, my rationale.

"I was under the impression that you were going to teleport us there," snorted Lazarus. He fell onto his back, his head landing in a stone with an audible THUD! "Oh-ho-ho! That was good!"

"If I couldn't cast a simple detection charm, what made you think I could cast something as precise and complex as a teleportation spell?" I asked, mostly rhetorically. Lazarus snorted again, as if I offended him by not being able to teleport.

"Don't you have an archmage, Princess of the Sun? He could have easily turned anything into a teleporter," he said. “Unless all your mages are as novice as yourself."

"That is besides the point. The fact remains that I cannot teleport there, you cannot teleport there, and no one will teleport here," I said. "Our options are rather limited. Unless, of course, you can teleport us there.”

That seemed to silence him for the time being, much to be glee. I threw my pack over my shoulder and commanded Lazarus to stand with a waving gesture. He looked at me, rolled his eyes, and lurched to his hooves like a man undead. I glanced to the sky, my sweltering sun lowering to my right. I turned so that it was on my left side and began the march.

“Come along, now,” I said, pointing forward. “Five days and five nights is a long time, and I’d like to make a bit of progress before our first night.”

Lazarus followed me rather obediently, adding on to my desire to truly understand him. Nothing he did made any sense! One second he was as rebellious as could be, and the next he was a perfectly respectful and compliant companion. He marched besides me silently, brooding and thinking. We walked silently for nearly ten minutes before he decided to speak up.

“Aren’t you going to ask?” he said.

“Ask what?” I said curiously. He snorted, again offended by my apparent inabilities.

“I jumped off of a cloud to certain death, got up to duel you, stabbed myself in the neck, was decapitated, and had my hand severed,” scoffed Lazarus. “Normally, the first question someone asks me is ‘What are you’? I’ve gotten rather used to the prying questions.”

“Very well. How did you survive?” I decided to humor him.

“No clue. I’ve been unkillable for as long as I can remember,” he said. He snickered. “That didn’t make a wealth of sense, did it?”

“May I see your wand?” I asked. You’d have thought I was a jester, the way this unicorn laughed at me. He had an odd laugh, sort of wheezy and whistling. Like he was full of holes. His whole body shook, and he took a moment to move his matted ivory locks from his face before he spoke.

“Wand? Are you serious?” he cackled. “Was that a serious question?” In response, I reached into my camp pack and withdrew my wand. It was about the length of my forearm, made of four twisting branches of red mahogany. The wood came to a sort of claw which held a stunning red gem, a bright ruby that I had found and excavated myself many years ago.

“Yes, it was a serious question,” I said, pointing my wand at him. “I am going to ask you only once more to show me some respect, or face the consequences!”

“You use a wand to cast magic? I thought that was the point of these,” said Lazarus, tapping his horn. “You know, now that I think about it, my teacher did say something about lesser mages using wands to channel magic when their horns were still too feeble.”

I let out an angry growl and flicked my wrist, waving my wand in the motions I had memorized and practiced time and time again.
This time, I would do it. This time, I wouldn’t fail. I knew the motions, I knew the method, and I knew the theory. Up, right, neutral, down-left, up, neutral. Flick.

A puff of smoke shot from the end of my wand.

"That was truly pathetic," snorted Lazarus. "I've seen foals cast more solid spells." His horn lit up with a ghastly, smokey white glow.

"You will not make a fool out of me," I snarled. I did the motions again. Up, right, neutral, down-left, up, neutral. Flick. Again, my wand produced nothing more than a spittle of smoke.

"But it's not your fault," he said, with an infuriating amount of knowingness. "Not entirely, anyway."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded. "Explain."

"You should consider firing that archmage of yours," said Lazarus, moving towards me. "He really should've caught something this obvious." I drew my sword with my off-hand and pressed the edge of my blade gently against his chest.

"Enough of your riddles! Spit it out!" I admit, my temper was... A problem point for me, to say the absolute least.

"Your magical pathways are blocked," said Lazarus. His hands shot forward, and I caught them with the flat of my blade.

"I swear, it's like you don't want me to help you," said Lazarus. "You know, you really ought to trust me more." I lowered my blade, his hands following.

"And why exactly should I do that?" I asked.

"Because if I intended to harm you, don't you think I would've done it by now?"

His logic was hard to argue with. He had plenty of time to attack me if he so chose. He clearly had no qualms with injury, and he seemed to ignore the fact that I was a member of the Equestrian royal family. In short, he has nothing to fear in attacking me.

So why didn't he?

"What do you intend to do?" I asked. In place of a verbal answer, he pressed the middle finger on each hand to either side of my head.

"I am going to unblock your magic using my own," he said. A small jolt ran from his fingers to my skull, reverberating through my being.

"No wonder you're so blocked up," said Lazarus, his hands still to my head. "So bitter. Resentful. Angry. You are being run by your emotions."

"If you cannot learn to bite your tongue when speaking to a princess, I will have to remove it for you." I warned. Somehow, I sensed his excitement, an extra buzz of magic. "Then again, you'd enjoy that. How does one become a masochist?" I felt a similar buzz, this one less excited and more upset.

"Do not call me a masochist," he snarled. "Never, ever call me that. Do not trust a man whose title ends with '-ist'. Rapist, terrorist, and psychiatrist. Don't ignore the pattern."

I froze. I definitely knew that saying. Only one person in all of Equestrian thought like that. And Lazarus had met him.

"Where did you get that?" I asked, trying to keep my breathing steady.

"My teacher was odd. He taught me many things, one of which being that the suffix '-ist' is a sign from Satan," said Lazarus. He removed his hands from my head. "There. Your magic is now free."

"This teacher of yours," I said, barely noticing that I was doing the motions of my spell. "What was he called?"

"Hm? His name?" said Lazarus. "His name was Starswirl. He said that people knew him as Starswirl the Bearded."

I flicked my wand, and something a bit more drastic than smoke came from my it. An orb of fire, twice the size of my fist, zoomed right towards Lazarus. The orb hit his chest and burst outward, catching and burning most of his front. A manic scream came from him, turning into a crazed, terrifying cackle.

"It's not often I get burned," he laughed. "It's a lot of cleaning afterwards, but the payoff is more than worth it!"

"Lords and ladies, I am so sorry!" I yelped. I tried to do the reverse motions, to extinguish the flames, but nothing happened.

"You still don't seem to understand, Princess of the Sun," cackled Lazarus. "There's nothing to apologize for! You can't harm me!"

"Are you just going to let your body burn to ash?" I asked nervously. He was nothing to me as a pile of dust.

"No, I really should put this out," he admitted, still burning. "And so, this is where we part ways."

"I beg pardon?" But it was too late to argue; his gaseous alabaster aura was already shrouding his horn and wrapping around his body.

"You really do need to learn to let go, Celestia," said Lazarus. "I fear that you'll never grow as a mage if you keep chasing whatever it is you're chasing."

There was a loud pop, like a bottle of wine being uncorked, and Lazarus was gone. I quickly reached into my camp pack and yanked out my magic diary, a quill, and a jar of ink. I ripped open the book and nearly smashed the ink in my struggling before dipping in my quill and hastily scribbling my message.

Dearest sister,

I understand that you and Father are likely cross with me for leaving on my journey despite your advice against it. I hope my recklessness caused you no grief or worry. When I return, I promise I will take full responsibility, and make up for any punishment you might have received due to my actions.

But my excursion wasn't for naught. I met a rather interesting unicorn today. He was about my age, but his knowledge and mastery of magic far surpass either of us, perhaps even some of the Castle mages. He helped to unlock my magical pathways, and I am now able to cast the fire spell I’ve been attempting for the past few weeks! But that is not why he is so outstanding. He was also a student of Starswirl the Bearded, and he must have learned from him after Starswirl left. Oh, but sister, there is more! This stallion, Lazarus, he is apparently immortal! Which is why I need a sentry to teleport to my location (I will send my longitude and latitude as soon as I determine it), and return me home. I must search through the archives as soon as possible. I do not know very much about Lazarus, but I promise that I will be able to find him with enough time and research. He has them, or at least knows where to find them. I promise you this, dear sister, I am close! I can feel it!

Lazarus will be the key to finding the Elements of Harmony

Author's Notes:

Well, what do you think? Good start or was this terrible? I'm very keen to know. Comment down below with your feelings about this story, I'm very curious to see if people like this. Hope to see you in the next chapter.