As Grogar and Twilight stepped past the crumbling gates of Tambelon, Twilight took one last look at the ruins—her expression sad and a bit confused. She turned away and resumed trotting after Grogar.

“So…” the filly asked, somewhat hesitant, “where is everypony? You said there were other ponies—er, others here, right?”

Without breaking stride or looking back, Grogar chuckled—a knowing smile crossing his face.

“Rest assured, child, the citizens yet remain,” the ram replied, a hint of amusement in his voice, “and believe me, they would no doubt love to meet you… but I feel it’s best to let them rest for now.”

“Rest?” Twilight asked with a bemused tilt of her head, “they’re all resting? Where? I didn’t see anypony in that city.”

“You needn’t concern yourself about it now,” Grogar replied dismissively, “they will awaken when it is time for them to awaken and not a moment before. Now we must turn your mind to more important matters.”

Before the filly could argue any further, Grogar’s horns lit up with a bright pink glow and Twilight found herself slowly lifted off the ground.

She cried out in alarm as the world shifted around her—the scenery itself seeming to melt away. An instant later, the dark and gloomy landscape just beyond the gates of Tambelon were gone.

The cold and rough grey stone had been replaced with soft red carpet and smoother, warmer stone beneath. The stagnant, malevolent air had been pushed back by dark grey stone walls and ornate windows.

The dark and bitter blackness of the world around Twilight had been brightened by the soft orange glow of the crackling fire blazing within a large hearth.

Twilight's hooves touched back down onto the ground and she whipped her head around in abject confusion—the sudden and jarring changes in her surroundings throwing the filly for a loop.

“Wha… w-when did… how?” she turned to Grogar, who had immediately begun trotting over to a large nearby bookshelf placed against one of the walls opposite the fireplace, “what happened? Where are we?”

"My personal study,” a few books pulled themselves from the shelf and Grogar turned to look over his shoulder at Twilight, his red eyes glowing dimly and a small smirk crossing his face, “every learned mage worth their salt has one, child.”

Twilight blinked in surprise before taking another look around. It certainly was a lot cozier than anything she had seen so far. Her eyes wandered over the wooden door at one end of the room—presumably the entrance to the study.

It passed from the door to the bookshelf Grogar had stepped away from. Distracted, Twilight’s gaze followed the ram over to the desk where he deposited the books he had been holding aloft in his… magic?

“Um… Grogar?”

“Father.”

Twilight’s brow furrow in bemusement and Grogar glanced at the filly a moment before settling into the chair behind the desk and speaking once more.

“You lost any connection you had to your own world when you died, Twilight Sparkle,” Grogar explained, causing the filly to wince and lower her ears, “you belong to me now, in mind, body, and spirit… but that will change in time.

“In time, when I’ve deemed you ready, you will become your own entity—your own being under no one’s power but your own… but until then, you are my responsibility and are bound by my will.”

The ram’s gaze drifted away from Twilight and towards the fireplace. Twilight waited for Grogar to speak again, but it took some time, as Grogar seemed to be lost in thought, a contemplative frown adorning his features.

Eventually however, just as Twilight was about to ask Grogar what he meant, the ram finally spoke again.

“Believe it or not, child, but there was a time in my life where my heart had belonged to another.”

“T-There was?” Twilight replied, her eyes widening in shock, “you had a special somepony?”

“A ‘special somepony’?” Grogar repeated, turning back to Twilight with a raised eyebrow. He hummed in thought at Twilight’s sheepish smile and continued after a moment, “...yes, I suppose you could say that, for it was indeed a pony who had captured my heart.”

His gaze returned back to the fire as he spoke.

“Bella Rosa was her name,” he said, a small smile on his face, “and just as the name implied, she was a rosy red mare of immense beauty… and she had thorns to match.”

He chuckled and shook his head before turning to Twilight with a smirk.

“She was a strong individual with a big heart, and the maid that eventually became my wife,” his smirk fell and he frowned, “it was gradual—a love built up over several years.

“It had taken time, but that just made it all the sweeter, and eventually I began to… desire a child,” at Twilight’s continued shock the ram snorted, “yes, Twilight Sparkle, I—Grogar the Demonic Necromancer—wanted to sire a child with the mare I loved… but...”

Twilight watched Grogar’s expression change from annoyance to… something else—something that made the filly both quake with fear, and ache with sympathy.

She saw a flash of fury and sadness in those burning red eyes.

“It was not to be, child,” Grogar continued, his voice hardening, “the mare I been ready to give my life for… tried to take that life with a blade.”

“What?!” Twilight gasped, her hooves covering her mouth, “no, that’s… that’s not... she tried to—”

“I had been slow to trust anyone, as was my nature, Twilight Sparkle,” Grogar interjected, meeting the filly’s horrified stare with a stony look, “but trust I did eventually, and in the end, I was betrayed. Fooled by an assassin I had thought to be the mare I loved, the mare I had wanted to bear my children.”

“W-What,” Twilight swallowed and tried again, “what happened after that?”

Grogar smiled a dark and terrible smile that made Twilight shiver.

“She failed to kill me, and when she had been found out, she tried to flee,” a sinister chuckle escaped his lips and he grinned, “she didn’t make it far before she was captured and brought back to me.”

Twilight didn’t want to ask.

She had a very strong feeling she wouldn’t like what she heard… but something inside her did want to know. Some sick twisted emotion largely alien to the filly rose to the surface and bade her ask the one question she would never dare to ask when she knew what kind of answer awaited her.

“What… did you do to her?”

It came out as nothing more than whisper, but it still made the filly feel sick. She knew by now that Grogar wasn’t like other ponies. He wasn’t a pony at all, but it was that malevolence he seemed to exude from every pore that made him truly different.

She hadn’t known Grogar for very long, but the ram had said quite a lot in the time she’d been in this darkened world, and it had been enough to tell the filly that Grogar most certainly did not follow the guidelines of Harmony.

With this in mind, she knew whatever Grogar’s response would be, was bound to be something awful, something terrible, something no other pony would’ve approved of.

Yet she had wanted to know.

If she had been more self aware, Twilight would’ve realized that deep down, she was actually anticipating the answer… and Grogar obliged, his face darkening as he gave the hearth a significant look.

“There was no forgiveness, there was no trial, there was no mercy, for the mare that had seized the King's heart had betrayed the trust of that King and attempted to commit regicide, the highest of treason.”

His dark scowl was once again replaced by a malicious grin.

“She was burned at the stake in front of every citizen in Tambelon… and I had personally cast the flame that burned the fur, melted the flesh, and charred the bone black… and she screamed… oh how she screamed.”

Something was wrong.

Twilight swore she could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she listened. Her eyes were wide and unblinking as she stared at Grogar.

"It was truly a sight to behold, child," Gorgar said, now completely lost in his own memories, "my heart, torn in two by the terrible betrayal I had suffered, now sang in joy as I watched the mare who had caused me so much pain beg for mercy."

Something was wrong.

Grogar spoke, and Twilight listened—leaning forward ever so slightly and hanging onto the ram’s every cruel word.

"I laughed then, Twilight Sparkle. I ignored the horror my subjects no doubt felt as they watched the harlot burn. I did not care one whit for what they thought, and though that was my ultimate folly in the end... I could not help but fall to my darker emotions, hurt as I was by what she had done to me."

Something was wrong.

The bell around her neck rang out once, its silver sheen drowned out by the bright magenta glow of the runes. Her eyes were bright and eager, the amethyst irises shining in the dim light of the fire.

"It was all worth it then, and I loved watching that mare scream and beg and burn. It was a different love than what I had felt for Bella Rosa before.

"This was something new... something that would set me on the path to ruin... and still I persisted, heedless of the future consequences of my actions that day. Revenge was too sweet a delicacy for me to resist at the time, and that powerful, overwhelming, and absolute satisfaction..."

Something was very wrong.

A small smile had appeared on the filly’s muzzle as she thought about the mare, thought about what she had done, and about the brutal punishment that had been enacted as a result of her foolish actions against the King.

Against Grogar.

Against Father.

"In the end though, I suppose there was still some regret," Grogar mused, his nearly zealous tone settling back down into something more quiet and thoughtful, "the desire for a child never truly left me, but by then, it was too late.

"As cold, dead, and withered as my heart has grown, and with all that I've cast away, it is that one single wish that carries over from my previous life, and so that, my child, is why you will refer to me as Father, even if I cannot love you as one truly would."

He finally glanced over to Twilight, his eyebrows raising slightly and a smirk crossing his face a moment later.

“Oh? Did this tale of love and betrayal excite you so, child?”

Twilight blinked, the glow in her eyes and the runes fading, and her wide grin giving way to a look of utter bewilderment.

“W-Wha?” she muttered, shaking her head rapidly and trying to clear away the odd haze in her mind, “what happened, what… wait… I… did I… what happened?”

She looked over to Grogar, who was wearing an amused smile.

“I told you a story,” he answered with another small chuckle, “and apparently you took quite a liking to it.”

“I… I did?” Twilight replied, staring at her hooves and frowning in confusion, “but… it was terrible,” she looked back up at Grogar with a lost expression, “that… you burned that mare alive! Why would I enjoy that?”

Grogar stood from the chair and trotted over to the bewildered lavender filly, giving a thoughtful hum before speaking again.

“Perhaps an effect of the binds that tie your soul to me,” he surmised, eyeing the bell around Twilight’s neck, “I believe this is a good time to explain a few things to you, child.”

Twilight didn’t respond right away, her attention drawn to the bell once she realized Grogar was looking at it. Grogar raised an eyebrow, but continued on nevertheless.

“I can only guess that you felt my own strong emotions through the bond we now share, however it is only a guess. Though I have cast the Soul Binding countless times before, never have I done so with such complexity, and never have I bound another’s soul to my own.”

Twilight stood there, unsure what to say to all of this. She didn’t know what was going on, and the ram was speaking of things she had never heard about before.

Soul Binding?

She had no idea what that was or what it entailed, but from what Grogar was saying, it seemed as though that’s what was responsible for saving her. Setting the thoughts aside, she remained silent as Grogar continued to explain.

“As you are now, you technically do not feel emotions—or rather, you should not,” he said, causing Twilight to finally pull her eyes away from the bell, “what you feel now—your fears, worries, and compassion, are are nothing but mere ‘echoes’ from when you were still alive, and will fade with time.”

“When I was still…” Twilight’s eyes slowly widened in horror and she began to shake, “s-so… so I’m not… your saying… s-saying that I’m—”

“I told you you had died during that exam, girl,” Grogar said, looking almost disappointed in the filly for her ignorance, “I may have brought you back from the brink of oblivion, but make no mistake, child... I have not brought you back to life.”

He gave the filly a level stare, and Twilight stared back, neither of them speaking for a few heartbeats. Finally Grogar spoke again in a clear tone that rang with a truth the lavender filly could not deny.

“Though I would hesitate to call you such at the moment, you are—for all intents and purposes—an undead lich, Twilight Sparkle.”

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