Twilight's studies had begun in earnest.

It hadn't started out like she had thought it would. Really she had no idea what to expect when it came to Dark Magic, but she was still surprised at where Grogar had decided to start with her lessons.

Rather than begin with the basics of Dark Magic, Grogar had instead insisted on focusing all of Twilight's first lessons on something that affected all kinds of magic in different ways.

Emotion, intent, and will.

According to the demonic ram, a firm understanding of how emotions affected magic and vice versa was essential if the filly was to wield any kind of Dark Magic properly, let alone Necromancy.

It wasn't just Dark Magic Twilight would be learning either, much to her own surprise. Necromancy may have been classified as Dark Magic, but Grogar had made it clear to his student that the field of Necromancy actually delved into a few Branches of Magic by today's standards.

During Grogar's time, the mana wielding creatures of old had not yet categorized their spells into any kind of rigid system—not that the system used today was all that rigid.

Back when Grogar ruled Ponyland, there had only ever been Dark Magic... and everything else. While the Black Compendium was not the first tome to contain information on Dark Magic, it was the first to house such vast knowledge on the subject.

Much to Twilight's interest, the author of the Black Compendium had remained completely unknown, even to Grogar himself—though the book was already incredibly ancient when Grogar still trotted about the Land of Light.

Still, by the Branches of Magic that Equestria had set up, Necromancy technically encompassed not just Dark Magic, but Soul, Summoning, and—by extension—Runic Magic as well.

Twilight knew a lot about Soul Magic and the fact that Necromancy drew from a lot of that didn't surprise her given what she knew of that particular Branch of Magic.

She also knew that emotion played a large part in the casting of almost all Soul based spells as well, so there were no surprises there either.

What did catch her attention however, was the mention of Summoning and Runic Magic. Twilight had read a bit about the two rather esoteric Branches of Magic, but couldn't find enough on the subject to really do anything with the knowledge.

For reasons Twilight had never found out, both Branches of Magic had largely fallen out of use sometime during the beginning of Princess Celestia's reign, and not much was recorded regarding the practice of either branch.

The filly had thought to ask Grogar, but another, more pressing question weighed heavily on her mind once the ram had told her of what her first few lessons would consist of.

If she was now technically an emotionless being by nature, how was she suppose to properly cast Dark Magic at all, let alone Soul Magic? What was the point of having a solid grasp of something she'd never be able to do?

If she could not emote, then why learn at all?

Grogar's answer was as simple as it was chilling.

Twilight could still cast Dark Magic and Soul Magic as she was now because of the 'echoes' of the emotions she had while she was alive. Once those 'echoes' inevitably faded however, she would truly become an emotionless husk of a creature.

In order to avoid such a fate, she would have to find another way to 'simulate' emotions, and the only other way for a lich to do such a thing... was to consume the soul of another.

Twilight had not been the only lich to trot or walk the earth in the past, and as Grogar explained, each lich before her had their own method of extracting and consuming souls, with some methods being more widespread than others.

To Twilight's mounting horror, Grogar had explained that there were even some creatures that could extract souls without even being a lich to begin with.

The filly found herself feeling extremely relieved when Grogar had told her that the 'echoes' of her emotions would last a little longer still—though he himself didn't seem all too pleased about that fact.

So it was that the first two weeks of Twilight's studies were spent learning everything there was to know about the roles emotion, will, and intent played in the casting of magic.

More important than emotion simply due to the fact that it affected every type of magic, was the intent and will of the caster. One fact that Grogar tried to instill in Twilight early on was that a good mage knew how to be flexible with their casting.

For example, a simple Telepathy spell was meant to do nothing more than convey a message normally, but with a simple shift of intent and the will to carry it out, mental images could be sent directly to the mind's eye.

Add emotion into that mix and it was possible to change the very nature of the spell.

Inject a certain amount of negativity into the casting of Telepathy, and it became a Dark Whisper, driving those that heard it mad with fear, rage, hate, greed, and all other manner of negative emotions.

The best way to cast a spell in Grogar's words, was to combine emotion, intent, and will into every single spell invoked—even in the spells where emotion wasn't necessary.

Practice of all three through repetition may not have necessarily made a spell stronger, but it did eventually allowed for far greater control and stability in the long run.

Power was important, but it was control that was ultimately the deciding factor in a successful spell. This was especially true when it came to Dark Magic.

Twilight Sparkle took all of this in, absorbing everything she was told by Grogar even as she read through and took notes on the text within the Black Compendium.

Though time existed in the Shadow World, it held no meaning to the beings within it. Twilight had no need to eat, drink, sleep, or pay heed to any of the other bodily functions of the living.

And so she remained awake and attentive, never once even giving a single thought to leaving Grogar's study for any reason. So focused on her lessons was the filly, that she hadn't even noticed the days pass her by.

Grogar for his part, paid very close attention to the filly as she progressed. It wouldn't have been a stretch to say that the demon king was thoroughly impressed with Twilight's efforts. She had been every bit the promising student the ram had hoped she'd be and more.

It helped that Twilight already had a thorough knowledge of how Soul Magic worked, as well she should since Soul Magic was effectively the manipulation of a pony's raw inherent mana in order to affect the world around them.

Soul Magic was the foundation on which all other Magic was based when it came to ponies. A unicorn could change the nature of their magic temporarily to cast different spells, but it was only ever temporary, unless there were extenuating circumstances, such as severe Dark Magic corruption.

Some earth ponies and pegasi even had the rare ability to tap into their own inherent mana to cast spells in a similar fashion to unicorns.

This however, was done through the mana veins that ran through their bodies rather than the wellspring that all unicorns—and only unicorns—possessed.

That knowledge however, was neither here nor there when it came to the information that Twlight needed to know. What was important, was that Soul Magic was the other Branch of Magic that made heavy use of emotion.

Twilight knew this, and it helped her studies greatly, but there were struggles to overcome, and they only got worse as the days passed.

Twilight's inherent mana had been changed by the ambient mana of the Dark Realm, and this had caused some unexpected problems—well... unexpected for the filly.

Though it had felt like her own magic once she had acclimated to it, and it was hardly an issue when it came to simple spells like Telekinesis, Twilight had found that casting some of the more complex spells she knew had become more difficult.

In some cases, it was almost as though her own spells were rebelling against her—with some outright refusing to work at all. It had been frustrating to say the least, and would have still remained so had that been the only issue.

There were still yet more problems to overcome however.

Grogar had not once let Twilight attempt to use any kind of Dark Magic whatsoever during her beginning lessons. He had kept the filly to simple book study, mental exercises, and the use of her Soul Magic.

He knew of Twilight's issue, but he had wanted the filly to figure out what it was on her own. The problem with that, was that it was nearing the end of the second week, and Twilight had not figured it out yet.

What Twilight hadn't noticed, and what Grogar hadn't told the filly, was that her time was running short. If the filly didn't realize the mistake in the casting of her spells soon, she'd lose the ability to cast both Soul Magic and Dark Magic almost completely.

It was with some reluctance and a large amount of disappointment that he decided that some additional guidance was in order. Twilight Sparkle was a smart filly indeed, and Grogar couldn't fully blame the filly for her lack of insight on this particular matter.

After all, she had not yet learned what it truly meant to cast even basic Soul Magic in a place like the Shadow World. She had not yet learned that Soul Magic worked differently—not yet understood just how much her mana had changed from what it was when she was alive in the Land of Light.

He wanted her to figure out that the emotions she had been using were ill suited to casting Soul Magic in the Shadow World. He wanted her to realize that when it came to invoking Soul Magic and Dark Magic, there was hardly any distinction between the two.

She wasn't using the right emotions, and if she didn't figure that out soon, she wouldn't have any emotions left with which to try. The filly hadn't even noticed her own increasing lack of enthusiasm for what she was doing. and so grew ever more frustrated when her Soul based spells failed time and time again.

Grogar hadn't wanted to go this far so early in the filly's training, but the stumbling block that was her own ignorance had forced his hoof. He would have to inform the filly of her failure, have her rectify it, and when all was said and done...

...he would have the filly consume her first soul.

Methinks it's time to meet the citizens of Tambelon.

On another note, no dialogue this time around, but that'll change in the next chapter. For this chapter, I wanted to build a sort of foundation on which to work off of for future discussions about Necromancy, Dark Magic in general, and the gradual changes Twilight will inevitably go through, so if the chapter kind of seems all over the place I apologize.

Things will even out as the story unfolds so for the love of Chaos, please have patience!

Love you all!