Last Chance was not a complex pony. He liked good drinks, good food, and good company. To fund his love of fine things he had pursued a line of work which provided plenty of wealth: tomb raiding. He used some of the money gained by his “explorations” to buy more and better equipment; which allowed entry into even wealthier tombs, which meant even more money. Sure, some of the more noble adventurers would say selling his finds to the highest bidder was “immoral”, but he didn’t really care as long as it paid. If he was the one who put in the effort to find an untouched ruin, then he got to decide what happened to the stuff inside it. Like he was about to do with the sunken city of Innsmare; thought lost for centuries, the last bastion of the Siren race was under his hooves. Just the wealth on display in the entry chamber he’d managed to find would more than pay for his troubles! He lifted his breathing mask with a smile. "Well well, lookee here. I see emerald necklaces, gold statues, and even pretty paintings."
He looked over the room, filled with artifacts of bygone eras, but paused abruptly. A sign hung above the door to the next room, obviously a recent addition; after all, the sirens hadn’t been known to use tape. In bold letters it said. "Be warned: This is a hard hat area. Please take a helmet from the rack on the other side of the door before proceeding." Beside the text was an oddly proportioned skull wearing an orange hard hat with a skeletal thumb pointed up. Last Chance stared for a moment before moving to peek through the doorway.
Sure enough, there was a rack with several rows of hard hats sitting just inside the door. Last Chance stared for a moment before muttering. "Geez, obvious ruin trap is obvious. Even if it is weird." He took a step forward and began looking around, only to quickly roll backward when one of his tools warned him he’d triggered a magic sensor. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge something hitting him in the head and tumbling to the floor - though it was far lighter than he’d expect from a trap. Examining the object, he found only an empty cardboard box. "What in Tartarus?"
A male voice spilled from the hard hat rack. "Recorded message begins." The voice paused for a moment, and Chance flinched as Celestia's voice spilled from the rack. "Silly pony, where's your hard hat?"
Chance stared at the rack before sighing and donning a hard hat. "If the princess calls me a silly pony, who am I to argue? Let's get to the bottom of this." With that, he stepped into the hallway.
As Last Chance explored the ruins he was constantly resisting the urge to salivate. Long lost treasures abounded in every hall and through every room. He passed several ancient gems, numerous befuddling carved stone tablets, and mounds of coins. Last Chance smiled as he reached a large set of double doors. Several of the doors had signs hanging above their frames, but this one was different. Instead of cartoonish advice or strange warnings, this one simply said said NO ENTRY, with the only decoration being a strange sigil on the door itself. If there was this much treasure in the more accessible areas, what wonders were behind the first doors he’d seen actually forbidding entry?
There were a number of handicaps Last Chance needed to use tools to overcome; though being an earth pony had its perks, being able to identify whether or not a sigil was a defensive spell or a decoration was beyond his natural abilities. Pulling out a monocle, he held it over one eye and looked over the door. After a moment, he smiled. "A simple lock spell. Luckily, a good raider is always prepared." He took off the monocle, placing it back in his bag before pulling out a wooden stick with a knot at the end. Holding it in his teeth, he moved to the door and calmly knocked three times. A black glow enveloped the sigil, and Chance held his breath as the door opened with a click.
Inside the room were four plinths, with a statue of a strange bipedal creature atop each. The first was large and imposing, the model posed as if defending against a threat. It wore simple iron armor, though there were strange etchings covering the surface. Its face was molded in primal joy, teeth clenched in a fierce grin. Last Chance looked it over, trying to place the engravings, but they didn't make sense. One was of a bipedal figure being hit by a large carriage, another the same figure falling off a bridge. At its feet were several objects he didn’t recognize. One was a small glass pane with a button at the bottom that shone as the light hit it. Beside it sat a set of keys with a small figure sitting primly on their ring. Finally, a strange object sat at the end that reminded Last Chance of Griffon crossbows. Near each item was a plaque.
Last Chance read them aloud, trying to figure out the secrets of the statues. "The tablet of knowledge. When charged, this item has libraries worth of books available at the touch of a finger." He paused. "The Tart's a finger? Anyways, the keys of hope. Wherever one of these keys fits shall be our true home. While our life may be different now, we will never stop searching for the way home." Last Chance stared at the keys. "Awfully sentimental... Okay, now for the one I'm most curious about." He turned his gaze to the last inscription. "And this is a freaking gun!"
Last Chance stared in annoyance. "Feh, that answers jack-diddly." He moved to the next plinth. It held an obviously female statue wielding a bow with a loosely nocked arrow. The statue was draped in a thick cloth covered with silver embroidery. The flowing script of the embroidery reminded him of the strange symbols of the hill folk in Southern Equestria. Her face was more serene than the last statue, the sharp features of the statue seeming to fight against her almost ethereal calm. Below its plinth sat three more items. One was a simple rectangular box with a camel embossed upon its cover. Another was a plush animal - a leopard, from the look of it. The last was a small pouch full of seeds.
Once again he read the plaques. "Death sticks. Strange artifacts that can provide a calming influence and make the user look cooler, but both addict and shorten the lifespan of the user. Shame follows every use." Last Chance raised an eyebrow. "Who'd be stupid enough to use those?" Moving to the next item Last Chance found the plaque a bit smudged. He ran a hoof over it to clean off the grime. "The Major. A true friend who has stood at our side for our entire lives. May his eternal vigil never falter." Last Chance looked at the plush animal. "Sentimental again. Is this a shrine of sorts, or maybe a mausoleum? I should probably take some photos before I move anything. It won't get me a huge profit, but I should be able to sell them to a museum or university." Finally, he moved to the third item. "Seeds from home. May we plant them only when we have truly found our way back."
The next plinth held another male statue. He wore no armor, just simple clothes. The shirt had short sleeves, and had a wolf portrayed on the front. He was kneeling, a red box with a white cross open in his lap. Beneath the wolf, words were printed: 'I hunt the things that go bump in the night'. Chance had a slight feeling and moved to the statue’s back. Sure enough, three sentences were on the back. 'There are wolves. There are sheep. I am the sheepdog.'
Last Chance considered the statue. "That seems like something some sort of guard would have, but the first statue matches a guard better." He rubbed his chin for a moment before heading back to look at the statue’s face. Taking a closer look, he saw pure determination. Its eyes were narrowed, and a large rag was held in its teeth. Looking towards the box he could see a needle in the statue’s second hand, a single drop of liquid at the end of it immortalized in stone.
Once again items stood at the base of the plinth. The first was a metal chain with two oval tags hanging from it. Its text was too small for Last Chance to try to read without disturbing the necklace. The second was a cracked plate of unknown make, almost broken in half by a powerful force. It seemed like the plate was a piece of armor, though he had no idea what had broken it. The third item was a scrap of paper. It was easily read, as it only had one word: Sin. Under the word was a collection of fifteen tally marks. Last Chance moved to the plaques, feeling as if fate itself was forcing him to look at these ancient lives.
He squinted his eyes, looking over the first plaque. "The Tags of Noble Sacrifice. This necklace denotes one who has signed on as a protector of our home. While many do not see the true tragedy this necklace can bring, our group has now seen true horror; may these remind us that our own home is not as blameless as we may believe." Last Chance shuffled away from the necklace. "Hello, probably cursed necklace, and goodbye." He moved to the next plaque. "The Broken Death. This piece of armor saved the life of our greatest healer. May it stand as a testament to the risks of our undertaking; even random chance may try to kill us. We must be vigilant." He moved to the final item. "The Tally of Sin. This shows the greatest sins of our healer. It is modeled after the brand he chose himself, etched into his skin. This is a reminder for us; may he never again be forced to pick up blade or bow."
Last Chance stared at the paper again. He was beginning to understand the statues a little, or at least this particular one. He moved to look at the last statue, of a little girl with a carefree smile on her face, but as he began to approach he was startled by a voice. "Who are you?" Last Chance jumped towards the source of the sound and saw death itself.
At the entryway was a skeleton. It wore a robe of solid black, and in its hand was a small bag. It was staring at Last Chance with an emotionless face. There had occasionally been creatures in the ruins he explored, but none had ever talked to him - especially when they looked dead. A single thought crossed his mind: this was HIS mausoleum. And Last Chance had broken the lock and wandered right in. The skeleton continued. "Once again, who are you? Who has entered Ragar's most personal sanctum?"
Last Chance unfroze and tried to think of a way out of this. Stalling for time, he bowed his head low. "I apologize! I didn't know that this ruin was inhabited. I am Last Chance, explorer and delver into the unknown."
Ragar looked over the pony. "Did you not see the sign? Ragar only barred one room, and several explorers have found his ruins before. Why did you break into the one room still locked?"
Last Chance suddenly felt less clever about his lack of communication with the other explorers. Sure, involving them might cut into his profits, but he wished he had been warned about... this. "I, I didn't know, I thought they were under preservation wards." He tried to think of some way to get out of this situation. He had gotten the lead on this place from a minotaur sage. Maybe that could help? "To be honest, I was told to come here." He paused again, trying to think of something to say that would ensure his safe passage home. "I-I think he was a friend of yours? He looked sort of like you, if you had skin."
Ragar paused. When he spoke again it was quiet, but filled with hope. "What did they look like? Where were they?"
Last Chance seized the opportunity, hoping to escape the situation with some smooth words. "Of course! He was about ten hooves tall and clothed in steel plate. I ran into him in Minos. He spoke crudely, and asked me to deliver a message to any who might be in the ruins."
The skeleton was so excited by this that it began spinning in place. "Oh, by the greatest boons of the world! Ragar's solitude might finally be broken! He has not seen any of his friends since before the vile curse that separated him from his own family." His spin turned into a dance. "Tell me, Mr. Chance, what did he say? What did he say?!"
Last Chance paused. This was not the reaction he had been hoping for. Perhaps the skeleton would let him leave if he said something suitably vague? "He said that if I ran across the ruler of the sunken city, to say." He cleared his throat, trying to make it sound deep and imposing. "Tell that old bag of bones that I'm traveling around, and he should hurry up and track me down."
As soon as his sentence finished, the spinning abruptly stopped. The voice that had been nearly laughing was now deathly still. "He said that? Word for word?"
Last Chance gulped. "Um, yeah. Is that not what you wanted to hear?"
Ragar turned slowly and set the bag down while staring into Last Chance's eyes. "Do you know much about how memory works when stuck under the effects of a long term healing spell?"
Last Chance paused but latched on to the conversation topic like a shipwrecked pony without a lifeboat. "No, though I've always had an academic interest in magic."
Ragar walked forward, the clacks of bone on the cold stone the only noise in the hall. "When someone is placed into a high power healing coma, they lose the memory of the last few hours of their life. Much like a pony who drinks too much, they will not remember what happened prior to needing such intense healing." Ragar paused at the stone guardian and raised a skeletal hand to touch the armor. "All but one of the people these statues are modeled are after are in such a coma. When they awaken they will find a notebook filled with a wealth of information, bar one fact. Can you guess what that fact is?"
Last Chance flinched as Ragar's head snapped to him. Empty eye-sockets betrayed no emotion as Ragar seemed to shine with power. "U-um, no sir."
Ragar's cloak exploded outwards as he flew through the air, closing the gap between them in an instant. "THERE IS NO MENTION OF ME TURNING INTO THIS DAMNABLE LICH! I WILL SHOW THEM MY STAINED SOUL MYSELF!"
He lifted Last Chance up by his throat with both skeletal hands and started to squeeze before a light sparked behind his eyes. Pausing, he held Chance off the ground with one hand and threw his other hand out. Black smoke rose from the floor, and from it a bestial hiss was heard. After a moment an alicorn with furless black skin emerged. His horn was shattered, though held together with magic. His wings were bat-like, but with numerous holes dotting their membranes. Where a normal pony would have a tail was a scorpion stinger, coiled back as if ready to strike. He opened his mouth as if to complain before seeing the morbid image in front of him. "Dad, what happened?"
Ragar seemed to waver in place, his skeleton warping. "This thief broke into my home and then had the gall to lie to me. Here, in this very room, he claimed to have seen one of my friends. Talk to me, son. Keep me from crushing his throat like a fragile glass tube as I so dearly want to."
The alicorn stepped closer and Last Chance’s eyes darted between the horrible alicorn and the terrifying skeleton. He was unsure which figure was scarier; the furious skeleton holding him by his throat or the monstrous alicorn looking over this scene and remaining calm - as if this was just an ordinary day. The alicorn put a hoof on Ragar's back. "Dad, she would never forgive you. Maybe a long time ago you would have killed him. But not now. Now you know a better way. Let him atone."
Silence reigned for a few moments, and then Last Chance felt a brush of hot air on his face. "You are right, son." Ragar dropped Last Chance like an empty sack. Before he even had a chance to regain his breath, let alone run, red smoke began to rise from the ground. No scream could gain purchase as the smoke flew into his mouth, nostrils, and ears. His body spasmed as the smoke flooded into him. The alicorn flinched, looking away. "That's... disturbing."
Ragar said nothing, instead simply staring. The spasms continued for several minutes before the body stilled as the smoke poured back out, coalescing into a small red orb floating in the air. With a wave of Ragar’s hand Last Chance’s body disappeared. He turned to the orb. "You are free to go wherever you wish. Nothing can see you, and nothing can harm you. I am the only one who can even communicate with you. Your punishment is simple. As you lied to me about one of my friends walking this world, you yourself will wander until that lie becomes the truth. If you bring me information about ruins or artifacts I have not yet discovered, I may reduce your sentence. Now go, and don’t come back for at least thirty years." The orb quickly flew off, leaving the hall quiet once again. Ragar walked up to the statue of the little girl and cradled her face with his hands. After a moment he collapsed to the ground, where he stayed as Black Sun trotted up and wrapped his father in his wings. The hall filled with quiet sobs.
I smell an Overlord reference...
I also approve of said reference
Now I want to know what items were at the statue of the girl.
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I started this story idea when season one of overlord dropped. I may have waited to publish it, but the statue idea, despite it's lack of coverage was cool as all get out. It's why Ragar's a lich, as in my first idea he was closer to Gligamesh mixed with discord, an immortal warrior who was bored fighting lesser opponents and used his martial abilities to mess with ponies.
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That will be addressed in the final chapter.
holy shizzle.
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Yep, important plot stuff and revelations dropped and I'm still smiling. We're covering the ascension next, so prepare for that.
This reminds me of a scene in Overlord (the light novel, not the game) where Ainz (also a lich) confronted a group of thieves who broke into his home and told a similar lie that he called them out on.
I was expecting a more lighthearted chapter and even at the very end when Ragar popped up, I thought this would just be a kooky amusement park ride for intrepid explorers. I liked it and the hint of an overarching plot, buuuuut I'm also kind of hoping for more zany goodness as well.😁
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More zany goodness is coming. There's only one more 'serious' chapter in the whole story until the final one, which I'm gonna try to have humor in to balance it all out. I have found I am utterly unable to write anything over about 2k in pure comedy for a full story. I kinda have to have some serious moments or else I lose the plot both literally and metaphorically.
Oh boy
Intrigue is building
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And the payoff won't happen until the end of the story. It's also a teaser for if I want to write a sequel, which I'm unsure of. This story has a pretty clear ending, and I don't want to muddle it and turn into the MLP version of George Lucas.
I told myself I was going to read one chapter...as we can see that failed. Bloody well done!
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Thank you! U really enjoy people liking my work, and I'm betting once the regulars get hold if this they'll be disappointed by the lack of bikinis, but I gotta get the plot in somewhere.
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I love how its well paced and the characters are wonderful and easy to laugh with. Keep it up! And if anyone gets their knickers in a twist I'm sure Discord could have a few pics for them in a bikini.
"He told me to give Ains of the Great Tomb of Nazarick his regards."
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Ragar is ainz on crack and powered by love. Of course we get a reference. Plus I needed a way to introduce the others. It all fit.
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I get giddy whenever I see Overlord referenced so fair enough
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Also, have you finished the anime?
*hugs Ragar*
Well, at least he warned him to wear a helmet.
And once again, an Epic Chapter.
Though I am intensely curious about Black Sun now.... Does he normally traipse around wearing a Glamour, or is everyone else aware of how he looks, and no one has ever brought it up.... Or..... was the Scary Look the Glamour..... So many options!
So Ragnar was part of a military or adventuring group from another world, or possibly multiple other worlds (dog tags and a first-aid kit don't normally come with plate armor and bows), and he wants to go home ... with the rest of his party.
This is the most serious chapter in this story so far.
Darkest action taken by Ragar as yet.
I’m just saying this chapter needs a tag of sad because the end is just where you cry. Not many fics can do that.
The sadness of the loss of him wanting to desperately find his friends and the realization that he’s done everything he’s done so far to find them. So we get to see the final weight of all of it just crashed down on him. The fact that he still operates as a jovial fun loving person. That speaks leagues of his personality and his resolve.
Loyalty beyond death. Ragar has a goal in mind and a task to complete, he will suffer no obstacles.
OH MY WORD WE HAVE GLIMPSES OF BACKSTORY!!! AAAAAAAA!!! Poor dumb Last Chance, he really screwed up there. If only he hadnt lied, Ragar probably wouldve let him off with a warning.
Also ehat the heck happened to Black Sun???? I thought he still looked like a normal alicorn! Maybe its a guise? Idk but dang.
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Yep, and yes, this was a letter to the scene in one and three
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Your questions will be answered... In the last chapter of this story.
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Welcome to the mystery, I try to add some things for folks to chew on that make sense, and Black Sun's appearance is one of those things.
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I'll be honest, I hope that chapter isn't too soon.
This story is epic. I love the comedy, and the hints of dark tragedy.
I have my theories on why Ragar does what he does, but damn, this is one hell of a ride regardless.
He isn't the Villain Celestia wanted, but the Villain she NEEDED. (And in all honesty, if I ever develop Dark Powers, I could only hope to pretend to perspire to the Greatness that is Ragar).
I see someone is a overlord fan
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We're not to close to the finish line yet, but it is approaching. I've actually messed up, I should have done this chapter earlier, because there's only a handful of chapters until the only other serious on. But sadly there's only a scant few major events until the end, but I'll make sure there's plenty of chapters between those events.
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This story started as an overlord crossover... I much prefer the right hand path I took with it.
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I look forward to more
A wild plot appeared!
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It's been hinted at before, bonus points if you find and mention them. I've known this stories ending for a while, but this is the first of two serious chapters before the end.
Well, if memory serves me right, this is the first chapter that’s this somber and heavy-hearted. It’s like a dark room in a series of fun ones... that didn’t make much sense.
Anyway, yeah, this was somber.
I recall something very similar from Star Wars.
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I'll be straight up, they're smokes. also yeah, in order to cover the reason Ragar is doing all his zany shenanigans I needed to show his past, but until the ending I didn't want it to be a kooky moment. So this was my writing compromise, think of it like a spooky level in a light-hearted rpg, distracting, but necessary for later events to make sense.
9424428 And how many of us could say the same?
Sad and possibly terrifying thought there
PLOT! Great and glorious plot! Very interesting plot at that. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
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Indeed and Avea Nex
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SAD to think there is a final chapter coming to this story.. I lover Ragar's 'museum'
What happened to Black Sun? Did Twilight gave way to her sadomasochistic tendencies on poor chained fella back then?
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Nope
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Twilight didn't kill him, but yeah, that's his natural look, he just normally hides it because spooks
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You weren't wrong.
Ah fuck. Now ya went and ambushed me with sadness... Also edge... Not sure what to make of this chapter or how it fits with all the other craziness.
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If it made sense the first time through it wouldn't fit Ragar though.
Theeeeeeeere it is. Nobody becomes a lich without some darker side having taken root.
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Less a matter of sense and more a matter of abrupt tone and direction change in the story.