From Gravel's explanation, there were twenty injured kobolds. Some had crushed legs, broken bones or shredded limbs from rocks caving in after an unexpected earthquake. Much like mine's walls, Bone Marrow took this opportunity to experiment.
What if he focused on only the wounded part of a kobold's body? Well, that came with complications of its own. He learned that he needed to use his magic to 'feel' the body of what he was healing, in this case a kobold, and to figure out what was wrong. For that, he needed a reference point.
Gravel was none too pleased at being used as the example in this case, but he obediently shivered in place while Bone Marrow compared and contrasted the various injuries with Gravel's wellbeing. Before this time, the young necromancer never had the time or the clarity of mind to sit down and be this thorough. In the assault on Obscenely Rich's manor, the attack on Galloping Glades and the siege of Canterlot, he had simply focused his magic to heal every aspect of a person. Perhaps that was why Granny Smith was still alive?
All in all, his experiments resulted in twenty healthy but confused and scared kobolds. Old injuries had been repaired, scars had healed and each little bipedal 'lowercase dragon' was able to move of their own accord. Muscle degredation from being bedridden was a thing of the past, though some kobolds stumbled around as they attempted to become accustomed to their restored bodies.
Standing at the entrance to the Mines of Scoria, which a thousand years later had become a den of kobolds, Bone Marrow looked into the smelly darkness one more time. He would return when he was ready. Once he had figured himself out, once he was certain of his abilities and as soon as he could hold his head high. The last time he had seen his parents was when Diamond Dogs had made his village into slave labor. He decided that should he discover how to bring back his village that such a thing would never happen again as long as he could help it.
Beyond the forests of Equestria was an expansive desert that stretched far beyond the horizon. The sun was setting in the distance and causing a golden glow from the sands that covered the land ahead of him.
"Well." Bone Marrow took a deep breath and vented out the cold fog of stress. "Time to see what the rest of the world is like."
Toothpick landed on the necromancer's hooded head, hopping once to adjust his talons. "Do you think there will be scorpions? Perhaps massive snakes?"
The adult-sized colt lifted his head, though his hood prevented him from looking directly at his skeletal companion. "Why are you asking for trouble?"
"We didn't encounter anything in our trip through the supposedly 'horrible and dangerous' Everfree Forest, did we?" Toothpick countered. "Not one monster, manticore or beastie tried to eat you."
"So you're hoping we do run into something that wants to eat me?" Bone grumbled.
"Would you rather run into people?" The skeleton's head tilted to the side. "At least with a beast you have a higher chance of just killing it and being done with the problem. Perhaps you could even turn the beast into a skeleton to do the walking for you?"
Bone shook his head. "At what point are conversations like these going to become normal?"
Toothpick seemed to laugh. "Isn't this already normal for us?"
Unrelenting heat, savage winds with each grain of sand flying in high enough density to make breathing a nigh impossible hurdle and no food or water for days. This would be enough to kill most anyone else. Toothpick took refuge in Bone Marrow's cloak, finding a comfortable pocket for himself that slowly filled with sand.
A storm had shredded the necromancer's plan. From a high place he had plotted a course through the desert to reach another mountain, but now, he couldn't open his eyes for the risk presented by the sandstorm. His eyes caked shut from tears and sand, his hood blown back by the wind and having given up on breathing, there was little else that the young colt could do other than walk on and endure the winds that peeled away at his fur and skin.
It was a good thing that Bone Marrow was accustomed to pain or he would've been buried by the sands that confronted his progress. Each step threatened to fling him into the dunes behind him, erasing minutes of progress should he be careless. He had no idea how long this storm would last, but it had already felt like years. With his eyes shut and Toothpick hidden, neither could tell time. It was a miracle in and of itself that Bone's cloak hadn't been ripped from his neck to be launched into the desert behind him.
Banishment. He understood now why other ponies would think that this would be a punishment. Any other pony would've died if they had been sent into this kind of environment. He imagined someone like Bright Idea or even Scenic in this kind of place and how they would do. Bright Idea, with his armor and weapons, would have fallen in the first few hours. There was no shelter nearby, no refuge or shield against the sand. Let alone the risk of suffocation, the heat would have baked him in his golden armor. His weapons would've been discarded almost immediately from the fatigue and without water, he would fall to the ground and become buried.
Scenic, though he thought highly of her, would have done no better. Though she was a pegasus and could fly, the wall of sand that had confronted Bone Marrow before the storm struck was high enough to challenge the clouds above. Did it go further than the clouds? Was there some kind of barrier to prevent Equestria from being swallowed up by this madness? Knowing Celestia there probably was. With Twilight Sparkle also being in the picture along with Princess Luna, there were three Alicorns to fight back against this kind of calamity.
Bone Marrow was brought back to reality by a sharp pain in his right leg. He grimaced and stepped away as he couldn't open his eyes. Toothpick was doing all he could by being huddled up in the necromancer's cloak pocket. They were both blind, the roar of the sand made hearing pointless, and smell was a joke to even mention. The colt didn't dare to breathe or sand would fill his lungs. The only reason he hadn't been ripped to shreds was due to his magic constantly healing and repairing his body. The focused effort kept his mind off of the constant pain of his body being ripped apart granule by granule, and he hoped that this misery would end sooner rather than later.
The colt's eyes were so caked with sand by the time his hearing returned that he felt like a wall of mud had adhered to his face. Pushing his hoof against the sand brought pain as it tugged on his fur. Like his healing, this was as good a time as any to focus once again on his abilities. If he could 'consume' the hairs on his face, then the sand would fall free. That was the theory, at least. After several tens of minutes of effort, he grumbled in annoyance. His control was improving, that much was certain, but his impatience was getting the better of him. He wanted to see! The colt instead focused on consuming the sand itself rather than his hair, and soon enough, he was free.
His once dark vision slowly gained specks of reddish-white light through his eyelids. As more and more sand was carefully dissolved into nothing, his eyelashes tugged at the sand that held his eyes shut. Deciding he'd rather see than have eyelashes, he dissolved those fine hairs as well. When he finally took stock of his surroundings, he was blinded by the light of the rising sun.
Bone Marrow raised his hoof to shield his eyes as Toothpick poked his skeletal head from the sandy pocket that had become his mobile tomb. The bird then used his talons to pick at the holes where his eyes would be to claw sand from his skull.
The two had sand just about everywhere a person could imagine, and none of it was pleasant. Through select use of his magic, Bone Marrow did his best to clean himself and Toothpick. Once they had taken a breather, meaning that Bone Marrow was actually able to take a breath for the first time in days, he coughed up yet more sand in a wet and dirty mucus with the color of clay.
"Eugh!" Bone managed to blurt out before hacking out more disgusting mud.
"Hmm..." Toothpick hopped out of his pocket and landed on the sand in front of Bone Marrow. "Well, that is strange. I think you've had a makeover, Bone Marrow."
The young necromancer was still coughing and sputtering so it took him a while to reply. "What are you talking about?"
"I think I remember someone in town talking about this once." Toothpick pointed the bones if his wing at Bone Marrow. "Your hair has streaks of white and blonde in it, and your fur is a yellow-ish white."
"My what?" Bone spat more sand from his mouth before having a closer look at his foreleg. Indeed, his previously marshmallow-white fur had become a sandy tan. "What happened?"
"My guess is that this is 'sun bleaching'. We must have been out in the desert for so long that the sun and sand, with all of the damage it dealt, caused your fur and hair to change colors." Toothpick's head tilted to the side as he looked closer. "I can still see that the roots of your hair are the same blue as they've always been, however. Very interesting."
"Yeah? Well your bones look a little tan, too." The colt gestured to his skeletal friend. "They used to be pearly white but now you look a little tan. Kind of like a skull that's sat in the sun for ages?"
"How long have we been walking in the desert?" Toothpick's voice had a hint of worry to it.
"Probably not more than a month? A little more than that?" Bone risked taking a deeper breath and immediately regretted it. He spent a few more minutes coughing up sand and gunk.
"And in that time, it's entirely possible that we've wandered in circles..." Toothpick flew up to sit on Bone Marrow's back to get a look around the area while the colt coughed his lungs out. "Ah! Look what I've seen!"
In the distance was what seemed like buildings that came from the dunes. There was a large windmill as well, accompanied by multi-story structures with smaller ones that surrounded them. Smoke was rising from the buildings, and only now did Toothpick realise that these structures seemed to be barely held together. Some looked like they were at risk of collapsing at any moment while others were leaning against one another for support.
"It seems like ruins..." Toothpick gave a ghostly sigh. "Though the rising smoke means that other people are living there. Any chance that the citizens might be ponies?"
Bone scoffed and looked at the scene with his own eyes. "I'd be happy to see anypony that isn't Celestia or the ones from Ponyville, excluding Granny Smith."
"If we remember correctly, didn't the Diamond Dogs, the Griffons and those bandits originate from the deserts around Scoria?"
"That was a thousand years ago, Toothpick. There could be anything out in that town over there." Bone Marrow lifted his hood over his head, only to find that his cloak had become a white tattered mess. The dyes had been bleached out of his cloak and it had become shredded by the sandstorm that the two had walked through.
"Hah, hey, Toothpick." He turned his head and looked to the friend on his back with a smile. "I look like a mummy without all the bandages. Sandy-white hair and fur, a white cloak that's all ragged and..." His smile faded. "Right... erm, I think you'll need to hide, Toothpick."
"In what pocket?" The bird countered. "I think it would be better for you to retake the energy you've spent on me, Bone Marrow. Though it isn't like you can shield the skulls in your eyes, you can at least claim that you're not actively controlling an army of the dead if I'm not perched on your head."
"You're sure? I'd be all alone then."
"Bone Marrow, you've been talking to yourself for months." His minion tilted his head. "I'm your subconcious, remember?"
The necromancer grimaced. That was a fair point. Did he remember how to speak to people? It couldn't be more different than the mental conversations he'd had with Toothpick while walking in the sandstorm. Without those, Bone was certain that he would've lost his mind.
"I'll see about getting you another body as soon as I can, Toothpick." Bone promised.
The skeleton nodded. "Do try to get me something other than a bird, would you? I'm not limited to just being the size of a raven, you know. Maybe a minotaur for example?"
As Bone Marrow moved closer to the town, accompanied by nothing but the tattered remains of his cloak and the cold metal of Scenic's soul jar around his neck, he noted the howling winds through the alleyways of the buildings. There was no one to be seen. Doors were locked tight, barred and sealed against the sand. No building had a window that wasn't boarded up and covered with cloth. Wooden pillars that were once storefronts were half buried in the sand and signs that noted businesses had the lettering worn off. The smoke that had been rising in the distance was due to wood burning from the intensity of the sun. A kind of slow smouldering that could last ages if it went unnoticed.
"Well, um, that's not good."
Bone was answered by silence.
The young unicorn grumbled and pulled his tattered cloak closer to his body. Moving deeper into the town resulted in more of the same. Boarded up houses, destroyed storefronts, wisps of sunbleached cloth that were once territorial flags and sand-covered remnants of what used to be signs of life.
"Really?" Bone looked around at the desolation that surrounded him. "That's all?" He kicked sand with his hoof, sending a spray of dust and disappointment into the air. "Come on! Come out here!"
Nothing but the howling wind and the echo of his voice replied.
The necromancer closed his eyes and tried to gain control of his breath. Come on. Think. Don't freak out now that I'm alone. What can I do?
He was in the middle of a desolate town. After double checking, there were no heartbeats. Everything here was dead or gone. That... was a good starting point. If things were dead, he could use that to his advantage. Dead things meant he could have skeletons. He could use his magic to eat away at the barricaded doors to raise the skeletons, but what then? What was his plan?
He could use the dead citizens of the town for... what purpose? To rebuild the town, certainly, but for who? He had no reason to live here. If he thought about it, nobody else had a reason to live here either. If they did, they wouldn't have left. Did he need to find out the reason people had left this place, or did it not matter?
"Couldn't hurt." Bone Marrow sighed to himself before closing his eyes. "I could use some help, though."
He sent out nine pulses of energy from the center of the town outwards. In rapid succession, nine waves of blue light emitted outward like a massive hemisphere of energy and the once silent town began to make noise. Skeletons began clawing at the boarded up windows of the town, planks were broken and tossed to the side and doors were busted clear of their hinges.
The necromancer jumped from a door that had nearly slammed into him, and the offending skeleton covered their mouth in apology. Bone's face twisted in confusion at the figure he was looking at. Was it a minotaur? Well, there were no horns, so that wasn't correct. Perhaps it was some kind of thing that he hadn't seen before? He didn't recognise it from the many species that had attacked Canterlot long ago, either.
The skeleton had holes in the sides of it's skull and a long tail. The teeth had fangs, the fingers on its hands had claws, and the bones themselves seemed slim and light. After a while, he likened the skeleton to that of a cat and a minotaur combined. As if the two legs of a minotaur along with the hands had somehow been combined with that of a cat. There wasn't really a word for this kind of thing, but he wasn't a scientist either. He decided to call it a 'Cat person skeleton' and moved on with his life.
As more and more skeletons came from their houses, he noted with a pang of sympathy that not every skeleton had been an adult when the owner died. There were children, elderly, ones with busted bones or broken hips and ribs, some with missing teeth and others that looked like they'd rotted from the inside out.
Air hissed through his teeth in sympathy and he used his magic to restore the skeletons to their full potential. He knew that the owners of these bodies had probably long since passed on and that they probably didn't care a single bit what happened to their bones, but he felt it was the least he could offer.
The young necromancer cleared his mind by shaking his head. "Alright, everyone." He raised his head to look up at the skeletons that stood tall over him. They were twice his height in some cases, while for most his eyes came up to their sternums. "I need you all to figure out what happened to this town. Why did the people here leave? Why are all the windows boarded up? Where did they all go?"
The skeletons nodded in unison and paused for a moment, each of them looking to one another before they all dispersed.
"Hold on, you." Bone pointed to the cat-person skeleton. "Come on over here."
The skeleton did as asked, and Bone emitted ten directed pulses at the skeleton.
"Ooh..." The skeleton looked at its hands and turned his head. "This is quite the upgrade!"
"Hey again, Toothpick."
"Hello, Bone Marrow." The skeleton opened his fanged mouth when he spoke each word and his tail moved from side to side. "This is certainly strange. I'm happy for the new body, though. I'll miss flying..."
"Do you have any ideas about this place?" Bone gestured to the town around them.
"I have little more ideas than you do, of course. For now, let's wait and see what the others come up with in their search."
Hours had passed since Bone dispersed the 'surviving' members of the town to figure out what happened. With the energy he'd put into the skeletons of the town, Bone Marrow learned that they had about the same level of intelligence that he did though they didn't share his ability to speak or any piece of his mind. He understood them more on an instinctual, unspoken level than he did on a verbal one.
The skeletons had recovered various journals, each of which had been worn away by heat and sand, and in some cases turned to dust from the ravages of time. That gave the necromancer an idea. Could he 'heal' a book?
In short, the answer was no. No he could not heal a book. This disappointed him, but it wasn't entirely unexpected either. In any case, the attempt was made. It wasn't that it didn't work, it was more that he couldn't restore the ink to its original shape. He didn't have a reference point. Much like Gravel, if he didn't know what the contents of the book was, he couldn't rearrange everything to become that. He supposed that his healing efforts had worked in the past because he had only healed other ponies. Yes, others had been Bat ponies, earth ponies and pegasus, but they were ponies in one way or another. He'd never encountered a Kobold before he'd met Gravel, and once he had the hang of it, healing the other kobolds was as simple as healing ponies.
With these books, part of the 'healing' in this case would be where each dot of ink or each stroke of the quill would have been made. With his magic, the only thing he had was a blank yet pristine book in his hooves. Staring at the pages for a long while, an idea came to mind. There was a book he'd read about Necromancy when he was in Canterlot, but the pages were assembled by those who had no time to actually study their magic. Perhaps with this, he could write his own tome. He certainly had enough dessicated pages laying around for him to write with. The only problems that faced him was the lack of writing materials and the ability to carry all of this with him.
Looking out of a freshly unbarred window to the dusty streets outside, Bone bit his lip. He could take the skeletons of this town with him, but once he reached a civilized place they would only cause others to be frightened and scared. He thought longer about his circumstances. He had a cloak on his back, didn't he? He knew what it had looked like before, so in theory...
Bone Marrow attempted to 'heal' his cloak, and much to his surprise, it flowed back into repair and color. It was a faded purple now, but still, it was able to be used. With this... couldn't he have his army of skeletons that wore cloaks? Hmm, that would still freak others out. But, if he made clothing out of the cloak....
He tore off a square of his cloak and decided to test his theory. If he healed this square, would it form another cloak? In short, the answer was a negative. The square itself was perfectly restored but it couldn't clone itself. He supposed that it wouldn't make sense if he could create an army of skeletons out of a finger bone, much like he couldn't create infinite clothing out of a single thread.
Well, in either case, he was learning more about his powers. It could repair or bring something to life, but it couldn't fully restore things that were parts to a greater whole. He supposed it made sense, seeing as dead things don't grow skeletons. Only living people could grow a skeleton, so it stood to reason that a... wait a minute, what?
Bone Marrow sat down and scratched his sandy head. "Alright, so if I'm sitting here and I can bring a skeleton to life with my magic, why can't I bring a book or some cloth to life? I mean there's nothing left of it to be 'alive', right? The skeleton can't grow anymore than it could before it died, so being alive isn't some kind of, erm," He rubbed his face. "I mean if the thing's already dead, can't I just make it undead?"
The necromancer's cold eyes looked to the book on the table in front of him, and he released two pulses of magic towards the book. It appeared to have done nothing, but when he thought about opening the book to the middle, the book opened itself to the page that Bone Marrow had thought about.
He hopped out of his seat with joy. "Yes! I did it! Hah!" Bone considered briefly that he was unreasonably happy, but he let the doubt slide. He had discovered something else that he hadn't read in the previous books. First had come healing, then had come the revelation about different amounts of power for his minions, and now, he'd discovered that he could make inanimate objects into animate objects. The possibilities were endless!
Well, not entirely endless. In all of his uses of large pulses of magic, he hadn't turned each individual grain of sand in the desert into a minion. Was it for lack of trying? Experimentation on the matter determined that no, it wasn't due to a lack of trying. No matter what he tried, all that seemed to happen was that the sand would vibrate and shuffle around. After more experimentation, he learned that if a skeleton was standing in the shaking sand, it would very quickly be buried up to its shoulders. In effect, 'Quicker Sand'.
There was a smile on the Necromancer's face. He may be in the desert with nothing but skeletons and the husks of forgotten buldings as his company, but here, he could figure out his magic. He could have a safe haven away from everyone and everything that might want to harm him. He didn't feel a limit to his power after his mistake with the Hydras in Equestria. He had someone to talk to since Toothpick was here, and for now, there was no concern other than food and sleep.
Then again, food was more of a comfort to him than a requirement. Looking at his body, he noticed that he was already skin and bones. Healing himself with a bit more effort restored his body to what he remembered it being, but he kept the sunbleached hair and fur. It was nice to have a change, and with his fur being lighter, the oppressive sun overhead made him just slightly less overheated. This was a place he could rest. If he found ink, he could write down his findings. If someone came by... well, he certainly had an army to defend himself with.
Maybe banishment would be better than he was expecting?
It's fine, take your time to get the quality you need. Great work as always! And with his new colors, Bone could blend in if needed
Awesome to see another chapter!
It will be interesting to see what Bone Marrow does with where he is and what he has. I do like that he is becoming very much a healer, and is likely to get even better. Don't need to make things undead if they ain't dead.
He's slowly becoming a scholar necromancer! I wonder if Celestia or Luna or rest of the gang will find him out there, I'm sure one or two of them are worried or something.
I think one of few reason that Bone Marrow is so strong because its similar to star wars, the reason why Darth Sidious and Darth Vader was so strong is that the dark side of the force was purely concentrated in them. It could be the similar reason, maybe if Bone Marrow ever wants to get back into "society" he could split his power equally on into his minions, then recall it back if he needs it rather than having it bleed through and kill everything within his radius.
You should make him like the deacons of the deep if you don't know what they look like I'm going to send you a video.
Whoa there, take as much time as you need. Far as I know the world isn’t ending just yet, you’ve got plenty of time.
I'm always happy to read another one of your chapters no matter how few and far between they come so take the time you need!
as for bone marrow's progression of power I think it's going at a fine pace. It seemed like he was limited before because he had to worry about others being affected by his power and being labeled either good or bad but for now he is neither and more just exploring and pushing the upper limits of his own power instead of simply growing more powerful.
10024897
tbh thats debatable
This is a really damn good adventure story dude. I'm enjoying it. You're pretty creative on how the necromancer abilities would work. Hell, I'm expecting Bone to go around in an animated wagon now looking like Jake Skeleton. I look forward to the next chapter.
Good to see bone marrow finally get some peace and quiet. The fact hes learning how to do things and is hasnt fallen to his urge to kill is great.
Wait... isn't the desert outside Equestria is called Badland?
I hope he gets to some cool experiments like bug carapace animal products or byproducts like a shell or chalk/bone dust maybe aged fossils or blood and biology more variety would be epic for him to mess with
Maybe, changelings?
there's an old saying :
'any chapter is better than no chapter'
Take as much time as you need to get the chapters out or do whatever just don't cancel this story as Bone marrow is a protagonist I can root for. Now if the princesses who are probably watching him won't take him finding an abandoned and dead town as an attempt to launch an attack on equestria or whatever bs is going to have back in the story if they're going to be anyways.
And now the city of bones has been founded, great work definitely excited to see where we go from here (regardless of how long that takes)
Now he has his own ghost town!
Thanks for the update!
One: as somebody already pointed out, it seems more like he's finding his limits rather than growing stronger.
Two: One of the reasons I like this story is that you don't just go 'hmm I wanna make this character stronger...time to take out the insta power pills.' That's not what you do. Instead you have bone marrow take what he knows and expands on it. This makes it awesome as we see the character grow not just from a random boost but rather awareness of his abilities and mounting curiosity.
For example:
. This is what I'm talking about. This increase in his power was just him finding another capability of his and is very satisfying to read. Be proud that you managed to get this right by a large margine
loved this chapter, cant wait to see what happens next, take as much time as you need we can wait
So is this Cludgetown? What could have happened to it? Could the Storm King use a necromantic beat down or ambivalent ally? Also wondering how much attention Celestia pays outside her borders. She’s all about ignoring world-ending threats and kicking the can down the road for a thousand years, but he’s an extreme enough for her to dispatch a spy if anything is.
Sun, sand and magical expirementation.
I hope that Capper isn't the cat skeleton.
10025799
Nah, Sanguine confirmed over on the Discord server that this skeleton is just the same species as Capper.
I like to see if he can take over a changelings dead body but keep the body intact, it'll be awesome if the body is able to keep changing forms after it's dead. But with the lore you've already put into the story that may not be able to happen
By the way as long as you put the chapters out I'm okay waiting my tracking list is almost 2000 anyway so I got plenty to keep me occupied lol
10025133
If memory serves me
Everywhere outside of Equestria is a wasteland
I think you have a golden opportunity here for some character development.
Bones is in a nice safe place far away from anything that can interact with him, perhaps it is time for him to have the full gravity of him living as a child through a major war and then without skipping a beat being thrown ahead in time and not given a moments rest to adjust to everything?
One more thing, are you ever gonna reconsider having his size be that of an actual child instead of an adult? I just don't buy that ponies somehow shrank over a thousand years, him being properly child sized would open up more opportunities than close them (the horror of a dead kid is more palpable than that of a dead adult to another person, not to mention that characters could underestimate him thinking he's just a kid instead of a necromantic survivor of an apocalyptic war).
do you think he could eventually revive the badlands deserts to better lands? if he decomposes or uses things and maybe make undead helpers big and small he could change the lands itself to attract people or help the poor people of the badlands I love necromancy being used creatively.
will he do classic necromancy? like of him doing deviation with the dead gaining lost knowledge? or communicating?
First off...
66.media.tumblr.com/4f18f0a8850e6b496990af8af032e385/tumblr_p67eexztOc1vxezx2o1_400.png
Secondly, yay a new chapter. Makes me wonder about one thing...
[Disclaimer: What follows is a lot of mostly pointless wondering about how this all works and makes sense. Most importantly, possible lack of logic in no way diminishes the story as a whole. It's a land of magical colourful talking ponies after all, anything can work if you want it to.]
Now onto my musings...
My imagination has been often going to town on an alternative-ish universe of the original story (different protagonist and events), and the way I usually saw it, upkeep is a problem. Bone does not need to eat or drink, however consuming meat gives him energy. Consuming non-meat instead requires energy. Why is meat special? Is it about all organic matter? Do bones count? How much energy is used up to just keep Bone "alive"? Considering how complex biological life is, how "alive" even is he? We know he's warm to the touch. We know he can bleed, though since he doesn't need to breathe nor eat, the function of blood is somewhat eliminated. Does he have a heartbeat?
His body would have to run wholly off of the energy acquired from meat. You can turn energy into matter, so in a somewhat stretchy way one could assume that he is able to perfectly create everything his body needs to appear as a normal alive body by simply using gathered energy. Considering how much energy would be needed to create even small amount of mass, this theory would be mostly going out of the window, but then again if consumed meat is converted to energy on a near 1:1 basis, why the hell not. It would make Bone a walking nuke (and that is putting it VERY lightly), but who cares. :D
Then comes raising the skeletons. He'd need to give away some amount of energy for them to use to animate themselves and combat any opposing forces (e.g. gravity). How fast would that energy be used up? Wouldn't an army of skeletons drain his reserves relatively fast? If his energy, all of it, is spent, what then? He'd probably die. If there is nothing around to help resurrect him, would that be a final death? Is that how volcanoes are the only known way of killing a born necromancer? Because they'd use up all their stored up energy and they cannot resurrect without it or a nearby source of it?
Side note: Getting extra energy in the desert might be problematic, so hopefully it works different in the story here or he finds some sustenance soon.
On a separate topic, which also invaded my mind repeatedly recently, what even is necromancy (as seen in this universe)? In pop culture, usually it's raising a whole dead body or in some cases a skeleton, often by binding some sort of spirit brought back from the dead to animate / control it. Not so much here. No classic zombies. Just bones. Animated bones. No spirits. Just energy from the necromancer. And now we learn that bones are not the limit. Could Bone raise a skeleton made from pretend bones carved from wood? Some other material? Would it behave like what it was intended to imitate or would it just be a pile of wood / something else? We have observed Toothpick have certain bird characteristics, so some elements of the original re-animated being are *somehow* kept. So many questions~
And how do born necromancers compare in some of those aspects to regular necromancers? Could teaching the art of "necromancy" (which honestly might not even be the best term for what we have here) be used to create a powerful caste of healers or is it born-only feature? Again, so many questions~ ^^
And that is quite enough random musings for one time. :3
10024967
Oh, Mort. I miss that fic. :c
I like where this is going but as a word build, what i see you grabbed the important fact about necromancy. Why we or any other world calling dark magic dark magic? its a huge misleading. if you want to hurt or kill you can do it with "light" too. you cannot do something from nothing. its cant happen. Dark magic is called because the "price" you pay for it are ...well payed by others ( like vampirism when you have to suck blood for sustaining yourself) or the price for necromancy is the void, what drive you slowly insane. So yes dark magic can be used to help and improve others but the price is still the same. this has to be considered. My whole point of this the main treat is not bone marrow. its the void witin him. Thats why Celestia fear from and thats what Discord pointed out. He need to extend his power and learn ofc but he needed to silence the void. because thats the only way to escape madness and a dark path and a dark future. He need to find someone who can help him out. Bringing back his loved one now just endanger his sanity more. you dont want a necro to push down on the heel . thats the worst thing you can do.
Eyyy, he turned an inanimate object into an animate one! He’s becoming the Nomad of Nowhere!
10024853
Well, I would assume he would need living ponies and not skeletons for that to work, wouldn’t he?
Damn another hiatus sad to see that is the case but glad to know your still going to try and write I hope to see more!
I, Biorno Marrowani have a dream!
You can't please everyone. This is a fun story even if it isn't the latest digital incarnation of God almighty himself.
The way that months pass by in a single chapter is interesting. It wouldn't work with most stories, but here it really help to emphasize Bone's immortality. "Has it been a few weeks? Months? Years? Eh, guess it doesn't really matter."
Keep up the good work!
I think the difference between something formerly living and something nonliving is that formerly living things have an "imprint" of the soul or whatever force "life energy" counts as left over for the magic to shape itself to. The pages of a book used to be wood, or whatever organic material ponies make books from, so it's got something to work with there too.
Wait, if he was able to carve into stone with nevromancy, wouldn't he be able to do something to lava? Suddenly, volcanos seem like less of a threat.
Awesome to see you back, and a very cool chapter to go with it
10027507
I don't think so, I mean you can break through stone with a pickaxe, but insanely hot liquid stone that bears down on him, likely from all directions if he was tossed into a large amount of it? His magic, if powerful enough, might "pickaxe" a bubble out for him but I feel that the effects would be extremely brief and underwhelming, and that's not even considering how he might just be incinerated from the heat before he ever physically touches the lava in which case his remains would then be engulfed.
10027673
True.
i dont think Bone is over powered. i think he is just learning what all he is capable of and finding things previous necromancer either didnt think to try or didnt have the oppertunity to do so due to that witch hunt they all had to deal with. i am curious is the next necromancer chosen at random or is one chosen soon after the previous ones death? also theres only one necromancer at a time so i imagine he is very powerful by default due to my headcannon (and if im remembering my lore from previous story correctly) saying all that necromantic power bottled into one spot, him. .... there was more to my thoughts on this but i completely forgot what they are so i'll cut this off here.
looking forward to more, loving this story ^^
10026298
Thankfully for Bone, the desert sand is rich with buried seeds and microorganisms, a lot less dense but not truly barren, with just a little water it springs to life. Still, pickings may be scarce, Bone's top priority may be to dig a well
It's also interesting, is the reason he can't animate the desert sand simply because most of it came from rocks that were never alive? If he were to find a tropical beach where all the sand was originally coral rather than rock, could he animate it? Could he animate powdered bones as well, into a miasma that could drift through armor and into eyes and lungs, or act as a living smokescreen that he could extend his senses through but others couldn't even see through? Or an ancient patch of sea floor with creatures that have been extinct for millennia? Or what about oil/coal, or natural gas? Could he animate it even as it burned, tentacles of flame flying off after he animated and ignites a pocket of natural gas?
Toothpick also may just act like a bird because, as he is animated by part of Bone's subconscious, that's just how Bone expects birds to behave. But having lingering influence from the initial owners is much cooler.
And the idea of undead trees is awesome. Bone could be a fantastic gardener.
As a necromancer, he might even make a home in the sea floor! Without the need to breathe, abundant life, maybe an air filled cave to research in, living by the light of his eye lights with his skeletons in a place no pony would look for him, getting harassed by seaponies if they exist.
Definitely still enjoying the story but if I were to leave a note regarding bone marrow and his development lately he just feels a little more logical and simple than in the past. In your first story with him he felt more like a foal dealing with things, now he seems I would say just a little too smart too fast. He's always been clever and inventive, so this isn't necessarily a problem, I'd just like to see a little more detail put into his reasoning, and a little more fanfare or dramatic writing around his success and failures with his new abilities. I like the details on the healing and restoration in this chapter, it's well conceived, but it feels a little more expositiony than previously. It more details and descriptive language about what happens as he tries the experiment would engage me better.
Tldr: still good but zoom in an put a magnifying glass over the experimental process for us.
It makes sense that a necromancer can use necromancy on a book since it’s made from a tree, which has died to make the book along with whatever materials are used for the binding and cover, for instance leather and glue, both of which tend to come from horses/ponies.
Life to the Lifeless.
Love to see this story showing back up. Hope things are well.
I'm loving the complexities you're giving to his powers and explaining how they work and why, it's some really good development. An excellent chapter.
I like the way this is planning out. I don't think he is op yet though
The only problem I have with this story is that I'll not pay attention to Fimfiction for a month or two and when I look back nothing has happened.
Loved this chapter and I cant wait for more!
Great story and don't worry man, you do you, it seems to be working cause you've written a very good story.im very excited to see what you do next man.
I certainly look forward to the next chapter. This story is great!
Waiting is such torture but it'll be worth it.