Celestia was in pain. A LOT of it. The last thing she remembered before blacking out with Twilight crying into her mane, was... cold. So much frigid pain that it made her eyes water just thinking about it...
But...
To be honest...
It was kind of refreshing.
To know that you're not COMPLETELY invincible.
To know that you can still have your flank handed to you, even after a thousand years of experience...
While she definitely got off on the wrong hoof with this stallion, Kel'Thuzad...
Well, rather HE got off on the wrong hoof with HER...
She hoped that she would be able to rectify whatever tainted disagreements between them existed, if any.
After she mopped the floor with his sorry ass, anyway...
She had to uphold her image, after all...
.........
"How are you feeling, Princess?" Twilight said, for the umpteenth time in the last fifteen minutes. Celestia turned her head, painfully.
"Twilight, I don't want to ORDER you to relax. I'm fine, really." Celestia responded, pulling her protégé for a hug. The smaller mare was still... shaken, about what had happened to her brother. Yet, she was relieved when Cadence had told her that he would be back soon, safe and sound.
She had also talked to her about Kel'Thuzad, and his position as their Archmage and Vizier. While Cadence seemed absolutely thrilled to have him, not only as a colleague and protector, but as a very close friend, Celestia still had her doubts and concerns.
While Cadence had told her everything about him, INCLUDING his past, her assurances that he was tricked into performing these absolutely HEINOUS acts she accused him of, and that he had absolutely no intention of repeating his offenses, calmed Celestia. She loved her niece, almost as if she were her own daughter, and her ability to see the good in ponies has always made her envious of the young alicorn.
If he really has changed from... whatever monster he was before he was brought here... and Cadence is willing to let him be her bodyguard, basically... I'm willing to give him a chance to redeem himself...
"Auntie! How are you faring?" Cadence called from the hallway, her muzzle sticking into the guest room were she was currently resting. Celestia sighed.
"I'm fine Cadence, really I am... I just wish your friend would have started asking questions before shooting, is all." Celestia chuckled, her hoof reaching for her tea, which Marrowfrost had been kind enough to make for her, as a gesture of goodwill, on behalf of his master and himself.
"Sorry, Auntie... Kel'Thuzad and Shiny should be back soon. He can formally apologize then! He really is very nice once you get to know him... and get past his appearance..." Cadence sheepishly replied, still obviously embarrassed by her archmage's unprovoked restrainment of the solar goddess.
Oh yeah... she forgot.
He was a necromancer. An UNDEAD necromancer...
His immortality through undeath had unsettled her, seeing as she was naturally immortal, thanks to her alicorn lineage. But, thanks to Shining Armor's pseudo-undeath... she kind of had her hooves tied. While she had never formally OUTLAWED necromancy, it was generally greatly frowned upon, and rather difficult to study without some rather... taboo practices. Robbing graves and resurrecting the dead was not exactly the best first impression...
She had faced her fair share of necromancers, the most recent being a self-styled warlord who had gone to live in the mountains with his 'followers', nearly thirty years ago...
The stallion was a madman, obsessed to the point with death that he had decided to have himself resurrected after his own death, becoming a quite powerful revenant.
It had taken nearly several hours to for her to fight her way to the summit, where the madman was trying to resurrect a dragon. Even after defeating him, she was left with a rather... despicable taste in her mouth.
Necromancy was disgusting...
.........
Realizing that she had been in a rather uncomfortable position for quite a while now, Celestia fluttered her wings lightly, attempting to move slightly to the left, so she could lay down on her side.
"Mmmm..." Twilight groaned, quite obviously uncomfortable now.
Great. She fell asleep.
She loved Twilight. Loved her like a daughter, which she sort of became, once Cadence married Shining Armor (much to the solar alicorn's glee). Seeing her apprentice like this, curled up against her barrel like she did when she was a filly... it made her heart swell. She sighed, accepting her uncomfortable fate, and nuzzled the sleeping unicorn gently upon the head, eliciting a sigh of comfort from the mare.
Celestia was tired, once again. The constant headache her frostbitten horn gave her was very taxing on her energy, and even immortals need sleep...
Sleep...
.........
With a resounding explosion, and a sound of shattering glass, Prince Shining Armor slammed down into existence, a glaze of faint bluish-grey energy clouding from his body for a few moments, before dissipating. The court that was currently in progress was more than startled by their prince's sudden appearance, and even more startled as the intimidating form of Kel'Thuzad materialized behind the stallion, his form exploding from a block of ice with a screech of power and arcane magic.
"SHINING!" Cadence exclaimed, literally catapulting into her husband's outstretched arms, the lich grunting slightly in exertion, attempting to stop his wife's unnatural alicorn strength and speed.
"I'm here, baby, I'm here. I'm back." He chuckled, attempting to gauge his surroundings. The alicorn mare smothering herself against him was distracting to say the least, so he brought muzzle up to his with his hooves, and captured her lips. The mare quivered, and attempted to bring him closer, which he happily complied with.
When his wife started to push harder, and attack his teeth with her tongue however, he backed away, much to the mare's disappointment.
I'd rather not take my wife in front of the entire court... as much as I want to...
"Sire! You... you have wings!"
"What?" Shining turned to the lich, who's eyes were wide. "I do?" his head craned down to look at his back, and he gasped.
HE HAD WINGS!
Very large wings...
Dragon wings...
But still wings...
AWESOME!
"I HAVE WINGS!" Shining exclaimed, his face engulfed in a smile that could kill a lesser creature. He grabbed his wife, who had joyfully thrown herself into his barrel, her eyes watering.
She had her stallion back...
Forever.
I think you missing a few other Liches. What about the one from Adventure Time?
Or Lord Voldemort? What about Nagash from Warhammer? Or even Ainz from the anime Overlord? (Check it out if you can it's awesome.)
Still your selection is pretty good. Keep up the great work.
6660936 The Lich from adventure time is technically a Revenant. He doesn't have a what it takes (A phylactery). Still an amazing character and voice, though.
Voldemort is an on the fence with me. He's a lich, but not necessarily in the true sense of he word. He has phylacteries, and is immortal, but doesn't have the undead feel to him. Still one of my favorite dark wizards though.
Never played Warhammer... was never really interested. No offense.
6660942 Fair enough. If you get a chance check out Overlord the anime or read the Light Novels, they are all translated. I won't spoil it for you, but if you are the kind of guy who loves playing as the bad guy then you will love Overlord.
6660942 And as for Nagash let me show you a picture of how utterly terrifying he is.
jonsullivanart.com/2010%20WEBSITE%20ART%EF%80%A8/nagash%20im%20%20not%20sav/nag3%20copy.jpg
Here is a link to the 1d4chan page which explains his history. https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Nagash
Oh I also forgot about Zobek from the revamp of Castlevania! Voiced by Patrick Stewart himself!
Human form. vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/3/32/Zobek10.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140330234145
Lich form. vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/0/0e/ZobekAsDeath.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140501173247
Can't think of anyone else for now.....
6660962 Reminds me a ton of a Dungeons and Dragons skeletal style lich. Classic.
Still can never forget their fleshy counterparts...
Mannimarco, King of Worms
http://tamrielfoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/risen-dead.jpg
6660979 I see your Mannimarco King of Worms, and raise you against Sandro the Netherlord!
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mightandmagic/images/e/ed/Sandro3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150209223509&path-prefix=en
6660981 Counter with Karthus, The Deathsinger...
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jeQffyMYiPg/maxresdefault.jpg
6661003 Retaliate with Myrkul the Lord of Bones.
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/4/41/Dead_Power_Myrkul.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100504064649
6661007 Finish with Sauron, The Lord of the Rings...
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11124/111240706/4798935-saurons.jpg
6661030 Release Morgoth for mutually assured destruction.
pre09.deviantart.net/7454/th/pre/f/2014/215/3/6/fingolfin_and_morgoth_by_juliedillon-d7ti5jc.jpg
But for sheer graphical intimidation factor... who could forget Xykon?
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/oots/images/4/42/OOTS0193.jpeg/revision/latest?cb=20150620015203
It's a wonderful whos-who of liches around here! im hard pressed to find ones that would be contentious (The Emperor could count by now, perhaps?)
Thanks for the Nagash Mention, by the way. He is a fun one. Nagash in his world wound up Creating directly or indirectly the scenario for a focused undead prescence in his setting. efforts someone else took after he first vanished as far as i know wound up creating that settings vampires. plus before his first... break he spread necromantic energy across an entire civilization, destroying it and raising them all, which would become the Tomb Kings later on due to the powers of the magically capable- a whole undead society within the sands.
What impressed me about Nagash was his magical capability and force of will. he penned the Nine books of Nagash, artifacts teeming with necromantic energy. whats more is that while people could become Undead at times already in the setting, HE was the one said to focus the power of Dark Magic into Necromancy, creating the school of magic itself in the setting! and yet theres more to him. Sorry, had to gush!
6661069 I present to you, Richard the Undead Warlock.
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lywikxvS7q1r2fq2r.gif
He's very friendly.
6661120 fun fact: he's lying. He says it with ice. lfg.co/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2007-08-16-70.gif
Man I can't remember the last time I read that...
6661112 Read the 1d4chan article if you want to learn more about him. *Spoilers*. He's really, really evil.
6661124 Why would he lie? For he is the wielder of....
i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd230/little_goober/For%20Alex/Handfork.png
SO MANY LICHES!
BRINGS TEARS TO MY EYES!
6661148 True, it is wonderful to see so much delicious evil.
6661132
Oh, im quite aware of how evil he is. I have poured over that article and other works involving him (including my copy of one of the 8th ed rulebooks. poor Warhammer Fantasy, rest it.). my interest in undeath at times still has to first give him credit for what he did just for scale. becoming a god of death of HIS caliber is beyond impressive, after all.
ahh. it reminds me, i need to find a means for a character im "writing" to find their own way into undeath someday.
Eh...My last roleplaying character was a lich.
Sad thing is , I died stupidly for the sake of roleplay.
This character was obsessed with power , and made a pact to gain more of it , becoming some sort of god.
Except that the GM then revealed that it was the god of cats , and that I was now playing a kitten.
An overpowered kitten , but so badly balanced that it was unplayable , so it deleted itself from existance.
Arthas "I once had a horse named Invincible. Turn out , it wasn't."
Care to choose a point of view and stick to it?
6661400 Pfft...
Sorry, was REALLY tired when wrote this.
alicorn of death!?
6660936 You mention Ainz Ooal Gown but don't show him for shame...
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/overlordmaruyama/images/6/6c/Ainz_040.png/revision/latest?cb=20150717085957
6661702 Judgement and Death...
6662384 judgement comes!
now were are the alicorns of war, famine and strife?
6662502 Sequels, my good boy.
I have BIG plans for this little universe...
I think I like your Celestia already.
Did some of the guy splatter on her own face? I can see how that would be disgusting (and taste horrible.)
I can't stand the smug, yellow bastard, personally. Vecna is much more classy.
6662572 yay!
Wow... Hell yeah!!! Go Shining!!
6661148
gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=271386&type=card
Death does not ride a pale horse, Death is a pale horse!!!
It's six in the morning... I've stayed up all night... AND I CAN'T STOP READING
Seriously though, bout time shiny got to be a princess too.
7312096 Glad you're enjoying!
6660954 It's just natural, in most of the animes, games and such things evils (or anit-heroes) tends to be cool and awesome:
Hao Asakura from Shaman King, Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha, Illidan from Wow, Masquerade from Bakugan etc. But that beside the point, i think if it would be possible to play the big bad evil lord many would try it out, at least for some time. This is what attracted me to Death Knight class in Wow THE PURE AND AWESOME EVIL BACKGROUND! MWAHAHAHA! And this is the reason why is on this site so much story about a character turn a badass evil overlord (or overlady) or just a badass anti-hero-like character.
6662502 Cadence --> Strife, Twilight --> War, Luna/Nightmare Moon --> Famine. I am just guessing. We need a mischievous/evilish pony emote icon, pinkiecrazy is good but, it sometimes just not do right to the words.