The Curse of Undeath

Chapters

Chapter 2: When Trust and Honor Fall
Chapter 3: When Hope is Lost (Crucial part added with Queen)
Chapter 4: Salvation burns and Anger reigns
Chapter 5: When tales of old become legends, evil stirs
Chapter 6: Crashed weddings, secrets, and a family reunion
Chapter 7: When chaos passes, plans form
Chapter 9: A new day, new problems arise
Chapter 10: The return of an Empire
Chapter 11: Familial Bonds
Chapter 12: The Empire's Return
Chapter 12A: The Empire's Return (Alternate ending)
Chapter 13: Unexpected Developments (Edited)
Chapter 13A: Unexpected Developments (Alternate route)
Chapter 14: A change of fate
Chapter 15: When knowledge opens new doors
Chapter 16: Reflections of the Past
Chapter 17: Planning for the future
Chapter 18: Taking the advantage
Chapter 19: Training begins
Chapter 20: A hopeful meeting
Chapter 21: A small victory
Chapter 22: Darkest before the Dawn (Minor edit 12/25/23)
Chapter 23: The fight back begins
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Nightmare (Edited 6/29/21)
Chapter 8: The plan unfolds, insanity ensues

Chapter 2: When Trust and Honor Fall

As Arthas's vision slowly begins to clear, his eyes are able to make out some strange shapes and widen in shock and says, "You're joking right, there are no such thing as talking horses. Horses cannot talk in all of Azeroth unless..." He pauses for a moment and thinks it over, remembering what the sky looked like before the blinding light and comparing it to the sky he is under now and it finally dawns on him saying, "Wait a minute, the sky had a few more clouds in it. Here, the sky is almost free of clouds, and the sun is higher in the sky than it was before. Where exactly am I?"

Clover the Clever pauses a moment and blinks a few times in a stunned state and says, "I'm sorry, what did you just call us?" She then squints her eyes angrily at him thinking he just called them horses.

His vision finally clears up and he sees six very strange beings standing before him and squints his eyes in return and says, "I do believe I called you horses. On Azeroth, we consider ponies and horses basically the same thing. You failed to answer my question pony, where am I? Do not make me ask again."

Commander Hurricane stomps forth, scowling at him and then yells, "We are not HORSES, we are ponies! You dare threaten us creature? We found you and saved your life, you are indebted to us!"

Arthas starts to get angry and slowly stands up with a low growl and stretches to his full height of seven feet, towering over the smaller ponies and glares at them with his green eyes and blonde hair waving in the breeze. He clenches his hand into a fist and enhances his voice and shouts at them, "That was not a threat, but a warning. You may have found me and saved my life, but you DO NOT OWN ME! You are standing at the very top of MY CITADEL! ICECROWN CITADEL IS MY HOME AND MY KEEP! I am King Arthas Menethil, the Lich King of the Scourge!"

Clover and the others slowly back away from him in fear as her eyes stare at him terrified of what she heard come from his lips. For a brief moment she thought they glowed blue, but she dismisses it as impossible. Somepony's eyes just can't glow blue and emit smoke can they? She then shakes her head free of the thoughts distracting her and says to him, "You owe us a debt for saving your life remember, are you just going to forget that and cast us aside?"

He calms down some and lowers his voice back down to normal and says, "Don't worry, I always keep my word. I will help you get rid of the cold weather for you ponies, but only after I get my sword repaired. If I ran into some creature that wants to kill me, I am defenseless right now."

Still wary about King Arthas, Clover takes a timid step before him and asks, "I understand that, may I ask one more thing before we leave Your Highness?"

Arthas crosses his arms and cocks an eyebrow in curiosity and answers her, "Go ahead, ask away. You have my full attention."

Clover swallows some saliva that has accumulated in her mouth and asks, "W-What are you?"

He chuckles and uncrosses his arms as he kneels down to her level, placing his arm sideways on top of his knee and says, "Well I am a human, what and who are you all?"

The group sighs in relief at him calming down as Commander Hurricane stands up straighter and says, "My name is Commander Hurricane, and the one right beside me is my subordinate Private Pansy. Private Pansy and I are Pegasi Ponies, we can fly and control the weather."

Chancellor Puddinghead puffs up his chest and steps forward beside Commander Hurricane and introduces himself saying, "I am Chancellor Puddinghead, and the one next to me is my advisor Smart Cookie. We are Earth Ponies and we handle the growing of food as well as having above average physical strength among the other races of ponies."

Princess Platinum stands up regally and introduces herself saying, "I am Princess Platinum, and my advisor and student before you is Clover the Clever. We have magic and our above average intelligence among the other ponies."

Clover the Clever notices that neither of them has told Arthas where he is and says, "You are on a world we call Equus, Your Highness."

Arthas fights the urge to burst out laughing at the names, but keeps a straight face as he responds back to them, "How interesting, if that is all the questions you have for me at this moment, I have a sword to get repaired. It has been a pleasure meeting you all, you do know how to get back down to the ground right?"

She looks at the group and sees that they look sheepishly around the area as they leave the talking up to her again and sighs saying, "We came up here by walking, so we will get back by using our hooves."

He looks at her and chuckles saying, "There are teleporters on every floor, I will show you what they look like so you can leave faster." He then walks over and picks up his helm and turns it over and walks over to the shattered Frostmourne and picks up the small fragments and sets them inside of the helm, then he picks up the hilt and places it in its sheathe. He then leads the way to the rune teleporter and says to them, "The teleporters are weight activated, so you have to step off of them in order for it to work again." He shows them by walking onto it and vanishes to the floor below.

The group follows Clover as she follows after him and disappears just like he did. Hesitantly, they follow her through it to the next floor. When they arrive there, they hear Clover ask him how these teleporters work.

Arthas looks at her and says, "It is rather unfortunate to say, but I am unable to explain how they work. I did not create the devices that are in this place."

Clover sighs in disappointment and says, "Well that is too bad, It would have been real helpful to us ponies to know how they were made and how they function. Oh well, it doesn't matter really. Thank you Your Highness, for taking the time to tell me where the teleporters are. Have a nice day!" With that said, she continues to follow after Arthas, and leading the others towards the exit.

He turns around and heads down one of the paths to the side leading to Sindragosa's perch, disabling the frost traps with a wave of his hand. He reaches the end of the corridor, looking at the massive skeletal form of his strongest undead companion and sighs saying, "Do not worry Sindragosa, I will return once my current mission is finished." Turning and walking up the ramp to the left, he stops by the rune teleporter on the floor and says to the others, "These teleporters require you to know the section you wish to teleport to, the one that we used back there only takes you to the throne and back. The section we need to go to is called Main Gate. When you stand on the plate, you need to say the name of the section you wish to go to. Understand what I am saying, because I will not explain it again." With his instructions delivered to them, he steps onto the plate and says, "Main Gate" and then vanishes. Appearing in front of the citadel he calls home, he walks a short distance away and waits for the others to appear.

The group trembles at how he knew that massive skeletal dragon's name and are eager to leave this castle of death behind them and use the teleporter one by one. Finally appearing outside the castle again, Clover looks behind her as the group travels on towards their carriage to return them to where they were and says, "How long will it take you to return to your citadel, do you need one of us to send a messenger back here to wait for your return?"

Arthas looks to her and says, "That is not necessary, I will find a way to locate your village and get rid of the cold for you all. The only thing left for me to know is where is this Crystal Empire located?"

Clover thinks for a moment and says, "It is south and East of where we are now, I think. There is a string of impassable mountains blocking a path straight there by land, but straight south of us there is a valley that almost goes all the way to the bay that is just south of there. The Yaks of Yakyakistan aren't very friendly to outsiders, so I recommend avoiding their settlement to the east of the valley. When you reach the bay, turn and go straight east. You will easily know you have reached the Crystal Empire, because I hear that there is a massive crystal there with a strange power to steal souls or something like that. Oh I wish I could go with you to see it for myself, but I have to help deal with the cold weather crisis. Have a safe trip!"

He smiles and mumbles, "Oh no you don't..." then turns around and begins walking further away, trying to keep his dark powers under wraps from any that wish to harm him or try to claim him or some damn thing.

Princess Platinum's body shudders as she asks, "Why do I get the feeling that we just made a deal with the devil?"

Commander Hurricane hurries to the carriage and hooks onto it saying, "Whopony cares! He said that he was going to do something about the temperature alright, what more do you want from him! Let's just forget about it and let him deal with it and get back to our normal lives!"

Sighing, the group returns to the carriage and steps inside with the unicorns keeping the carriage suspended in the air and the pegasi pulling it. Clover looks out the window and keeps her magic going and thinks, 'What is going to happen to us all now?'

Arthas watches as the carriage vanishes from sight and then sighs in relief and uses an unholy summoning spell and says, "Let's go for a ride my always faithful steed, come forth and serve me once more Invincible."

He watches as his steed bursts from the ground in a stream of green flames, then materializes on top of the ground and he then hesitantly trots towards him saying, "I await your command, Master." he then waits for Arthas to get onto his back.

Invincible then pauses a moment as each Arthas also realizes that he just spoke actual words and both of them say at the same time, "I/You just talked!" He then watches Arthas and says, "How is this possible, has the whole of Azeroth gone mad? The only other explanation might be that we are both dead, but I doubt that because you obviously have summoned me. The only one that knows how to call me to serve is you, I answer to no one else."

Arthas rubs his weary head, not really wanting to deal with another annoying headache and says, "Here is the situation so far, a group of mages found a banishing spell and Tirion managed to convince them to use it to exact justice for my crimes. After they successfully attacked Icecrown, Tirion didn't kill me right away. Bright glowing multicolored ribbons of light appeared above the peak of the citadel, then some other strange creatures showed up called ponies and saved my life. Then they asked me questions about what this place is and who I am, I didn't tell them anything they didn't need to know at the time. They also requested me to repay the favor by helping them get rid of the cold temperature that is making their lives tough, which I intend to do...In my own unique way. Now I am on my way towards a place called The Crystal Empire to see if they have somebody that is able to repair Frostmourne, as it was shattered in the fight against Tirion by his sword Ashbringer."

He looks at Arthas shocked and says, "Another sword was able to shatter Frostmourne, that must have been one special sword! No sword forged by mortal hands can even come close to having a chance to shatter it."

Arthas looks back and says, "Are you looking forward to getting to stretch your legs after not being summoned for awhile?"

Invincible rears up and says, "Yes, let's explore and put fear of the scourge into the hearts of the mortal races of the ponies!" He then comes back down to the ground and paws at it with a hoof, impatiently waiting for him to get into the saddle.

He opens up a saddle bag and dumps the shards of Frostmourne into it, then carefully sets his helm into the other side and closes them both and says, "One thing at a time, old friend. After Frostmourne is repaired, I will need to replenish the forces of Icecrown. Mostly I need to feed Frostmourne, I am sure it is starving after losing so many souls. Luckily the more important souls are still in there, I would have known if they were released."

The faithful steed then takes off, letting Arthas show him the way to go. As they get further and further from Icecrown, he asks, "Did they tell you what this world is called? What do the horses of this world look like? Why aren't you wearing your helm master?"

Arthas looks around at the scenery and says, "This world is called Equus, and the horses of this world prefer to be called Ponies. They look strange because here, they walk on two legs, they have coats of various colors with strange images on their rears. Some have wings, some have horns on their foreheads, and a few even have none of those. Their faces are the strangest though, because their nose and mouth are elongated like that of a horse. I am not wearing my helm because I want to feel the wind against my face for awhile, and I don't think that they will be to friendly to someone that has glowing blue eyes that emit frosty mist. I would like to keep my powers secret for a while longer until I am able to defend myself properly."

Invincible gallops on and says to him, "That is very curious. If someone tries to talk to me, I will just tell them that I am from a far away place where we all look like this."

He heads straight south to follow along the base of the mountains and says, "We are heading for a valley in between these mountains, I will keep an eye out for any enemies looking to attack us."

As they reach the valley three hours later, they turn into it and follow it south towards the bay that is supposed to be at the end of it as Arthas says to his steed, "It is enjoyable to feel the wind in your hair once in awhile, I will have to summon you more often so we both can enjoy ourselves."

His steed looks ahead and says, "It has felt like an eternity since I last stretched my legs, it feels so good to go this fast again!"

One hour later they reach the end of the valley as the sun begins to set and Arthas says, "I think we should make camp for the night, what do you think my friend?"

Invincible breathes hard for a moment and slows down to a walk and says, "Wherever you decide to make camp is good with me, I could use a break after a long run like that."

As Arthas gets off and makes camp for the night, he sits on a log and prepares to light the pile of wood that he gathered for a fire. He thinks back on his long day and what his father said to him, 'I'm disappointed in you son, I can never truly hate you. I do not know if you will die soon after arriving, but I do hope that you find love one day and are able to allow others into your heart.' Finishing his reminiscing, he then softly says, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to at least try to let someone in, but I still won't tell them everything about me."

He looks sleepily to his friend and master and says, "I'm sorry I didn't hear, what did you say Master?"

He looks to his loyal steed and says, "Oh nothing, I was talking to myself. We should arrive a little after noon tomorrow, so rest up my friend. Don't worry though, we won't be galloping at all tomorrow. When we get within sight of this Crystal Empire, we will be parting ways with you returning to the shadows until I call you again. One more thing, please call me Arthas or Sir. Being called master all the time is starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth."

Invincible looks at him drowsily and blinks his heavy eyes and says, "Very well Master, oops, I mean Sir." He then drifts back to sleep and goes back to dreaming of days long past.

The next day, at the Crystal Empire...

Princess Amore sits down on her parent's balcony enjoying tea as they congratulate her on becoming the first ruler of the Crystal Empire and hears her mom ask, "So when are you going to find a very special somepony to spend your life with, hmmm?"

She sighs and says, "Mother, I am too busy running a kingdom to even bother looking for somepony I know that doesn't exist. You know I am picky about things, the pony I wish to be with has to be cunning, fearless, handsome, different, it wouldn't hurt if he was strong as well. Is that too much to ask for a very special somepony?" She looks at her mother with sadness in her eyes when an ice cold wind starts to blow harder than before, sending a shiver down her spine.

Her father looks to her with sympathy in his eyes and says, "The wind seems to be blowing even colder and harder than usual, something feels off to me north of here. Do you sense it as well dear wife?"

Her mother chuckles and says, "Oh honey don't be silly, there is nothing wrong in the north. If anything, I bet it is those ponies aren't getting along with each other right now. Shall we continue this talk indoors? It is getting rather chilly out here. The only strange thing is the wind, it has never been this cold before. Usually it is only cold when winter arrives, and it is only summer."

Princess Amore is enjoying her peppermint tea when a crystal guardspony runs into the house and stops before her breathing hard. Annoyed, she says to him, "You better have a good reason for interrupting me at my parent's home, I demanded to be left alone when I am here, now SPEAK!"

The Crystal guardspony stands up straight and says, "M-My apologies Your Highness, but there is some creature at the outskirts of the city walking towards the city."

She raises her voice and shouts at the guard, "You came here and interrupted my tea time with my mother for THAT! Ponies are always coming and going from this city, why do you bother me if it is just another common visitor!?"

He stammers and says again, "A thousand apologies Your Highness, but from what I saw, this creature was not a pony at all. It doesn't have the typical face, wings, or a horn. It doesn't even have hooves, I came running here as soon as I saw it making its way closer to the city."

Princess Amore's interest is piqued at the strangeness of this creature and sighs saying, "I am sorry mother, father, for I must regrettably cut our time short. I must see this strange creature for myself that has one of my guardsponies in a panic like this."

Her parents seem interested to see this creature too as they both say, "We shall tag along with you dear, this has our curiosity as well."

She leads the way to where the Crystal Guardspony is taking her, continuing to make small talk with her parents until they arrive there.

On the edge of the Crystal Empire

Arthas makes his way to the edge of the city as ponies with crystal bodies and images on their rears gawk and stare at him in curiosity, feeling glad that he took the saddlebag off of Invincible when he dismissed him. The last thing he needs is them screaming bloody murder at the sight of him riding a strange beast, summoning the guards when he doesn't have any way to defend himself from physical attacks aside from the few spells he knows that don't require a weapon to be cast. He looks at the ponies gathering around him parting and making a path for him to follow somewhere when he sees three ponies and one guard coming his way, also listening to the whispers that are coming from the curious ponies saying things like, "What is he? Who is he? What is that armor, it's creepy. Look at that sword, is he a warrior of some kind? Where did he come from?" He continues to walk down the path when he sees the group of ponies stop a ways away, seeming to be content with waiting for him there.

Princess Amore's eyes widen at the appearance of the tall creature, standing just a little taller than her. Having long blonde hair and emerald green eyes, causing her heart to throb at first glance. The throb catches her by surprise and she blushes, hoping that nopony heard that and watches as the creature in creepy, heavy armor comes towards them.

He stops ten feet away from the group and says, "Greetings, my name is Arthas Menethil, I am the Crown Prince of Lordaeron. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with right now?"

She watches as her subjects gasp at her arrival and kneel down in reverence as she addresses them, "Rise my subjects, I wish not for you to kneel every time I am outside. The only time you all should bow is if it is a official event happening, but there will be notices sent out informing you if you need to bow or not." She then looks to Arthas and senses a little guilt within him for some reason and then addresses them saying, "I apologize for keeping you waiting, Crown Prince Arthas Menethil. I apologize but I do not recognize the name of this empire called 'Lordaeron.' For what reason do you come to the Crystal Empire unannounced and without advance notice, have you come seeking aid?"

Arthas grunts mentally at having to go through this royal pleasantry garbage and says, "I do apologize for this unexpected arrival of mine, for I was in a battle and an enemy mage cast a spell that went awry and I found myself seriously wounded and all alone in the far north. I was stranded there for several hours until some friendly ponies came along and healed my wounds for me, now I owe them a favor. After those kind ponies healed my wounds and parted ways with me, the enemy I was fighting showed up again. During the last battle, my sword was shattered. I collected the pieces of my sword and tracked down those ponies that healed me, and asked them if they knew of any place that might be able to fix my sword. They told me that the only ones that might be able to repair my sword is the Crystal Empire, they then told me how I might get here and my journey began. Unfortunately, my father and his kingdom fell to a cruel foe. I watched as it was completely destroyed, I returned when they left to see if it could be restored. Unfortunately, all was lost because the land had been salted and the wells poisoned. Now I am but exiled royalty without a kingdom to rule, but I at least did manage to build a home in which to live in."

Princess Amore tries to control the urge to rush forth and hug him and her warring emotions. She is too busy fighting her body's reaction to think that Arthas told a lie somewhere in there, she mentally shrugs it off and then says, "Welcome to the Crystal Empire, Crown Prince Arthas Menethil of Lordaeron. The royal guest suite shall be prepared for you during your stay here. Please walk with me, I wish to talk with you awhile. Forgive my rudeness, but what exactly are you? For what I notice, you are clearly not a pony."

He smiles and looks into her amber eyes and says, "I am what is called a human, we are not native to this land. We crossed the sea to find a new home, but after that last battle, it is just me that is left. Curse those bandits of the sea, may they burn in hell. It is a pleasure to meet you...I apologize, I do not know your name."

She is shocked by his hatred towards those that took so much from him and blushes, realizing that she didn't introduce herself and answers him, "Many apologies for my rude behavior Crown Prince Arthas Menethil. My name is Princess Amore, I rule the Crystal Empire. Come with me and we shall talk, while we head to the most skilled blacksmith in the empire to see if he will be able to repair it." She then turns and heads towards the royal blacksmith inside the crystal castle.

Arthas looks at her thinking that she is kind of cute and says, "Please call me Arthas whenever you see me around, or Prince Arthas in official events."

Princess Amore smiles at him and says, "Guardspony you are dismissed, you may return to your post."

The guardspony bows to her and says, "Yes Your Highness, I shall return to my duties." He then turns and heads back to his post.

After the guard is out of range she says, "Then please call me Amore or Princess Amore if it is for official business, allow me to introduce you to my parents, my father Amethyst Heart and my mother, Crystal Quartz. Would you like to see the grand crystal city Arthas?"

He smiles at her once more and says to her, "I would like that very much, thank you for such a wonderful opportunity. Perhaps we can do that after we speak to this blacksmith, as this sword is my only means of defense."

Amore smirks and then leads the way as her parents begin to ask him questions about his land before it was lost, she turns an ear to listen to his answers to each question. Not sure why she is beginning to grow fond of him she thinks, 'There is something about him that catches my eye, but I cannot tell what it is just yet. He is clearly not evil at all, I would have been able to detect the malice coming from him when he entered the city.'

After ten minutes of following Amore to the blacksmith's location and answering her parent's nearly ceaseless questions, Arthas speaks up and politely says, "I apologize to the both of you, but talking about my homeland so much has upset my mood. Could you allow me a little time to deal with this past months troubles?"

Amethyst and Crystal both frown and lower their heads a little bit out of shame and Crystal says, "We are sorry to have upset you, our curiosity had gotten the better of us. You are a being we have not seen before, and just wanted to know everything there was about you and the place you are from."

She looks to her parents with a soft scowl on her face and says to them, "Thank you for accompanying me to meet the new stranger in town, but we have to go speak to the royal blacksmith now. So I shall have to make a date to continue our tea time another day, good day mother and father."

Her parents look to her with a sheepish smile and bow and then say, "We look forward to our next visit from you dear daughter. We hope you get your sword fixed Prince Arthas, take care of yourself." they then turn and walk away towards their home.

Arthas watches them leave and takes a sigh of relief and puts on his charm to see where it will get him and says, "Thank you for that Princess Amore, their questions about my homeland were starting to get to me. Perhaps after we speak to the royal blacksmith, we might share a dinner this evening?"

Amore feels giddy like a young filly at hearing him say that and a large smile crosses her face and eagerly says, "Yes! I mean I look forward to this dinner, what do humans eat?"

He continues following her towards the royal blacksmith and sees that the castle is getting closer and then answers her, "We can't eat grasses or plants, but we can eat vegetables, fruit, nuts, berries, fish, and lastly, meat."

She listens intently and looks to him and says, "I don't think we have any meat right now, but we might have some fish if that will suffice for a meal?"

Arthas chuckles and says, "Fish and vegetables will be perfect, I find cow a bit tough to chew."

Amore turns her head back around to watch where she is leading him and chuckles at his attempt to make a joke to comfort her and says, "The blacksmith's shop is around the back side of the castle, we will be there within a couple minutes."

He takes a moment to check her out while she isn't looking at him and sees that she is wearing practically nothing except for a thin blue ribbon with small sapphires dangling from small silver circlets with the ends of the ribbon tied to a medium sized Sphene cut into a heart shape, with some decorative blue ribbon bracelets around the bottom of her legs and a decorative chest piece with white silk and a golden heart shape sewn into the center of it and the same blue ribbon with small dangling sapphires covering her chest. She has a very pale pink coat with a raspberry mane and tail, and a horn in the middle of her forehead. He looks at her rear and notices that she too has some kind of image on her rear, with hers looking like a snowflake shaped crystal held at the end of a staff and asks, "I don't mean to be rude, but what are those images on your backsides?"

She chuckles and blushes about him checking her out and tells him, "That would be called a cutie mark, and all ponies have them. I mean we get them when we discover our own unique talent, no two are alike."

The rest of the short trip to the royal blacksmith goes by uneventfully as they continue to talk and get to know each other as they finally reach their destination a minute later.

Princess Amore knocks on the door to the royal blacksmith's shop and waits for him to open the door and says, "Sorry to bother you Strong Hammer, but I have a guest here that needs a sword repaired."

Strong Hammer puts down the hammer and puts the glowing chunk of metal back into the furnace to keep it hot and goes to the door saying gruffly, "Yes yes, I'm coming I'm coming." He reaches for the door and pulls it open and gasps at seeing that it is Princess Amore, then kneels down immediately and says, "What can I do for you, Your Highness?"

She smiles and says to him, "Please stand Strong Hammer, I'm not here on official business. There is no need for formality right now, my new friend Prince Arthas has a sword that was shattered in battle and I wanted to know if you had the skill to repair it?"

The blacksmith puts a hand to his chin and says, "I will have to see the blade and the pieces to be able to tell you if it can be done, it all depends on how complex the sword is. Is this sword enchanted at all? Come inside please and lay it out on top of the table so I can examine it."

Arthas follows Amore and Strong Hammer into the shop, having to duck under the low entrance and then approaches the table. He then proceeds to take the saddlebag off his shoulder and says, "I am not sure if it is enchanted or not but I do know that it is ancient and has been handed down from father to son for several generations." He then pulls the hilt of Frostmourne from its sheathe and sets it on one end of the table, he then begins to set the pieces out on the table. It takes him a couple minutes to set them in the right order and then waits for the smith to examine it.

Strong Hammer gasps in amazement at seeing such a marvelous sword and says, "This is indeed an old blade, age takes its toll on any blade if it is not properly maintained. I can see that you have taken great care of this blade for it to survive so long. However, this is no ordinary metal. This is a unique metal that is only found on occasion from a fallen star, luckily for you I can fix this sword. It will take me some time though due to the enchantment that is on it and the runework, give me four weeks and I can have this sword back to protecting yourself and your men from enemies alright?"

Amore stares at the beautiful sword, wondering how it was made and says to him, "Since Prince Arthas is new to the Crystal Empire, you can send the bill to the crown to be paid Strong Hammer."

The blacksmith looks at the princess in astonishment at her generosity and says, "What bill Your Highness, I shall repair this sword for no charge because this is an absolute work of art! Whoever made this sword clearly wanted it to last through the ages and be unbeatable."

Arthas smiles kindly at the blacksmith and says, "Thank you very much for repairing this old sword, Strong Hammer. I shall strive to pay you back one day for your kindness." With his sword being repaired, he turns to Princess Amore and says, "Now that has been taken care of, what shall we do now Princess Amore?"

She smiles and says to him, "Do you intend to eat dinner in that armor?"

He looks at her and shrugs his shoulders, with a chuckle he says, "I would normally wear something nice to dinner but unfortunately, this is all I had that wasn't left behind when we fled the castle."

Princess Amore smiles softly and says, "Lets go get you some proper clothing shall we?"

They then leave the blacksmith's shop and make their way towards a designer that she uses frequently, getting him the clothing he would need to be proper at the table for their dinner date tonight.

Arthas walks out of the seamstress's shop with a one of a kind formal dress set, an ice blue silk button up shirt with small emeralds for buttons and citrine gems sewn into a v shape on his front with the top of the v connecting to the other v going down his back with a pair of black silk trousers and a pair of faux leather shoes. He sighs and holds the bag and says to her, "Why are you being so generous towards me Amore?"

She smiles and answers him, "I am being generous towards you because I like you, and I would like you to look presentable during your stay here. This way, you won't look like some war hungry barbarian itching for his next fight."

Six weeks later in the Crystal Empire...

Arthas playfully tickles the hair on the inside of Amore's ear, chuckling softly as she twitches her ear thinking it is a fly. He does it once more and gets lightly slapped across the face with her tail as she starts to stir awake.

She grumbles at being woken so rudely and rolls over to look him in the eyes and says, "You are so mean in the morning, how are you up this early after last night?"

He looks into her amber eyes and says, "You think it is morning, hah it is actually two in the evening! I have been torturing you to get you to wake up but you just kept swatting me and asking for five more minutes."

Amore scowls at him and says, "Well I'm sorry. With how late we were up, and with how loud you snore, I'm surprised if anyone in the castle got any sleep last night. You are loud enough to wake the dead."

Arthas brushes her cheek with a finger and says, "Oh you want to talk about being loud now do you? Well you could wake the entire Crystal Empire with your moans and screams last night." He weakly blocks himself as she bolts upright with a furious blush and starts hitting him in annoyance.

She blushes furiously at what he just said and starts lightly whacking him and punching him with her fists and says, "Ohhh...why you...brute! Why do you have to be so cruel in the mornings?" She then stops beating him and pouts, putting on a sad face at having to get up today to rule over the Crystal Empire. She then looks to him and says, "So what do you plan on doing today while I deal with the aches and pains of leadership?"

He smiles at her and then sits up and says, "Unfortunately I think its high time that I repaid my favor to Clover the Clever and the others who saved my life, so I shall be departing today for a few weeks to visit them. I shall return though, not to worry. I will fetch my sword from the blacksmith before I leave the city." To cheer her up a little bit, he takes his thumb and forefinger and takes one of her ears in between them and rubs it firmly and gently.

Princess Amore frowns and can't help but make a soft murr in pleasure at the affection he is showing her. Almost too distracted by the affection, she opens her eyes and looks into his emerald green eyes and asks, "I don't want you to go, but I know you have to. You will return to me when you are finished with your task my love?"

Arthas lets go of her ear and wraps her in a hug and says, "Of course I will return darling, I won't abandon you." As he holds her in his arms he grins evilly as she can't see his face and says, "I better get ready to go my darling, I shall return once my task is done." He pulls away and kisses her deeply one last time before scooting to the edge of the bed, showing the scar that runs down his back where he was stabbed by his foe. He then gets up and gets dressed, then he heads for his suite to fetch his armor to go out and get his sword before he leaves the Crystal Empire.

It was a uneventful walk towards the backside of the castle where Strong Hammer's shop is. He enters the shop and sees him about to strike a piece of metal he is working and waits for the right moment to startle him. As he watches him raise and start to swing his hammer again, he waits for the hammer to strike the anvil as he says, "Oww, my hand!"

Startled by the sudden exclamation, he nearly drops his hammer and says, "Whatever pony that just said that is gonna get a face full of my fist when I get a hold of 'em!" He then turns and glares at the one standing by the door, and discovers that it is just Prince Arthas that did it and says, "You bloody barbarian, how many times do I 'ave to tell you to stop pranking me! Have you finally come to collect the sword that has been finished for a week now?"

Arthas laughs and slaps his side and says, "If I stopped pranking you, you would find life so much more boring you old warhorse. The sword has been ready for a whole week? I thought you only needed four weeks to get it repaired, what happened to make it take a week longer?"

Strong Hammer grins and chuckles while walking to the weapon rack and picking up his sword saying, "Yeah life would be a bit more boring I guess. It took longer because I managed to improve it a bit and added a new enchantment to the old one that was already there. If you find yourself facing an opponent that keeps themselves a distance from you and you can't close the distance and don't have a bow, you can throw it at them like a spear. It will come back to you whether it hits something or not, that is pretty neat isn't it?" He then walks to the table and carefully lays it down on top of it and motions him to go ahead and take it.

He takes his sword into his hand and smiles as he feels whole once more and says, "We are reunited at last, old friend. I have felt naked without you by my side, I am sure you thirst after being shattered for so long. Don't you worry, for you shall feast soon."

The blacksmith cocks his head as he watches Arthas give his sword a couple test swings and says to him, "A-Are you talking to that old sword? I am sorry, but swords can't talk back."

Arthas smiles maliciously and holds Frostmourne into the air and then looks to the blacksmith with evil intent in his eyes and says, "Frostmourne hungers!" And then swings it in a wide arc, swiftly decapitating the one who repaired his sword for him out of kindness and curiosity. After watching the soul be absorbed into the sword, he wipes the blood off the blade using the blacksmiths fur coat as a rag and sheathes Frostmourne and exits the shop and closes the door behind him.

He makes his way towards the Crystal Empire's outskirts so he can summon Invincible once more when he hears two familiar voices stop in front of him and block his path and say, "Stop you monster! We watched you leave the blacksmith's shop and know what you did to him murderer, GUARDS!"

Amethyst and Crystal scream for the guards to arrest the murderer Prince Arthas, only to watch the guards face off against him and be decapitated in one strike from his sword. They watch in horror as the sword he wields absorbs their souls and begins to glow a little brighter with each one it slays. The guards finally stop trying to attack him with swords and try using magic instead with ten ponies surrounding him, pointing their horns at him.

Arthas chuckles as they attempt to surround him and try to use magic against him and says, "Your attempts to bring me down are all in vain! Now fall before the Lich King!" He then thrusts his sword into the air and uses his life stealing ability to absorb their life and soul. He watches as another rune lights up and summons Invincible, then fastens his saddlebags to the back of his steed and takes his helm out of the other pouch and puts it onto his head and turns to look at Amethyst and Crystal, who are petrified with fear and terror at the sight of him. He takes a couple steps towards the two of them just to torment them, bursting into laughter as they both faint from fear and sheathes his sword. He walks beside his loyal steed and gets up into the saddle and shouts, "To Icecrown Citadel, Invincible!"

Invincible rears up and whinnies excitedly and gallops off towards the valley that they came from. As they pass by buildings in the city, he says to his master, "Wasn't that a bit over the top there Sir?"

He chuckles and says to him, "Perhaps but the looks on their faces was absolutely priceless, they didn't know whether to be scared of me or admire my battle prowess!"

Princess Amore is in the throne room holding court when a guard comes running in with a terrified look on his face and stops before her, trying to catch his breath. She taps her hoof impatiently as this is beginning to become a habit for the guards to come in out of breath whenever there is some kind of emergency and frustratingly says, "I haven't got all day Guard, speak up or get out of here!"

The guard takes a deep breath and starts saying, "Prince Arthas, scary sword, many guards dead, your parents fainted from the sight."

She fights the shock and doesn't believe him and asks, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Say that again please, but more coherently."

The panicked guard calms down a little more and repeats himself, "We heard somepony scream for the guards to arrest Prince Arthas Menethil for murdering the royal blacksmith. A fight then began where he used a scary looking sword to cut down at least 15 guards with his sword alone. When we tried to use magic to subdue him, he thrust his sword in the air and cast some sort of spell with it. A strange black lighting was connected to all the unicorns and killed them after a few seconds. Each body that he killed released some sort of a small, glowing ball that flew towards the sword and was absorbed by it. Your parents watched the whole thing and fainted when he just took two steps towards them, but he didn't hurt them. He returned to a four legged horse that he summoned out of the ground and burst out laughing when he started to ride out of the city. What do we do Your Highness?"

Amore begins to feel angry at being lied to, used, and betrayed and says, "We do nothing but keep alert for his return, he said that he will come back here once he repays a favor to those ponies that saved his life. Do not engage him unless I can get that sword away from him, it is highly dangerous. Return to your duty guardspony, you are dismissed." She looks at the remaining petitioners in the room and says, "Next petitioner please step forward." She pushes through the sadness that hurts her deeply and focuses on her duty to her citizens.

Arthas stops at the same spot where he camped out a few weeks ago and says, "I wonder if those yak souls would be of any use to me. I hope that a scouting party will find me here so I can replenish the souls that were lost when Frostmourne was shattered." He then makes a campfire to rest a little bit before setting out to return to Icecrown tomorrow.

The night passes by uneventfully and turns into morning as Arthas wakes up to something poking him, he opens his eyes and grins wickedly at seeing a yak patrol wearing dumb looking helmets like those one people back on Azeroth and listens to them talk for a little bit to test their inteligence.

One of the yaks pokes him with a spear saying, "Creature wake, yak scout leader have questions. You provide answers! Question one: Why you on yak land? Question two: Who you? Question three: What be you?"

He sighs at the pitiful level of intelligence these creatures have, but decides to play along with their interrogation for now and says, "Answer one: I'm just passing through the valley to my home in the north. Answer two: Arthas Menethil, Lich King of the Scourge and King of the destroyed kingdom of Lordaeron. Answer three: Human male."

The yak pulls his spear back and bows his head and says, "Yak king want talk, you follow strange human King Arthas. Welcome to Yakyakistan, enjoy short stay." the other yaks follow his example and lower their weapons and follow the leader.

Arthas gets up and follows after them and calls to his steed, "Come here Invincible, we are going to visit a yak king!"

Invincible comes out of the trees and walks beside Arthas and says, "You are just making all kinds of new friends lately aren't you sir."

The yak leader looks back and asks, "Question four: Who strange creature?"

He shakes his head and says to him, "Answer four: This is my companion, my friend, and my mount. His name is Invincible, he is a horse, bigger than a pony."

The leader nods his head and looks forward once more as they head up the side of a hill towards a snow covered plateau that is hidden from view by the valley.

Arthas loses track of the time and notices that they are approaching their stronghold and appreciates what they managed to build. As they approach the gate, he thinks to himself, 'For being walking, talking rugs, they built an adequate defense wall. I wonder what else they managed to build.'

The leader looks up to the wall and shouts, "Yak party return, open gate! Found strange human on territory, bring in to talk with King Yakky III."

As the heavy gate opens with a creak, the party walks into the modest village. Being rather small compared to the Crystal Empire, the buildings are fairly sturdy. They pass by several buildings, heading to a large one in the center which is the king's lodge.

Arthas follows the group through the village, watching as children run around playing with swords or butting their heads together as their mothers keep a watchful eye on them. They all begin to stop what their doing and come stare at him walking down the street with the scout party.

The scout leader stops and bangs on the door and says, "Yak party return, bring strange being back. Found on Yak territory, thought you want talk." He then waits for an answer.

A couple minutes of waiting pass by when a loud voice comes from the other side of the door booming, "YAK MAY ENTER!"

Arthas says to his companion, "Invincible, please wait outside until I come fetch you to leave." He then follows the group into the lodge and looks around, seeing a few upturned yak horns mounted into a few metal chandeliers that hang from the ceiling and some that are mounted on the wall to provide light for the inhabitants. His eyes are drawn towards the larger yak sitting on the throne at the back of the room.

King Yakky III looks at the strange creature and waits for the group to stop before him and bow and explain why they are here with the creature.

The leader stops before the throne and bows to his king and says, "Yak party found creature king on territory, we brought here. Think you may want speak."

King Yakky III sighs and shakes his head and says, "I am King Yakky III, what brings you to my territory creature king?"

Arthas is shocked to think that this yak actually speaks clearly and responds saying, "I apologize for trespassing on your territory King Yakky III, I was on my way north through the valley and decided to make camp for the night before I continued my journey to my citadel in the far north of here in the morning. My name is King Arthas Menethil, it is a pleasure to meet an impressive looking yak as yourself."

He smiles and stands up from his throne and says, "If you are not too busy, do you think we might test our strength against each other? You look like a strong one, but I am strong too. Let's see who the stronger king is between us two as friends shall we?" he then holds his hand out in an offer of a friendly duel.

Arthas chuckles and accepts the friendly duel by taking his hand and says to King Yakky III, "I enjoy war as much as a good battle, but I love a good duel even more. I look forward to testing my strength against you, but I want to keep the fight fair. Therefore I will not use the sword I am carrying, I shall have to borrow a sword. This sword I have is enchanted and is meant for ending lives, not for dueling. Is that acceptable to you, Your Highness?"

King Yakky cocks his head to the side and thinks on it a little and says, "I understand your concern for my safety, I agree to your proposal, King Arthas. A duel is not supposed to result in the death of the other opponent, it just demonstrates which is more skilled as a fighter." He then looks to the other yaks, whose mouths are all agape at their king wanting to duel a strange being and addresses them saying, "We head for the courtyard for a friendly duel, inform the rest of the yaks not to interfere or else it is the hot box for two weeks as punishment!"

He follows the yak leader to the courtyard as a massive crowd has gathered in such a short time, just now hearing of their king requesting a duel with another being. He chuckles and says to King Yakky, "I guess that you requesting to duel is a rare occurrence, Your Highness?"

The king nods his head and says, "Indeed it is a rare occurrence. Whenever I request to duel, it means that I see potential in them. Even if they lose the duel, they still know that they have potential and must work harder to prove their strength."

Arthas smiles and says, "You remind me of my father in that way." He follows him into the courtyard and waits for him to prepare the group.

King Yakky III stops in the center of the courtyard and addresses those that have gathered to watch the duel saying, "All Yaks hear my words!" The crowd quiets down instantly and listens to him as he continues, "I requested a friendly duel with this foreign King that is just passing through our territory to return home, because I can sense a strength similar to my own inside of him. Do not interfere with this fight or you shall be punished for it! Someyak bring two swords, this shall be a fair fight between the two of us! You there, yes you. You shall tell us when to begin, the fight will be over when one of us says 'I yield'!"

He watches as a yak brings two swords to them, handing one to his king and the other to him and returns to the side of the courtyard to watch the fight. He then begins to listen for the yak to begin the fight and readies the borrowed sword, dropping down into a stance that he could easily alter to become offensive, defensive, or even evasive. Just then he hears the yak say, "Fight...." then lets out a loud animalistic bellow that acts as the signal to start the duel.

The Fight

Arthas waits for the King to make the first move and holds the sword firmly with both hands when he tries to bait them into making the first move by using his footwork to pull his upper body forward without actually intending to attack, or commonly known as bluffing.

The bluff works like a charm and the king lifts his arms over his head and swings his sword in a large downward power strike, leaving him able to dodge to the left with an opening for a strike. He lets go of his sword with his left hand and flips his sword upside down in his right hand and strikes him across the middle of his right side, cutting fur and drawing a little bit of blood.

The successful first strike by the creature earns a few gasps from the crowd at the skill it has. Arthas turns his sword around and holds it properly. The two return to circling each other clockwise, as the king fakes a charging stance in hopes of getting him to jump left or right to get a strike of his own against the creature.

Arthas jumps to the left and falls for the bluff as the yak runs forth and swings his sword sideways, aiming to strike his shoulder or is knock the wind from his lungs. He recovers swiftly and swings his sword upward to the right, knocking the king's sword upward and spins around and has his sword at the side of his neck, pushing the tip of the blade just hard enough against his neck so that he felt it back there.

The King grunts in annoyance at losing so swiftly but chuckles anyway at a well fought duel and says, "I yield. I had no idea that one could pull off such a move, you must have fought in several battles to be able to do that so effectively."

The yak that is judging the fight yells out, "Duel end, creature winner!" This brings a round of cheers and stomps at a good fight from the yaks watching them.

He chuckles and says to him, "I have fought many foes indeed, I am hated in the land that I came from. I have enjoyed our duel, in a few years you might become skilled enough to make me break a sweat." He then flips his sword and holds it upside down and yells out to the yak that brought the swords to them, "Hey you, the yak that brought the swords to us. Catch this sword." He then grabs hold of the blade just under the hilt and tosses it towards him hilt first, smirking as he catches the hilt and compliments him saying, "I could sense that you had talent due to the scars and cuts on your hands, good catch. Not many are able to catch a sword that is tossed at them."

Arthas spots an opportunity to be vicious and cruel and offers to pull him up to his hooves, and reaches out with his right hand as his left hand hangs at his side near the hilt of Frostmourne.

King Yakky III takes his offered hand and pulls himself up with it and says to him, "Thank you, I found that fight enjoyable. Though I lost the duel, I am not unhappy about it. You have proven your strength and skill, I recognize that and respect that."

He releases his hold on the king's hand and returns it to his side and then swiftly draws Frostmourne with his left hand and thrusts it through the chest of his opponent, ending his life.

The king drops the sword and grabs both of the creatures shoulders and says, "Why do you do this to me, I thought we would make friends and be allies!"

Arthas chuckles and says, "What, ME make friends with a walking talking rug?! The Lich King of the north will strike fear into the hearts and souls of the living!" He then lifts his leg and kicks the yak off of his sword and waits for the others to attack him.

Without fail, the slain kings son barges forward into the courtyard and bellows, "I PRINCE YAKYAK! YOU KILL FATHER! YOU NO HONOR! YOU ANGER YAK, YAK ATTACK KILLER!" With that said, he is the first to charge forth to get justice for his father's murder.

He shakes his head and says, "I'll take you all on, come on and try to bring me down!" He brings his sword back with one hand and cuts the prince in half across the middle, then flips it around and stabs the yak charging him through the heart. Turning the sword back around, he removes the heads of two yaks that have their swords raised above their heads as they charge him.

A half hour passes by with bodies lying on top of the ground in piles, he watches as the last four remaining male yaks drop their swords in terror and exclaim, "Yak afraid, yak afraid! No more fight, no more fight!" He watches as they huddle in front of four large groups full of women and children, trying to protect them from him. He then spots a white haired female yak with blue eyes glaring defiantly at him and then points Frostmourne in her direction and shouts, "You there! The yak with white fur and blue eyes, come to me now!"

She reluctantly makes her way over to him, not wanting to get any closer to him at all, she stops at the far end of the courtyard and shouts back, "What you want with me?" She then stomps a foot in frustration and defiance.

Arthas grins maliciously under his helm and strides towards her saying, "I need something from here as tribute or I am going to slaughter them all and burn the village down for the trouble it has caused me! Now come forth, or I swear I will return with soldiers to skin the hide from your bodies and use them to make rugs for my citadel!"

The female yak with long, wide horns sighs and hangs her head saying, "I am called Sapphy I am yours to take, leave the others alone! We go now."

He looks at Sapphy with pleasure in his eyes as he sees someone that needs to be trained and broken to serve him and says, "Follow me to your new home, Sapphy. I hope you enjoy the company of the cold, death, both dead and undead corpses. You are going to live there for the rest of your life, serving me." He then turns and whistles loudly in the air for Invincible to come to him.

Invincible sighs as he has to jump over a mound of bodies to get to Arthas and says, "You sure made lots of friends here sir." and stops in front of him, waiting for him to mount up and resume their journey home."

Arthas gets up into the saddle and calls out to the surviving yaks, "Remember this! If any yak rises up to fight me or bring this one back, I will butcher every single yak in this village. Man, woman, or even child, I will slaughter them all!" He then turns around and trots towards the gate, wanting out of this stinking village to return home.

Chapter 3: When Hope is Lost (Crucial part added with Queen)

Chapter 3: When Hope is Lost

After the day long journey, Sapphy's hooves are aching from the long walk as her eyes look up to see a new horror before her. Thousands of bodies lay on top of the ground, all of them not buried properly and asks, "Are you not going to bury these warriors?"

Arthas laughs and says, "That is what you are going to be doing Sapphy while I go take care of an errand, I shall have an Abomination keeping watch over you while I am away. If you try to run, I will have my dragon Sindragosa burn that entire Yak village to ash, along with every Yak in it so don't get any ideas." He then tells her how to separate the bodies into sides, with the Horde on one side of the road and the Alliance on the other side. He also informs her which creatures belong in which side with the Night Elves, Dwarves, Draenei, Gnomes and Humans being in the Alliance faction, with the Horde faction having the Trolls, Orcs, Tauren, Forsaken Undead, and Blood Elves. To finish his explanation, he shows her what each one looks like by pointing their bodies out.

Sapphy takes in everything he says and asks him, "Where can I find a shovel master? I'm sorry sir, who is Sindragosa?"

He smiles and turns his head to look at her and says, "I forgot that I haven't given you the grand tour of my citadel that you will call home, come with me and I will show you. Perhaps there may be a shovel or two around the Plagueworks somewhere."

She follows him around wringing her hands from nervousness as he shows her how to use the rune portal on each floor of the citadel, as well as telling her what is where on each floor. She stares in awe at the craftsmanship and scale of the citadel, wondering how he manages to keep this place clean and says, "This place is enormous, how do you keep it so clean?"

Arthas looks back and sees that she is nervous for some reason and says, "If you are worried if I am taking you to my private chambers to rape you, you do not need to worry. I have no desire to lay with a farm animal, and I do not have any private chambers at the moment. I am thinking of having some built though, I shall lead you to the Plagueworks now. I need to find an abomination to be your overseer, you can look around for a shovel while I am raising the abomination as well as Professor Putricide."

They arrive at the Plagueworks and an abomination lies dead on the floor beside a dwarf with a battleaxe, she watches him draw his sword and thinks 'How is he going to raise a corpse like that?' She is rendered speechless when he stretches out his hand and lays his palm facing upwards.

Arthas then lifts it higher as a blue glowing mist covers his hand and says, "Arise, my minion. I demand you to serve your king." He watches as the abomination's corpse stirs and rises to its feet and says, "At your service, master. What do you wish of me?"

Her brain struggles to function properly as she watched him literally raise a corpse from the dead, her mouth and eyes are wide open in utter horror as her brain decides whether she should flee in terror or not. As her brain thinks on that, she forces herself to think as she reminds herself of what he said he would do if she tried to run away and forces her body to keep calm.

He chuckles at seeing her reaction to him raising the dead and says, "You are to be her watcher, use your hook to bring her back if she tries to run away and inform me of the attempt. After I leave here, her job is to bury the bodies belonging to the Horde and Alliance outside of the citadel. If the body is too heavy for her to move herself, help her move it. When it becomes nightfall, she may sleep. When the sun is in the sky, she goes back to work and eats one meal at noon and evening. Now go wait for her outside of the citadel." He then turns to look at her and says, "As for you Sapphy, I shall have to gather food. It appears that when I arrived here, somehow I need to feed myself once more. A body that requires sustenance is such a bother, I preferred it when I didn't have to eat at all." He then leads her into the Plagueworks to go raise Professor Putricide.

Sapphy watches as the abomination lumbers it way out of the citadel to go wait for her outside the entrance. She then turns back around and catches back up to Arthas and says, "Yak it really smells bad in this citadel. Do all abominations stink that badly?"

Arthas laughs and says, "Indeed they do, as well as a few of my other minions. You will get used to the stench in time, oh I will also have to find you a decent place to sleep so you do not catch cold. You can't work if you are sick, therefore I cannot have a sick servant."

As they reach the Plagueworks, she listens to him tell her to search around for a shovel somewhere as he makes his way towards the room straight ahead to raise this 'Professor Putricide.' She the spots a small alcove off to the side that has a few assorted tools in it and goes to search through them for a shovel and a pickaxe to use if the ground is frozen.

He walks over to the corpse of Professor Putricide and calls him to service, then waits for him to regain his facilities and says, "Welcome back to the land of undead, Professor Putricide. We are no longer in Azeroth, and I need you to begin improving the plague so it doesn't create any more forsaken with wills of their own. That last batch was a huge failure! You may begin working on this in ten years, as I have caused a bit of a ruckus and about to cause a bit more. I am going to be driving the occupants out of this land because they think that they rule me."

Professor Putricide looks down at the ground ashamed at his failure and then back up at his king and says, "A thousand apologies Your Highness, I will begin to make preparations at once. Sorry to make a request sir, but can you gather a few banshees to spy and gather information for me? I will begin learning what I can about this new world at once."

Arthas watches as Sapphy digs through a small alcove for a shovel and sets aside a pickaxe for some reason. He considers the professor's request and turns back to him and says, "Well professor, I shall raise a few banshees so you begin studying this world for me."

Sapphy finds a shovel that is in decent shape and then grabs a pickaxe and then begins to head downstairs saying, "I am going to begin now Master."

He turns to look at Sapphy and says, "Why do you need a pickaxe to dig graves?"

She turns around and says, "It is difficult to dig through frozen dirt, isn't it Master?"

Arthas then sighs and says, "You are correct, make haste for there are a lot of graves to dig. You don't have to bury the undead corpses, I shall be bringing them back to life eventually. Don't you want to meet Sindragosa, Sapphy? She is really talkative usually unless she is in a foul mood."

Sapphy then continues heading for the door and stops at hearing that, setting the tools down where she can get them later. She heads back over to Arthas and asks, "Is she scary looking?"

He chuckles and says to her, "Not at all. In fact I think she is rather attractive for a dragon. Follow me, she is just down this way." He watches as she falls into step behind him and leads her to The Frost Queen's Lair.

They reach a long hallway that connects to a balcony outside as Arthas steps off to the side to let Sapphy see Sindragosa. Her eyes slowly travel up, examining the massive dragon skeleton and asks, "Is this her? I was expecting her to be more...living."

Arthas grins at hearing what she says and comments, "Oh don't worry, she will be shortly." With that, he raises his hands as blue flames engulf them and travel along her skeleton, connecting her joints together and creates a ball of blue fire in her eye sockets and in her rib cage.

Sindragosa slowly comes to and lifts her head and immediately says, "Milord, I apologize for being unable to repel the invaders. How did the battle end for us sire?"

Sapphy's eyes look in amazement, wonder and fear at the once again living dragon. Her brain tries to scramble to come up with an explanation of how she can be walking around as a skeleton, but ultimately fails and leaves her there to gaze at Sindragosa with wide eyes and a completely shocked look on her face and can only say, "What, how?"

He sighs and shakes his head, ignoring Sapphy's shocked state and what she just said and replies, "Unfortunately, our forces lost and I was badly wounded. Luckily, I was allowed to live because Tirion wanted to deliver justice rather than get revenge on me and kill me outright. Therefore, he spoke with a group of mages that studied a spellbook found by Brann Bronzebeard in Ulduuar, and they used the banishing spell in it to send me out of Azeroth. Now we are in an entirely different world, just full of fresh opportunities to dominate this world. Are you ready to introduce this new world to new horrors and show them what true fear is?"

She rises to her full height and then stretches her joints, audible pops and grinding coming from being dead for a long time. As she makes herself more comfortable on her balcony, she notices the strange Minotaur-like creature gawking at her in a stunned state and pities the poor dear and replies to Arthas's question and says, "You just can never let a queen get her rest, can't you? Ugh, you are such a slave driver Milord. One moment please, I must introduce myself to our guest who is at a complete loss for words." She then lowers her head down further and says sweetly to her, "Hello there young living one, my name is Sindragosa and I am the Queen of the frostbrood dragons. What is your name and what are you?"

Sapphy immediately kneels and bows before her and stares at the ground and answers her, "My name is Sapphy Your Highness, I am a Yak. I belong to your husband King Arthas Menethil, it is an honor to be in your presence."

Sindragosa chokes out a laugh along with Arthas Menethil, and they both fall over laughing as she exclaims, "Did you hear that my love? We really should consummate our long overdue marriage shouldn't we?"

Arthas slaps his thigh and says, "Oh yes my darling, which hole shall I use first?"

The poor girl is confused at what is so funny and cocks her head at an angle and says, "I'm sorry, what's so funny?"

The dragon queen smiles and gets back onto her feet and slowly stops her laughing, still letting out a snicker once in a while and says, "Sorry, but Arthas is my master too. We are not married, I follow his orders but I do give him advice when he needs to hear it."

He gets onto his feet still chuckling, and then looks to Sapphy with a grin and says, "You will make my troubles easier by being here with me in this citadel, Sapphy. Sindragosa and I have business to tend to, so get started on digging holes. I will search for food for us to eat, what do you yaks eat?"

Sapphy looks to him and says, "Yaks are herbivores, therefore we eat grass, herbs, wild flowers, and tubers mainly. I shall start burying the dead at once master." She then turns around and goes to fetch the pickaxe and shovel to begin working on her task.

Arthas watches as she is out of earshot and says to Sindragosa, "I shall raise your two children for you, so you can begin to drive those that live here...out. Start with the settlements in the far north of this land, drive them to the Crystal Empire. From there I shall use whatever soldiers I can bring back to drive them the rest of the way out with you harassing them from behind to keep them moving south. I have a errand I need to deal with, so please don't be in such a rush to push them south. I shall be at the settlement to appear to be helping them with their problem, when in reality...I AM the nightmare they will never forget. Fear not Sindragosa, I will not do any serious harm to you, just minor cuts here and there. I shall pretend to not be stronger than you and plunge my sword into the ground to signify the next stage of the plan." He then begins to detail the next part of the campaign to her so she knows what to expect and do.

Sindragosa grins at the well thought out plan and nods her head saying, "I shall follow every detail, milord." She then watches as he raises his arms up in preparation to bring her two personal guards back.

He closes his eyes for a moment in concentration and opens them with determination and commands the two smaller frost dragon skeletons, "Arise children of Sindragosa, your king commands you to return!" He watches as blue fire reanimates their bodies. He then looks to Sindragosa and says, "If anything happens that does not go to plan and we need to improvise, I shall shout, "Frostmourne hungers!" when we can return to the plan, I shall say, "Your blood is mine!" When we fight, I permit you to speak to me like you would a normal foe."

She smiles and says, "Very well My King, I shall remember that." With that said, she turns around toward the edge of the balcony and says, "Children, TO ME!" She jumps over the edge and dives towards the ground, letting out a loud roar, then opens her wings just above the ground and begins flying to the north to begin driving the inhabitants south.

Arthas walks throughout the halls, resurrecting whatever undead he can find, leaving the more important ones behind to resurrect later.

Sapphy nearly has a heart attack from the sudden roar from Sindragosa diving towards the ground and taking off towards the north with the two smaller dragon skeletons following after her and says out loud to nobody in particular, "You did that on purpose, didn't you..." She shakes her head and picks up the pickaxe and begins to drag bodies off of the central path and out in front of some terrain suitable to use to bury the dead in.

He reaches the entrance to his citadel and looks out in the land beyond and sees Sapphy dragging a body by hand out to the land beyond the gates to start burying them and summons his steed. He then rides out to her and says, "Save your energy, don't dig them too deep because I might need to call on them to defend the citadel! Search for a wagon or a cart to use, it will be faster for you that way."

She nods her head and says, "Yes master, I will begin searching now, thank you for your thoughtfulness." She then lets go of the arm that she is pulling on and goes to find a wagon or a cart to use to move the bodies. Just then she hears the doors to the citadel fully open, soon followed by numerous undead with blue flames somewhere on their bodies and watches them moving down the stairs before their king.

Arthas looks at them and says, "Some of you get a few large wagons and travel south through a valley until you reach a bay and wait for further orders! The rest of you make your way east, chasing the inhabitants of this land further south. Leave the village beside the valley alone. Regroup with me when I command it!"

Without saying a word, the army sets out to do as it was told to. Skeletons, Ghouls, Banshees, Abominations, Val'kyr and a few other types begin making their way east while Geists, Skeletal Horses, and Zombies go get the wagons to head south through the valley.

He turns and rides east without his army and says, "YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS! NOW FOLLOW THEM!" He rides hard towards the town to the east, trying to get there before Sindragosa does. "Come on my friend, we race to a village in the east!

A Full Day Later

The leaders gather in Unicolt, trying to figure out a way to deal with the looming crisis as they eagerly wait for the arrival of King Arthas to deal with the weather as snow starts falling around them. With the winds picking up and blowing snow against their homes, they pray that he arrives soon.

Clover the Clever looks to Commander Hurricane and says, "Food is beginning to run out, we need to do something or try to find new land in hopes that we can start over."

He glares at her and shouts, "We are not abandoning our homes just to find a new one and start over again!"

Arthas races into town, acting like a new crisis just came up and breathes hard and tries to locate the leaders. After getting some ponies to talk to him, he runs towards a dwelling and bursts through the door saying, "I have come to deal with your problem, but there is a bigger problem now." He points behind him as Sindragosa swoops down, chasing ponies around the town and destroys houses with her frost breath or frost bombs as ponies run around screaming in terror.

Clover's mind trips and fails to work after seeing a massive flying skeleton using frost and attacks the village and shouts, "What are we supposed to do about that, our magic isn't strong enough to beat that thing back!"

He hangs his head, playing like he doesn't know what is happening and says, "You flee south, I will find a way to keep her busy. Gather every pony you can find and leave this place, this town is lost! Now GO, or you will all die here!"

She gets the point and says to the others, "Go and gather your fellow ponies and meet us at the Crystal Empire please, Commander Hurricane. We will pack up what we can and meet up with you there."

Arthas moves out of the way as they rush past to gather what they need and flee south, he spots something in the skies above him and uses death grip and brings it to him. He notices that it is a kind of a malevolent spirit of a pony that couldn't find peace and draws out Frostmourne to absorb them, he thrusts his sword outward into the air and brings the spirit that he is holding by the neck closer to the sword. He watches with glee as the spirit fights to be free and get away from the sword with a scared look on it's face and begins to vanish into the sword and lets out an ear splitting shriek. He chuckles at the weak attempt to get free and sees that the spirit had called for help.

Clover the Clever is distracted by Arthas holding something in his grasp with a savage smile on his face as it fails to get free and is drawn into the sword. Others like it gather around him with anger on their faces as he applies magic to the sword, now looking to the others in hopes they attack him. She watches in horror as the creatures neigh in anger and charge him trying to avenge their taken friend, only to be sucked in by the sword. As the skies get darker, she begins to turn and runs back to the group right when the massive dragon lands in front of Arthas and stops to stare at the impending fight.

Acting her part, Sindragosa roars in agitation at the being who stands before her and yells, "Who dares interrupt the Frostbrood Queen's hunt to reclaim her stolen land!"

He plays along and says, "These lands belong to the ponies now, leave them be or you shall have to fight me!" He watches as the Frostbrood Queen breathes frost at him, trying to kill him. He jumps left and evades the frost, he then raises his sword into the air and charges her yelling, "Frostmourne hungers!"

Hearing the signal she says, "You shall be a pitiful meal, you wretched creature!" she twists her head and lunges out to bite him while extending one foreleg out to brace herself.

Commander Hurricane lands next to Clover the Clever, who stares at the two creatures fighting and grabs both of her shoulders forcefully and shakes her out of it, then says, "Snap out of it! We need to get out of here or that thing will eat us!"

Clover the Clever comes back and shakes her head and then nods, she turns around and heads back towards the group of terrified ponies that abandoned their homes as they were destroyed and says, "Alright everypony, we are leaving Unicolt behind. We need to search for a new place to live, so follow us south!"

Arthas watches as the ponies evacuate this town called 'Unicolt' and turns around, then runs up Sindragosa's turned head and softly says, "Apologies, proud queen of the frostbrood, that I must use your head as a step." He then seats himself at the base of her neck and says, "You shall fall to me, great dragon!" he holds on and raises his sword in the air.

Sindragosa grumbles and says, "Oh no I won't, you shall be my snack!" with a roar, she leaps up into the air and takes flight as the strange spirits give chase.

She looks back from the ground and says, "Oh Arthas, I hope you will be ok. Today is really turning out to be a nightmare, isn't it Princess Platinum?"

The leader is too shocked to answer, as she just continues to follow her robotically and stares at the ground in an unresponsive state. She finally sighs and says, "I failed them, my subjects...I have failed them all."

Clover tries to soothe her and bring her comfort, but nothing works as they make their way towards the Crystal Empire for temporary shelter while they search for a new home.

He commands Sindragosa to hover in the sky so he can absorb the few dozen spirits that are around here, seeming to be the cause of the unusual weather. He then watches as the sky turns really dark grey and a spirit the same size as Sindragosa strides forth from the clouds with anger on their face.

The spirit strides forth and bellows at him, "I AM QUEEN OF THE ELEMENTS, WHO DARES HARM MY CHILDREN!"

Arthas smiles cruelly and yells back, "It is I, Arthas Menethil. I am the Lich King, no one stands in the way of my conquest! Surrender to me and serve me or suffer the same fate your other children will!"

Queen of the Elements glares at him with hatred and says, "I serve no master! I will never become a slave, now you shall die for your insolence!" She then blasts him with freezing cold ice, trying to freeze him solid. She then notices that he is unfazed by her attack and stares at him wide-eyed and shocked then says, "How are you not affected by my power?!"

He smiles and looks directly into her eyes, letting her see what true evil is and says, "Look at me closely pathetic creature, I am the thing that goes bump in the night. I instill fear in every living creature, for I am the Lich King. If you don't know what Lich means, I will explain it to you. Lich King means that I am king of every living and dead creature that drags on their meaningless life on this earth. Serving only one, until the day you die and that is I. After you die, your soul shall be brought back and placed in a new body to continue serving me in death."

She stares in horror at the monstrosity before her, standing on top of a dragon that serves him. A new feeling makes its way up her spine, making her shiver and want to get away from him as soon as possible. She starts backing up and says, "Y-You do not belong here. Who, and what are you?"

Arthas continues to smile and laughs saying, "You are correct, I do not belong here. A spell was used that sent me here, and now... I shall be king over this whole world, I am the thing that nightmares are made of. I am Arthas, Lich King of the Scourge!" He then thrusts forth his blade and starts to enhance Frostmourne's power, beginning to draw her into it saying, "And now, I rule over you!"

Queen of the Elements turns and tries to flee but is to late, she is caught in the sword's iron grip. She screams out in terror as she is sucked into the sword, her screams echoing out over the snow covered land. Just before disappearing completely, she fires off a magical missile in hopes that somepony will find the gift one day and use it to save this world.

He grins as Frostmourne claimed a powerful soul that can greatly strengthen his rule. He then says to Sindragosa, "Continue driving the inhabitants south, I shall meet up with you outside of the Crystal Empire."

Sindragosa returns to the ground below with a crash and bellows, "YOU ARE STRONG INDEED, NOT MANY CAN TAKE ME ON IN SINGLE COMBAT! YOU HAVE CLAIMED A TEMPORARY VICTORY, SO ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS YOU PITIFUL CRETIN! WE WILL MEET AGAIN!"

Arthas wields his sword in the air triumphantly and says, "Remember these words strong foe, the next time we meet... YOUR BLOOD IS MINE!" He watches as she flies off to continue driving the inhabitants of the land south, then summons Invincible and says, "We are off to the next stage, my friend. Bear with me a little while longer, you can rest after I catch up with the group."

Invincible breathes hard a little bit as he trots to catch up to the group and says, "Forgive me sir, but I have to walk for a little while or I am going to disappear." He then slows down to a quick walk, allowing himself to catch his breath and take it easy for a little bit.

He pats his friends neck, understanding that he needs to take it easy for a little bit and says, "It's ok my friend, I understand. We aren't really too pressed for time as of yet, because actually we are a little ahead of schedule and Sindragosa needs a little more time to scour this land for its inhabitants and drive them all past us."

They spend a good deal of time talking about the past as Arthas spots the group within sight and says, "Well my friend, this is where we part ways for now. I shall call upon you in a bit after I speak with them briefly and inform them of the situation. Farewell for now, my friend." He then stops and gets off of him and starts jogging to the group, slowly catching up to them.

Commander Hurricane hears a crunching and a metallic noise and looks behind him to see Arthas catching up with them finally and says, "Welcome back Your Highness, how did you fare in your fight against that monstrous creature?"

The other leaders nearby turn their attention to Arthas and listen in for what happened as well, hoping to be able to go home.

Arthas looks to them with a grin and says, "I managed to wound her and drove her off, but she is none too pleased that I hurt her. It is best to keep moving south to greener fields, this place is lost for you all. I am going to wait here for any other ponies that are fleeing south and will direct them to the Crystal Empire. I will scavenge around for some food that might have been left behind as I will stay there to direct any stray survivors."

Commander puffs his chest and says, "That is a job for the Pegasi, you just leave that to us. You sure look like you have been through an ordeal with dealing with that creature, what was that horrifying shriek earlier? It caused us to freeze in place due to sheer terror at the sound."

He sighs and says, "I was hoping you all wouldn't hear that, there was another strange force that was causing your dilemma. It was a very powerful spirit of some deceased queen of the past that turned malevolent and wanted you all out. The shriek you heard was the sound of her being slain, I do not like to take life so needlessly."

The ponies buy the explanation and keep moving on towards the Crystal Empire as Clover asks him, "Did you manage to avoid the Yaks on your journey to the Crystal Empire, Your Highness?"

Arthas facepalms his helm and says, "Crap, I forgot that I need to check up on them again. I bumped into a patrol of theirs and after they took me to their village, I saw many bodies laying on the ground. As well as several destroyed huts and frozen bodies, I need to go see if they are doing ok. I hope that the dragon didn't return to finish them off, I need to get going. I shall meet you all again in two weeks at the Crystal Empire, farewell."

Chapter 4: Salvation burns and Anger reigns

Arthas and Invincible regroup with his army, killing whatever ponies that were left behind. He makes his way south, taking his army with him as Sindragosa and her two children arrive with her he says, "I need one of you two to carry me to the supply group south of the valley near Yakyakistan and back, I have to give them their next orders while this army keeps moving south towards the low mountains straight south of here."

Sindragosa nods to one of her children and says, "I will let you two choose who goes on this errand."

One of the dragons nods at the other one and flies down to the ground, landing near him and waits for him to get on to begin their journey,

He looks to Invincible and says, "Keep traveling with the army Invincible, I shall return shortly after I issue them their next orders." He then dismounts him and gets onto the dragons body and says, "I'm ready whenever you are."

The dragon takes off into the air, heading towards their destination. Arriving three hours later, the dragon lands at the group of undead near the bay awaiting further orders.

Arthas gets off the dragons back and approaches the group and says, "I have new orders for you. You are to head east towards the Crystal Empire until you get within sight of it. When you are close enough to see it, hide in the trees and wait until the army hits the city after I take its barrier down. After a minute of the attack, head into the city and raid shops and their food storage. Collect coin, gems and food for living servants that shall be with us at home. After the wagons are filled, return home at once and protect them from attackers. I shall assign four abominations to go along with you all for extra protection." He then turns around and heads back towards the dragon and returns to it's back and says, "I'm ready to go back now, my task here is done."

The dragon takes off into the sky as the supply group get moving again and returns to the army three hours later around sunset and lands near Invincible to let Arthas off.

He gets off the dragon's back and turns back to him before it can return to its mother and says, "Thank you for the ride there and back, you have been a great help to me." He then walks to his horse and gets onto its back and says, "At this pace, we should arrive there in a couple days. We will be plenty rested and will be ready to show this world what true fear is."

Two weeks later at the Crystal Empire.

Clover the Clever and the refugees from the north arrive outside the Crystal Empire and are happy to be able to rest their aching hooves and eat a decent meal and looks to Princess Platinum and says, "I wonder when Arthas will return from showing others the way south."

Just then a crystal guard approaches them and says, "Halt in the name of Princess Amore!"

They stop and look to the guard in confusion as Clover says, "Is there a problem sir?"

The crystal guard looks at them sternly and says, "Did you just say the name of Arthas Menethil?"

She smiles and says, "Why yes I did, did he already return here?"

He holds his stern gaze on her and says, "No he hasn't, when are you expecting to see him again? The Princess demands his presence."

Clover looks at him in confusion and asks, "We hope to see him again any day now, did he do something wrong, sir?"

The crystal guard twitches at her question and answers, "Yes, and the Princess has questions for him. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to discuss this matter further with you. I noticed there are many of you that are coming from the north, did something happen?"

She smiles sadly and says, "Yes, we lost our homes and were forced to flee the land and head south to find greener lands. Do you happen to know of anywhere that is habitable?"

He thinks on it a moment and says, "I apologize for your hardships, unfortunately I do not know of anyplace outside of here that might be suitable for you to live. You should seek an audience with Princess Amore, but do not upset her as she is with foals."

Clover the Clever beams a smile and says, "I will convey my congratulations to her majesty, I shall go request an audience with her right now." she then turns to look at Princess Platinum and asks, "Do you want to go with me to speak to the princess of the Crystal Empire?"

Princess Platinum sighs and continues to look down at the ground and says, "No I do not, I am depressed and out of sorts. I need time to recover from the shock of everything that has happened. You go wish her well for me will you, thanks." She then returns to following the group of ponies as they wander through the marvelous city and look at everything they have.

She sighs, but then nods in understanding of her decision. She then travels towards the large crystal castle to seek an audience with the ruler of the Crystal Empire.

One and a half days later, outside of the Crystal Empire.

Arthas gazes down at the crystal city and sneers evilly, then says to his army, "Hold here until I get that barrier down and I return." He then gets off of Invincible and says to him, "I will be back my friend, and we shall have another living guest at the citadel with us." He then heads towards the city with a nullification ring he took from one of the dead guards, remembering when he first learned what it actually was.

After walking for a couple hours, the sun is high in the sky as Arthas finally appears right outside the city and the guards start to sweat bullets as he stands before them and says, "I have returned and wish to see Princess Amore, let me pass!"

The two guards very nervously open a hole in the barrier and allow him to pass saying, "P-Please have a good day Your Highness."

He walks on by them with a chuckle and mentally says, "Oh I will, don't worry. It will be a very good day for me..." He then makes his way to the Crystal Castle where his love is and passes by ponies that bow to him in respect and nods or waves in return.

An hour later...

Princess Amore deals with the last petitioner of the day and prepares to head back to her chambers for the day, feeling another bout of morning sickness coming around. She heads down the halls and thinks, 'I can't believe that i am pregnant by him! When I see him again, I am so going to make him pay for running off like that to repay a favor!'

As she finally reaches her quarters, she turns the handle and pushes the door in to hear someone say, "Hey sexy flank, did you miss me?" Causing her to nearly scream in surprise, she turns beet red, slams the door shut and stomps over to her coltfriend and yells, "WHERE IN THE NAME OF TARTARUS HAVE YOU BEEN, I HAVE BEEN WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" She calms down after beating him with her fists and then sobs and asks, "W-Why did you kill those guards, did they do something wrong to upset you that much?"

Arthas lays there on the bed with only a pillow covering his privates and smirks at her saying, "I do apologize for that, they said that my father was a disgrace for a king and that his nickname should be 'The Fool of Lordaeron'. I do think I went a little overboard and killed them from my rage, but do you think that you can forgive me for my rash behavior this once?" To get his way, he puts on a cute pouty face and looks at her as if he were a child.

She tries to keep being mad at him for ditching her like that, but utterly fails to stay mad due to the insanely adorable face that he has right now and says, "Ohhh...I guess I can pardon you, just this once. Do not let it happen again mister or you are going to be punished!"

He laughs and says mockingly, "Oh you dare to threaten me with punishment, don't you know that I am the rightful king of Lordaeron? Now obey your king and come over here and give me some sugar, chunky butt."

Amore blushes fiercely and stammers saying, "H-HEY, I can't help it if I really like cakes. Though I do have a much bigger appetite now that I have to eat for three, you are going to be a father Arthas."

Arthas's jaw drops open as he hears her say that she is expecting, and says, "I..I don't know...what to say." He then slaps himself internally and forces himself to correct the error he just made and continues, "Y-You're serious aren't you? You are not messing with me?"

She beams a huge smile and nods repeatedly saying, "Of course I am serious, I wouldn't joke about something like this my king. We are going to be a big happy family from now on."

He smiles widely back and says, "That is wonderful to hear chunky butt, now come over here because I missed you." He then holds his arms out wide and hugs her tightly and takes her to the bed in a warm embrace. He grimaces internally as his heart gives him a painful throb, announcing its presence to him.

Amore is in bliss right now at being in the arms of the father of her two foals as she feels him hugging her gently and kissing her face and then trails a finger along her horn and says, "I love you my darling, I look forward to our lives spent together as a family." She then begins to drift off to sleep after her long day at court and begins to dream of the future.

Arthas smiles and waits for her to drift off to sleep before casting a spell to keep her asleep until they were safely back at his citadel. As he hears her begin to snore quietly, he casts the spell on her and slips the ring over her horn to nullify the magic she has. With her taken care of, he can begin the final stage to his plan and thinks to himself, 'Oh don't start with me heart, I may have been cursed with you along with a soul. Don't interfere with the way I do things, or you shall be cut out once more and cast away.' He opens the door and shuts it quietly as he spots a maid just outside walking by and quietly tells her, "The princess is not to be disturbed under any circumstance, understand? She had a long day and needs her rest due to being an expecting mother, be sure to inform the other maids and guards around the castle."

The maid nods quietly and says, "It shall be done Your Highness, I shall inform them at once." She then goes on her way to inform the other staff and guards.

He watches her as she walks swiftly down the hall and makes his way to where the crystal heart is kept and chuckles thinking, 'Everyone around here is just so helpful, that it is just too easy to lay waste to their city.'

Twenty minutes later, Clover the Clever is exploring the city and passes in front of the citadel and spots Arthas exiting the castle and walks over to him swiftly and says, "Arthas, it is so good you are finally back! The princess told me earlier that there might be some habitable land south of here, It would be nice if you could come with us when we leave here to search for it tonight. Did you happen to find any other survivors when you were up there?"

Arthas stays in character and answers her with a sigh and a shake of his head saying, "Unfortunately, I didn't. I would like to go along with you to the new land but I sense something foul in the air, so I suggest that you all gather what you need and head south." He hopes that she takes the bait and prepares to leave very shortly.

Something inside her tells her that something is amiss about what he says, but she ignores it and says, "Thank you for warning me, you haven't led us astray yet. I shall trust your feeling and advise the others about leaving in a few hours. I hope we meet again one day Arthas." She then turns and makes her way to find where the other leaders are at, waving goodbye to her friend Arthas.

He nods his head in goodbye and continues on his journey towards the crystal heart, waving or smiling at the passing pony that notices him. After walking for a couple more minutes, he spots the thing he is looking for. He examines it for a way to deactivate it but isn't able to and looks around to see if anyone is watching him when a crystal pony notices him looking at the heart and smiles and approaches him.

The crystal pony smiles at Arthas and says, "It is beautiful isn't it, that is what keeps this city safe from the dangers outside. We are not sure who made it, but we found it somewhere underneath the castle. It has kept us safe from harm ever since, would you like to know more about the Crystal Empire's mysteries?"

Arthas smiles and looks at the annoying pony with kindness and says, "Perhaps in a little bit, I am just going to admire the beautiful craftsmanship of this object a little longer out of curiosity."

The pony smiles and then turns and walks away, heading back towards his shop and says, "I will be around the shop if you do come by later, have a nice day!"

He watches as the pony leaves him near the crystal heart, then looks around discreetly to see if anybody will notice. When he notices that he has an opening to take the heart and tuck it into his armor, he seizes it and tears the crystal heart from the pedestal and swiftly tucks the heart into his armor and wonders where he might hide it and spots an outhouse not to far away and walks to it. Entering the rather small outhouse, Arthas takes the crystal out and lifts up the lid and drops it into the deep hole then puts the lid back down and exits it and makes his way out of the city back to his army to attack the city.

Three hours later, back at the army atop of a ridge overlooking the Crystal Empire

Sindragosa watches as Arthas stands atop the ridge with a sinister grin on his face and asks, "Is everything finally ready, sir?"

Arthas glances to her and nods his head and then draws Frostmourne and holds it in the air and waves it forward saying, "Onward to the far edge of the field soldiers, it is time to introduce ourselves to the living! Sindragosa you wait here until you hear me shout, FEAR ME or I shall kill you all, then return you to life as my slaves. Then you shall bow to YOUR NEW KING!." He then sits atop his companion Invincible and rides in front of them, leading them to stand outside the edge of the city.

A guard stands beside the north road, leading out of the city and watches numerous bodies make their way down from the ridge from the north. Not liking the size of the group, they speak to the other guard, "I am going to inform the captain about the large group coming from the north, keep watch until I return." He then turns and hightails it to the captain.

The other guard nods and says, "What else am I supposed to do, let them in without getting the higher-ups' judgement on this? I am not that big of an idiot." He then stares at the huge group with more still coming over the ridge with wide eyes, praying they are not going to attack the city.

Five minutes pass by as the captain and the other guard arrive at the north road, having to force their way through the massive crowd of curious and freaked out ponies that are staring at something. They get through the crowd and stare in horror at the sheer number of dead bodies that have gathered north of the city, struggling to believe what he is seeing before his eyes he says, "How can this be possible! The dead just cannot walk on their own, and who or what is that in front of the army." His wide eyes shift to a large banner that one of the corpses wields, seeing the emblem of a kingdom that is not known to him.

A weary Princess Amore wakes from a nice nap and hears a commotion comes from outside and rises from bed, curious as to what is going on and makes her way across the room to the balcony. As she reaches her balcony, she looks out to the north of the city and sees a massive group gathered just north of the city. She sees a banner waving among the group and focuses on it then says, "That crest looks familiar, but where have I seen it before..." She then recalls where she saw it before and thinks, 'Oh, that is just the crest that I saw on Arthas's armor. I wonder why he brought such a large group here?'

Arthas strides forth atop Invincible and enhances his voice with his magic and bellows, "My name is Arthas Menethil, I am the Lich King of the Scourge! You shall receive a new ruler this very day, and that is I! If you bow before me now, I shall be merciful! If you swear your allegiance to me, I shall leave this city unharmed."

Princess Amore scowls at the pitiful prank that Arthas must be trying to pull now and attempts to amplify her voice, but fails completely and looks up to see a null ring on her horn and grumbles angrily and takes to the air. She arrives at the north road beside the captain of the Crystal Guard within a minute and stomps forth and yells out to him, "How dare you attempt to pull such a pathetic prank, I am not very happy with you right now. Come with me right now, we need to talk!" She then taps her hoof and crosses her arms, feeling very angry at her lover for pulling something like this.

He strides forth a bit further on Invincible and bellows back, "I think NOT my love, for I meant every single thing I said. Bow down to me and acknowledge me as king and I shall not leave your city in ruins!"

For the first time in her life, Princess Amore finds herself backing up in fear of the one she loved. She finally shifts her eyes around to look at the creatures standing in formation behind him, realizing that he outclasses her in might and magic. Forcing herself to stop backing up, she stands firm and exclaims, "WE ARE PROUD CITIZENS OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE, WE SHALL NOT BOW TO A FOREIGN RULER! BEGONE FROM HERE AT ONCE OR FEEL OUR WRATH!"

Arthas smiles widely at hearing her response and bellows with all his might, "FEAR ME or I shall kill you all, then return you to life as my slaves. Then you shall bow to YOUR NEW KING! Come Sindragosa, and teach these fools what it means to refuse THE LICH KING!"

Clover the Clever gets an unexpected shiver down her spine, causing her to turn around right when a massive roar is heard in the distance and spots a strangely familiar shape of something she can't quite see yet and focuses harder on it. She then realizes that it is the dragon from before and yells to the group, "There is not enough time to go help the Crystal Empire! We have to hurry south and hope that they can fend it off by themselves."

Amore physically trembles as she watches the massive dead dragon flying through the air towards the Crystal Empire. Suddenly she hears ponies screaming in horror and start fleeing for their houses, she turns her gaze to her subjects and sees everypony panicking in fear and start running home in safety. She tries to calm them down but nothing she does works.

He smiles at the mayhem that is running amok right now and thrusts his sword high in the air and bellows, "All warriors, kill any pony that fights against you!" With his link to them through his helm, he adds to that and uses telepathy to send them the rest of the order and thinks, "Do not kill women or children unless they attack first, and leave Princess Amore to me."

She is forced to scream out an order above the cacophony of screams and yells, "Guards of the Crystal Empire, TO ARMS! Defend the empire from these invaders!" She looks around at the gathering guard with calm faces, prepared to fight these monsters. She then says, "Defenders of the Crystal Empire, go forth and drive the enemy back!"

The attack on the Crystal Empire

The army of undead rushes forth towards the defenders, eager to shed the blood of the living and crash against their shields. A few go over the shields trying to break through their shield wall, but are quickly dispatched.

Arthas watches as his forces slowly begin to overwhelm the defenders, smiling with glee as Sindragosa swoops overhead of the defenders. She breathes a stream of frost and strafes them as she passes over them, freezing them to the bone instantly and goes back to terrorizing the city with her frost breath and encasing ponies in ice, leaving their heads exposed so they can still breathe.

The screams of terror and battle fill the air, signalling the group with the wagons to begin their job and pull the wagons out of the trees. The trip to the city takes them a little time, but at least they are doing something now.

Princess Amore's eyes shrink to pinpricks as she watches these huge, hideous creatures lumber forth and use strange, curved blades on chains to tear her guards apart literally. She slowly begins to snicker as her mind slowly begins to go insane, then she bursts into hysterical laughter as she loses it completely and just watches her soldiers be cut down.

An hour later...

As he watches his army chase down the few remaining guards, he then approaches his love and ceases her laughter by putting her to sleep and then says, "Sindragosa, please come down here." He picks her body up and cradles her tenderly due to her newly discovered state.

Sindragosa hears Arthas call her and lands nearby in an open spot and waits for him to tell her what he needs and asks, "What do you wish of me my king?"

Arthas approaches her, setting the sleeping body of his lover on top of her back just in front of where he sits and says, "Your task is done, a third of the city lies in ruins. Their army is obliterated with no one left willing to fight us now, let us head back to Icecrown with our guest. I need to make sure that the other group gathered enough food to feed a few mouths for a few months while I figure something out in the meantime." He then makes his way towards where the wagons should be to check their haul and bellows out a new order for the fighting force saying, "Undead warriors, be sure to gather a couple dozen test subjects to bring back for our good doctor. One more thing, make sure they are alive and healthy. If they have horns, make sure to search for rings like the one I placed on their princess. You should be able to find a few on the guards that you fought earlier, and place one over top of each of their horns to be sure they can't use magic to escape. Also, if they have wings, make sure to bind them to their body so they don't fly away."

After walking for a few minutes, he listens to shrieks of terror as several ponies are taken captive. Finally arriving at the wagons, he looks inside of them and is very pleased with the haul, 4 of the ten wagons are filled with gold and gems and a few magic tomes, while the other six are loaded with fruit, vegetables, and grasses and other edibles that herbivores can eat. Pleased with what he sees, he says to the group, "You have done well to gather so much, we shall have to find a way to be able to catch fish, but that is a problem for a different day. Regroup with the rest outside the city, we are finished with this place." He reaches inside a wagon and fetches a bag filled with some food that his servant can eat, then turns and makes his way out to the city limits. He then leaves the caravan behind him to clear the bodies out of the way themselves.

An abomination named Glug smashes around through a home, searching for whoever threw a rock at him. After flipping over a bed and tearing a door off of its hinges, he finds what he has been searching for. His eyes stare at a light pink unicorn with light aquamarine hair with moderate purple streaks with moderate persian blue eyes standing protectively in front of her daughter. Obeying the command that his king has issued them all, he seizes the mature pony and places a ring onto her horn then starts to lumber out of the damaged house while ignoring the screams of the parent trying to return to her daughter.

Lighting Glimmer runs after her mother, trying to get her back and screaming, "MOMMA, MOMMA DON'T LEAVE ME!! MOMMA, MOMMA!!"

Annoyed with the attempts of the daughter, Glug stops and picks up the screaming young pony in his other hand and hurls her through a fence. He watches as she skids across the ground and crashes into an empty merchant stall, falling unconscious and chuckles then says, "Haha, stupid pony thing. Nothing stop us now, we shall rule world one day."

The nearly unconscious daughter tries to get back up but watches and listens to her mother's wailing sobs as she tries to reach out to her and whimpers in pain, "I sowwy momma...I...not save...you." Her head feels too heavy to hold up any more and as her vision darkens, she closes her eyes and falls unconscious.

Arthas stands outside the city and then issues one more command to his forces and bellows, "To me undead warriors, we are returning to Icecrown!" He then approaches his flying mount Sindragosa and sits atop her back and waits for them all to arrive before issuing final orders and leaving them to return on their own.

It takes ten minutes for Glug to return to the gathered undead force of around five thousand undead warriors, including the other group. He stands around and waits for the rest of the fighters to arrive and smiles, feeling happy to see his brother Chug survive through the battle and says, "I unhappy. You take two slaves to me one. Me beat you next time!"

Chug laughs and says, "Keep try, brother! If you beat me, you take best axe." He then looks down to one of the captives he holds and hits them over the head with the curved blade's back, knocking them unconscious again and says, "Screams annoying, me hit to keep quiet, noise of living hurt me head."

He watches the last of the group gather and issues his last orders and shouts, "I must return to Icecrown quickly, ALL of you travel with the wagons. Make sure no prisoners escape or I shall punish you severely! Make sure to keep the wagons safe, they shall guide your path back home where I shall await your return. Now move out!" He then holds the bag firmly by moving his lover closer to trap the bag between them and just before he takes flight, he looks back and bellows to all the surviving crystal ponies, "I hope you enjoy your freedom now, ponies! I have your princess and your city lies in ruins, you have been such gracious hosts! Pleasant nightmares to all of you!" He then nudges Sindragosa to begin their journey back to Icecrown.

Three hours later, back at Icecrown...

Sindragosa lands on top of her balcony and lies down to let Arthas get off her back and says, "Now what will our plan be my king?" She looks to him thoughtfully for an answer.

Arthas holds the bag of food in his hand and turns back to her and says, "Now we shall study this world and learn from it and improve our home. First we get this land around our castle cleaned up, then we get the walls repaired properly. Then we begin our search for saronite to use as weapons, though I doubt there is any on this world and build walls across the access points to this land and put gates at each one. After that, we shall see what progress the doctor has made with improving the plague."

She looks to him in curiosity and asks, "What about after all that is done, what shall we do then sir?"

With a malicious grin he says to her, "After that is finished, we shall teach the world to fear us and we will bring it under our rule. I must go feed the slave now, I shall return for my love shortly. Do keep her company until I return, I sure hope that she won't be too much trouble. I eagerly await the day my children are born, and I shall teach them what they need to know to be able to survive in life." He then walks away towards the hall, making his way to where the teleporter will send him to the ground floor to give his servant some food.

Sapphy is making good progress on burying the dead bodies, with three hundred of them sorted and buried already. She is extremely hungry and hopes that Arthas brought back food for her and says, "I'm so hungry that I could eat a pony!" She continues to dig as she waits for her master to bring her food, when she spots him making his way towards her with a bag of food in hand and sighs happily at being able to eat real food now.

Arthas stops on the road beside a grave she is currently digging and looks at how many bodies she has managed to bury so far and says, "You are progressing adequately, you have definitely earned this meal. Do try to make it last as long as possible without starving yourself, eat a decent meal then take a short break and keep working. You will need to make sure the road is cleared of bodies, the undead group will be returning in just over a couple weeks."

She looks to him gratefully and takes the bag of food and then says, "Thank you so much for this food master, I survived this long because I searched around for some grass to eat and a nearby stream for water."

He turns around and waves a hand in the air dismissively and says, "Uh huh, just keep working after your break is over and get those bodies into the ground. They are beginning to become an eyesore. We will be getting some temporary prisoners in a couple weeks to aid you in burying this many corpses quicker." He then turns and heads back towards where he left his love with Sindragosa.

Amore slowly stirs and comes to, feeling uncomfortable for some reason and her eyes slowly flutter open to reveal blurry images. They slowly come into focus as she blinks her eyes a few times and shakes her head once or twice, and notices that she is laying on top of the back of the dragon that caused so much damage to her city and chuckles saying, "I'm terribly sorry, but I seem to have found my way onto your back. Can you please tell me what happened?"

Sindragosa swivels her neck around and looks back at her and says, "Since you are awake now, do me a favor and get off my back would you? Do you want the long version or the short version?"

She chuckles and says, "I think I would like the long version please." She then gets off of her back and walks in front of her a little ways and makes herself comfortable as two smaller skeletal dragons take off into the sky, not really wanting to hear the story.

It takes Arthas fifteen minutes to return to the floor, informing Professor Putricide of the incoming subjects as well as raising a few banshees to serve as spies for him. He then turns down the hall where Sindragosa's balcony is located and hears his love laughing at something.

Amore smiles and slaps her side lightly and says, "Then what happened?"

Sindragosa chuckles and says, "Then when I sneezed, his head got stuck!"

They both erupt into laughter as Arthas walks down the hall to where the two girls are laughing about something and he announces his presence and says, "Welcome to Icecrown, did you miss me my love?"

The insane princess looks back to her love and runs towards her lover saying, "Of course I have missed you silly! What an amazing view you have here Sindy, I am rather jealous of you right now. This view is better than from my balcony in the Crystal Empire, it was so fun watching you wreak so much death and destruction upon innocent mortals. There is no way they will ever forget what you did to them, nothing can undo the scar you just created by announcing your existence to the world. After all, it was you who threw me over the edge into the abyss of insanity. Worry not, my love. I will never wish to bring you harm, I just want to be by your side forever."

Arthas looks back at Sindragosa for any advice on what is going on but sighs as she shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head not knowing. Unsure of how to react to this recent development, he continues his sweet lover act and says to her, "Do you want to see our new home and kingdom, my love?" He then offers her an arm to take to lead her around the citadel.

Amore takes his arm in glee and says, "Of course I do, I can't wait to see what your throne room looks like...and our chambers." she says the last part with a bit of lust and mischief in her voice, squinting her eyes in a way that would turn any pony into a stallion rearing to have their way with a mare.

He begins leading her down the hall towards the center platform to show her the throne room first and says, "Unfortunately, there is no private chambers as of yet. I have never had need of those since I became the king of the undead Scourge." He mentally berates himself for allowing that slip of the tongue and then continues telling her more about the citadel.

She listens intently to him telling her about this citadel that was built by the first scourge lords and interrupts him briefly and threatens him lightly, "You need to get those private chambers built within four months so I can begin nesting, but if you fail I assure you will have a very angry and violent lover to deal with every day until they are ready. Do you understand me?"

Arthas winces mentally at her words and answers her, "It shall be done within three months, my love. Follow me onto this plate up here my love, I think you will absolutely adore the view from there even more." He then backs up onto the plate and disappears, reappearing on top of the citadel. He then walks forward to the base of the stairs and sits in the Frozen Throne, waiting for his love to appear on the plate.

Amore steps into the light and feels a tingle as she is teleported somewhere and looks around to see something truly remarkable, she sees a mirrorlike mint green floor with the symbol of the Scourge engraved on it. She is in awe at what she sees before her, her lover sitting atop a throne appearing to be made of either ice or the same material as the floor and says, "Oh wow, the view is beautiful from up here my love. I guess this is the throne room then?"

He looks at her from under his helm and says, "Indeed it is my love, this is the Frozen Throne that sits atop this citadel. Please come sit upon my lap for awhile, we have plenty of time to allow you to rest up before we continue with your tour of the citadel."

She hastily makes her way up to the steps, but is careful with going up them as they are iced over. She reaches the top and sits down on top of Arthas's lap and gazes out at the lands surrounding the citadel and says, "Oh wow, you were right. I do like the view much better up here, it really makes you feel like a ruler. The Crystal Empire will have to take care of itself for awhile, because I like this place much better now. Please continue to show me around this massive citadel my love, I would like to begin to memorize where everything is."

Three Hours Later at the base of Icecrown Citadel...

Arthas finishes up his tour of the Citadel and the grounds around it and stands in front of his love and turns around and stretches his arms out to each side and says evilly, "Welcome to Icecrown Citadel Princess Amore, my love. One day, we might marry and you would be the very first queen the Citadel has ever had."

Amore beams a wide smile and rushes forth and hugs him and whispers to him, "I hope that day comes soon, for it is a bad omen to father children before marriage."

Time Skip

Three weeks passes by with the army returning to the castle with their prisoners and the wagons. Arthas assigns the prisoners to help Sapphy out with burying the bodies, following her orders as she works alongside them. In the meantime, he has them assist Professor Putricide with his research and studies. He assigns a few volunteers from the army to begin building him and his love a private chambers at the top of the citadel.

Three months passes by as the chambers are finally completed, with Amore taking over the interior decorating. She then uses most of her time shouting orders to a few female workers after the males screwed up, getting them to correct their mistake.

As the months start to fly by, Arthas begins to get complaints about the wild nature of his lover. Largely he ignores those complaints, as they bring him much amusement after a few problems spring up with the constructing of the walls around the kingdom.

Temporary end of time skip.

One day, Arthas holds court atop Icecrown while his consort rests with a larger belly than before. He looks at a female Frost vrykul approaches him and complains saying, "This is insufferable! She is an absolute nightmare to deal with, she demands that I bring her some pickled herring. When I bring it to her, she throws it back at me and accuses me of trying to kill her. Then she asks me politely to bring her some salad with calamari in it, when I bring it to her, she throws it across the room. She then screams at me to bring her some bucking hay or grass. I am reaching my limit as to how much more of this I can take sir, please do something about it."

He moves a hand over his mouth and pretends to think about it, when he is actually fighting hard to keep from bursting out laughing. He forces himself to remain calm and says to her, "Many apologies for my consort's behavior. As you already know that she is literally insane and pregnant with two children. Do try to deal with it some way, Things will improve once they are born in five more months. I would say you could deal with it by digging holes or carving pillars out of stone to mark the graves, but the last bodies were buried two weeks ago."

She chuckles and bows to the king and says, "I actually wish that some fools would attack us, I could take out my aggression on them."

Arthas arches a brow as an idea strikes him and says, "You remind me of a problem I am having in the east beyond the ruined pony village Sindragosa reduced to ash. There are some pony-like creatures that are killing my workers, and keeping them from working on the walls and gates. I do think they called themselves, Umbrum or something, I want you to take a large fast group and drive them from our land. Oh and do visit Sindragosa and tell her that I request her to travel with you along with her children, your orders are to instill terror into their hearts. In fact, I think I shall go with you on this mission. So go and gather a large group to drive these mortals from Icecrown lands, I shall meet you at the front gates of the citadel."

Time Skip Continues.

After driving the Umbrum south out of their land, Arthas begins to start work on a port to allow him to send out scouting parties. Once it is built, he sends out a few scout groups to gather information about foreign lands. He starts to gather curious information about different species on other lands across the sea. He finds out from a few scouts from land parties that creatures resembling the Tauren on Azeroth, piquing his interest into investigating them more closely.

Several months pass by until Arthas stands by his consort's side and takes a first look at his two new daughters, both are strange creatures to him. Both having wings and horns, with one being white with a multicolored mane and tail with magenta eyes. He names her Celestine, he looks at the other, being dark blue and having a lighter mane and tail of varying hues of blues with cyan eyes. He takes off his helm and sets it onto the floor and lifts them both up, one in each arm as he looks at the unnamed child and thinks for a moment before saying, "Your name will be...Lunetha"

Five years pass by as Arthas teaches his heirs how to talk and walk, he then schools them on how to be cunning and intelligent with what they do. He ignores their repeated requests to make this place nicer and says, "This is our home and MY citadel, I shall have it look the way I please and rule it like I want. If you two don't like it, just shut up and deal with it until you can live on your own. Until then, its my citadel and my rules."

End of Time Skip

Amore slowly starts to regain her sanity, but continues to pretend like she is still insane. It takes two years before she gathers up the courage to take the girls out of this foul, evil place. She approaches Arthas one day and says, "I am going to take the girls on a two day camping trip to the crags just north of here, would you like to come along with us my love?"

Arthas waves his hand dismissively and answers spitefully, "Hell no I do not, I have too many things to deal with right now. Go on and enjoy yourselves, I need to stay here and deal with this new headache that calls itself Discord. He keeps turning my walls to jelly and my soldiers to toys!"

Taking the girls and leaving the castle with what the need to escape this place, feeling grateful that Arthas removed the ring from her horn to allow her to help out around the citadel. She takes them to a forest far to the south, she hears Celestine speak up first asking, "Momma, why dost thou lie to Papa?"

Keeping silent for a moment to think of an answer, she says, "I lied to your father because I do not want you two girls to continue growing up in that dark and evil place, picking up his nasty habbits. You two deserve to live a life full of happiness and love, not only knowing hate and fear for the living. I would go with you but he is able to find me easily, so I must return. Please remember I will always love you two girls, I want you and your sister Luna to take these two family portraits of happier days. If you ever get lonely or sad, just think back on better days to improve your mood. Don't hate your father girls, he truly does love you but a new nuisance has recently came around to pester your father for a while."

Celestia and Luna take the family photos of happier times and hold onto them dearly and begin walking away when Luna stops and runs back to hug her mother one more time before saying, "I shall love thou forever Mamma, may we meet again some day." She then catches up to her sister Celestia and follows her into the fields.

Amore sheds a tear, knowing that it won't ever happen and returns to Icecrown Citadel to face her lover to find out what punishment awaits her.

A few moments later...

Arthas is enraged right now at hearing how his consort took their children away from him and abandoned them by the woods, far from his reach. He raises his hand and backhands her across the face, sending her sprawling across the floor and storming forth to replace the ring back on her horn. After setting the ring back into place, he goes to speak to Professor Putricide about what to do with the prisoners now...including his consort.

Chapter 5: When tales of old become legends, evil stirs

Celestia lies in her bed, suffering the same nightmare again for the second night in a row and wakes up screaming. Guards rush into the room and ask what is wrong and she just waves them off saying, "Oh it is nothing, just a nightmare that I really wish would go away. Please return to your posts everypony, there is nothing dangerous here." She then sighs and pulls out an old picture frame that was hidden away in a desk drawer that has an aged photograph of her mother and father in it, with the father figure scratched out. She puts it away and pulls out a book containing a prophecy claiming that Nightmare Moon will return and make the night last forever, but she has an idea that may work out to save her sister. She then makes a mental note to get this back to the library for her pupil to 'discover' so her idea can go into motion.

Three days later...

Twilight is in her tower studying every book she can get her hooves on while her assistant Spike, sorts the books she has read already into another pile and sighs saying, "Gee Twilight, what are you looking for?"

She frustratingly looks through her books to find the one she wants and says, "I'm trying to find a book called Predictions and Prophecies Spike, please keep an eye out for it." She then reaches for a really old looking book, not familiar with it at all. She dusts the book off and reads the title, which reads 'Ancient Tales and Legends of Old'. Curiosity gets the better of her as she spots a passage that catches her eye, she then starts to read the first few pages to herself, 'Long ago before Equestria existed, somewhere in the frozen north, a stranger's life was saved by ponies. Stranger was not a pony at all, but turned out to be something called a human and came from a foreign land. The stranger owed a favor to the ponies for saving his life. He agreed to help them out, then went about taking care of personal business. The stranger betrayed them all with lies and treachery, may his name be lost forever and suffer an eternity in Tartarus.' Twilight checks for more about this tale but finds nothing, sighing in defeat and sets the book aside. She wants to find out more about this tale, but isn't sure who might know something about it. Until suddenly, she thinks of her mentor Princess Celestia.

Spike finds the book she is looking for and holds it up saying, "Here it is Twilight, I found it underneath a romance novel."

She is overjoyed at hearing that and tears it from his grasp and says, "Oh I have been looking for that, I can't believe I forgot that I put it there."

He grumbles at being denied gratitude at finding it and thumbs through a book about myths and legends and checks out one particular passage that reads, 'There is a mighty castle of old that defies logic in the north. You best pray that you never journey there, for things go bump in the night that are worse than nightmares. One is to be feared above others, for he rules them all. Steer clear of the Frozen King if you value your life. Should he rise again, this world shall fall under his rule.' He closes the book and scratches his head saying, "Hey Twilight, have you ever heard of the myth of the Frozen King?"

Twilight pulls her head out of the book she is reading at hearing a strange myth and says, "What myth?" She listens closely as Spike reads it aloud to her and then says, "Oh Spike, don't be so silly. That is just an old mare's tale, there is no such thing as a Frozen King in the north." Just then something clicks in her brain and connects the dots and she says, "Spike, take a letter. Dear Princess Celestia, it has come to my attention that there are signs of a prophecy telling the return of Nightmare Moon. I fear that this may be an actual prophecy, could you look into this further? Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Send it immediately Spike, thank you."

Princess Celestia chuckles as a scroll pops into existence in front of her, she grabs it with her magic and opens it. After reading the letter, she puts it aside and replies by writing, 'My faithful student, Twilight. I do understand your worry over something like this and trust you completely, but I think it would be a good idea for you to head to Ponyville and check on the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. You really need to go there and stop reading those dusty old tomes for awhile. Make some friends when you are there, don't worry yourself over that tall tale of the Frozen King. It is all ponyapples anyways, I did visit the Frozen North as a younger filly. Don't you remember me telling you some of the journeys I had there?' She then sends the letter to her, feeling a bit cross at missing a surviving original copy of that book.

Some time later, at the Castle of Two Sisters...

Celestia chuckles and steps back from her sister and says to her, "Princess Luna, it has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us, we were meant to rule together little sister."

Everypony there is surprised at hearing that and say in unison, "Sister?"

She continues to speak to her sister saying, "Will you accept my friendship?" She then stands back up and waits for her sister's response.

A small Luna thinks on it for a little bit, then gets up and runs up to her sister. She throws her arms around her sister and hugs her tightly and responds to her sister saying, "I'm so sorry, I missed you so much big sister." She sheds a few tears at finally being reunited with her sister.

Celestia's eyes tear up and she smiles saying, "I've missed you too." She then hugs her back just as tightly, feeling happy to have her little sister back.

Luna whispers to her saying, "I miss Papa." A few more tears make their way down her face as she remembers the good days they had together inside Icecrown when their father was not dealing with the cruel Dr. Putricide or causing trouble for other creatures of the world.

Celestia hugs her sister tightly and shushes her saying, "I am sorry sister, it has been a thousand years since I banished you. I must ask you not to mention anything about our past that will make ponies find out about what happened during those times, sadly including our father and mother. We have each other, that is all that we need right now."

Luna then smiles and softly says to her, "Okay sister, I won't. I promise that I wont tell anyone about the Frozen King."

Twilight perks her ears up at hearing Luna mention Frozen King, deciding not to question either of them about it without proof. She smiles and says to the girls, "Looks like everything is almost done here. Let's start heading back to Ponyville to welcome back Princess Luna to Equestria."

As the other girls start to head back and talk amongst themselves, Twilight walks towards the two Alicorn Princesses before her and say, "After Pinkie Pie's Party, can I ask you two a question in secret?"

She suspects what Twilight really wants to ask about is their father, but doesn't say anything and responds saying, "Of course you can Twilight, as long as my sister is up for it. So Luna, what do you think about it? Do you feel up for answering a question from a curious pony?"

The small alicorn smiles and says, "I don't see why it would bother me at all, since I have been gone for so long. There are bound to be curious ponies that would like to know things, I don't have any problem satisfying their curiosity."

Celestia is shocked to hear her sister say that and then looks to her student and says, "There you have it Twilight, just find us after the welcome back party and we will answer your question."

Some hours later, as the party ends...

Twilight searches for Princesses Celestia and Luna, finding them off to a side of an empty room and says, "Here you two are, I was wondering if you are enjoying the party Princess Luna?"

Luna smiles back at Twilight and says, "I am indeed liking the party, it will take some time for me to get used to how much things have changed."

Celestia waits till her sister finishes speaking to cast her secrecy shield so nopony hears what Twilight wants to know. She then says, "So my faithful student, what is it that you wish to ask us?"

She blushes from embarrassment and says to Celestia, "I do apologize to both of you for catching something you said Princess Luna, I overheard you say Frozen King. Can you please tell me what you know about him? I found a reference to them in an old looking tome called Ancient tales and Legends of Old when I was researching a prophecy I heard of and came across it. I heard another one mention the Frozen King, but nothing more than that." She then looks at the both of them with curiousity all over her face, hoping they would tell her something.

Celestia sighs and says to Luna, "What do you think we should do Luna? Satisfy her curiosity, or everything?"

Luna sighs in return and thinks on it a moment then says, "I think satisfying her curiosity would be enough for right now, she is not ready for everything just yet."

She looks to her sister with a soft smile and says, "Very well sister, let's begin then." She then turns and looks at Twilight and takes a breath and starts by saying, "Here is what we will tell you for now young curious student. Long ago when we were fillies, even younger than you at the time, we heard of a legend of a mighty king in the frozen north. Greatly wounded in battle he was, and fled across the vast unknown seas to the north. He was saved by a group of ponies that happened to come across his tracks, only requesting a favor in return of saving his life. His sword was broken in the fight and needed it repaired, they told him where he could get it fixed. Several days passed by and he found love with Princess Amore of the Crystal Empire, he betrayed the ponies he owed the favor to and unleashed unspeakable horrors upon them. He ruled his subjects with an iron fist, allowing nothing to get in his way of conquest of the lands before him. Several years passed by then and we thought he was content with the land he now ruled, but we were wrong. During those years we learned that he fought and drove the Umbrum from their homes using a truly vile creation called, The Plague. After we became adults and Discord rose to power, we learned that he fought against the King of the Frozen North and lost. King Sombra was another one of his victims because The Plague killed nearly every Umbrum in existence. He tried to conquer Equestria after King Sombra was banished, it took so many soldiers to drive him back behind the borders and to his own citadel. He called the citadel Icecrown, he wields dangerous powers that no pony should ever have Twilight. He used the black art of necromancy, that is the art of enslaving the dead to serve you. In the end, we managed to wield the elements to deal him a serious blow that forced him to retreat to his throne. We followed him up there and bore witness to very gruesome things along the way up there, but the worst thing we saw was the Dragon Queen Sindragosa raised from her grave to serve him as a flying mount to carry him to far away places. I warn you now Twilight, steer clear of the borders of the Frozen North. If he awakens once more, this world shall be in danger from the horrors of Icecrown Citadel."

Twilight tilts her head to the side, sadness shows on her face but wonder shines in her eyes as she asks, "Did you ever learn what his name was Princess Celestia or Princess Luna?"

Princess Luna watches Celestia turn her head away from Twilight, signalling that she will say no more on the monster they called father and says, "I heard rumors that his name was Arthas Menethil, but I am not sure because rumors distort things." She continues the rest of the 'story' and says, "When we fought Sindragosa and caused her to crash through the ice lifeless, we then used the elements against Arthas to encase him in ice for eternity."

The eager bookworm hangs her head as she thinks of all that he has done and says, "Do you think that maybe he can change his ways?"

Princess Celestia sighs and says, "Unfortunately, that is one thing we have failed to do back then. Perhaps if he should ever have a change of heart, and gain some real friends...a miracle may happen."

Twilight then smiles and says, "Miracles happen everyday Princess Celestia, but I will respect your warning and steer clear of the Frozen North. I will see what else I can learn about Arthas and Icecrown, maybe there is another way to deal with him?"

She smiles and says, "If there is another way, I am sure that you will discover it. Do make sure to keep this knowledge of Arthas and Icecrown to yourself, do not let the others learn of it until they are ready or need to know."

One Year Later in Ponyville...

Discord enjoys all the chaos he is wreaking in Ponyville, dubbing it the chaos capital of the world and sits atop Twilight's shoulder while she walks back to her home in a grayish form of herself and whispers into her ear, "You love secrets don't you? Well I have a few that I would love to tell you, but I will only tell you one. I will be generous and tell you one of your pick."

Grayish Twilight walks forth in a foul mood and says to him, "I don't care what you tell me, you decide what to tell me. They are your secrets, why do you want to tell me anything?"

He claps happily and says, "OOH YAY I WAS SO HOPING YOU WOULD SAY THAT. Listen up because I will only say this once, I used to be a bunch of different creatures. Then this Dr. Putricide got a hold of us and started experimenting with artificial life, after several failures there were two successes. My sister Cosmos was one, but she literally vanished because I sent her to become one with the stars. Oh and I never lie about my secrets, so enjoy the secret, ta ta!" He then claps twice and vanishes from her shoulder and returns to his throne.

After Discord was returned to stone...

Twilight thinks back to when she was grayish and remembers what Discord told her and her jaw falls open, finally learning something new, if a bit trivial about the mystery of Arthas and Icecrown Citadel. She says farewell to her friends and hurries back to write to Princess Celestia about this new development she learned from Discord.

Some weeks pass by as Twilight finds herself in the Dragon Lands, watching in hopes that Spike will be alright. After she and her friends assist Spike through a few of the tests to prove that he is a real dragon, she spots a light blue female dragon with down curved horns that is standing atop of a stone watching the others have fun. She waits till their task is done making sure that Spike will be ok, she asks her friends to begin heading towards her. As they get close to her, Twilight looks around and sees that no other dragons are around and asks, "I'm sorry to bother you, but have you ever heard of a Dragon Queen called Sindragosa?"

The dragon looks at the obvious disguise and gasps at hearing that name and clamps a claw over the mouth to shut it and whispers into the eye holes, "Don't you dare mention that name around dragons, EVER! Are you trying to cause a panic, or are you just stupid?"

She blushes in embarrassment and whispers back, "My apologies, but I only read about faint mentions of the name and that it was a dragon. I couldn't find any other way to learn of them, so I came here with my friends mainly out of concern for Spike.

They soften their expression a bit and responds saying, "Of course there wouldn't be many mentions telling the story, Dragon Lord Torch forbade the telling of the stories or even the mention of that name. My name is Ember, and Dragon Lord Torch is my father. Who are you and why are you here imposter?"

Twilight ignores the pulling on her tail and answers her, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am a pony from Ponyville. It is a pleasure to meet you Princess Ember, we are just here to look out for our dear friend Spike. We have no other ulterior motives, I just couldn't resist the chance to ask a dragon if they would happen to know the name."

Ember chuckles at hearing their reason for coming and says, "Thank you for being honest ponies, unfortunately I do not know much about her except that she was fierce in battle and ruled her own kind called Frostbrood Dragons. One more thing is that there were rumors that claimed she and her master came from another world. That is all I know about that, I am sorry I don't know more."

Applejack angrily whispers up to Twilight and says, "What in tarnation was ya askin her bout that? You've been lookin fer somethin ever since ya spoke ta Princesses Celestia and Luna at the welcome back party, so spill the beans missy!"

Rarity chimes in even and says, "I can't believe you blew our cover to ask a silly question like that! What were you thinking Twilight, tell us!"

Twilight sighs in defeat and then starts to explain it from the beginning when she first learned of the mystery saying, "Well girls, I shall tell you everything once we are back in Ponyville. Meet me in the Golden Oak Library at night, after Spike goes to sleep. I don't want him to hear this story and have nightmares from hearing about it, he is too young to know yet."

After they return from the Dragon Lands, the girls all meet up at the library to hear the story from Twilight. As they listen to her tell the story, their jaws hang open from shock as Rainbow recovers saying, "Oh pahlease, that story can't possibly be true. The dead do not come back at all, they just stay that way and in the ground where they are buried."

Applejack shivers in fear at hearing that and says to Rainbow, "Ah don't know Rainbow, it sounds like Twilight speaks the truth about this somehow. Ah definitely would feel better if we could all make sure that this is not true or at least make sure that this Arthas is still asleep, what do y'all think about that?"

Fluttershy rocks back and forth, clutching her knees to her chest mumbling incoherent words. Finally gaining enough courage to stop rocking, she quietly whispers, "I think that would be a really nice idea, though it sounds terrifying if it is true. It would be a great comfort knowing that they still slumber."

One by one they eventually agree that they should investigate the existence of this Icecrown Citadel, deciding that it would be best to leave tomorrow to tell everypony that they are going to search for a hidden library outside of the ruins of the Castle of Two Sisters.

One Week Later...

Twilight stands outside a very high wall, with a massive gate that would be nearly impossible for her to open by herself. Sighing, she looks to Rarity and asks, "Rarity, girls, do you all think you can help me get these doors open just enough for us to go through them?"

Together they all work together and manage to crack the gates open enough for them to pass through, and walk through them leaving the view of the valley and the distant Luna Bay behind them.

Rainbow talks to Applejack saying, "I think I sprained a wing pushing those super heavy gates open, who in their right mind would build something that massive and heavy?"

Applejack chuckles and says, "I hear ya, ah think ah pulled a muscle too with that darn thing. Hey Twilight, do you think there are any more like that?"

She thinks on where the Citadel might be located and answers Applejack saying, "I think there may be just one or two more Applejack, but that should be all if this is a typical stronghold structure. After this point, it is anypony's guess as to where Icecrown might actually be located."

At Icecrown Citadel...

Arthas opens his eyes to see that he is encased in ice, still sitting atop his throne. He smiles as he realizes that his daughter's made a mistake in encasing him in ice, showing how weak they really were. Deciding against of breaking free of his prison now, he closes his eyes and returns to his slumber to gather his full strength before his grand awakening.

Back at the Gate leading to the Frozen North

A banshee that was stationed to watch the gate and ordered to alert him if anything gets through it hovers at the top of the wall in an alcove watching the group of six ponies make their way beyond the valley and into the Frozen Lands. She then commands two hidden abominations that were ordered to slumber there to open the gates should the need arise to open them.

Twilight thinks she hears an eerie shriek come from behind and turns her head around to take a look and sees nothing behind them and continues on until she hears a sound of heavy doors closing and says to the others, "Um girls, don't freak out but I think the gate behind us just closed. We will have to find a way to open it when we return from completing our recon. Follow me girls, we are a few days away from where the rumors say this place is."

Rarity shudders and looks at a very scared Fluttershy and says to her, "Don't worry Fluttershy, nothing bad will ever happen to us. We are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, there is nothing that we need to fear."

Fluttershy calms down a bit and smiles saying, "I know that Rarity, but this place feels very...sick to me. I don't know how else to explain the way it feels to me, like something all around us just feels..."

Twilight finishes the rest for her and says, "Wrong, right Fluttershy?" She continues to lead them further away from the valley towards a lone peak far in the distance, barely visible to the naked eye.

She squeaks in surprise and relaxes saying, "Y-Yes Twilight, that is what I am feeling right now. The sooner we get out of here I think we will all be happier for it.

Arthas continues resting until a banshee interrupts his slumber by making a telepathic report to him through the helm, informing him that there are six intruders on his land and asking what should they do about them. Intrigued and annoyed at the same time, he sends out a command to the warriors milling around the castle saying, "To all forces within the vicinity of the Citadel, I order you all to slumber and do nothing to inform them that you are awake. Play possum until I give the order to reveal yourselves. They think that I am still aslumber?! I will allow them to think that until I am ready to announce my return to the world!"

A few days later, the sun begins to set as the girls all make camp for the night. Twilight drifts off to sleep, but suffers a nightmare of books that she has read that gain consciousness and begin attacking her and try to 'read' her. To her surprise, Princess Luna comes by and ends the nightmare saying, "Greetings, Twilight Sparkle. It has been some time since your last nightmare, is everything going ok for your girls' trip?"

She looks to Princess Luna and sighs saying, "Everything is fine, but it is going a bit slowly. It is taking longer than we expected it to take to find what we are searching for."

Luna cocks her head in curiosity, then watches Twilight closely and asks, "What are you hoping to find, may I ask?"

Twilight sighs once again and looks at her seriously and says, "Can you promise to keep this a secret from your sister, Princess Luna? She would likely send me back to magic kindergarten if she knew what we were actually searching for..."

She narrows her eyes suspiciously at Twilight and then responds, "I promise that I won't tell her, now what are you girls really searching for at our old castle?"

The nervous unicorn wrings her hands and closes her eyes and looks right at Luna and says, "I am sorry but we are heading to the Frozen Lands to find out for certain if the Frozen King still slumbers. If he is awake already, I will politely ask him a few questions on why he does things the way he does. Perhaps I can become friends with him and get him to be nicer to everypony."

Luna's eyes shrink to pinpricks at hearing where they are really heading and instantly switches to her royal voice and says, "GO NO FURTHER, AND RETURN AT ONCE LITTLE PONY! YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT HORRORS AWAIT YOU INSIDE THAT CITADEL! IF YOU DO NOT RETURN IMMEDIATELY, I SHALL COME AND DRAG YOU ALL BACK MYSELF!"

Twilight braces herself against her royal voice and is determined to find out the answers to her questions that have plagued her for a year and a half and stands up saying, "I must apologize Princess Luna, for there are just too many questions that have been left unanswered for too long. I need to get answers to these questions so I can move forward with my life, this mystery of Arthas the Frozen King of the North is going to drive me to madness if I don't get answers soon. I am so sorry Princess Luna, but I have to go against your command right now. I hope that you can forgive me for doing this one day..." She then sighs and wakes up and sees that it is nearly dawn and decides to prepare breakfast for the girls.

Luna returns from looking over the Dream Realm and sees that her sister is beside her with a concerned look on her face and says, "What is wrong dear Cece?"

Celestia frowns and looks at her sister in worry and says, "You used your royal voice when you were in the Dream Realm, but nopony understood what you said. Is everything alright dear Lulu?"

She sighs and says, "Everything is alright for the moment, I am just dealing with a stubborn pony that does not want to listen to me. I need to patrol the borders and allow myself to calm down a bit, I shall be back in a few weeks. Unfortunately, I won't be back in time for the upcoming wedding because I sense something off with the borders to the North."

A shocked and worried look crosses Celestia's face as she says, "Do you think I should send guards with you for protection if anything goes wrong and he does return?"

Luna shakes her head and says, "No dear sister, I think that it is safe to say that father will continue to slumber unless fate or some higher power cause him to wake up for some unknown reason. I shall see you again in a few weeks, I will try to make it back for the reception at least."

One More Week Later...

Twilight stands before a massive field of vertical stones and two massive pillars with different emblems on banners flapping in the breeze of each one, suddenly feeling the need to pay her respects and bowing towards the massive graveyard.

Rainbow chuckles and says, "What on Equestria are you doing Twilight, why are you bowing before rocks?"

Before Twilight can respond to her, Fluttershy stands before her and glares into her eyes and says, "Don't you realize that this is a graveyard, Rainbow Dash? She is paying her respects to the soldiers who fought and lost their lives here long ago, we should all pay our respects to the fallen soldiers here that have faced such horrid creatures."

She gulps and looks around and hangs her head and says, "I apologize for being ignorant Twilight, I never have seen a graveyard quite like this one. The graves seem to be a bit shallow, don't they Applejack?"

Applejack sighs upon seeing how the graves number into the thousands and tears up a little and says, "Umm...yeah they kinda do, ah wonder why they did that?"

The other girls line up beside Twilight and bow in respect to the fallen soldiers that are buried here, then straighten up and continue to follow Twilight towards the massive towering citadel.

A few minutes pass as the girls worked together to get the front doors open enough to get through and closed them behind them, now Twilight enters a large open area with pathways leading everywhere with a light coming from straight ahead.

She looks at the light with curiosity and says, "I have never seen anything like this girls, let's check it out. Maybe it will tell us more about this place, or maybe show us if the ruler of this place is still imprisoned." She approaches the light and walks around it, examining it closely for any hints of what it does. Without another word to the others, she touches the device and suddenly finds herself standing at a very high place in the citadel. Figuring out that it is just a teleporter, she taps it with a hoof to try to make it work again. As that attempt fails to work, she tries applying magic to it. With that failing, she gets annoyed and steps off of it and taps it again. Finally finding herself back in the room before, she smiles and says, "I found something amazing girls! You see, this thing here teleports you to another location. To get it to work, you have to touch it. To get back, you have to step off of it and touch it again. The view is spectacular from there, come on girls."

Chapter 6: Crashed weddings, secrets, and a family reunion

The girls all walk through the portal, arriving at the very top of the Citadel one by one until they all stand there together, taking in the sight. Rarity looks at the floor and is distracted by the sheer beauty of it and says, "Oh wow this floor is designed so intricately, look at the emblem in the center of the floor! I can't imagine how much work it took to get this level of detail in this floor."

Twilight looks around for anything else of interest and notices a set of stairs ahead and follows them up, until stopping at a strange being sitting in a throne at the very top of the stairs with the tip of a sword on the floor and both their hands resting on the hilt, with their elbows resting on their knees and leaning forward slightly with his eyes closed. Instinctively, she starts backing up bit by bit until she bumps into Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow feels Twilight bump into her and says, "Hey, what is the big idea Twilight? Why did you back up into me so suddenly?" She follows her gaze and then follows her as she continues to back up a little bit further and stops saying, "Oh wow, so the story was true after all. Girls, I think it would be wise to stand where we are because somepony is imprisoned in that throne at the top of the stairs."

Fluttershy stops looking out at the breathtaking view from the top of the citadel and looks at the top of the stairs and says, "Oh my heavens, the scary king does actually exist!" She then turns around and hides behind the other girls, looking at him with one eye peeking out from behind Applejack's hip.

Rarity stares at the imprisoned being known as Arthas and says to Twilight, "Umm dear, we have successfully found out if he exists and is still imprisoned. Do you think we can get out of this place and return to Ponyville before he wakes up?"

Twilight sighs in disappointment, actually hoping to be able to ask him questions. She then answers Rarity saying, "Yeah, I think that is all we can do since it is not possible to ask him questions while he is like that." She then turns around and tries to step onto the portal to return to the lower level and go back home, but discovers that it isn't working and tries to examine it with her magic

Arthas decides to have a little fun with them without breaking free from the ice and uses a little magic to make his thoughts heard out loud, and amplifies them a little to be a little more intimidating and says, "Where do you ponies think you are going!? You have questions for the Lich King of Icecrown Citadel, very well then. I shall reward you for your bravery coming to where the undead scourge bow to only one leader."

Fluttershy panics and her whole body locks up and she falls backwards and lands on her back in sheer terror as everypony turns around to look at the only male around them. Thinking he broke free, they are relieved to see that he is still inside the ice.

Twilight turns to look at the frozen king as her eyes begin to shrink to pinpricks and says, "Did you just say something, Your Highness?"

He decides to act friendly towards them just to get answers he needs from them and internally chuckles saying, "I have just made my thoughts heard out loud is all, and amplified it a little bit. Unfortunately, my body is not able to break free from this prison of ice that I am currently in. My mind has only recently awoken. So tell me young ponies, how many years has gone by since today?

Unable to resist the opportunity to speak and get answers to her own questions, she says, "It has been just over a thousand years since Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have defeated you. Can you tell me more about you, this place, and what happened in the past?"

Arthas responds to her and says, "I am impressed that they managed to keep me imprisoned for this long, but they didn't defeat me. I let them imprison me because I was simply just bored and didn't have anybody else to study and terrify at the moment. To answer your questions, first tell me what you do know. How have you managed to find this place? Is it common knowledge that this place exists or...did it get forgotten to time?"

Twilight ignores the pony tapping on her shoulder and answers him saying, "Well I first heard of this place through a couple of books just over a year ago, after that I heard from Discord that somepony named Professor Putricide created him and his sister by experimenting with artificial life. Before Discord told me anything, my mentor Princess Celestia and Luna told me a few things." She then tells him what her mentor and Princess Luna told her.

He then laughs and responds, "That failed science experiment still lives to this day? I remember when he tried to get me to join him in taking over the world, but I refused because I rule alone. Princesses Celestia and Luna...oh you mean Celestine and Lunetha, my daughters? It is good to hear that they have found their place in the world as leaders, I remember when they were knee high to me and I was teaching them how to speak and rule a kingdom. Those were fun days, I do miss them. Do you know what kingdom they rule by chance?"

Everypony's mouth is agape at hearing that and say in unison, "They are your DAUGHTERS?"

Letting her guard down, she says, "Yes I do, they rule the kingdom of Equestria together from a castle in Canterlot. Princess Luna just recently came back from being banished to the moon." She cocks her head then says, "Wait a minute, how are Princesses Celestia and Luna your daughters, they don't look anything like you."

Arthas answers them through the spell saying, "Yes, they are indeed my daughters. Princess Celestine got her coat from her mother, and I think Lunetha got her looks from her grandma. But Lunetha got the color of her magic from me. You see... A long time ago, I fell in love with Princess Amore when I first visited the Crystal Empire when I needed my sword repaired. I had a favor that I needed to repay to Clover the Clever and the others that found me and saved my life after my old friend Tirion led a large assault against my citadel, defeated me and left me lie here gravely wounded. He then used a spell some mages found and banished me and my citadel along with some of the ground that were immediately around it. So, yes this citadel and me, as well as most of my army, are from another world." He tries to stop himself from telling her so much, but there is just something about her that captivates him and intrigues him to no end, and continues saying, "After my sword was repaired in a month, I left to go repay the favor to the ponies that found and saved me. I then betrayed them and drove them all from this land, after that I visited the Crystal Empire and asked Princess Amore to stay with me in my citadel." He then starts to grow angry and says, "After my children were born, a few years after I taught them how to walk and speak, I began to teach them how to rule a kingdom. Amore didn't like what I was teaching them and took them from me one day, and I never saw them again. Now I do know what happened and where she took them thanks to you six ponies, therefore you deserve a reward. Follow me please and I shall give you your reward." He then cuts off the spell and begins to attempt breaking free from the ice prison, causing a few cracks to appear in the ice block.

Fluttershy and Rarity are both tugging on Twilight's arms and saying, "Twilight, let us please leave this foul place. We have our answers, now lets go!" "Can we please leave this place behind us and return home now, I don't want to know what the reward is."

Annoyed by their repeated attempts to get her to leave this interesting place, Twilight turns her head around and snaps at them, "I said no already! Now be quiet and let me finish speaking with him."

Everypony including Twilight are horrified at the sounds of the cracking ice as Applejack exclaims, "Woah nelly! I think that we need to get out of here now Twilight!"

She turns back to them and briefly says, "No, not yet girls. We will leave in a bit after I finish talking to him." She then turns her gaze back to Arthas as he continues to break free from the ice.

He applies more strength into shattering the ice encasing him, finally succeeding after a few more seconds. The ice shatters into pieces and a few chunks fall down the stairs and slide across the floor as he stand up from his seated position with his hands still on Frostmourne's hilt and says, "Ahhh...now that feels much better, follow me and I shall give you your reward." He then begins stretching his body out and then makes his way down the stairs to lead them to where their reward lies, placing Frostmourne in its sheathe.

Applejack's eyes shrink and she moves in front of Twilight and says, "Oh horseapples, he is free now. All of equestria will be in danger because you just had to ask him questions."

A few minutes later, outside of Icecrown Citadel

Twilight and the others follow him to a spot a little distance away from the walls around the citadel when she turns and says to the others, "Now after he gives us our rewards, we will head for home okay girls?"

Rainbow crosses her arms and rolls her eyes saying, "Uh huh, I've heard that one before..."

Arthas ignores them and continues to look for where their reward lies and finds it finally and says, "Aha! There you are girl, I was wondering where you went to." He then turns to the ponies and says, "Your reward is just right here, it took me some time to find, but here it is. I hope you like your reward, I don't do this in front of just anyone, you know."

Twilight finally begins backing up, not liking the way he said that and says, "What do you mean, what are you going to do?"

He chuckles and says, "Just watch, and you will see." He then draws Frostmourne and thrusts it into the ground and begins to raise Sindragosa once more.

Rainbow stares at him as he thrusts his sword into the ground and says, "What's he doing that for?" She goes silent as cracks begin to spread from his sword, the layers of snow get blown away from the ice, clearing a large area before him.

Twilight stares on in wonder and fear at what is happening before her eyes, watching him doing something with his sword when the ground beneath them rumbles. Suddenly, the ice ruptures and explodes upward as something comes through it from underneath saying, "I-Is that a w-wing I see coming up?"

A massive claw falls down upon the ice as something else shoots through the ice and lands, water begins to bulge upwards as something begins to come up to the surface. A body rises above the water, becoming clearly visible after the water finishes falling from it.

Fluttershy shudders in horror at what she sees and collapses onto her back muttering, "I-It's a...i-it's a m-massive, terrifyingly huge, d-d-dead d-dragon. I-I'm n-not s-scared of t-that at all, n-no I am not..."

Applejack watches as the insanely huge dead dragon keeps rising from the hole, getting larger and larger until it is fully on top of the ice. Easily twenty times bigger than them and ten times bigger than the king, she becomes scared and her body begins to shake as blue fire begins to make its way through the dragon's body. The fire accumulates into a ball inside the ribcage as flames connect the limbs together, with two orbs of blue fire appearing inside the eye sockets. She fails to think of what to do and says, "Oh heavens' ta Betsy Twi, ya've really done it now, we're gonna be in soo much trouble for doing this... Equestria is in big trouble now because of you!"

To silence them, Sindragosa speaks up and shouts, "QUIET DOWN AND LISTEN LITTLE PONIES!" She then clears her throat and continues speaking in a normal tone, "My master was already awake when you got here, he just chose to remain inside the ice just to make a spectacle of it and to entertain himself by speaking with you. Don't blame your friend for waking him him up because she was not the cause of it. My name is Sindragosa, what are your names? I have not seen any of you before."

Shocked at hearing the dead dragon talk, Twilight remains silent for awhile then says, "Wait, so YOU are the Dragon Queen, Sindragosa?"

She chuckles and says, "I am the Queen of the Frostbrood dragons of Azeroth, so yes I am that Sindragosa."

Twilight's jaw falls open and she closes it and resumes the introductions saying, "My apologies for being rude Your Highness, My name is Twilight Sparkle and the pony with the orange coat and blonde mane and tail is Applejack. The white pony next to her with the horn and purple mane and tail is Rarity. The pony to the left of Applejack with a blue coat, wings, and a multicolored mane and tail is Rainbow Dash. The pony a little bit behind Rainbow with a light pink coat and extremely curly, and very bold pink mane and tail is Pinkie Pie. And the one behind them all currently laying on the ground terrified beyond reason, having a yellow coat, wings and a light pink mane and tail is Fluttershy.

Sindragosa then looks at her master and says, "Sir, you haven't introduced yourself properly yet."

Arthas smiles and says, "I am Arthas Menethil, King of Icecrown Citadel, the king of the Scourge, The ruler of...the Frozen North." He then amplifies his voice and then resumes his speech saying, "I formally welcome you to the Scourge land's capital of Equus." He then drops the spell and adds, "Yes...you were right though Applejack, Equestria is in danger...FROM ME!" He then chuckles and says, "Arise, warriors of Icecrown and show yourselves! Your king has returned at last!"

Twilight hears a roar of several thousand voices answering the call and tries to fight the urge to look behind her, already knowing what it was that responded. Thousands upon thousands of dead corpses making their way to their king. Unable to resist the urge anymore, she looks back. Sure enough, there were many dead corpses making their way to where Arthas was and says, "Umm...girls, we will be taking our leave now." She turns around to look at Arthas and says, "Thank you for answering so many of my questions Your Highness, but we must be getting back home now."

He frowns but continues to act kind and says, "Fare well on your journey, people are always just dying to serve me." He then addresses his soldiers and says, "Let them pass, they are only curious of what this place is! Therefore no harm is to come of them!"

Twilight begins to pick up Fluttershy with Rarity and carry her back with them still muttering, "Dead dragon." repeatedly when she begins to walk away.

Arthas calls out to Twilight saying, "Twilight Sparkle, please feel free to visit me again. It was a pleasure speaking with somepony for once." He wonders to himself why he would want anyone to visit him here, he doesn't need anybody to keep himself company, so why does he even care.

She looks behind her and is struck dumb by what she heard him say and says, "Maybe I will come to visit some day when I am not too busy." She then begins to walk back to the valley carrying Fluttershy still until she comes back around to walk on her own again.

The girls are terrified as they look at the numerous standing corpses all around them, parting and letting them pass through without so much as saying a single word to them. Continuing to make their way back to the valley, they eventually arrive at the end of the path through the horrible truth of Icecrown Citadel a half hour later.

A week and a half later at the gate leading out of the Frozen North into the Valley

Twilight watches as two tall, horrendous creatures grab hold of the gate on either side and pull it open for them to pass through and says, "Thank you very much for getting the doors for us, the first time it took all of us to push just one open enough to get through." She then continues making her way towards the now open gate.

Glug looks at the small pony and says, "Glug welcome small pony, door real heavy. Pony real polite, Glug like polite ponies. Takes much strength to open it does. That me brother Chug on other door. Me work hard to do better than him, me want his favorite axe."

Rarity gags with disgust at the horrifyingly ugly creatures and says, "EEEWWW, what an abomination! It is absolutely hideous, and has its innards hanging out! I am going to continue to suffer so many nightmares from our visit to this place. Thank you very much for the nightmares Twilight."

Applejack passes through the doors and says, "There is no reason to be so rude to them Rarity, even if their appearance leaves much to be desired. How do you think the rest of us feel, especially poor Fluttershy. Poor girl is prolly gonna need counselling after this when she comes around and is able to walk on her own."

Glug smiles and says, "Pony not rude, she give compliment. Me happy to be ugly, abominations like us made to terrify living beings and be good at stopping them from fleeing."

Her mane gets a little frizzy as she hears what he says and freaks out a bit, getting creeped out by it liking being insulted like that and continues walking and says, "I am glad that you liked my compliment."

A few hours pass by as the girls find themselves at the Luna Bay at sunset as Twilight says, "Let's camp here for the night girls before we make our way back home."

The girls all remain silent as Fluttershy stops muttering and then gradually stands up to gather wood for a fire and looks at them but doesn't say a word as she turns around and begins heading away from them when Twilight says, "Fluttershy, are you ok?"

She turns around and squints her eyes and shakes her head side to side indicating her answer is no.

Applejack butts in and asks, "What's wrong sugar cube, why won't you talk to us?"

She sighs and looks at the ground and then grabs a stick and writes, 'I am ok physically girls, but my mind is not. I am not speaking to any of you because I fear if I open my mouth, all I will do is scream from the terror I saw and felt from that place and could not express. I am going to go gather wood for the fire now, but I am not at all happy with you right now Twilight. You have a lot of unhappy friends, it will take some time to make things right with us again.' She then turns around and begins to look for wood for their fire tonight.

Twilight sighs and hangs her head and brings out her tent and starts to set it up to go inside, but she is halted when she hears a flapping pair of wings and she freezes when someone bellows in the royal voice, "TWILIGHT SPARKLE I AM VERY UNHAPPY WITH THEE FOR THY ACTIONS AND IGNORING MINE WARNINGS!" She then slowly turns around to look at Princess Luna respectfully and prepares for the scolding to come.

Not missing a beat, she strides towards Princess Celestia's pupil and continues her scolding, "What on Equestria have thee been thinking, traveling to the dangerous Icecrown Citadel! What purpose demanded such a foolish venture? Thee best pray that the monster that rules it remains aslumber, or Equestria may findeth itself under siege!"

She lifts her eyes up to look at Princess Luna in the eyes and says, "Umm...When we got there, he was already...sort of...awake. Why didn't you tell me that he was you and Princess Celestia's father?

Luna's eyes widen in horror at what she just heard Twilight say and responds, "Did thee just say mine and Celestia's father is...awake?" and snaps her head around to stare intently at Twilight, waiting for her to answer.

Twilight looks down for a moment and crosses her arms and says, "Yes, he was already awake when we got there. After speaking to him for a little bit, he broke free of the ice encasing him. He also said that you two didn't defeat him, he let you two imprison him because he was bored with not terrorizing or studying anypony new." She then goes into detail about what he said to her.

Her eyes shrink a little at hearing that new information and sighs saying, "So at least he didn't tell you everything. I had a feeling that he held back a bit during our fight. Even when we wielded the elements against him, the fight was still tough. I truly fear for Equestria's safety, Twilight." She then looks of to the side and says, "I see that spark is still in your eyes Twilight, do you wish to hear the whole story?"

The knowledge hungry pony beams a smile at the princess and says, "Of course I want to hear the entire story, I could just feel that he wasn't telling us everything. Sindragosa seems nice though, as long as you stay on her good side. She told us that Arthas was already awake when we got there, also said that he chose to remain inside the ice just to make a spectacle of it and entertain himself." She frowns and kicks at a rock, feeling mad about being used like that.

Luna's eyes continue shrinking with every revelation and says, "He brought her back again?! It's official now, Equestria is in some serious trouble Twilight." She then goes to sit by the fire and begins to tell the story how she learned and heard of it, causing all the girls to sit down beside the fire to listen to the tale.

Rainbow Dash leans forward and says, "That is what he did in the past while he was in Equestria? What do you know of his story back where he came from?

She chuckles softly and says, "The only thing I really know about that is when he raised Sindragosa from the grave for the first time, and that the name of the world where he came from was called Azeroth. My sister and I heard bits and pieces about his past there, like the land he ruled there was called Northrend. We also heard that he is still mad about losing his floating necropolis called Archerus: The Ebon Hold. He still gets angry when he thinks back on when he was betrayed by Death Knights he created that took it from him."

Twilight thinks to herself, 'I'm sure that once he makes a few friends that can show him how fun life can be, and meets a very special somepony that can handle being with him, he might turn out to be not so bad and just might abandon using necromancy.'

Luna smiles while she thinks back on the very few good times she had with her father and says to the ponies around the fire, "Now I think it is high time for you all to get some rest, you have an event that you need to help prepare for. Your brother will tell you more the next time he sees you. Goodnight and sweet dreams,my little ponies. I shall be taking the night watch tonight, for I shall need to take a short vacation."

Twilight hangs her head and says, "I'm sorry I ignored your warnings Princess Luna, I just gathered so little information about something new and I just couldn't stand to leave it at that. I hope you can forgive me for disrespecting you like that one day." She then turns around and heads to her tent, going inside to get some much needed rest after being on the move with only a couple hours of sleep each night.

Princess Luna watches Twilight go into her tent and pulls out a parchment and a quill, then writes a letter to her sister saying, "Dear Sister, I must be away for a few weeks to watch over the blizzards surrounding the Crystal Empire as well as monitoring the border for any movement of our fathers' return. I can feel a change coming soon in the air for Equestria, and I must prepare for it. Sincerely, your baby sister by a minute."

The royal wedding at Canterlot, a week and a half later.

Twilight huffs in annoyance at her brother and speaks to herself as she is busy organizing everything for her brother's wedding, "I can't believe that he didn't tell me that he was seeing my old foalsitter, didn't he trust me at all? I'm extremely happy that he is getting married to Cadence, but something just feels off about her."

Cadence sits in her suite in the castle and chuckles saying quietly to herself, "Finally, my children shall have enough love to last them awhile if we succeed in my plan to take Canterlot. Now I just have to find a way to deal with that nosy Twilight Sparkle, I can't have her ruining my big day now."

At the borders of the Frozen North

Arthas sits atop Sindragosa as they make their way towards Equestria's capital city Canterlot, looking to wreak some havoc and greet his daughters and says, "When will we get to Canterlot Sindragosa? I look forward to saying hello to my daughters once more."

Sindragosa continues to fly towards Canterlot's location and answers, "We shall be there within a couple hours sir."

Back at the chapel in Canterlot

Cadence is happy to see that the little meddling pest Twilight is gone getting something from her maids, hoping that she is in a cocoon right now. She seizes the opportunity and feeds a bit more off of Shining Armor, trying to weaken him enough to where her changelings can break through the barrier and begin grabbing what ponies they can. As she begins to make her way out of her suite, she sees a black cat with bright green eyes run past the door and crossing her path. She pays no heed to it and exits the room and decides to double check to make sure everything is ready for her to marry Shining Armor saying, "Stupid cat, get out of my way! This is my special day and I won't allow you or anypony to ruin it!"

Twilight feels depressed about how she acted towards Cadence and feels she should apologize to her. She quickly runs to find Cadence to apologize to her, seeing her walking down the hall, she runs after her and stops her by sighing and saying, "I don't know what came over me, I didn't realize how much stress you were under due to the wedding planning, my brother keeping up the barrier and the threat against Canterlot."

The imposter Cadence smiles sinisterly and says, "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself you know, ponies change when they grow older. So it is only natural that you fight change, when it is easier to accept it than try to keep it the same when change must happen." She then pulls her into a firm and loving hug, feeding off of her love for her brother.

She then sniffles and says, "I am so sorry Princess Cadence, for causing so much trouble for you." She then hugs her back lovingly.

Cadence's eyes flash green and then she casts a spell and sends the nosy pony through the floor to the crystal caves underneath Canterlot saying, "Oh don't worry, you will be."

The last thing Twilight sees is Cadence walking away from her as she suddenly realizes and says, "Oh no, I was right! That is not the Cadence I know, I am soo going to get back at her for making a fool of me!"

A couple hours later, nearing Ponyville

Arthas and Sindragosa continue flying towards the mountain city of Canterlot in the distance, ignoring the distant screams of fear coming from the denizens in the town just in front of them. He then chuckles and says, "Well Sindragosa, at least we know we are still terrifying to look at. I've got something right at least if they are screaming in terror like that, it would freak me out if they all started to shout, 'Hail! Hail! Hail!' I do hope that we arrive in time to make a spectacle of my arrival. Who knows, maybe I will get to play the layabout hero that didn't do a damn thing to help either side."

Sindragosa watches as they pass the town of screaming ponies below them, and begin approaching Canterlot and spots a shield shattering and says, "I think you may get what you asked for sir, because the shield over that city just shattered and I see black specks making their way into the city. What is your plan of action sir so I can follow along with it?"

He laughs and says, "Looks like we will get to have a little fun after all, Sindragosa. Wanna play that game we once played, 'Who's the better killer'?"

She grins and chuckles and says, "You do realize that I won that last game right?" She flaps her wings harder to get there sooner to begin the game.

Arthas harrumphs and says, "You only won that one because I fell into a hole and couldn't get out, otherwise I would have won."

Sindragosa continues towards the rapidly nearing mountain city and says, "MMHHHMM, that is just a technicality! The win still counts because there are unexpected developments that happen on the battlefield and life."

He watches as they pass over the walls of Canterlot to hear wails of despair and screams of terror coming from the ponies below. He waits for a bit longer before jumping off her back shouting, "Unarmed ponies count for nothing!"

She calls back and says, "Same goes for innocent bystanders!"

Arthas lands on a angled rooftop and slides down the tiles and lands on the ground with a massive thud, creating a dust cloud to kick up around him. Obscured from the view of the ponies he startled nearly half to death, he waits there with his senses heightened. Waiting for someone to engage him, he hears someone say, "Who and what in Celestia's name, are you!?"

He laughs deeply and says, "The worst nightmare that any living creature could ever imagine, except...I AM REAL! I am called Arthas, the Lich King of the Scourge!" He then turns around to see a pony with a white coat, light blue wavy mane, a monocle, a horn, and a cutie mark of three gold crowns bowing down before him and feels his mood perk up a bit more and says, "Rise up! I am not your king so there is no need to bow to me."

The strange pony standing before the others rises to his full height coughing a bit and responds saying, "My apologies Your Highness, but it is customary for any pony to bow down to royalty. Be it of their own kingdom, or one from afar. I must ask from which land you come from and which kingdom do you rule? I know of several royal families, but I have never heard of you as of yet"

Arthas is intrigued and says, "I come from a land of death, in the Frozen North. My kingdom is called Icecrown, and I sit alone atop the Frozen Throne of Icecrown Citadel."

He watches with interest as the dust cloud disperses, revealing a being way taller than him. Wearing some kind of strangely designed heavy armor, with eyes glowing blue and emitting what appears to be frost vapors and having long golden hair. Seeing an opportunity to open a new location for trading, he introduces himself saying, "Pardon my rudeness Your Highness, my name is Fancy Pants. Perhaps we could consider becoming trade partners and help improve your citizen's lives as well as our own once this crisis is over with. Are you here for the royal wedding by chance, Your Highness?"

He smiles and ponders the idea and responds saying, "It is possible, when the chance arises. Either come yourself or send emissaries. Unfortunately, I was on my way to visit family that I have fallen out of touch with. When I saw the attack happening, I jumped into the fray to find out if I still have my skills in battle. Who is getting married?"

Fancy Pants smiles at that and says, "We each have skills that we need to keep sharp if we intend to stay at the top of our game. I shall try to find time to schedule a visit to your kingdom one day, so we can figure out what you would like to trade and exchange with us. It is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor's wedding today, it is in the wedding hall at the top of the city beside the castle. Just follow the path of decorations laid out and you will find it in no time at all Your Highness. I shall bother you no more and resume guiding these nobles to safety away from the changeling attackers, good day Your Highness."

Arthas chuckles and turns around to head into the battle when Sindragosa says to him, "I have killed thirty so far, what is taking you so long to kill just one slowpoke!"

He answers her by saying, "I was doing business with a pony, I am considering opening up Icecrown to trade with the other empires if they aren't to terrified to consider it." He then hears a flapping and a hissing noise as he sees a insect like creature rushing towards him in a pathetic attack attempt. Drawing his sword, he turns around in a circle and slices the creature clean in two halves, falling on either side of him saying, "That was a pitiful attack, not very well thought out at all. There is no tactic with an open all out rush like that." He then continues on his way to where the fighting is more intense, eager to catch up to Sindragosa's lead on him.

Meanwhile at the Wedding Hall thirty minutes later

The pony in charge of the music goes into a trance suddenly and sifts through her vast collection of songs and selects one and begins to play it over the speakers, ignoring the fighting going on in the room around her. She stands stock still, staring straight forward as if waiting for a cue of some kind.

Twilight turns away from the real Cadence, noticing the inappropriate music beginning to play. She sees Dj Pon3 in a trance and staring straight forward and says, "Hey are you ok over there DJ? Why are you playing this music for, this isn't acceptable for a wedding!" She sighs and shakes her head, hoping that she snaps out of it soon. Unable to move due to the stuff locking her hooves to the floor, she turns back to Cadence and her brother Shining Armor. Noticing that they are still talking, she wonders when she will try to use her magic to free him when she sees her begin to lower her horn to touch his.

Arthas hears music playing from inside and listens to it for the right moment to enter for the full effect and thrusts the doors open swiftly and violently just when the song goes from instrumental to adding voice to it, drawing the attention of everyone inside and saying, "I'm sorry to just drop by unannounced, but my invitation seems to have been lost in the mail!"

Dj sings along to the song, saying, "Hail! Hail! Hail!" as the strange creature strides across the floor, blood dripping off some places of their armor.

Twilight stares in horror at seeing Arthas standing before them all, soaked in green and red blood. Too shocked and horrified for words, she just stares at him open mouthed while Celestia is still inside the cocoon.

The large changeling female stares in rage at the being who created her and screams, "HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOUR FACE BEFORE ME NOW, YOU SADISTIC AND VICIOUS FUCKER! I HOPE YOU FUCKING CROAK ONE DAY IN THE MOST PAINFUL WAY POSSIBLE, ALONG WITH THAT FUCKING PROFESSOR YOU GAVE ME TO, TO EXPERIMENT ON!" She continues growling in rage at the one who made her.

He laughs at seeing who led the attack on the city and ignores her, choosing to walk up to his daughter Celestine first saying, "Oh I think you will want to be able to hear me when I say this sweetheart." He taps on the green shell and shakes his head and smacks the flat side of his sword, Frostmourne against it and watches as she falls to the ground with a singed horn, coughing and sputtering.

Celestia lays on the ground, coughing and sputtering while trying to recover her strength and says, "Why that was very thoughtful of you to do Twilight, but I think that you should..." Her words are cut off as she looks around and sees a very familiar armored boot standing before her, following it up to find the very familiar form she wishes was not her father and says in the royal voice, "WHY IN TARTARUS ARE YOU HERE FATHER! ARE YOU TRYING TO TAKE MY KINGDOM FROM ME NOW LIKE YOU TRIED WITH ALL THE OTHERS!? WELL I WILL DIE BEFORE I LET YOU TAKE ANYTHING FROM ME THAT I HAD WORKED HARD FOR! BESIDES, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE STILL IMPRISONED. HOW ARE YOU STANDING RIGHT HERE BEFORE MY VERY EYES!" Her eyes, mane and tail change to fire as her eyes glow a bright white as her rage takes over.

Arthas chuckles and starts laughing out loud and says, "Of course I haven't come to take your kingdom away from you... not yet at least. I just thought that I should make sure that you knew that I was awake is all, it was a funny coincidence with you being attacked. Oh and by the way, I think I should be the one to introduce you two after being separated for so many years. Princess Celestine, meet...YOUR MOTHER!"

Her body returns to normal as her eyes shrink to pinpricks as she asks, "Wait, how is that my mother? Mine and Luna's mother is called Amore. That creature just can't be her, I'm sorry. You will have to try again to convince me of your lies father."

He chuckles and crosses his arms and says, "Well, after Amore took you girls from me and hid you well, she returned to the castle and told me what she did and why. I understood the reason why and decided to punish her harshly for it, therefore I sent her to be part of his experiments. Now what you see here is the result of several failed attempts. One day, she broke free and took a couple other successful tries with her and hid from me for a time and changed her name to Queen Chrysalis I do believe. Of course she has lost her sanity completely, haven't you lovebug?"

Chrysalis (Amore) snarls and says, "Don't you dare start calling me by that stupid fucking nickname you gave me back then you dickhead! You lost every right to call me your lover since you gave me to that damn mad scientist of a doctor!"

Chapter 7: When chaos passes, plans form

Dj Pon3 finally snaps out of her trance as the song comes to an end and turns everything off mumbling, "I bucking hate when that happens." She then looks to all the other ponies and says, "My apologies every pony, that tends to happen once in awhile. I have a certain condition that causes that, and the medication is only experimental." She then notices the room is a mess and says, "Wait, what is going on here?"

Everypony's eyes in the room widen as Celestia's eyes become as wide as dinner plates and says in a stunned voice, "M-Mama? I-Is that really you? Luna and I have been missing you ever since you told us to run to the ponies and live a happy life. Why did you do that to us Mama, why did you take us from Papa?"

Chrysalis (Amore) rolls her eyes at the show of affection and a touching reunion saying, "I am not the sweet and innocent mother you had anymore, your mother Amore is gone for good and my personality is here to stay. So cut out that doe eyed expression you have on your face, the reason she abandoned you like that is because she cared for the future of you two. She wanted you to have happy lives, not be miserable and grow up to be corrupt and evil like your father."

Annoyed by the facade she is putting up, Arthas steps closer and says, "Do I really have to sing that song that you used to sing to me whenever you were depressed?"

She snaps her head to him with fear on her face and yells, "DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE DO THAT OR I WILL KILL CELESTINE!"

He chuckles and says, "Oh please, if you were really going to hurt her, you would have done it already. You also can't because I know Amore is still there deep inside, locked away in a cage of misery. You also know she is still there, or you wouldn't have remembered the name that I gave her and Lunetha." He clears his throat and laughs, saying to the pony by the music board, "Musician, play me a song of longing for a lost love." He then turns to look at Chrysalis and says, "You have forced my hand lover, it looks like I shall have to sing that song from long ago. Maybe then you might return to your senses and give your daughter the touching reunion she deserves." He then begins to hum a tune before breaking into song.

As Arthas's voice rings out through the hall, Twilight is entranced by its beauty and says, "His voice is so smooth and beautiful, it almost makes me want to forget the evil that he has done and hold him tightly." She then looks to the other girls in the room and sees that a few of them are looking at him like she was and chuckles and whispers, "Seems like he is a siren as well as a king of death."

Rarity looks at him and sees a fantasy unfolding before her eyes and says, "Oh he is sooo dreamy...oh so marvelous and majestic."

Chrysalis fights to keep Amore inside of the prison she created, but fails miserably as her body's appearance fades slowly back to what it used to be and her voice changes as she joins Arthas in singing her parts of the song.

Celestia's eyes tear up as she watches her mother gradually returning to her, waiting for the song to end so she can rush up and hug her mama for dear life and talk to her.

As Amore continues to sing her part in the song, her eyes tear up as well. Feeling very guilty for putting her daughters through a tough decision to abandon them so they can have a better life. The song begins to wind down to the ending and she finishes the song out as a tear falls from her eye and lands on the floor saying, "Celestine, my darling daughter, I am so proud of the way you grew up. I wish Lunetha was here to say hello, but everypony have their duties. Maybe one day I shall come back and speak to her if Chrysalis allows it. I am so proud of you and the way you rule your subjects with kindness instead of fear and cruelty." She narrows her eyes and looks towards her ex lover Arthas as she says that and continues, "If only every ruler could learn from you and Luna, I believe that this world could all live together in peace."

Arthas crashes the moment and scoffs saying, "Oh please, I rather enjoy the way I rule my subjects. They enjoy it as well, because they compliment me once in awhile on how I am running things as Lich King or as the previous Lich King said to me before, 'The Jailer of the Damned'.

As the moment is dampened by his rude interruption, Amore squints in irritation and says to him, "That is only because they are forced to obey you! They don't obey by choice or obligation, they are little more than slaves to the king." She turns back to her daughter and says, "Come here sweetie, momma wants to hug her darling daughter once more before she returns to the prison Chrysalis has created."

Celestia frantically runs to her mama crying and saying, "Momma, Momma don't go! Please stay, there is so much that we need to catch up on!" She collides with her mother and wraps her arms around her as tears run down her face, wrecking her makeup.

Ignoring the lovey dovey fest over there, he turns around and ponders on what she said to him and thinks, 'Is what she said true? I may have to experiment and find that out for sure, I would like to know what it feels like to be truly loved as a king.' As he begins to hear the bawl fest going on between Amore and Celestia, he gets fed up with how annoying he finds hearing them crying in happiness over being reunited finally after so many years of being apart. He decides to express his own feelings of irritation and draws Frostmourne, turning it around in his grasp and raises it into the air with both hands as he turns around to face the two crying ponies.

Twilight watches him and cries out, "Princess Celestia, Amore, watch out!" Her warning gets their attention as they both turn to look at Arthas who has Frostmourne in the air held in a downward position.

Arthas amplifies his voice and bellows, "That is enough of this lovey dovey bullshit! It is time you two just chill out!" He then thrusts his sword downward into the marble floor and sends out a massive blast of frost, trapping every pony and covering every building in Canterlot with ice. Ensuring that they can still breathe air, he rises from the floor and says, "There, now have the two of you calmed down?"

Amore and Celestia both glare and Arthas and shiver, nodding their heads and answering, "Y-Yessss, w-we ha-have. Can you please release us from this ice, we're freezing our tails off."

He chuckles and sheathes Frostmourne saying, "Unfortunately, I have no control over the effects of the spells I use. Therefore you must find your own way out of it. Isn't there supposed to be some kind of a wedding today between Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor? I just thought that I would stop by and say hello to my darling daughter and inform her that I am awake now, but I am bored of this so I shall take my leave of this happiness." He then turns around and walks out of the wedding hall returning to the streets that are full of frozen ponies and creatures.

Celestia powers up her horn and shatters the ice around her and everyone in the room, releasing them from further suffering from the cold. She looks to her mother and says, "I really do wish that you would stay longer, but I shall begin searching for a way that you can free yourself from Chrysalis's prison for good one day. Goodbye mother, I will miss you until you return again."

As she begins to weaken and her body slowly reverts to the previous form, she says, "My darling daughter, be sure to tell your sister that I love the both of you equally. That I am also proud of the both of you, goodbye my daughter." As she sheds one final tear, her eyes close as her body finishes its transformation and reopen to be green eyes with vertical slits in them. She then sighs in frustration and says, "My apologies for taking too long, but it took forever for me to get that annoying pest back under control. Let's get back to business shall we? Canterlot is mine now, so get lost!" She puts Celestia back into a cocoon, annoyed at how that cretin freed her so easily the first time.

Cadence resumes her attempt to free her fionce, Shining Armor from the substance trapping him and touches her horn to his, to give him her magic so he can restore the barrier around Canterlot saying, "Here Shiny, use my magic to restore the barrier around Canterlot. Whatever is mine is yours too, we share everything together Shiny. That means if one of us lacks the magic to do something, the other helps out and offers theirs in return."

Shining Armor smiles at her and says, "I love you Cady." He then rubs his horn against hers affectionately, and feels her magic flowing into him and casts the spell. He sends out a violet barrier that expands and returns to protecting Canterlot once more.

Arthas is halfway down the stairs when he is launched forth off the stairs, landing face first onto the stones below. Rising to his feet, he sees a violet wave of magic make its way outward. Watching curiously as it stops and forms a barrier around Canterlot, looking around him to notice that there aren't anymore frozen changelings in the streets below. Curious, he wanders around ponyville to find the pony who was nice to him thinking to himself, 'I think it would be nice to attend a party and socialize a bit, as well as celebrate seeing one of his long lost daughters again. Perhaps that pony I met might be able to help me out and find some way for me to attend the ceremony tomorrow, I think Fancy Pants was his name. I shall search for him to see if he has any ideas on what can be done to possibly allow me to attend it.' He then begins his search for the pony in question.

Fancy pants is grateful that he managed to reach safety when that blast of frost went through Canterlot, freezing everypony and every building. He looks out the door to the residence and sees a distorted image of a tall, heavily armored figure pass by the house. Wondering who could be outside right now and not affected by the spell already, he opens the door and says, "Good heavens, why are you out right now? Were you affected by that big blast of frost that went through Canterlot earlier?" He then realizes that it is the foreign king known as Arthas and bows quickly and says, "Oh, my apologies Your Highness. I did not realize that it was you out there, I can't make anything out by looking through these frozen windows."

He chuckles and says, "No I was in safety at the time, I just managed to open the door enough to get outside to see what is going on right now. It is quite alright, do you by chance know of a way that might allow me to be able to attend the wedding without them knowing it is me under this armor?" He then sets a hand on the hilt of Frostmourne and waits for his reply.

Fancy Pants smiles as the start of an idea comes to mind and says, "Please come inside so we can discuss things further, Your Highness. I might know of one pony in Canterlot at the moment that just might be able to assist us with making that happen."

Arthas steps inside and sees a few ponies huddle together in a corner out of seeing the terrifying appearance of him, having to bend at the waist and knees to get inside and says, "Please don't all start screaming at once, that violet wave of magic pushed me down the stairs and caused my nose to bleed when my face spared my body the pain of landing on the stone first. I am just glad that no serious damage was done to my body in this armor, can't say the same thing about this headache that magic gave me though."

Sindragosa panics and furiously attacks the barrier, trying to get through it and tries calling to her master through the link and says, "My king, are you alright! Can you hear me at all, MASTER!"

He grunts as her words reach him, making him wince and replying back to her through the link, "Yes Sindragosa, I can hear you now. What is the problem?"

She calms down a little and continues to attack the barrier and says, "I was pushed out of the city by a violet shield of some kind! I am trying to break through it but it is not budging at all! What shall I do now, should I go back and fetch the army to come save you?"

He chuckles and answers her, "No, leave the army there for the time being. I have a wedding to attend to, my family is getting a little bit bigger today. So my new orders to you are go on home for now Sindragosa, I shall call for you if I need your aid. As for that game we were playing, unfortunately you beat me yet again. Have a good flight Sindy."

She is shocked at him giving her a nickname, calling her Sindy instead of her name. She smiles and then says, "Very well my king, I shall return home and wait for you to call upon me. I told you before, that you would have difficulty in beating me in combat competition." Her attacks then cease and she turns around and heads back towards Icecrown Citadel.

Arthas returns to pay attention to his newest ally and apologizes saying, "My apologies, I was distracted by a minor headache. What was it you were saying sir?"

Fancy Pants smiles and nods saying, "It is quite alright Your Highness, I was just mentioning to you that there is a pony here that has a lot of talent and skill with fashion." He then looks to a pony in the crowd currently huddling in the corner furthest away from the scary looking foreign ruler and says, "Suri, can you please come forth. There is someone important I wish for you to meet that might help your business improve by helping them with an issue they are having."

The frightened pony steps forth, intrigued at hearing how this scary being can help her struggling business improve and says, "Very well Fancy, if you trust this being, then I shall too. So please tell me what I can do to help them?"

He looks at Suri with a smile and turns back to Arthas and says, "Please allow me to introduce you to Suri Polomare, she is visiting Canterlot to attend the wedding as well as us Celebrities. You shall accompany us to the wedding hall, and I shall vouch for you personally. The plan I have in mind right now is that first we remove the armor and weapons you wield because that stands out too much, then we have Suri here look you over to see what she can do to help you blend in a bit better. The last part of the plan will be to convince the curious guards that your invitation was forgotten but you are a friend that was invited over tea a few weeks ago." He then looks to the rest of the group and says, "Everypony, please allow me to introduce you to our esteemed guest of honor. Arthas, King of the Frozen Throne of Icecrown Citadel in the Frozen North."

Meanwhile, at the wedding hall...

Shining Armor sighs in relief as the migraine finally ends and says, "Looks like whatever was attacking the shield has gone away, whatever it was was pretty strong."

Cadence smiles and says, "Well I am just glad that you aren't suffering from maintaining the shield anymore, if you ever need me to, I am more than willing to share the burden with you. Now then, will somepony please explain what the rude interruption by that strange being claiming to be some kind of Lich King is all about and why he called my aunt Celestia his daughter?"

Princess Celestia then sighs and says, "This will take a little bit, please sit down Princess Cadence. The rest of you may as well gather around, you should hear this as well. I have some questions for you Twilight Sparkle, but those will wait when this explanation is over. First, I need to remove the ice trapping my ponies." She then casts a spell and sends a wave of magic throughout the city, targeting the ice trapping her citizens.

An hour and a half passes by as Celestia finishes telling the entire story to Cadence of who the intruder was and how she and Luna were related to him and says, "That is the entire story as I remember it. I don't know much about where he came from except that he ruled a land called Northrend and came from a war torn world known as Azeroth."

Cadence looks down, finally understanding so much more now that she heard the whole story. More questions pop into her head as she looks up to Celestia and asks, "Do you know if I am related to him at all? Because my name comes from the first princess of the Crystal Empire. I sure hope that I am not related to that monster."

She looks at her and sighs saying, "I am sorry Cadence, but I do not know. What I do know is that Princess Amore didn't have any other children than Luna and I, but we don't know if she had any more after she returned to him. Only he or Amore would have those answers."

The pink alicorn sighs in disappointment and says, "Yeah, who knows whenever I will have the chance to get that important answer. One of them is imprisoned inside of an insane changeling, and the other lives in a horrible citadel full of dead things in the lands north of the Crystal Empire and is on his way there right now. I am never going to get my answers now."

Twilight speaks up and tries to comfort her and says, "Don't worry Cadence, I am positive you will get your answers one day. He is after all, just over a thousand years old. You are an alicorn too, so time is on your side. You only need to have lots of patience and wait for the opportunity presents itself."

Celestia looks to Twilight pointedly and narrows her eyes and says, "Speaking of answers and opportunities, Twilight Sparkle. Did you go somewhere that you weren't supposed to a few weeks ago? My sister told me about a stubborn pony that refused to listen to her warnings, and then left in the middle of the night to go deal with them."

She looks down at the ground guiltily and sighs saying, "I'm sorry for ignoring your sister, Princess Celestia. You know how it drives me bananas not having answers to every single question I have, I just could not stand waiting one more year waiting to get more answers. Please don't send me back to Magic Kindergarten for ignoring Princess Luna's warnings."

She raises her eyebrow mischievously and takes the opportunity to punish her student a bit and says, "Only on one condition, Twilight." She then looks at her and waits for her answer.

Twilight eagerly says, "Whatever it is Princess Celestia, name it and I will do whatever you wish."

Celestia happily smiles and says, "Okay then, please tell me everything you seen and experienced during your journey there."

She facepalms herself and then sighs and begins her story by saying, "It all began just after our trip to the Dragon Lands to make sure that he would be okay during his journey."

Meanwhile in a private residence somewhere in Canterlot

Arthas is grateful with Fancy Pants deciding to get the group to change locations to his house, allowing him the freedom to fully stand up and have room to spare to remove his armor and set it down so Suri Polomare can begin to take his measurements. He first takes off his boots, chuckling at how the ponies' nose wrinkle and their faces cringe at the hideously foul smell coming from them. He watches as they eagerly watch as he goes to remove his helm, facing away and leaning forward to surprise them and takes the helm off completely. He then sets it beside his boots and rises up suddenly and throws his head back, causing his hair to whip into the air and land against the back of his armor. Earning a couple gasps of surprise, he turns around to face them to let them see his face finally.

The ponies look at him curiously as he looks nothing like a pony, having a relatively flat face, no muzzle or ears on top of his head. Having pale skin, long blonde hair that go past his shoulders and green eyes, his looks cause a couple mares to bite their lips at his handsome features.

The smell only getting worse when he removes the rest of his armor. He chuckles as one of them actually has to leave the room, holding a hand over their mouth needing to throw up as the stench becomes too overwhelming to handle and says, "Do I really smell that bad to ponies?" He stands there in a soft white wool shirt and a pair of wool pants that serve as clothing as well as added padding against the heavy armor.

Fancy Pants holds his nose closed and tries to breathe through his mouth and struggles to say, "Unfortunately for you, yes it is Your Highness. Please feel free to use my shower or the bathtub to cleanse yourself of that foul smell, I shall go fetch somebody to privately clean this armor of yours so you can be ready to depart after the wedding party."

He then softly smiles and smells himself, wincing at the strong smell and says, "That is very kind of you to not allow me to attend the wedding, smelling like a rotten corpse. I shall think of a way to pay you back for doing so much to help me be able to attend the wedding. When whoever cleans the armor, I have two words of warning for them regarding a couple pieces. The first warning is for the helm that I wear, Under no circumstance is any magic permitted to be used when cleaning it. If magic is used, it will send out a magic pulse in retaliation that will kill every living pony within a one mile radius. As for the second warning, it is for my sword Frostmourne. Be extremely careful and respectful when handling it, it has a mind of its own and will retaliate as well if it ever feels the need to. Oh and one more thing to add, do not try to put the helm on. It is extremely choosy at who is permitted to wear it, that helm is the crown that shows others who wears it is the king of Icecrown Citadel, the Jailer of the damned. That pulse will be sent out if it finds whoever tries it on unworthy to wear it, killing every being that is within one mile of it including the wearer."

Fancy Pants writes down the warnings and remembers to ensure the strict rules regarding the two pieces. He then looks up to his guest and says, "That is not necessary at all, Your Highness. It is enough that you even agreed to use the facilities of a strange pony that you do no really know, or even came to me to ask for help. I shall see you once again after you have finished with your bath or shower Your Highness, I shall have a few clean towels set inside for you to dry yourself off with. Now, if you would please follow me. I will show you where the bath and shower are located." He then proceeds to show Arthas the way to the washroom, getting some servants to grab some fresh towels and placing them there for when he finishes bathing.

Arthas remembers what it was like having service like this back when he was much younger and sighs happily and says, "I do apologize for the extremely foul smell that I have right now, I have been too busy with ruling the citizens to even have time to bathe properly."

He continues to lead the way and says to him, "Even rulers need their personal days to tend to their personal needs. You should take whatever chance you can to take a break from your duties to them Your Highness, or it will surely destroy you from the inside out." He then stops at a door and says to him, "Well Your Highness, this is where we shall part ways for now while I go fetch somepony to tend to your armor and keep quiet about it." He then bows and says, "Until we meet again later, Your Highness."

Smiling, he nods and says thank you before walking into the room and looks around at all the advancements that were apparently made over the years and closes the door, deciding to get busy trying to figure out how everything works these days and says, "Wow, times sure have changed since back in the old days. This may take a bit of time, I better get started on learning how things function now."

A curious unicorn mare with a light grey coat, pale violet eyes and a magentaish gray watches the tall and attractive being enter the shower, only not liking the intensely foul odor coming from his body and his armor and softly says, "I really feel bad for Fancy Pants, he is going to have to get his plumbing redone after this strange King Arthas fully cleans himself. He really does have a certain handsome appeal after all, if you can force yourself to look past the smell." Her legs get a little itchy and she rubs them together at how his looks manage to make even more curious.

A half hour passes by as he finally figures out how each thing works in the room saying to himself, "Now to decide which one to use." After a little internal debating, he decides on using the shower to get himself clean first. He removes the thin shirt and the pants and lay them on a flat countertop so he can put them back on when he is finished bathing himself. He reaches in and adjusts the water to his liking and steps into the shower and closes the door behind him and begins to wash his face and hair first using what soap he could find, discovering that it smells of spearmint and winter's first frost.

She continues to rub her legs together as she is now biting a nail waiting for the horrid smell to go away completely before checking out Arthas as he showers. She finds the burning desire rising from below too much to bear and is unable to wait anymore. She makes her way towards the door to the shower and slowly cracks it open to watch him as he showers and is shocked to see him standing at full mast inside of the shower, easily beating Fancy Pants in size and any other stallion she has been with.

Arthas hears the door crack open and discreetly looks over to see who it is, seeing a pale violet eye looking through the crack, a light magentaish mane and a light gray coat. Finding out that it is just one of the mares in the group, he continues to wash the rest of his body with the bar of soap. Eager to get rid of the rest of the grime and dirt that have built up on his skin over the years, he scrubs his chest and goes down to his legs. After finishing with his feet, he sighs and remembers he has to clean his back and looks to the cracked open door and says, "Please step inside, I would like you to please do me a favor and scrub my back for me? Humans have short arms and can't do it themselves."

The curious mare walks into the room and sighs saying, "Many apologies for intruding on you Your Highness, I just couldn't help myself from finding your appearance too...attractive. Could you ever find it in your ability to forgive me one day for my curiosity?"

He mischievously puts a finger and thumb on his chin, pretending to think on it when he already knows the answer. He finally stops stalling and says, "I can forgive you on one condition. I will forgive you if you can come in here and scrub my back clean for me."

She closes the door behind her and smiles saying, "I can sure do that for you, Your Highness. Thank you for choosing to forgive me, my name is Fleur De Lis. I am a supermodel for a magazine called Cosmare, have you heard of it or read it?"

Arthas cocks his head and says, "Unfortunately, I have not had much time to read anything at all really. Been too busy with dealing with the never ending problems of the citizens or dealing with other kingdoms wanting to pick a fight with me or take some of my land. This king needs a short time to relax and just enjoy...life, you know?"

Fleur De Lis takes the opportunity to strip down to nothing while he is complaining and strides forward towards the shower door, her hooves lightly clicking against the tile floor. Her ample chest size lightly bouncing with each step, she softly laughs and says, "I can help you to relax and enjoy life for a bit, Your Highness." She then opens the shower door and steps inside and closes it behind her, quickly getting to work on getting his back scrubbed clean.

Not sure why she said it like that, he forgets about it and just lets her work on cleaning his back for him and says, "It really stinks, you know? Not being able to reach your own back to scrub it clean, it is rather embarrassing really."

She blushes at thinking he could smell her arousal for a moment but then relaxes and continues to clean his back, looking forward to what she was going to do to help King Arthas relax and enjoy life and says, "I can sure understand that, Your Highness. I think that somepony should invent something that would allow any being to scrub their backs themselves."

Chapter 9: A new day, new problems arise

Meanwhile...back on Azeroth, Twenty minutes before Icecrown Citadel was banished

Alexstrasza senses something amiss in the air around them and begins to worry, then walks out to the ledge and then looks to Icecrown Citadel. Not liking what was in the air around her, she looks to Cielstrasza and Chronormu and says, "Something in the air troubles me greatly...Cielstrasza, Chronormu, accompany me on a flight to investigate this disturbance. I also require two strong guardians to serve as escorts, we shall retain our altered appearances so we can gather information on the situation." She then gets up onto a drake and nods her head to take flight, with those she mentioned at her heels.

Chromie catches up to her on a drake and says, "What do you think is going on Your Majesty?"

She looks to the disguised Chronormu and says, "Nothing good by the feel of it, I hope it turns out to be no big problem..."

Eighteen minutes later, in the skies of Icecrown

Cielstrasza looks at the towering Icecrown Citadel and hears cheers rise from the ground and then says, "My Queen, it appears that the allied armies of the Horde and the Alliance succeeded in defeating the Lich King. This is a day to celebrate a great victory over that foul monster."

Chromie looks to Ciel and then says, "Oh yeah, the drinks are on me today!"

Alexstrasza then directs the drake to fly lower to get a better idea of what was going on and then says, "The armies are both marching to the furthermost limits of the citadel and are encircling it. I don't understand this, we need to investigate further."

The gnome then gets a prickly tingling all over her body and says, "I don't know either, but it can't be good because I am getting a prickly tingling sensation throughout my body Your Majesty."

After a minute more of flying, they get close enough to see casters of all kinds gather in groups and circles around the entire citadel as Cielstrasza then speaks up saying, "It looks like they are performing some kind of large scale spell. I do not know what kind of spell it is or what it does, but I think we should get away before they finish it."

She stares on in shock at recognizing the shape on the ground and then says, "Impossible...it just can't be that spell can it? It was locked away in Ulduar by the Titans, how could they have gotten their hands on it unless..."

Chromie looks at Alexstrasza with concern and asks, "Uhm...I'm sorry Your Majesty, I don't understand what you are saying."

Alexstrasza's breath hitches in her throat as she feels the magic reaching a critical point and then suddenly screams, "NO, DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT SPELL!!!" She then turns to the others with panic in her eyes and then yells, "Make haste and fly away immediately, as fast as you can! We must get out of range before they cast it, or we will be caught up in it!"

The gnome hangs on tight as the drakes and guardians immediately turn away and rush to get out of the area, looking back just before a flash comes from the ground. Moments later, it is proceeded by multicolored ribbons of light dancing through the air in the skies behind them over Icecrown Citadel. The ribbons then become one and form a massive pillar of multicolored streams in the circle of light, then becoming a blinding aura that forces her to look away from the citadel saying, "Wow that is bright! I am going to be seeing spots for a bit now."

The queen then senses the fading magic and then turns back to see what became of Icecrown Citadel, only to see it gone completely. Leaving a big crater where it used to stand and then growls angrily and says, "Those fools have no idea what they have just done to this world... Assume your regular forms except for you Chronormu, you are going to take that tome they have into your possession shortly after we land. I have words to exchange with those fools." She then jumps off of the drakes back and then takes her normal form and then heads to the spot closest to the leader to land.

Tirion hears an angered roar come from above and then yells, "Clear a landing path for Queen Alexstrasza and her companions!"

Alexstrasza lands on the ground in anger and watches as Highlord Tirion falls on his rear and then glares at him and shouts, "How did you get your hands on that tome?! Do you have any idea what you have done, and what the consequences will be!? Hand it over immediately so we can fix what you have done!"

Archmage Malin approaches hastily and presents the tome to her and says, "I tried to advise him against using it, but he ignored me and wanted to give his old friend a chance to redeem himself in a different world."

Chromie hurries forth and tears the book from his hands, looking at him with a scowl on her face and then says, "That monster will never repent his actions! If you thought that he might, then you are a fool for believing it!"

The highlord then sighs and says, "I may have been wrong to think that, but I just couldn't bring myself to end his life. He fell victim to the corruption of the Old Gods, he deserved a chance to redeem himself...now this world is rid of..."

Shrill cries of agony and madness rise all around them, stopping the highlord mid sentence as corpses beyond measure start crawling out of the ground in the crater where the citadel once stood as Alexstrasza then looks at the bottom of the crater and then says, "You freed the dead from their servitude to the Lich King, now they are screaming in pain as the bond continues to be severed. With the crown unable to be placed upon another's head, the millions of dead will drive all living things into a corner and then slaughter every last one." She then looks to the shocked faces of the surrounding mages and soldiers and then looks to the leaders and then yells, "Run to your cities and gather your forces, for the fight against the freed dead has begun! We shall keep them at bay while you all work together and form a unified army to battle the undead threat to Azeroth, NOW RUN!!" She then watches as the armies all start to flee from Icecrown in terror. She then turns to Chromie and then says, "Chronormu, get on the drake and return to the Temple. Once you return there, start studying that book and find a way to connect us with the world the Lich King was sent to. We must return the dead in this world to their servitude of the Lich King! Tell the other aspects there to call for every dragon they can spare, and to send them to the borders of Icecrown to slay every undead creature that tries to cross the border."

She then nods her head and says, "At once, Your Majesty!" She then sprints back to the drake she was on and then takes flight, heading back to the temple with all haste to start her task.

Two Years Later

Alexstrasza looks around at the field around them, seeing hundreds of dragons assisting the allied armies of the living beings on Azeroth keep the undead hordes of nearly two million at bay. Losing more ground with each following day, she nervously looks to the new gate that is being built. With the last few stones being set into place, two towering dragon statues look out at the land in front of them. She then makes another pass to push back the undead once more, raining purifying flames before turning back to check on the status of the portals state of completion.

Brann Bronzebeard looks at the massive portal the cooperating armies of the living are working on and sees Queen Alexstrasza stand beside him and then says, "This is truly a marvel Your Majesty, who would've thought that every living being would actually work together."

Alexstrasza then sighs and says, "Indeed it is truly a wonder at what can be accomplished by working together instead of trying to kill each other. I hope this is finished soon and activated so they will return to their servitude of the Lich King, all life on this world is at stake and we must finish this quickly."

Thrall then approaches the two slowly and then says, "It pains me to admit that you are correct Your Majesty, but the final piece that convinced the Horde that we needed to work together was the fall of Orgrimmar. That was a sad day for the Horde then, but the day after that...they looked forward to getting revenge against the undead and reclaimed the lands. This gate is this worlds only hope to repair the bond that the foolish humans severed, it would have been so much simpler if Highlord Tirion had just took his revenge and ended his life."

Tirion then approaches them and then sighs saying, "I now regret my decision to not take his life that day just over two years ago, I would do anything to make amends for that mistake. We also need to rebuild Stormwind yet again due to the undead rampage, but at least we are still holding the lines against them."

Darion Morgraine stops near the group and then looks to Queen Alexstrasza and bows his head saying, "Your Majesty, the portal is now ready to be prepared."

Back on Equus, in the streets of Canterlot

Arthas exits the home of Fancy Pants, with his new suit folded up and placed in a bag at his hip. He then gets up onto his steed's back once more as he starts to sense a familiar magic coming from far away, he then decides to go investigate it and then gallops Invincible out of the city to summon Sindragosa.

Invincible then continues to head to the city gates and says, "Sir, where are we going?"

He then looks on down the road and continues to guide the steed down the road, chuckling with glee as he sees and hears the panicked screams of terror of the citizens as they are bumped out of the way and to the ground when Invincible runs into them. He then laughs out loud and then yells to the citizens with a booming voice, "Feel all your hopes turn to dust when you see death come for you, watch as your dreams become nightmares without end. Listen to the cries of despair as your own children curse you for letting them die at the hands of the Scourge!" He sees the gates of Canterlot in the distance and gallops towards them saying, "Open up those gates or I will lay waste to this city like I did to Stratholme!"

The faithful steed then gallops through the gates as cries of panic rise into the air behind them from the streets of Canterlot and then sighs saying, "Sir, I think that you really should try to change the way you view and treat the world. If you continue on down this path, history may repeat itself and instead of finding yourself wounded...you might die as the result of your actions."

Arthas then races to where he senses the magic coming from and then says, "I better ready my army to greet the ones using this familiar magic, whoever dares to come to my new playground and come after me is going to pay dearly...with their souls."

An hour later on Azeroth, after the portals' creation

Chronormu and Brann look at the finished portal in curiosity and then look to each other, nod and then look to Queen Alexstrasza as Chromie says, "Your Majesty, I am concerned about the differences between that world and ours. After that spell was used, I sensed a temporal disturbance that it created. I have studied that tome after those hotheads used it without closer examination, and I have learned that it may have sent Arthas into the past of that world."

Queen Alexstrasza then nods and says, "That is very unfortunate for that world indeed, but there is no way to correct what has been done. You and Brann Bronzebeard were the two that studied that tome, am I correct?"

She then nods to her and says, "Yes Your Majesty, we were. Who do you suggest should go first through the portal?"

The queen then considers it and then says, "Since you were key in fully understanding that tome, why don't you and Brann go through first and see what is on the other side of it."

Chromie then steps up to the gate, shifting to her gnome form as she continues to walk alongside Brann and then says, "Well Brann, are you looking forward to our newest adventure to an unknown world?!"

He then laughs and says, "Oh don't you know it kid, I love going on new adventures and discovering new things! Race ya through, last one there buys the drinks!"

She then laughs saying, "Oh you are so on dwarf, and don't call me kid! I am older than you are!" She then takes off running alongside him towards the portal.

Back on Equus, on the other side of the portal

Arthas stands in front of his hidden army before the large stone archway with two dragons looking to the land before them with a cruel smile on his face as he waits to see who passes through first. He then looks up to see Sindragosa flying in the skies above them, and then looks to the ground to the far side where the massive decomposing form of the former queen of the dragons Ashara is keeping out of sight. He then turns his gaze back to the portal as he spots two life forms pass through and then smiles as he waits for them to come closer to introduce himself.

Chromie then looks back at Brann and says, "I made it through first, the rounds are on you this time Brann!"

Brann then slows down and stops, shaking his head and then says, "I was so close to beating ya though, but a bet is a bet. I will honor the bet I made with ya, ya can pick the tavern we get drinks okay?" He then stops dead in his tracks as his eyes land on the large banner in the distance in front of the portal they came through and then says, "Blast my beard, that's...that's the banner of the Scourge! Why is it out here of all places?!" His eyes then look around and sees a tall figure standing to the side of it, recognizing it as the Lich King and then says, "Welp, we know that there is a Lich King on this side. I never would've guessed that they would be waiting for us, we should find out what their name is."

Her eyes go wide as she sees the being standing there next to the Scourge Banner and then says, "Uhm, you go ahead and do the talking here Brann. I am just going to stay quiet and watch for approaching enemies." She then scans around the area, sighing in relief at not seeing the undead hordes around them.

He steps forward and then greets the Lich King and says, "May we have words, Your Highness? There is a big issue involving the world where we come from, caused by the banishment of Icecrown Citadel and its king that sat in it's throne."

Arthas then becomes curious to hear what they have to say, so he masks his voice and then says, "You may come a bit closer as I am hard of hearing over such a distance, creature."

Brann looks to Chromie and says, "Well we are doing good so far, he isn't like Arthas at all. Maybe Arthas did die on this world after all, what do you think about it Chromie?" He then starts to get closer to the Lich King to discuss matters on Azeroth.

Chromie then looks at Brann and follows him saying, "I think something feels off here, but it would be good to gather more information." She then hears a flapping of wings and then looks up and sees a skeletal wing with blue flame running through the bones, serving as the flesh and allowing flight. She watches as more of the creature emerges from the cloud and her eyes widen at seeing that it is Sindragosa and then gulps saying, "I sure hope this goes peacefully, because Sindragosa is flying over our heads."

He looks up and then sees her as well and says, "Oh no...so the Lich King brought her back, I wonder who this Lich King is if it isn't Arthas." He then returns his gaze to the Lich King before them and then stops several feet away from him and then says, "Your Highness, have you ever heard of a world called Azeroth?"

Arthas looks at him and narrows his eyes, pretending to be someone else and says, "I have heard about it from the previous Lich King Arthas Menethil before he died, what troubles your world that drives you to seek me out strange creature?"

Brann then looks at the figure a bit more and then says, "Well you see, when the previous Lich King was banished. It caused every undead in Azeroth to cry out in pain and go into a blood crazed rampage, it even continues outside of where we built this portal. We lose more and more ground each passing day, we come to respectfully ask that you take them under your control and return them to their slumber."

He then chuckles at hearing this and then smiles and says, "So creature, you have the nerve to respectfully ask that I return them to their slavery to this crown and make them go back to sleep? Who do you think you are to request anything of me!? Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill the both of you and raise you as undead creatures."

Chromie then steps up and gulps audibly, then nervously says, "We mean no offense, Your Majesty. Our world is at great risk of perishing, and we are desperate indeed to ask you to do such a thing. Please think on the matter and put yourself in our shoes, would you not be desperate in wanting to preserving the life on this world if it were in danger?"

Arthas is then curious about what has happened in the time that he was sent away and then says, "I shall consider doing so, are you the leaders of your group?"

He then looks to Chromie and asks, "Do you think we should tell him about the others?"

She looks back and then nods her head and says, "I think that if he wants to speak to them, it is in our best interests to divulge that information to him."

Brann then nods his head and says, "Okay, if you say so Chromie." He then turns to look at the Lich King and then says, "No we are not, we are just a scouting party investigating this world where he was banished to. If you wish to meet them, could you come through with us?"

He then shakes his head and then says, "Unfortunately, I cannot. If the portal should close behind me, what would become of this world's undead?"

Chromie then sighs and then says, "Queen Alexstrasza would not allow the portal to be shut behind you, she just wishes to preserve the balance of this world that is currently upset. Will you reconsider coming across with us to see the state of the world with your own eyes?"

Arthas raises an eyebrow and then chuckles to himself and thinks, 'It would be rather amusing to see the reaction on her face when she discovers that I survived, even more enjoyable if she would permit me to see the state of the world from her back.' He then smiles and then looks at her then says, "I do not recognize that name, the previous Lich King never mentioned it to me before he passed on. Very well, you have piqued my curiosity. I shall go with you to see the state of your world." He then begins to walk towards them at a leisurely pace, in no big hurry to spare a few lives.

Brann then starts walking back to the portal and then looks back to ask the Lich King his name and then says, "Your Highness, may I ask your name?"

He then looks to the dwarf and then says, "Yes you may, my name is Frozen Crown. What might your names be, strange creatures from Azeroth?"

The dwarf goes first and introduces himself saying, "My name is Brann Bronzebeard, and I am an Ironforge Dwarf."

Chromie then looks at the Lich King and then says, "And My name is Chromie, and I am a gnome. Could you tell us how long ago the previous Lich King passed away?"

Arthas then nods and then says, "Yes, it was two years ago to this very day that he died." He then watches the portal ahead of him draw nearer and then sends an order to Sindragosa through the link saying, "Keep a watchful eye Sindragosa, I have some leaders to meet on the other side. Apparenty there is a problem on their world involving the numerous undead that I have not called to service, and only I can correct the problem. So I shall go and investigate what has happened during my time away, keep an eye on the army and keep them waiting for my return." He then addresses the army and issues them orders through the link saying, "Warriors of Icecrown hiding underground, I shall return once I take back control of the undead that are causing problems in Azeroth." He then follows them into the portal and rolls his shoulders as he feels the magic take affect and transport him back to Azeroth.

Brann then runs forth with Chromie as he sees that he is back on Azeroth and says to Queen Alexstrasza, "Your Majesty, Arthas Menethil has perished from his wounds two years ago. However, we have managed to bring with us the current Lich King Frozen Cown. Hopefully he will be able to return the undead to their servitude, Your Majesty."

Alexstrasza then looks at them and then says, "So there is a new Lich King of the undead Scourge, can you return these foul beings back to being under your command?"

He then looks out at the rampaging undead and then masks his voice and says, "I wish to see the damage they have done to this world with my own eyes, I will then attempt to return them to being under my servitude. I must ask you since you are strange to me, who are you?"

She then looks at him and says, "I am the queen of the dragon flights, Alexstrasza. It is unfortunate that Arthas Menethil has perished, I wish he finds peace in his next life."

Jaina then steps forward and then says, "I hope that monster suffers for what he has done to this world, he has done nothing but cause much pain and suffering through his actions."

Arthas then keeps the act up and then looks to her and says, "His last words mentioned some Jaina that he still cared deeply for, and that he failed his sister Calia and would forever curse his name for just trying to save his people."

Her eyes soften a bit, feeling guilty for speaking ill of him and then says, "I apologize for disliking your previous King Frozen Crown, but he committed a lot of foul deeds on Azeroth to earn that title. Do you remember what he said?"

He then pretends to think about it, laughing internally and enjoying his torment of his former love and says, "If my memory serves me right, I do think that he said 'Lady Jaina, now you won't ever have to worry about me trying to kill you anymore. May you find comfort and pleasure at hearing how I died alone and without a single person to mourn my passing, please throw a grand celebration if you ever hear of this one day. Remember this though Jaina, death hears and sees everything that happens in the world. I will always have a soft spot for you in my cold, unfeeling heart. I hope you are able to forgive me some day...' After he said that, his body slowly tensed up as he took a wheezing and painful breath before his face distorted in agony and stayed that way." He watches in glee as Jaina turns away with tears in her eyes and stands behind the other leaders.

Alexstrasza then looks at Frozen Crown and then says, "Are you ready to view the chaos that this world is currently suffering, Frozen Crown?"

Arthas then looks to her and bows his head respectfully and then says, "Indeed I am Your Majesty, am I to see the chaos from atop your majestic shoulders or am I to see it atop a lower status dragon?"

Cielstrasza glares at Frozen Crown and then roars saying, "You dare to suggest you sit atop of Queen Alexstrasza's shoulders like she is your mount, apologize to Her Majesty at once or perish in flames!"

She then glares back at Cielstrasza and then says admonishingly, "Do not threaten him like that again or he will not help us with our dilemma, he was only asking a simple question that was worded poorly."

He then bows his head to her and then says, "My apologies My Queen, I shall not let it happen again."

He then looks to the dragon and then says, "Perhaps I could have worded that differently, I not mean any offense. I was just asking due to the fact that I have no reliable way to see the chaos from the air as you so naturally do. I ask again then, how am I going to see the chaos that is affecting the world of Azeroth?"

Alexstrasza then ponders for a moment and then says, "You shall view it from atop my shoulders Frozen Crown, you have remained respectable towards me and the others. Therefore, I shall allow you to witness the chaos from atop my shoulders. Are you ready to depart and see the current state of Azeroth, Frozen Crown?" She then crouches down and extends a foreleg for him to climb up, then waits.

Arthas then nods and then says, "Thank you for being so generous Your Majesty, in the other world I am treated like a filthy beggar inside of a beautifully decorated palace and chased away." He then strides forth slowly, making sure that they don't see the hilt of Frostmourne just yet and then climbs up her offered leg, then into place between her shoulders and her neck. He hangs on tightly as she then takes to the skies above Dragonblight to show him the extent of the chaos.

A few hours pass by as Tirion then looks to the sky and says, "Here they come, they return from surveying the chaos among the world!" He moves out of the way as she lands on the ground gracefully.

He then sighs and then says, "I see why you seek to return the undead to their servitude, therefore I shall help you by doing what I can." He then smiles and then thinks, 'Oh when I get these soldiers back, I will truly be a force to recon with back on Equus.' He steps down from her shoulders and then bows his head to her and says, "Thank you for the flight through the beautiful landscapes Your Majesty, it would be truly beautiful if the undead weren't such an eyesore. Those Forsaken aren't much better." He then strides past the group towards the hordes of undead, stops and bellows in a loud royal voice, "UNDEAD SCOURGE OF MIGHTY ICECROWN CITADEL CEASE YOUR FIGHTING AND LISTEN TO YOUR KING!!!"

They watch intently as the field suddenly goes deathly quiet as Frozen Crown addresses them as Tirion says, "That voice is familiar somehow, but where have I heard it before?"

Arthas then continues to address his subjects and then leaps up onto a dwarven tank saying, "I KNOW YOU MUST FEEL GREAT ANGUISH AT THE LOSS OF YOUR KING, BUT HE HAS RETURNED TO TAKE YOU ALL HOME. SO STOW YOUR WEAPONS AND MARCH IN A COLUMN OF THREE WIDE, WITH LARGER BODIES FORMING A SEPARATE COLUMN OF ONE OR TWO WIDE THROUGH THIS PORTAL. YOU ARE TO RETURN TO THE LANDS OF THE FROZEN NORTH, WHERE ICECROWN CITADEL IS NOW AND RETURN TO YOUR SLUMBER!"

Alexstrasza's eyes widen with wonder as the undead hordes all stop and obey at once, then begin making their way to the gate in an organized march and then says, "That must be the power of the Crown that is at work here, it truly is a terrible thing to have such control."

Arthas then rubs his forehead in exhaustion and then says, "It can be at times, at others it is a blessing."

Tirion then shakes his head and then says, "I know that voice from somewhere, but...from where..." He then continues to rub and scratch his chin in thought on the matter, trying to figure out where he has heard it before when an idea strikes him. Acting on it he then says, "There is no way that Arthas could be alive, you said that he died two years ago. Yet there is something familiar about the way you hold yourself and talk, that isn't you Arthas...is it?"

He then chuckles and then throws his overcloak behind him and lets the sword show and then continues the act and says, "I don't know, am I him? Am I the monster that you all so detest and constantly try to kill, I will let you all be the judge."

Alexstrasza is the first to gasp when her eyes land on the unmistakable sword and then says, "Impossible! There is no way that sword could have been fixed, how in Azeroth did you get it repaired!?"

The Highlord then says, "I agree with you Your Majesty, I saw for myself when it was shattered and freed the souls within it. That sword is beyond repair, it was a very special sword that is unlike any other. Nice bluff by the way, you almost had me thinking that you could have been Arthas for a second there. That is just the broken hilt inside the scabbard, points for effort."

Arthas then laughs and then pulls it free and stabs it into the ground saying, "Why don't you inspect it for yourself then, hmmm?" as he reaches for his helmet and then very slowly begins to lift it and then says again, "Maybe this will finally convince you of the truth!" He leans forward to hide his face from view as he takes the helm the rest of the way off and snaps his body straight and then laughs sadistically as their jaws drop momentarily.

Jaina then steps in front and then says, "YOU CRUEL, SADISTIC, EVIL BASTARD, YOU LIED TO ME! DO YOU HAVE NO RESPECT AT ALL FOR THE FEELINGS OF OTHERS!"

He then chuckles as the others frown at his charade and then returns the helm and says, "Of course I don't, I am a monster aren't I? Thank you for sparing me and sending me to that world, even though you sent me just over a thousand years into the past. You have inadvertently provided me with a lot of entertainment, as well as a family to torment. I shall keep my word and have the army of undead continue to withdraw from this world so you can get back to slaughtering each other over stupid things, I have more important things to do back home." He then pulls his sword from the ground and turns towards the gate, looks over his shoulder and says, "Feel free to keep the portal open and explore the world of Equus, it is full of interesting and curious things." and then continues walking towards the portal without looking back again.

Chapter 10: The return of an Empire

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 11: Familial Bonds

Arthas spends a few days searching for workers to help build the city of Grimholme, deciding to stop at 1000 workers for now and just sits atop his throne to watch the town develop. He leans forward in his throne and steeples his fingers underneath his chin wondering, 'If I'm going to open my kingdom's borders to trade, we will need trade goods. What am I going to do about that challenge...'

The sun reaches the horizon as Arthas stands up off the throne and makes his way to his room for some much-needed sleep. While walking through the halls, he thinks back on what he has done in the past. He then opens the door to his room and enters it. He hesitates for a moment before removing his helm and sets it on the dresser. He then pulls Frostmourne from its sheath, leaning it point down against the right side bedpost closest to the headboard, and strips out of his armor to be more comfortable in his bed. As he finally gets his thick plated leggings off, he leaves them on the floor for the banshee maids to pick up and clean. He then grabs his helm from the dresser and places it on the hilt of the sword easily within his reach if he should be attacked tonight. He looks down at the bed, with the top sheet being heavy black silk on top of a silverish blue undersheet and a white silk sheet over the mattress. He reaches down for the corner of the top two sheets, then grabs and swiftly tosses them back towards the opposite corner and sits down on the bed. Lifting his legs up, he then slides them under the sheets and pulls the top two over him, then lays his torso down and turns onto his left side, ready to grab his sword if anything should happen.

Nighttime, just over a week and a half ago in the throneroom at Canterlot

Luna sits on her throne comfortably as the last few petitioners leave for their homes to get some sleep, then decides to spend the remainder of the night patrolling the Dream Realm. Changing her position on the throne, she slips into a trance and enters the Dream Realm. She spots a few nightmares troubling her citizens and makes her way to the closest one to begin dealing with them. Making her way from dream to dream, she spends several minutes dispelling the last nightmare as a few new ones begin.

A few hours pass as Luna deals with nightmare after nightmare, ensuring her subjects sleep peacefully when she finally gets a moment to relax for a little bit and waits for the next nightmare to appear. She then notices a slight shift in every dream door around her from a gentle, pure white, to a light orange hue that causes her to wonder why it is happening. As she wanders further into the halls, she senses someone having a nightmare and follows the feeling wherever it may take her. She wanders down the halls searching for the source when she reaches a large black door and stops in front of it thinking, 'I wonder whose dream door this is, I don't recognize seeing this door before.' then raises her hand and grips the handle.

The moment her hand grabs the silver handle, she instantly lets go of it and backs away nervously, thinking, 'Why is there a door leading to our father's dream?! I do not know whether I should enter it, or if I should ignore it and inform my sister first...'

As she debates what to do, her sense of longing gets stronger and causes her to miss her father more. She feels tears run down her face while her longing to see her father gets stronger, making her stop backing away and take very small steps towards the door. Her loneliness and longing fight for control of Luna's body, making her right hand shakily rise up and reach for the handle.

As she starts to openly sob, her fingers land on the handle as she slowly cries out, "...Father...I...I...I miss you so much!" Her feelings get the upper hand and force her hand to grip the handle quickly, then attempt to open the door. Realizing that she is losing the struggle, she still fights back and retains some control of her hand, just barely managing to keep the handle from turning too far.

Her feelings push through her defenses and overwhelm her, making her turn the handle downward fully. Luna hears a click as the door opens and stops struggling against her feelings as tears run down her face in streams saying, "I'm...I'm...I'm on my way...father!" and quickly pushes the door open, then steps forward and walks through the door as she regresses to the height and mind of a teenager.

Luna finds herself in a strange field, seeing only a strange tower across from her sitting on a hill as she desperately tries to find her father while tears stream down her face and off her chin, when she spots three creatures ahead of many others in the distance, walking down a long road towards her and thinks, 'What did father say those things were...oh right, humans.' She watches as they continue their journey and get close enough for her to barely recognize the face of the human in the middle, bringing a huge smile to her face as she starts to run towards him with her arms outstretched to either side shouting, "FATHER, I CAME TO SEE YOU!"

Arthas makes his way down the road with his mentor behind him to the right and his lover behind him on his left side, making his way across a bridge, and hears coughs come from a couple of people chopping down a tree in a nearby field in front of the city Stratholme a little further down the road when he stops on the other side. He releases a sad sigh and looks down at the ground saying, "Damn it, we're too late! The citizens have already been infected with the plague. They may seem fine now, but they will inevitably turn into the undead as time passes."

As her father starts speaking, it doesn't register her as she closes in on her father and starts to throw her arms around him. Only to wrap her arms around herself then pass right through him, making her fall down onto the hard stone road with her crown coming off her head and clattering away from her a short distance before stopping. Tears fill her eyes as she looks up to her father, not understanding why she can't touch him, and tries again to hug him. As she falls through him once more, she tries one last time and attempts to tackle him...only to soar right through him and crash to the ground beside her crown. She then looks up at him and sobs saying, "Why won't you let me hold you...father...did I do something bad?"

Uther gasps at hearing that and turns his eyes away from the city to Prince Arthas in shock saying, "WHAT! That cannot be!"

Arthas turns around to face his mentor, looking into his mentor's eyes with determination, and says, "It is and there is no cure available to stop this plague spread by the scourge..." he then lifts his arm and quickly points to the city and continues, "This entire city must be purged from existence!"

Luna's body and mind regress again, stopping at the height and mind of a 12 yr old filly. Quietly staring at the ground sobbing, wondering what she could have possibly done for her father to not want to be physical to her as she doesn't realize this is a memory. She crawls her way towards him and tries to grab his cloak or leg, but passes right through him each time, desperately crying out, "P-Please let me touch you, papa, I miss you!"

Uther glances towards the city for a moment, then back to Arthas and says, "How can you even consider doing such a thing, there's got to be some other way to deal with this situation."

Arthas looks at his mentor that isn't listening, hardens his gaze, and tries again to convince him of following his orders, "Damn it Uther, I am the crown prince. So as your future king, I order you to follow my orders and purge this city!"

Uther looks to his student with defiance in his eyes, then raises his left hand and extends his forefinger, and narrows his eyes in a harder gaze saying, "You are most certainly not the king yet boy, and neither would I obey that command if you were king." and begins to walk away from the city.

Arthas frowns at Uther, then looks away with disappointment saying, "You leave me no choice but to consider this an act of treason then."

Uther stops and turns around with surprise on his face at hearing that and looks at Arthas saying, "Treason, you can't be serious! What is wrong with you, have you lost your mind or something Arthas?"

Arthas stands up a little straighter and looks down to Uther and narrows his eyes saying, "I don't know, have I Uther? Hear me, Lord Uther. By right of succession and sovereignty of my crown, I hereby strip you of command and suspend the service of your paladins."

Jaina then looks up to her lover with wide, shock-filled eyes and lifts one of her hands up. She extends her arm out to him as she tries to keep the situation under control saying, "Wait Arthas...you can't do that."

Luna keeps trying to touch her father as her tears run in rivers down her face, her neck muscles weakening further due to the sadness building in her heart, and stops trying to touch him as her arm muscles weaken. She uses both arms to support her upper body's weight as her head falls forward, her eyes shut tightly when her sobbing slowly turns into quiet wails and pleads, "I'm sowwy papa...I'll do whatever you tell me. Pwease let me just touch you once more!"

Arthas then raises his gauntleted left arm up and across his body to the right, holding it horizontal for a brief second before extending it outward and down to his left with determination on his face as he looks at his lover in displeasure saying, "It's already done!" He then looks to the soldiers in front of him and continues, "Those of you who have the will and determination to save this land from the vile scourge, follow my command. As for the rest of you, get out of my sight, you sicken me."

Uther turns away from Arthas and sighs, then turns to him one last time and looks at him with disappointment saying, "You have just crossed a terrible threshold Arthas, I hope you can live with what you're about to do..." then shifts his eyes to Jaina for a brief moment before turning back around and follows his men as they walk away from Stratholme.

2 minutes ago in Celestia's bedchamber inside the castle at Canterlot

Celestia wakes with a start as she hears a banging on the door and a raised voice shouting, "Princess Celestia, I must see you!" She looks to the clock and hastily throws the covers off of her and races to the door in a short, gold and white silk nightgown, angrily saying, "It better be something really urgent to wake me up at this hour..."

The Thestral guard sweats nervously as the door swings open quickly, and strikes the far wall. Looking up to see the angry face of Princess Celestia and stammers, "Umm...I-I beg your forgiveness Your Majesty, but I was at my post beside the throne room doors when the other guard and I heard crying coming from inside. I knocked on the door and called out to Princess Luna but she did not answer, so I told the other guard to keep everyone away from the doors while I went to inform you."

She gasps and runs out of the room, worried for her sister's safety. She races through the halls, ignoring the guards as they salute her. As she hurries down the halls thinking, 'Don't worry Lulu, I'm coming to save you. Whoever harmed or upset you is going to pay dearly for it...'

The doors are nearly thrown off their hinges as Celestia bursts into the room and runs towards her sister, seeing her running and jumping with her arms attempting to tackle something. She watches in confusion as she crashes to the ground as her crown falls off her head and clatters across the hard floor and looks up at something when she hears her say, "Why won't you let me hold you...father...did I do something bad?"

Celestia gasps as Luna's body darkens a little and quickly turns to the guards that followed her into the room saying, "GO OUTSIDE NOW AND MAKE SURE NO ONE ENTERS!" She watches them salute and race out of the room, then slams the doors shut behind them and casts a silencing barrier throughout the room. She then kneels beside her sister and places a loving hand on her sister's back, noticing immediately that she has shrunk in size. She is about to try to wake her sister up when she is pulled into the Dream Realm her sister is in, finding herself standing in a green field beside a road across from a tower. Trying to find out where her sister is, she spots a large force of armored creatures sitting on top of other creatures with four legs and makes her way towards them as she hears a conversation start.

When she is close enough, she spots her sister lying on the ground attempting to grab her father. She looks around at who is talking and recognizes the armored creatures as humans and the ridden creatures as four-legged ponies. She hears a familiar voice but can't quite remember it until she sees one of them turn around, making her raise a hand to her mouth in shock. She recovers from her shock and stomps her way over to her father, stops just before him, and raises her hand into the air. She brings her arm back and then uses all her strength to slap his face, surprised as her slap passes right through his face, causing her to spin around to maintain her balance.

She is shocked that her hand went right through her father's face when she realizes what is going on and sighs, then turns her head around to gaze at her sister who still hasn't realized it yet, and softly says, "Sister...dear sister this is not a nightmare, this is a memory that you can't interrupt. Come back to me and realize what this is for yourself." She then turns her head around to look at the other faces before her, seeing an older male seeming wiser and more intelligent, wearing heavy armor without a helmet and carrying themselves like an advisor or teacher with greying dark auburn hair, moderately tanned skin, and green eyes. She then looks to the other human beside him but stands a short distance away, recognizing her as female, having a lightly armored robe exposing her toned stomach with pants over heeled boots and holding a long staff with a large blue crystal at the top of it. She looks up at her face to see that she has light skin, sapphire blue eyes, long blonde hair parted with the right half hanging to the right of her face, in front of her shoulder while the left side is tucked behind her ear tucked underneath a lavender cowl. She stands between the three of them and listens to the conversation taking place.

A few moments later

Arthas turns his head further to his right and looks at Jaina with a softened gaze, hoping that she understands what he is trying to do and asks tenderly, "Jaina, will you stay and aid me in purifying Stratholme?"

Celestia spins around at hearing the city's name as her eyes go wide with understanding and says, "So this is the city called Stratholme, I have only heard from my mother that father did something really awful here..." She then looks at her father's face and sees the sorrow and desperation in his eyes that he has for her, causing a question to pop into her head, 'What are you to my father, Jaina?'

Jaina turns around and looks down to the ground as her heart begins to break with the decision she needs to make wisely, releasing a sigh and says, "I'm sorry Arthas, but my heart cannot bear to watch you do this." and starts walking away from her love as tears well up in her eyes, then spill over and blaze trails down her cheeks.

Arthas looks to his remaining forces and raises up his war hammer, then sets it on his shoulder and shouts, "Proud soldiers of Lordaeron, follow me into the battle to save our homes!"

Luna hears the marching of soldiers and looks behind her to watch her father moving away from her quickly, making her scramble to her feet and run after him screaming, "Papa, papa! Don't leave, I be good I pwomise! Come back, Come baaack!"

Celestia has tears in her eyes as she watches Luna's body shrink to the size of a 5-year-old toddler and tries to run after her, only to stumble as her legs give out from the pain she is feeling deep in her heart. She feels herself shrink in size too at understanding her sister's pain, then forces herself to chase after her sister and picks up her sister's fallen crown, not wanting to lose her to Nightmare Moon again.

Luna trips and falls a few times trying to chase after her daddy, paying no attention to the screams of horror and cries of pain filling the air as smoke starts to rise from the city while a bell begins to ring out in alarm.

Arthas enters the city as he spots a group of villagers turn into undead and says, "Set fire to the houses regardless of anyone still inside and kill as many undead as you can, This plague must be stopped at any cost!"

Celestia makes it to her sister and leans forward, then wraps her arms around her small sister as tears stream from her own face. She tries to get through to her sister saying, "Luna, LUNA! This is a memory, you cannot interact with father here!" She then sees a flash and looks over to it and sees a creature twice the size of her father standing near Arthas having large cloven hooves, large bat-like dark purple wings, pale skin with two long horns sticking up from its head curling towards the back and wearing heavy armor over most of its body.

"I have been waiting for you to seek me out young prince, my name is Mal'Ganis." the creature said. He then walks towards a house and casts foul spells at it to destroy the home and turn the people inside into undead saying, "I'm sure you know, your people belong to me now. I am going to proceed turning this city into undead household by household, until life's flame is snuffed out...forever."

Arthas watches as he destroys another house and adds those within to his ranks of undead and shouts back over the screaming, "I shall not allow you to succeed, Mal'Ganis! It is better that these people die at my hand than be reduced to serving you as undead!" He then raises his hammer over his head, calling upon the light and brings his hammer down upon the stones, creating cracks in surrounding stones as he destroys another house and purifies it of the plague.

Celestia holds onto little Luna tightly as she fights to be free and go to her father, then quickly grabs her shoulders and turns her around to face her. She places a hand under her chin gently and tilts it up so her sister sees her as tears continue to run down her face saying, "Dear sister, come back to me."

Little Luna's tear-stained face looks into somepony's eyes, slowly recognizing that it is her sister and wraps her arms around her and sobs, "Why is papa mad at me, what I do?"

Celestia runs a hand down her back lovingly as the creature destroys one more house, then flies to the other side of the city. She holds her close saying, "You did nothing wrong little sister, this is one of father's memories of the past. Please come back to me, you are so small it pains me to see you suffering like this." She holds her sister tightly against her body as they both sit inside the walled city as fires fill the skies, looking around to see fires raging everywhere when a house collapse in on itself with the residents running out covered in fire screaming in pain.

Luna's body recovers a little, reaching the height and mindset of a 10-year-old as she looks around her to see houses falling in on themselves and asks, "Sissy, why is papa causing these fires and hurting his own people?"

Celestia looks around to see a steeple crumble in the distance, sending the ringing bell to the ground with a loud clang as it falls silent at last as she watches her father face off against a creature twice his size and says, "I don't know why our father did this Lulu, but I am here to comfort you after seeing these horrors. You have me, Cadence, and Blueblood as family. Also, you can't forget that you have Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and several other ponies as friends, so you are most definitely not alone sister."

Arthas stands before Mal'Ganis as houses burn and collapse to the ground saying, "It's time to finish this battle, Mal'Ganis. It is down to you and me now."

Mal'Ganis retreats to the bridge and looks to the prince with a knowing grin and chuckles saying, "Those are brave words indeed. Unfortunately for you young prince, it won't end here. Your journey has only just begun. If you really want to finish this, gather your forces and meet me in the arctic land of Northrend. It will be there that we shall settle the score. It is also where your true destiny shall be revealed to you." He then prepares to teleport away to wait for Arthas to seek him out.

Arthas glares at Mal'Ganis as he retreats a short distance from him and raises his war hammer into the air with one hand saying, "I shall hunt you to the ends of the earth to be rid of you! Do you hear me damn demon? To the ends of the fucking earth!" He then huffs out in annoyance at his foe's retreat and makes his way back to gather more soldiers.

Luna looks around her and feels a change in the dream and says, "The memory is changing, maybe daddy can see us now. What do you think sister?"

Celestia sighs and shrugs her shoulders as she holds her sister, then breaks the hug. She moves her hands and holds her by the shoulders lightly and says, "I do not know for sure Lulu, but if you really want to see father we can try to get him to notice us. Would you like that?"

Luna quickly nods her head saying, "Yes I would, thank you Cece!" and looks around for her father, noticing him in the distance making his way back the way he came into the city.

Arthas hears a child calling out for her dad and looks around in confusion, trying to locate the child. He then continues on his way as low-lying smoke blocks his vision, still holding his hammer in his right hand with his other hand trying to guard his face from the heat on his left side when he notices something small waving at something. As he steps through the smoke and into a clear spot, he makes out two forms huddled near the ground and tries to identify it while he moves his other hand down to the handle if it is a couple of infected humans. As he wields his hammer with both hands, he prepares to kill the humans when their image becomes clear to him. His eyes widen in shock to see his two daughters here and shifts his hammer to his right hand and runs over to them saying, "What are you two doing here, it is not safe with the plague in this city!"

Luna breaks free from her sister's gentle hold and runs towards her daddy with tears flowing down her face, overjoyed at finally being noticed by him and says, "I saw a dark door in the Dream Realm and learned that it was your dream, then I saw you talking with those people and ran to give you a big hug. I missed you so much papa, please don't leave us again!" She then throws her arms wide to either side, and wraps them around her father's legs.

Arthas smiles lovingly at his daughter and looks up to see his other daughter there, shifting his gaze back down to Luna and releases his hold on the hammer. He lets it fall to the ground with a heavy resounding clunk as he wraps his arms around his daughter, releases a sigh asking, "You two really shouldn't be here, I do not wish you to share the burdens of the terrible things I have done when I thought it would ultimately save my people. How much of this memory have you two seen?"

Celestia looks at her father with a slight smile and stands up from the ground, then makes her way over to join the hug saying, "I don't know what Luna saw, she was very desperate to be noticed by you and even followed you into the city before I managed to catch up with her. I did see everything though and Luna almost went back to being Nightmare Moon because she missed you so much. It surprises me that you went to such lengths to protect your own people father, but those homes you destroyed had many innocent people in them. You butchered hundreds of men, women, and children because you let your fear of failing to protect your people control you. I cannot forgive you for doing such an unspeakable act such as this, for I am greatly disappointed with learning what exactly happened here."

Arthas holds Luna as she sobs loudly over missing him so much, then puts his hands underneath her arms saying, "And up you go my little Moonlight, wrap your arms around my neck to hold on." and quickly lifts her up to his chest and slides his left arm under her to hold her up saying, "Let's get out of this city and into a nice green field so you don't have to deal with the smoke."

Luna giggles softly hearing her father's nickname for her and lays her head beside her father's happily, wrapping her arms around his neck while closing her eyes, and snuggles her way into his shoulder saying, "Thank you for holding me daddy, I really missed you. When will you return to us so we can be whole again?"

Celestia leads the way out of town, feeling happy that Luna is cheering up a bit and says, "She really did need some affection from you, she hasn't been very happy since she came back from being Nightmare Moon. Maybe now she may start to smile more often, are you ever planning on returning to us and be a part of our family?"

Arthas bends down to pick up his hammer with his right hand and stays quiet for several minutes as they get a fair distance away from the city and finally answers her, "I would like to be a family once more, but with the remaining undead scourge from Azeroth in Equus, the helm of domination and Frostmourne in my hands, I do not see that happening any time soon."

Celestia looks to him and cocks an eyebrow at hearing a chunk of information and asks, "Okay, so how many more soldiers did you add to your ranks and how did they get here? While I am asking questions, could you tell me what that woman meant to you?"

Arthas stands there on the field and says, "Well, there are about 2.5 million undead that followed me through a gate somewhere by a mountain. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you where it is exactly but I do know it is large and made of stone." He then winces in pain as he starts to get a headache and puts Luna back on the ground saying, "Maybe we can be whole again if fate ever wills it, but it may take a long time before that happens. So I want you both to remain strong and continue to fight me when I return to being the Lich King, it is like being in charge of the prison and in a cell of your own underneath of it. I must go now, the helm is stripping away my will." He then closes his eyes for a moment and looks away from Celestia's face and says, "That was Lady Jaina Proudmoore, we were lovers once upon a time before this mess started but our roles in life would not permit us to further our relationship. She is the exiled daughter of the ruling family of Kul Tiras, and is a powerful archmage. I find it amusing how Twilight and her are so much alike, it would be interesting if those two ever met."

Luna recovers again, returning to the height and mindset of an older teenager as she stands on the ground and quickly kisses his lips saying, "I wish you could stay longer father, and stay strong because I shall look forward to visiting you in your dreams when you sleep at night."

Celestia sighs and walks up to her sister, then takes her by the hand and gently says, "Come on Luna, let us return to the throne room before he wakes."

Arthas raises his left gauntlet up to the side of his head as the headache gets worse, watching them both leave, and says, "I love you both my little sunbeam and my little Moonlight, goodbye for now."

They reach the door as Luna turns to open it and looks back to her father saying, "Goodbye for now father, I love you too."

Celestia follows her sister and looks back to Arthas as a few tears fall from her eyes and mouths the words, I love you also, farewell before stepping through the door and closing it behind her. She turns around to look at it, but sees nothing as it disappears from sight.

Moments later in the throne room

Luna wakes up and rises off the floor to spot her crown lying a short distance away from her near the base of the stairs, then uses her magic to grab it and return it to her head as her sister also rises off the floor. Remembering what happened in the Dream Realm, she returns to her normal self and wraps her arms around her sister and quietly says, "I-I don't think our dad will ever come back to us dear sister..." and slowly starts to sob as tears fill her eyes and blaze trails down her cheeks.

Celestia holds her sister back as tears fill her own eyes and run down her cheeks and tells her, "D-Don't worry sister, we will find a way to rescue our father from his wicked state and return to being a whole family once more."

In Arthas's chambers just before daybreak in the Frozen North in Icecrown Citadel

Arthas sighs and opens his eyes after getting a fitful night's sleep plagued by his past mistakes, but somewhat pleasant because he got to see his daughters. He sits up in his bed, throws the covers to the other side of the bed, and slides his legs over the side, then stands up off the mattress and begins to put his armor on to begin tending to the duties he needs to and thinks, 'I wonder if I will ever get to meet Twilight again...'

After he puts his armor back on and returns Frostmourne to its sheath and the helm to his head he is greeted by a shouting Sindragosa through the link and shouts back through it saying, "I'M HERE SO SHUT UP ALREADY, I WAS ONLY GETTING SOME REST! What is going on, are we under attack or something?"

Sindragosa calms down a little and replies through the link, "Apologies sir, but I received a report four hours ago from a banshee that you tasked with monitoring the area around where the Crystal Empire was."

He is shocked to hear that and raises the volume of his voice a little and speaks to her through the link, "Has something changed? Tell me what it said immediately!"

She lays on her platform and looks out past the horizon to where the Crystal Empire is at then tells him through the link, "The Crystal Empire has finally returned, and if it has returned, then..."

Arthas hastily makes his way towards the door to his room and kicks it open and growls deep in his throat and says through the link with hatred, "...SOMBRA..." He turns down the halls towards the teleporter and addresses Sindragosa once more through the link saying, "I will be taking Invincible this time. If the Empire has returned, surely Celestine and Lunetha would know too. Now it is a race against time, I need you to guard the citadel and keep an eye out for any forces heading our way. There is one more pest I need to deal with"

Back to the present time in Equestria, on the train heading to the Crystal Empire

Twilight sits on the train with the girls as she turns her head to Brann and says, "I am so glad that Celestia allowed you to come, we could use the help of an experienced explorer like you Brann."

Brann looks to Twilight and says, "So am I, I'm eager to find out if there are any titan secrets buried in the Crystal Empire we're going to."

She looks to him curiously and says, "How will we be able to tell if there are any of these secrets there?"

He chuckles and says, "You won't, I'll have to tell ya because I have been studying titan secrets since I was old enough to drink ale hahaha!" he then pulls out a bottle of dwarven stout and begins to take a drink from it.

Twilight turns to look out the window, seeing the landscape of green grass and trees passing by and wonders out loud saying, "I am curious if Arthas might show up at the Crystal Empire..."

Brann hears that as his eyes widen with fear, then quickly brings his drink down and sputters and spits it out nearly shouting, "BY THE LIGHT AND ALL THAT IS HOLY, WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT HIM TO BE THERE!?! HE'D KILL US ALL!"

Chapter 12: The Empire's Return

Somewhere in the southern part of the Frozen North, far west of the city and just past Luna Bay

Arthas slows invincible to a trot as he hears a strange whistle in the distance, breaking the silence in the surrounding area and wonders what it is, and says, "I look forward to dealing with the last of those annoying umbrum pests."

Invincible continues on as he hears the whistle again a few seconds later and says, "Forgive me for saying this master, but do you think it would be wise to just move on and ignore what happened in the past?"

He looks around for the source of the sound, spotting faint light in the distance and watches it curiously saying, "THERE"S NO WAY I AM JUST GOING TO FORGET THEIR INSOLENCE AND REFUSAL TO SUBMIT TO MY RULE, THEY ATTEMPTED TO USE THEIR SHADOW MAGIC TO ASSASSINATE ME AND MY FAMILY! FOR THAT, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM DESERVES TO DIE." He hears the whistle break the silence once again and says, "WHAT IS THAT ANNOYING AND INFERNAL NOISE, LET US INVESTIGATE IT IMMEDIATELY."

On the train to the Crystal Empire, 20 minutes later

Brann stares at Twilight in shock and shakes his head, then looks away saying, "You are crazy for having feelings towards that monster, he'd just as soon kill you and raise you into his service as an undead corpse than reveal a weakness to anyone."

She cocks her head and swivels her ears forward, focusing on what he is saying, and asks, "Why would having feelings for someone be a weakness? He danced with me, then we shared a kiss and he even tossed me a rose with a broken stem. Surely that must mean he likes me back."

The dwarf looks at her and lets out a sigh saying, "Because many others can use those feelings against you to get what they want, Azeroth is a harsh place where you need to fight to survive. I don't know anything personal about Arthas other than he was really strong and has terrifying powers at his disposal, your world would be a better place if he died lass." He then takes another drink from the bottle, returning the cork to it and tries to think of the adventure ahead to be had.

10 minutes later with Arthas, along the southern border of the Frozen North

Arthas has Invincible follow the large mining tracks and thinks, 'It seems they have found a way to transport things to other places by rail, how clever of them. Let's find out where this will lead us.'

He follows the tracks to the east for a while when he senses a dark malevolence in the wind and makes his steed go into a full gallop saying, "Something comes Invincible, let us ride forth and find out what it is!"

A short distance away from the station, with Twilight and the others

Shining Armor leads the girls towards the Crystal Empire and angles his head into the blowing wind and snow saying, "I'm not sure what, but something keeps trying to get into the city. We think it's the unicorn king who originally cursed the place." nervously looking around him for any signs of danger and turns his head to watch where they are going.

Twilight follows her brother through the wind and snow, feeling a little worried about this mission and says, "But Princess Celestia told me that she was sending me here to find a way to protect the empire from him. If King Sombra is unable to get in, then it must already be protected." She then goes quiet as she hears a creature howl come from somewhere in the distance.

Arthas looks to his right to see a strange engine with some enclosed wagons on wheels hooked up to it and says, "Hmmm...interesting. It amazes me that these ponies made something like this as the other races on Azeroth haven't yet." He then sees a trail of hoofprints in the snow, leading to a group of ponies a fair distance away and slows his steed to a swift trot.

Applejack hears a faint shuffling coming from somewhere and turns to look at her friends asking, "Are any of ya moving yer legs a lot to stay warm?"

Rainbow looks to the other girls, then back to Applejack and shakes her head saying, "I'm not doing anything like that, I'm shivering from the cold but that's it."

Fluttershy hears strange noises and swivels her ears to pinpoint the location it is coming from, after learning where it is coming from, the noise becomes a little clearer to her. Now hearing a heavy thumping of hooves coming from behind them, she turns her head around to look behind them to see glowing blue eyes with a glowing blue gem above them and another pair of glowing blue eyes below them. Too shocked and afraid to speak, she walks over to Rarity and taps on her shoulder.

Rarity feels someone repeatedly tapping her shoulder and looks over to see a scared Fluttershy with wide eyes and asks, "What is the matter Fluttershy darling?" She watches as Fluttershy doesn't speak and simply points behind them with a shaking hand, then follows it to where she is pointing and her jaw drops in shock as she quickly turns her head around. She is about to scream for everyone to run, but is interrupted by the howling of a distant creature and says, "Oh what in Tartarus could that be?!"

Shining Armor looks to the group and spots the Lich King making his way towards the group and says, "We need to get to the Crystal Empire right now, the Lich King is right behind us!"

A massive cloud of darkness looks to the group of ponies, eager to claim them, and lands heavily onto the ground to frighten the ponies further while growling menacingly at them.

Arthas watches the black mass start to chase after the group of ponies, and decides to try to capture this creature's soul so he can search for Sombra. He then makes Invincible run faster to get the creature's attention saying, "Come on Invincible, go faster or we won't catch up to it."

Twilight's brother looks back to see Spike trip and fall, then stand up to stare at the creature bearing down on them and turns around to retrieve him. He powers up his horn and grabs Spike, leaving the large suitcase he was carrying behind in the snow and starts to catch up with the group. He releases his hold on Spike and says, "Keep running, the barrier is just up ahead!" and turns around to fend off both of them, then starts to power up a spell to attack the creature.

The Lich King hastily gets off Invincible and draws his sword, then flips it around underhanded and raises it above his head. Moving his other hand to the hilt, he then growls and amplifies his voice while thrusting it towards the ground shouting, "FIGHT ME YOU STUPID CREATURE, I'M MORE OF A THREAT THAN THOSE PATHETIC PONIES!!"

The black mass dodges the magic shot at it by the white and blue unicorn, getting close enough to cover its horn with black crystals before screaming in agony as black lightning shoots up from the ground and right through its shadowy mass.

Shining Armor falls to the ground, suffering intense pain from where his horn was struck by a stray bolt of lightning. He tries to get up, but he feels another strike hit him in the shoulder and cries out in agony again. He then shakily turns his head, watching the Lich King as he controls the lightning for a few more seconds before stopping his attack and stands up while pulling his sword from the ground.

Twilight stands on the other side of the barrier and sees her brother struggling to get up, then tries to run out to go get him when she spots Arthas making his way to where he lays and shouts, "Come on brother, GET UP! Arthas is coming to get you, GET UP AND RUN!"

The mass writhes in pain and glares at the one who caused him such pain, feeling slightly disoriented after returning from banishment with the city a few hours ago. He watches the being walk towards the other, and tries to gather his thoughts to identify the armored being as clues slowly drop into place.

Arthas stops and stands next to the downed pony and looks into his eyes and angrily says, "Stupid pony." while bringing his right arm back that holds Frostmourne, then reaches down with his left and grabs him by the end of his tail. He then turns towards the barrier and takes a few steps towards it, dragging the pony behind him and chuckles saying, "You can take this pathetic pony with you, just be sure to STAY OUT OF MY WAY!!" and then brings his arm back and over his head, then lunges forward with his left leg and throws the pony into the air towards the group of ponies on the other side.

Shining Armor screams as he is thrown into the air, flipping end over end helplessly and yells, "SOMEONE PLEASE CATCH ME!"

The Lich King chuckles at hearing the pony scream and then turns away to look at the black mass and says, "I demand to know what you are creature, so answer me and speak!"

The last few clues fall into place as he finally realizes who the unmistakable being is and howls in rage at seeing it again, then charges forth to attack them.

Arthas swings his sword and slices through the mass, causing it to howl out in agony as he dodges its pathetic attack saying, "Is this all you have, what a pathetic creature you are."

It slams into the barrier as green blood oozes out of the gash in its side, causing his eyes to widen with fear as he remembers how he slaughtered his whole race. Deciding against facing him as he is now, he retreats into the air to gather his strength to attack the barrier later.

The Lich King thrusts his sword into the air to steal the creature's life energy, only to discover that it has doesn't have any, and lowers his sword. In an instant, he then uses another spell to throw a green skull at its fleeing form shouting, "STOP RUNNING AND FACE ME COWARD!" to his disappointment, the creature keeps retreating, but screams in agony as the skull makes contact with it. He turns away from the fleeing mass and glares at the ponies, then begins to stomp his feet angrily as he approaches them.

Brann trembles with fear at seeing the Lich King so close and backs away from the barrier nervously saying, "Umm that barrier is going to hold right, everyone?"

Twilight and Rarity gently set Shining Armor down as Twilight says, "I believe so, Cadence must be helping maintain the barrier, is that right brother?"

Shining Armor returns to his hooves a bit shakily, still feeling the effects of the attack and wobbles slightly. He watches his sister and Rarity hold onto him to help keep him steady, then places his hands onto their shoulders saying, "T-Thank you for helping me, but I'll be fine once I regain my balance. You are indeed right, Twilight. We should be on our way towards the castle now, Cadence will be very happy to see you."

The purple unicorn lets her brother stand on his own as he leads the group towards the castle, then looks back to see Arthas swing his sword at the barrier, attempting to damage it.

Arthas keeps attacking the barrier with Frostmourne for ten minutes, causing only slight ripples in it. Agitated, he flips the sword underhanded with a smooth motion, then raises it over his head and grabs it with both hands, attempting to drive it into the barrier with all his might. He succeeds in only scratching it and summons black lightning to strike the barrier all over, angered at how resilient the barrier is being.

A minute ago, Inside the barrier

Twilight spots her old foal sitter on the throne at the back of the room, hanging her head for a moment before calling out to her, "Cadence!"

Cadence spots Twilight and brightens up immediately, then jogs towards her, stops in front of her, and then crouches down slightly.

As they both get into a slight crouch, then jump up together in a brief prancing dance saying together, "Sunshine, Sunshine." dropping onto the floor and covering their eyes with their hands saying, "Ladybug's awake." then pull them away before moving into a sitting position and clap their hands together without missing a beat saying, "Clap your hands and" then quickly stand up and shake their rumps saying, "do a little shake." finishing their silly little greeting and share a laugh for a few short seconds.

Twilight smiles at Cadence, overjoyed at getting to see her again when her eyes snap shut for a brief moment, causing her horn to slightly flicker. Concerned, she asks, "Hey are you..." interrupted by seeing Cadence's magic aura become covered in black lightning as it dances throughout the inside of the aura, eliciting an agonized scream for several seconds before stopping.

Shining Armor yells, "CADY!" rushes forth as Cadence collapses onto the crystal floor, panting hard for breath. He helps her to her hooves as she struggles to keep the barrier up.

Cadence then holds onto him and looks to a very worried Twilight saying, "One of these days, we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance."

Outside the barrier, an hour later

Arthas walks along the barrier, inspecting it in different spots by striking it with his sword when he watches it dim a bit. He smiles as he flips his sword around once more, hearing a howl in the distance and pauses for a moment and amplifies his voice shouting, "I AM RIGHT HERE WAITING FOR YOU, SO COME HERE AND ACCEPT YOUR FATE!" He waits a few minutes and nothing happens, making Arthas even angrier as he raises his sword to attack it again, using the same black lightning to inflict pain and suffering upon whoever is keeping the barrier up. He stops his attack after keeping the spell active for ten seconds, and smiles as the barrier slowly collapses and starts walking over where it used to be saying, "Well...that was quite effective, now where should I go?"

The mass smiles as he notices the barrier is down and starts moving towards it when he spots the one that slaughtered his whole race, forming a head to be able to speak and summons thirty black crystal pony soldiers, having glowing green eyes, with manes and tails of purple smoke to kill him and shouts, "DIE MURDERER!!!" sending all thirty ponies to rush forth and overwhelm his enemy.

He turns around to see the incoming soldiers and chuckles then shakes his head at this pathetic attack, and prepares one of his spells to slow his foes down. He waits for the right moment to cast it, watching their progress until the perfect moment to catch them all, and casts it to create a freezing whirlwind.

Arthas rushes forward to the first soldier, holding Frostmourne in his right hand, and spins his body in a circle. Cleanly cutting off its head and claiming the soul within, he continues to single-handedly slaughter all thirty of his soon-to-be subjects.

On top of the balcony of the crystal castle

Brann walks towards the rail as his eyes go wide and says, "Umm...guys, I think we might be in some serious trouble here."

Twilight then walks up to the rail beside Brann and says, "I would hate to say this but I think you may be right, but this may be a blessing in disguise because Arthas seemed really interested in fighting that creature. Sombra is a bigger threat than Arthas is right now, so we need you to do what you can to return the barrier to keep the Crystal Ponies from seeing Sombra out there. Cadence needs you to stay with her, Shining Armor. Brann, I need you to return to the library to see what else you can find out about the Crystal Faire."

Rainbow Dash then looks at her curiously saying, "What do you want me to do?"

Twilight then smiles and says, "Rainbow Dash, you and the rest of our friends need to keep the faire going while I try to find the heart and bring it back." she then takes off running for the stairs to return to the ground for ideas where it could be.

She follows Twilight through the castle with her wings as they reach the first flight of stairs going down and says, "How come, shouldn't we try to get Arthas out of the Crystal Empire's border if Cadence can get it back up?"

The unicorn turns around to go down another set of stairs saying, "No, because the whole purpose of the faire is to lift the spirits of the Crystal Ponies so they can activate the Crystal Heart."

Rainbow rolls her eyes and flies just above Twilight saying, "Yeah, and why?"

Twilight continues running down the stairs saying, "Because, if the Crystal Ponies find out that King Sombra is trying to take over the empire again, their spirits are going to be anything but lifted. If we can succeed in cheering up the Crystal Ponies and they activate the Crystal Heart, Arthas will most likely be cast out of the city."

Back to the fight between Arthas and the creature

Arthas effortlessly kills the last of the ponies and looks up at the shadowy face with a chuckle saying, "If this is all you have creature, I am disappointed."

The mass roars at him in rage and summons even more soldiers to overwhelm him and end his life and shouts, "I HATE YOU! YOU SLAUGHTERED THEM ALL AND TURNED THEM INTO DISGUSTING CRYSTAL ABOMINATIONS, MY WHOLE RACE PERISHED WITHIN A WEEK! YOU USED YOUR VILE LIQUID TO KILL EVERYTHING IT TOUCHED, NOTHING GROWS ON THE GROUNDS WHERE OUR VILLAGES ONCE STOOD. I WAS SENT AWAY TO GET AID IN FIGHTING YOU, THE PRINCESSES REFUSED AND TURNED ME AWAY I HATE YOU ALL, WHEN I GET MY KINGDOM BACK, I AM GOING TO MAKE THEM ALL SUBMIT TO ME. FOR I AM KING SOMBRA AND YOU WILL NOT TAKE ANY MORE FROM ME!!"

He chuckles with delight and says, "I have wondered what became of you after I used the improved plague of undeath, now I know that the Umbrum's leader lives. Now I shall look forward to claiming your soul and raise you for all the trouble you have caused me!" He then uses his sword's ability to steal life and quickly kills off the 90 black crystal soldiers that Sombra just summoned and laughs sadistically saying, "It will take more than that to kill me coward, FROSTMOURNE HUNGERS!"

Sombra is blinded by his rage and summons the remainder of the enslaved soldiers he corrupted and took from the empire prior to his banishment. He then cackles madly and shouts, "SHOW ME HOW YOU WILL HANDLE THE REMAINDER OF MY 2000 ELITE GUARD, RUTHLESS KING OF THE NORTH!"

Arthas looks at the soldiers and shakes his head saying, "Your strength amounts to nothing compared to mine, I have millions of soldiers to conquer this world while you only have a pathetic handful. Allow me to demonstrate the difference between you and me..." He then looks to the skies and amplifies his voice for all to hear, also uses the helm's link to address someone special to display his power and calls out to them saying, "SINDRAGOSA, YOUR KING CALLS FOR YOU TO DISPLAY THE STRENGTH OF ICECROWN! KILL ALL THESE PATHETIC INSECTS THAT STAND BEFORE ME!"

On the balcony with Shining Armor and Cadence

Shining Armor holds Cadence in his arms while he watches the distant fight, listening to the two fight as King Sombra is enraged at what the Lich King has done to his whole race. Staring in shock as he sees a massive skeletal dragon making its way towards the Crystal Empire and tries to wake Cadence gently saying, "Umm Cady, I'm sorry to wake you but I think you should try to raise the barrier again."

Cadence's eyes slowly flutter open as she wakes up from a brief nap and asks, "I'm sorry, what did you say? How long have I been sleeping?"

He turns away from the incoming dragon and looks into his wife's eyes and says, "I wish I didn't have to wake you, but I think you should try to raise the barrier again. I can see a large army standing just before the Lich King as well as a large skeletal dragon he called Sindragosa is making her way here."

She slowly turns her head towards the rail and asks, "I would like to know what she looks like to be able to watch out for her. Take me a little closer please so I can see what is going on Shiny."

Shining Armor sets her down carefully and helps her towards the barrier, seeing said undead dragon turn and fly right for a ways before banking left and fly towards the line of black soldiers that King Sombra has summoned. She watches the large dragon queen as she raises her head up, letting out a loud roar before casting a spell that creates an area on the ground covered in a glowing whitish-blue. She sighs as a few tears stream down her face when the soldiers inside of the large circle fall to the ground, and Sindragosa makes another pass at the line of soldiers then breathes frostfire.

At the fallen barrier's edge, with Arthas and King Sombra

Arthas laughs as Sindragosa kills all of the remaining soldiers with a couple of more passes over their heads, then sends her outside of the barrier to attack Sombra saying through the link, "Let him have a taste of your fury Sindy, it is time he learned to fear the might of Icecrown!"

Sindragosa circles around saying, "WITH PLEASURE SIR!" and lines up to attack the black mass, releasing an angry roar and targets it with one of her spells and shoots a Frost Bomb at him, then glides past him overhead and calls forth a wave of frost to chill the mass to its core.

Sombra howls in agony as several pieces of his shadowy mass are destroyed and tries to reform them but finds himself unable to. He starts to lightly panic as each attempt fails, causing him to feel fear for the first time and hastily flees into the air shouting, "THIS IS NOT OVER YET! I WILL TAKE BACK MY KINGDOM AND THEN DEFEAT YOU!"

The Lich King watches Sindragosa give chase and throw Frost Bombs at him, causing Sombra to cry out in pain each time. With an agitated sigh, he jumps backward as a shield forms just before him, stopping him from giving chase to Sombra and uses the helm's link to connect with Sindragosa saying, "The shield is back up Sindy, go back to Icecrown and protect it from Sombra if he should decide to attack it in retaliation. I shall explore this city a bit and wait for him to come back and attack again, I shall make my move once he is truly vulnerable."

She breaks off her chase of King Sombra and heads back to Icecrown answering his mental command, "Very well sir, I shall protect it with my life."

Arthas then turns around and makes his way towards the city thinking, 'If I find whoever is making this barrier, I will make them wish they were never born...'

Over at the crystal castle, twenty minutes later

Cadence squints as she tries to keep the barrier up but her magic starts to fade in and out and weakly says, "Please hurry Twilight, my magic won't last much longer..."

With Twilight, somewhere inside the castle

Twilight picks Spike up and places him on her back saying, "Hold on to me Spike, I'm going to try something." then focuses on casting a gravity spell, then flips herself over and lands on the underside of the stairs above her and says, "Woohoo, it worked! I'm glad I studied gravity spells on our way here, thinking it might be on my test. As it turns out, I was definitely prepared for this!"

With Cadence on the balcony with Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash

Shining Armor watches as Cadence's magic slowly slips down her horn, then fades away completely as Cadence falls unconscious in his arms saying, "You have done everything you can Cady, rest for a moment and leave the rest up to Twilight."

The others watch in shock as the barrier falls and reveals orange skies with black clouds surrounding the empire completely as Rarity says, "Come on Twilight darling, where are you?" She then looks down to see an armored figure heading towards the castle and gasps saying, "Oh Hurry up Twilight, that dreadful Lich King is getting closer to the castle!"

With Twilight, on her way to the top of the castle's peak

Spike watches as they rapidly slide down the underside of the stairs with the help of the gravity spell Twilight cast, he then holds tighter as an opening to the outside appears just up ahead saying, "Umm watch out Twilight, the exit is coming up."

She giggles as they both slide off the end of the archway's roof and reverses the gravity spell, flipping them both around in the process and leaving them to fall five feet to land on the top of the crystal castle peak's floor. She looks around and sees the Crystal Heart hovering in the air above a platform with a star in its center with the points touching the edges of the platform.

With Arthas, nearing the front of the Crystal Castle

Arthas stomps forward, making his way towards the group of ponies when he hears a voice call out way above him, "Hey look up here, I got the Crystal Heart!" and turns his head up to where it came from and sees a purple creature standing atop one of the blackened spires, then hears an angered roar. He turns his eyes to look at the direction it came from and sees Sombra leap forth from a cloud and into the ground, racing along the ground like a shadow and causing black crystals to sprout up from the ground he passes through. He watches the shadow race forth and waits for a chance to strike, seeing a large crystal shoot up out of the ground as others race forth towards the castle's peak and cause a few cracks to form as well as destroying the top part of the roof.

Twilight runs to the side of the black crystal cage she is in and tries to protect her head saying, "Ohh...what's happening now! I hope that nothing hits me..."

Seeing Sombra slowly rise from the long crystal, Arthas flips his sword to hold it underhanded and prepares to throw it. He waits eagerly for the perfect chance to strike him down and absorb his soul, drawing back his right arm holding his sword as Sombra finally emerges wearing a dark silver band with spikes on the sides and two red ones up front on either side of a dark silver circle, an armored chest piece being the same dark silver with a flared collar, a fine red and white cape under the back of the chest piece with small black diamonds around the white strip at the bottom, and armored hoof guards going up to his knees.

Sombra looks up to see the Crystal Heart in the hands of a small, purple dragon and shouts, "THAT BELONGS TO ME, NOW GIVE IT HERE OR I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER!"

Spike spots Sombra standing on the large crystal a fair distance below him and trips, going over the edge after losing his grip on the Crystal Heart. Watching as he falls through the sky towards the ground, he prays that he doesn't feel any pain when he hits it.

The Lich King smiles and sees his chance and amplifies his voice shouting, "FROSTMOURNE HUNGERS!!" then throws the blade as hard as he can towards Sombra's solid body.

Sombra turns his head to locate where the Lich King is when he finally spots him a moment too late as he feels something strike him in the chest, making him look down to see the other's sword piercing his chest. He then looks around fearfully, trying to find a way to escape, only to feel the sword begin to draw his surviving soul into it, and says, "No...no...NO! I-I DON'T...I DON'T WANNA GO! SOMEPONY PLEASE SAVE ME, I DON'T WANNA DISAPPEAR!"

Shining Armor quickly jostles his wife awake and lifts her head up towards Spike and the Crystal Heart as her eyes open and says, "There's Spike and the Crystal Heart Cady!"

Cadence notices a glint and focuses on it, realizing at once that it is the Crystal Heart, and says, "I see it, now throw me Shiny!" and feels the wind rush through her mane as she is thrown by her husband. She rushes through the sky to save Spike and the heart, reaching them both in almost an instant, catching Spike in her arms and grabbing the Crystal Heart with her magic, then hurries back to the castle.

Sombra looks around and sees that most eyes are on him as his shadows are being drawn into the sword, making him weaken as a couple of tears fall off his chin as he screams, "DON'T JUST STAND THERE WATCHING YOU FOOLS, PLEASE SAVE YOUR KING!!"

Arthas watches as Sombra's shadows fade away quicker and shouts back, "YOU WERE NOT A RIGHTFUL KING, YOU CLAIMED THE EMPTY THRONE BECAUSE IT'S LEADER WAS MISSING! YOU TREATED THESE PONIES LIKE YOUR SLAVES, JUST LIKE THOSE CORRUPTED SOLDIERS YOU LET ME SLAUGHTER. THEY ARE LESS THAN PAWNS TO YOU IN YOUR VAIN QUEST FOR POWER, BUT ALL POWER COMES AT A COST...A PRICE YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF PAYING."

Twilight falls backward and hears Arthas shout again, landing on her back as the black crystal surrounding her disappear saying, "Wah! Okay, something is definitely going on because Sombra would never set me free from this prison." She then gets back onto her hooves to go see what is going on down below.

King Sombra's body begins to slowly fade away as he cries out one last time, "Somepony...please...I beg you to...save...." he doesn't complete his final words as his shadow fades away completely, leaving the sword to land on the crystal he was standing on and slowly slide down.

The Lich King activates his spell and pulls the sword back to his grasp and raises it before his eyes to look at it sighing happily saying, "Ahhh...I feel much better now. With his soul and strength, I am back to my full power." He then turns his gaze to the pony making her way towards the base of the castle and starts stomping his way there saying, "Now...I demand you hand over that heart!"

She ignores him completely and lands in front of the crowd of ponies then looks at them with determination saying, "The Crystal Heart has returned, use the light and love within you to ensure that the Lich King Arthas Menethil cannot."

Arthas then flips the sword underhanded, feeling agitated that he was ignored, then raises it above his head saying, "HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME, YOU INSIGNIFICANT PEST! LET ME HEAR YOUR SCREAMS OF AGONY!" He begins to thrust it towards the ground as she moves the heart towards the center of the Crystal Heart's pillar when both of them stop as a loud cracking fills the air.

Twilight backs away from the edge of the castle's peak as the floor under her begins to slide and tilt, causing roof debris to slide off the edge. She quickly turns and looks for a safe spot to stand on when she sees only a small part where she can stand, except she has to jump across a gap to reach it. As the floor starts to fall away, causing the floor she is standing on to tilt quicker and leaving her no choice but to go for the jump. She then starts to sprint towards the edge as the gap grows steadily larger, reaching the edge and jumps for the other side. She lands on the far side safely and balances on the small remaining piece, releasing a sigh of relief, and wipes her arm across her eyes when the chunk wobbles and falls away. She tries to quickly use her magic to make herself levitate, only for nothing to happen and then moves her hand to her horn. She runs her fingers along its length to find it is slightly damaged, with a chunk missing from the tip. She then screams at the top of her lungs as she begins to freefall towards the ground end over end flailing wildly.

Rainbow hears Twilight scream and feels the need to be her hero, then zips off into the sky to go catch her. She tries to approach her carefully, trying to avoid her wildly flailing hooves as Twilight's eyes are closed tightly while she continues to scream. She gets close enough and tries to reach out to grab her when she gets slapped in the face hard, and then kicked in the chin by a hoof. Her vision fades away into darkness as she falls unconscious, her wings cease flapping and hang limp as she joins Twilight into a freefall.

Arthas watches the two ponies fall through the air and follows Twilight's angle, then looks towards the large crystal sticking out of the ground at a fairly steep angle. He feels a slight pang in his chest, urging him into action. The pang in his chest remains for a few seconds, causing him to growl in annoyance at his heart and summons his steed Invincible. He mounts up quickly and kicks him into a gallop while cursing, "These light-damned lovey-dovey ponies are going to suffer my wrath after I deal with one final nuisance!"

Fluttershy sees Arthas start racing away on his mount and narrows her eyes at him, but then widen with shock as he starts to turn around and go even faster. Spurring herself into action, she takes off into the sky to catch her unconscious friend Rainbow, managing to reach her as she reaches the balcony overlooking the main road into the city saying, "Don't worry Dash, I've got you."

Cadence watches in shock as Arthas rides forth hard on Invincible, then stands up on the saddle as they start to race up the crystal that Sombra created. Invincible then leaps off the end of the crystal with Arthas running forward and places a boot onto the other's head and jumps off of it into the air above him.

Time seems to slow way down as Arthas waits for Twilight to get close enough for him to catch her, ignoring her flailing limbs and swiftly wraps his arms around her waist saying, "STOP FLAILING WILDLY AND CALM THE FUCK DOWN!"

Twilight stops instantly as she feels herself being moved into a bridal carry, wrapping her arms around whoponyever has caught her and holds onto them for dear life while trembling and says, "I'm sorry I hit you, I'm just so scared of dying."

Arthas braces for the hard landing he is about to make and says, "If you were to die, I would just raise you into my service." He then readies his legs as he lands on the ground heavily, crushing the crystal path underneath him from the force and shifts his momentum forward. He runs for a short distance and comes to a stop, then prepares to set her down.

She recognizes the voice of her rescuer as tears slowly fill her eyes, quickly moving away to see that her rescuer was Arthas, and quickly pulls his helm off and reacts by saying, "Oh thank you Arthas, I love you." She lets go of it and quickly grabs his face, and gives him a kiss on the lips. She attempts to make the kiss deeper, but is quickly pushed away and roughly placed onto the ground.

Cadence's mouth hangs agape as she struggles to believe what she just witnessed with her own eyes, blinking once more to see him reach up with his gauntlets and pries her hands off of him.

The Lich King then turns around and grabs his helm and shoots her a threatening look and says, "Don't ever touch my helm again!" and starts walking away from Twilight. He then puts the helm back onto his head and starts to make his way towards Cadence saying, "GIVE ME THAT DAMNED HEART BEFORE I KILL YOU ALL!"

She then rolls her eyes at him and tosses the heart into its spot, being captured by the two points and slowly begins to rotate.

Arthas starts to make his way towards the Crystal Heart to prevent it from activating, stopping in front of Cadence and reaches out to grab her by the neck when the crystal path under him begins to glow brightly. He then shifts his gaze to the ponies around as they start to return to their crystalline looks and kneel down to touch their muzzles to the crystal paths underneath them, glaring angrily at Cadence and amplifies his voice and shouts, "I SWEAR I SHALL RETURN ONE DAY TO REDUCE THIS CITY TO CRYSTAL POWDER WITH MY ENTIRE ARMY AND KILL THE GROUND IT SITS ON WITH THE PLAGUE!! THIS...ISN'T...OVER!!!

Twilight starts to move towards Arthas when she is blinded by a bright whitish-blue wave of light, forced to close her eyes to protect her vision. She tries to squint her eyes to be able to see what is happening to Arthas and sees him also guarding his eyes with an arm against the light, but then an even brighter light forces her to close her eyes completely.

Cadence watches as The Lich King tries to fight against the power of the Crystal Heart, hearing him shout, "I WILL BE BACK!" then watches a second blast of the Crystal Heart's power sends Arthas flying into the air and out of the city.

Arthas's mental argument with the remnant of his humanity

The Lich King crashes into a tree and tumbles to the ground, then pushes himself back onto his feet and stares at the city, full of rage. He stands there glaring at the shining city as a rainbow streak shoots up through the sky, creating a barrier and emitting pink, blue, and yellow ribbons into the air and stretching far off into the distance. A calming warmth starts to flow through his body as his heart beats louder, irritating him further.

He then hears a quiet voice fill his head, quietly saying, 'You are not a real king either, remember how you killed your own father after putting the entire population of Stratholme to the sword and flame?'

He then replies to the voice, 'I had no choice but to do that, father was going to lead Lordaeron to ruin!'

The quiet voice continues saying, 'Did you really have to do those terrible things? What about when you destroyed the Sunwell by raising Kel'Thuzad as a lich after slaughtering so many innocent lives such as women and children, don't you want to have a family again?'

Arthas looks down to the ground with his fists clenched as his anger reaches a boiling point and replies, 'Be quiet.'

The voice chuckles and says, 'You are a much worse monster than Sombra ever was, and you are oh so eager to pay the price needed to claim more power. Do you feel anything after what you put your daughters through, what about your pretty pony wife huh? Did you even take a second to think that maybe you were the problem?!'

He has finally had enough and pries off his helm shouting, "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU, IT IS HIGH TIME I DID THIS AND RETURN TO WHAT I SHOULD BE!" and drops it to the ground, then moves to take off his gauntlets.

The Shen'dralar druid sits in her flight form and watches with wide eyes, still trembling at what is happening before her very eyes, fighting against her strong urge to attack The Lich King with his guard down. She trembles with fear as he strips out of his chest armor, and down to his bare chest as she watches him draw Frostmourne. He then grabs it by the blade with both hands and drives it into his chest, then goes through his sternum and returns the sword to its sheath.

Arthas reaches up to his wound with one hand, then digs his fingers into his chest and underneath the bone. He then uses his strength to pull back his ribs and plunges his other hand inside, grips his own heart in his hand and rips it out with one swift motion.

She sits up there in the snow-covered pine tree and fights the urge to throw up at seeing him tear his own heart out and hold it in his hand glaring at it and thinks to herself, 'I can't believe that I actually saw him tear his own heart out, what is he planning to do with it?!'

He then sighs with relief as the voice goes away and smiles saying, "I feel better already now that you are out of me...NOW BE GONE!!" and hurls it as far from him into the trees as he can. Without a care for the wretched part of him, he turns his back on it and goes back to putting his armor back on.

The druid waits as Arthas gets the rest of his armor on and returns the helm to his head, then summons his steed Invincible and rides off hastily. Seeing her chance, she jumps from her perch and shifts into her cat form and begins her search for the heart to put it in a safe place before she races back to inform her friend of what she witnessed.

She has slight difficulties in finding the heart due to the snow and wind moving the scent around, but finds it lying inside the hollowed base of a fallen tree. With a sigh, she shifts to her normal form and hesitantly searches through her bag for something to grab the heart and wrap it in. She then pulls out a large scrap of frostweave and carefully lays it over the palm of her hand, then reaches into the space with her upturned palm and turns her hand over, and grabs the still-beating thing. She cautiously removes it and begins to wrap the cloth around the heart as it continues to beat slowly, then begins to search for somewhere to place it when she remembers seeing a platform by the train and begins to head there.

At the castle in Canterlot with Celestia and Luna

Celestia stands beside her sister when they both look out the window to see pink, blue and yellow ribbons of light dance in the sky and smiles. She looks to her sister as she does the same and walks up to her, then gives her a hug sighing happily saying, "Twilight passed her test and they all succeeded in saving the Crystal Empire dear sister."

Luna hugs her sister back and says, "Yes they most certainly have, they kept Sombra from reclaiming the heart and freed the Crystal Ponies from his tyranny."

Chapter 12A: The Empire's Return (Alternate ending)

Author's Note

THIS IS AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF THE STORY WITH A DIFFERENT ENDING, SENDING THE STORY DOWN A DIFFERENT PATH. SO SKIP THIS CHAPTER IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE THE ORIGINAL ROUTE, ALTERNATES WILL BE MARKED AT THE TOP.

Chapter 12A: The Empire's Return (Alternate ending)

ALTERNATE ROUTE FOR THE STORY, CHANGE IS WITH THE ARGUMENT. SKIP THIS CHAPTER TO CONTINUE WITH THE ORIGINAL ROUTE.