The Curse of Undeath

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!"