The Curse of Undeath

After spending a few hours with Luna, Merithra looks at her mother and asks, "Mother, would you be willing to permit me to accompany their group to their world?"

Ysera eyes her daughter curiously before letting out a sigh and chuckling lightly, saying, "You may dear, just make sure to keep yourself safe over there." She then looks at Luna and says, "It's just a matter of time until Deathwing is dealt with when you shall be able to send out a call for aid against the Lich King's forces."

Luna looks at Ysera and nods saying, "I look forward to when that time comes, we will need all the help we can get against Father's forces." then looks at the sky and sees the sun reaching toward the horizon, giving her a brief smile and saying, "It might be a good time for us to head back, my sister has a few duties to tend to before we set the sun and raise the moon."

The aspect smiles and nods her head saying, "I was beginning to think of that as well because we still have yet to choose a new leader for the blue dragonflight. I hope that we can come to some sort of agreement soon. Hop on my back, Princess Luna and we will be on our way back."

She nods and heads over to the aspect, then gets up onto her neck saying, "Alright, I'm ready to go." Once she gets settled in, she is joined by Merithra, who sits right behind her.

A little while later, at the top of Wyrmrest Temple

Alexstrasza watches her sister land and let the others return to the ground before she shifts back to her humanoid form, looking at her niece Merithra with a smile saying, "I'm so happy that you decided to join us here, little niece." Turning her gaze to the other two, she holds a subtle smile on her face asking, "Is everyone ready to hear about one person you need to keep a watchful eye on? How about you Luna?

Luna joins the others in a small circle, nodding her head while the others seem to be uninterested in hearing about them and saying, "Sorry we took so long, Ysera was showing me around the Emerald Dream."

The Aspect nods her head saying, "It is fine, we had to wait for the tome Chromie was retrieving." She then clears her throat and begins by saying, "Now the person you must know about and keep an eye out for is a key member of the Horde, her name is Sylvanas Windrunner. She used to be a proud Ranger General of Silvermoon, which was the capital of Quel'thalas when Arthas and his scourge came through and nearly slaughtered their entire race."

Nozdormu sighs and speaks next saying, "Sylvanas put up a resistance, but it was doomed as Arthas's forces were too strong and her kingdom's leaders grew corrupt after too many years of peace. Thus allowing their once mighty army to dwindle down to just a few. When Arthas finally came face to face with her, he wounded her just enough so that his sword could rip her soul out of her still-breathing body. He then used her soul to turn her into a banshee and ordered her to attack and kill her own people. Her final moments had the greatest impact on her and made her who she is today. As Arthas stabbed her with Frostmourne, she shed tears that were seared into her skin while she was being ripped out of her body. Seeing the one who defeated her with breath still in her lungs, her soul was torn out, and turned around to gaze upon the field where her own lifeless body...and saw her failure forever commemorated by the corpses of her people lying on the ground around her, two of which she saw were the mother and child she tried to save. With a final anguished scream, Arthas transformed her into a banshee. While Arthas was purging Lordaeron of life, his power began to wane, and left for Northrend to defend the Frozen Throne. He became weak enough for Sylvanas to regain her freedom and somehow possessed her own body. She then intended to ambush him on his journey while still weak herself, and poisoned him with an arrow, but failed to do more due to Kel'thuzad's interference. When he arrived, Illidan Stormrage and a few of his soldiers stood in his way, intending to destroy it, resulting in him nearly dying from Arthas' strike. She then started to bide her time by gathering the freed undead to make a home for themselves. She coerced the dreadlord Varimathras to join her in securing the capital city of Lordaeron, driving out the other dreadlords and making an alliance with Othmar Garithos, who was a surviving military leader of the Lordaeron forces. When they retook the capital, she betrayed him by having the surviving dreadlord kill him. I won't say anymore as it may have adverse effects on the future.

Celestia gasps at hearing the story about Sylvanas, saying, "I cannot believe that father was that cruel to someone, I look forward to the day when we make him face what he has done to us all."

Luna sheds a tear for what her father had put Sylvanas through, saying, "I feel sad for her, having to suffer from such misery because of our father Cece." She then looks at the one who spoke and asks, "Can anything be done to help her?"

The bronze aspect looks up for a moment and then shakes his head saying, "At this moment, unfortunately not." He then looks away and off into the distance, then turns his head toward them saying, "You all should be on your way since you have the tome you require, time is of the essence now as it is turning against you while we speak."

Luna's older sister rises to her hooves as her younger sister joins her, turning her head to them and bowing her head to them in respect saying, "Thank you for all that you have told us, wise ones." then looks at the Queen saying, "We will take what you have so graciously granted us and leave you to your duties, good evening and good luck to you all."

Taking that as her cue, Alexstrasza nods her head saying, "You are welcome, may fortune favor you all in these trying times. Fare thee well, young ones." and looks to the dragons all around them and says, "I need twenty brave drakes to travel with them to their world, aiding them against the Lich King's forces."

With nothing left to be said, the group takes their leave and makes their way towards the portal in Northrend along with the drakes lent to them as Celestia tucks the tome into her storage space.

Several minutes later, somewhere over the western part of Wintergrasp, near the Crystal Song border

A solitary Forsaken gatherer is out looking for ores and herbs when she hears the distant beating of wings. Curious, she heads out of the forest and into the clearance to get a better look when she spots a group of red dragons flying low and heading north. As she takes a closer look at the group, she notices a few alliance gryphons mixed in with the group and spits on the ground saying, "Alliance pigs..."

The group continues to fly a little above the treetops to avoid being seen, unaware of the danger of being spotted from the ground as Luna says, "Umm, aren't we flying a little too low? I thought I saw some creature running through the trees..."

Varian shruggs at that and says, "Don't worry about it, it is most likely just some forest animal. The Horde's attention is drawn elsewhere due to Deathwing trying to destroy Azeroth."

Luna still feels unsure about it but sighs and says, "Alright if you say so, King Varian, I still feel it unwise to fly this low."

The Forsaken female crouches in a bush as the group passes overhead, her eyes opening wide at hearing King Varian mentioned and cocks her head curiously, thinking, 'King Varian is here? I thought that he was supposed to be in Stormwind... This is highly unusual, I need to get word to the Dark Lady about this discovery.' then summons her war bat to head for the portal to Undercity in Dalaran.

It takes her half an hour to reach the portal in the floating city of Dalaran, arriving in the Undercity below the ruins of Lordaeron's capital city, then starts making her way to the surface.

Sylvanas is a few miles outside the forsaken's home of Undercity, finishing off the last member of a recently spotted group of scourge soldiers when she spots a forsaken heading her way on a war bat. She crushes the skull of a decrepit skeletal corpse crawling its way toward her with her foot saying, "Ugh, annoying pests..."

The forsaken hops off her war bat and makes her way towards her leader, bowing to her in respect saying, "My Dark Lady, I have a curious bit of information to share with you. I was in the western part of Wintergrasp gathering herbs and ore when I heard the flapping of distant wings, I then looked around and saw a dragon with a few others heading in my direction, so I ran to find some cover. When I found a bush by an open area, I looked up to see them passing overhead, heading towards Icecrown, and noticed something out of the ordinary."

The Dark Lady narrows her eyes and says, "Get to the point already, I'm busy wiping out the annoying remnants of the scourge's soldiers."

She bows again, saying, "Apologies Dark Lady, I saw three gryphons in the middle of the group of dragons and heard one of them say King Varian's name as if he was among them... I found it odd that King Varian Wrynn is in Northrend at all and not at Stormwind. What do you think?"

Sylvanas's curiosity is piqued at that and raises her eyebrow, saying, "You are correct, it is rather odd for the king of Stormwind to be there." then looks away in thought, saying aloud "I wonder what he is doing there..." She then looks up to the forsaken female and says, "Go find Lillian Voss, she might be hunting down members of the Scarlet Crusade somewhere in the Eastern Plaguelands, go find her and have her investigate it when she is finished with her mission."

The forsaken nods and then makes her way towards her war bat to begin her task of locating Lillian Voss and informing her of the Dark Lady's orders.

Three weeks later, near the edge of the Everfree Forest

Lillian Voss is nearing the forest's edge when she sees a group of three fillies heading down a path towards her position and moves behind a bush, crouching down behind it to see what they are doing.

Sweetie Belle then looks at Applebloom and asks, "Hey Applebloom, are you sure it is a good idea for us to go visit Zecora in the woods with Arthas's soldiers threatening to attack Equestria?"

Applebloom then looks at her and answers, "Well, it might not be wise, but what if we could find a way to help the princesses to save The Lich King from his evil ways? We would be heroes of Equestria and might just get our cutie marks by doing that!"

Lillian watches the two girls agree with her and trot along with her down the road hearing them say, "Heroes of Equestria!" and chuckles quietly, saying, "Foolish children." when a voice from behind startles her.

Pinkie Pie looks at the strange being and says, "Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie, what's your name?"

She whips around to see a very energetic pink pony speaking to her and says, "Lillian Voss, I have followed rumors saying that King Varian Wrynn passed through a forest in Northrend, then disappeared through a portal. I then found my way through it and wound up in a wasteland, what can you tell me about this world, Pinkie Pie?"

She then smiles and says, "Well, I can tell that you are from Azeroth because you mentioned Northrend, some portal, and King Varian Wrynn. I could tell you lots about this world, what would you like to know first? OH OH OH, what are you?"

As the two get to know each other, they both find out what they need to know as Lillian says, "I need to go report back to the Dark Lady about my findings, maybe we shall meet again another time."

Pinkie Pie then smiles at her and asks, "Do you think you could teach me to be a rogue just like you Lilly?"

The rogue then cocks her head and shrugs her shoulders asking, "I'm not sure, when you fight in Azeroth...you fight for your life and the life of the others with you. It is either kill or be killed over there, can you be angry enough to fight with a weapon and draw your enemy's blood? Could you bring yourself to protect your friends by taking an enemies life, how about the life of an enemy that can speak, think, and talk like you that wants to kill you or worse?"

Her mane deflates slightly at hearing her speak like that and mumbles for a few moments, saying, "Uhm...I...I..." then sighs and gathers her courage for the most difficult task ahead of her and looks back at Lillian with a steeled gaze saying, "I Pinkamena Diane Pie, will do whatever I can to keep my friends safe! So please teach me how to be a rogue!"

Lillian Voss nods and says, "Very well Pinkie, after I make my report, I will return here swiftly to begin training you." then turns around and makes her way back to the portal, wondering how Sylvannas will react to hearing that Arthas is alive and well in Equus.

Sneaking her way back through the portal and the garrison, she summons her mount and makes haste to return to the Dark Lady to report her findings.

A couple of weeks pass as Sylvannas strangles the life out of one final ghoul when she hears footsteps approaching and quickly turns around, hurling the ghoul off to the side like garbage and sees Lillian Voss asking, "Do you have something to report, Lillian?"

Lillian nods to her and says, "Indeed I do Dark Lady, I investigated the matter of King Varian being in Northrend and discovered that there is a garrison built around a portal that leads into a peaceful world called Equus. He is there along with Highlord Tirion and Archmage Malin to help a nation of ponies named Equestria ruled by two powerful alicorn sisters, Princess Celestia and the younger sister, Princess Luna. The reason for their being there is to help train them to fight back against a great evil that threatens them all, one you know as Arthas Menethil."

Surprised and enraged at hearing the news that the Lich King still lives, she screams and leaps towards the ghoul she tossed aside. Landing on its head, she watches it explode all over the ground beneath her boots. Turning to look at Lillian with eyes glowing in rage, she says, "TELL. ME. EVERYTHING."

The rogue nods and proceeds to tell her what Pinkie told her about waiting for Deathwing to be dealt with before getting the Alliance and Horde to help deal with Arthas, saying, "That is everything I have learned of the situation over there. Is there another task you want me to do?"

Sylvannas smiles at an opportunity to get her revenge on the Lich King and nods her head saying, "There is, yes. Go back there and keep a close eye on the Lich King's movements, and set up a drop point to relay reports to me every week. I have to speed things up with the battle against Deathwing and his minions..."

Lillian Voss nods her head saying, "At once, Dark Lady." then hurries off to find a drop off point hidden from the eyes of the Horde or Alliance, then look for a trustworthy mage to collect the reports and deliver them to Lady Sylvannas for her.

It takes her a couple of weeks to get everything set up securely as she finds herself back in Equus, teaching Pinkie Pie during the day and observing the Lich King and his forces at night. She looks over at Pinkie and watches her working on her lack of anger saying, "I know that you are the Element of Laughter, but in Azeroth...that will only get you and your friends killed if you can't get angry. Try harder Pinkie."

Six months later, at Canterlot Castle inside the training area

Kalysse flaps hard, approaching the ground quickly and transforms into her humanoid form and pants shouting, "WHERE IS PRINCESS CELESTIA?"

The guard flinches at her volume and says, "In the training area with Highlord Tirion, what is wrong?"

She hurries towards the door and yanks it open saying, "There's movement in the Frozen North, that's what's wrong!" and then races through it to go find Celestia.

Celestia is happy at just getting started on learning the limitations to resurrect and says, "So, if I understand this correctly, I can only resurrect someone if... They died in battle less than 15 minutes ago and has not been attacked by any magic that damaged their soul."

Highlord Tirion nods his head and says, "That is correct, because no matter how hard you try...you can't bring back those who have died of natural causes, or those who have moved on once the 15 minutes are up. You can't even return ponies killed by the Plague of Undeath, as it is a magical disease that reanimates them as mindless corpses. When we do reach Arthas at the top of Icecrown, the chances to being able to resurrect someone during the battle will be very slim because he is a very strong foe."

The princess then asks, "So, where do I start learning how to do that?" and suddenly hears someone burst through the door to the training area, looking over to see the druid Kalysse searching for her with a worried look on her face.

The druid looks around the room hastily for the princess and spots her, then sprints towards her saying breathlessly, "PRINCESS CELESTIA...(gasp)...DIRE NEWS...(gasp)...FROM THE...(gasp)...FROZEN NORTH...(gasp)...REGARDING MOVEMENT...OF THE LICH KING'S...(gasp)...FORCES!"

The training area goes dead silent as Celestia's heart starts to rise into her throat while her eyes widen with fear as she replies loudly, "What's going on?! Is the army heading anywhere?!"

Kalysse takes a few seconds to catch her breath before continuing on in a slightly more composed, but worried tone, saying, "A large number, about 300,000 strong are on their way south...with hundreds of machines towards the narrow path between the mountains just north of the eastern coast of the Luna Bay."

Celestia looks at her and hastily says, "Go to Moonglade and get my sister, then tell her what happened on your way here." She watches her nod and summon a portal, then pass through it as she turns to Rainbow Dash, who is staring off into the sky with an expression of worry on her face and says, "Rainbow, it is a miracle that you are here right now. You're the fastest flier in Equestria, go gather the dragons that Queen Alexstrasza lent to us and lead them to the narrow pass then have them use their abilities to create as many obstacles as they are able before the army gets there. Me and the others will wait for my sister to get here and then we will join you as soon as we can, do whatever you can to hinder their movements but please...do not attack the army until we arrive."

Rainbow nods her head and then takes off into the sky with a short rainbow trail following her as she thinks, 'I sure hope that he doesn't attack the Crystal Empire or Vanhoover...'

Half an hour passes as Luna finally arrives with Kalysse, and hurries to her sister's side asking, "Where is father headed sister!?"

She looks at her and shakes her head with a sigh saying, "I'm not sure exactly, but it appears he means to attack Vanhoover. Come on, Rainbow and the dragons are waiting for us at the pass, let's get going." and takes flight with the humans mounted on their gryphons towards the pass.

When they arrive, Princess Celestia looks at Rainbow lying on a cloud as the dragons sit upon the sides of the valley, watching the pass carefully for approaching enemies. She then asks Rainbow, "Has there been any sight of the army Rainbow?"

Rainbow then shakes her head saying, "Not even a lousy ghoul, could they have turned back or maybe just going slower than usual?"

She thinks it over and says, "With the machines, they would definitely be slower. Let's wait here a while as we have a good position set up to ambush them from for when they show up."

Two hours later...

Luna has a sinking feeling in her stomach and turns to her sister saying, "I will go see if I can find out where they are at, I have a sinking feeling in my gut that tells me they should have been here by now."

Celestia sighs worriedly and nods saying, "Okay sister, but be careful."

With a nod, she says, "I will sister, don't worry." then takes off into the skies above the pass, heading towards the closest gate to her father's lands.

Once she gets through the pass, she keeps a close eye out for any signs of an army marching by. She doesn't see anything for a good half hour until she sees a trampled swath leading south, then turning to the east. With too many potential targets, she flies a bit higher and follows the path to be sure of what their target is.

She catches up with the army as it begins to turn towards the mountain range, climbing a bit higher to remain out of range of Queen Ashara's keen undead dragon senses. When she spots a large hole at the base of the mountain range several miles away, she notices that the army is heading right for it and then flies high enough to still see the hole, but out of Ashara's range.

Racing forward towards the hole, she is first to arrive, being a few miles ahead of the army. Darting inside quickly, she casts a barrier spell while illuminating her horn to see in the pitch-black tunnel. Seizing the opportunity to hinder their progress as much as she can, she drops her spells and blasts the sides and top of the tunnel's entrance, hearing a low rumbling at first as it gets louder with each passing second. Quickly recasting her barrier and light, she flies a distance down the tunnel before doing the same thing again. As she does this every so often, it takes her a few minutes to get to the exit.

Finally leaving the tunnel, Luna flies up into the air to get her bearings and gasps when she spots where the tunnel comes out at. Seeing the beautiful tourist village and the rainbow arching over it, she turns her head to the right and realizes what their target is. She flaps her wings and pulls around hard to fly back to where her sister and the others are waiting in a now-useless ambush.

A half-hour later, at the ambush point in the pass

Celestia barely has time to react to hearing a pair of rapidly flapping wings when she hears something land really hard beside her, causing her to cry out in alarm and spin her head to her left to find her sister's chest heaving as she tries to catch her breath and asks, "WHAT'S WRONG LUNA!?!"

Luna looks around for Rainbow Dash and shouts, "RAINBOW DASH, GET OVER TO RAINBOW FALLS AND TELL EVERYPONY THERE, MARE, STALLION, FOAL, AND NEWBORN TO EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY AND HURRY TO THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE THIS INSTANT!!! ENSURE THEY ALL LEAVE WITH ONLY THE ESSENTIALS OR THEY MAY FALL BEHIND AND BE CAUGHT BY THE LICH KING'S ARMY!"

A circular rainbow spreads out when Rainbow Dash performs a Sonic Rainboom from a nearly-dead stop as Celestia looks at Luna with wide eyes filled with terror and shouts, "LUNA, WILL YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG!?!"

She looks at her sister, takes a deep breath and says, "Father is on his way east, there is a large tunnel carved through the mountain range that exits near Rainbow Falls. I looked around and figured out from the clues provided to us at Wyrmrest Temple...he's..." and begins to fight against crying and forces herself to continue on, "he's going to hit Manehattan...WITH THE PLAGUE! I've done what I could to hinder the army's progress, but it's only a matter of time before they get through. However, Ashara will have to fly over as she is too big to fit through the tunnel." as her body shudders, unable to keep itself from sobbing any longer.

As she watches her sister begin to break down, she raises her right hand and brings it back, then slaps her across the face to snap her out of it and bites her lower lip to keep herself from sobbing as well and focuses on what's important saying, "YOU CAN CRY AFTER WE DO WHAT WE CAN TO SAVE THE PONIES IN THE VILLAGES NEAREST TO MANEHATTAN!" Then grabs her sister by the shoulders and says in a softer tone, "For now, please go back and help Rainbow out by flying from those places closest to Manehattan, you've done very well to try and buy us time to help ponies get to safety. I need to go get Twilight to help evacuate towns," then looks to everyone else and says, "Set up an ambush point above the tunnel's exit, we will at least take away one of his minions this day!"

A few cheers go out as King Varian heads over to a dragon saying, "Soldiers, head over to a dragon and climb on! Use whatever ranged spells you can on their back. Today is the day we take a step forward in weakening the Lich King! Archmage Malin, go find yourself a drake or sit behind a soldier and let them handle steering while you fight."

The Archmage nods and makes his way to a drake, sitting behind a female soldier saying, "I sure hope that you are good at flying a dragon, they are nothing like flying a gryphon."

The female soldier hesitates to answer, then says, "S-Sorry sir, I have not had the opportunity to learn." then looks at the dragon and says, "We're both counting on you in this upcoming fight, so if you see an attack coming and I fail to attack, take over flying and evade it please."

The female drake nods her head and says, "Very well, I shall do that, my queen would be saddened if any of us were to perish here."

The ambush point, an hour later

The resurrected Dragon Queen Ashara is halfway over the mountain range when she comes under sudden attack, feeling multiple fireballs pummel her body. Crying out in pain and rage, she bellows, "You pathetic attack felt like the bite of a mosquito, let me show you what pain really feels like!" then spews out a stream of fire at a passing red dragon.

The red drake carrying the female soldier and Archmage Malin sees an opportunity to do some real damage and lands on the top of the large dragon's neck, using her claws to tear into her flesh. As she bites down on the scales over her spine, they crack under the force of her bite. Tossing her head sideways, she opens her jaws to discard the shattered scales, then brings her head back around to tear away at the dragon's body.

Ashara roars out in pain as a dragon tears into her neck, making her ignore the others she's fighting and shake her head to try to dislodge her attacker.

As Malin attacks her with a lightning spell, he watches as the dragon's body falters briefly and calls out, "Keep hitting her, she's weakening!"

The attacks from the small creatures and the dragons continue to take their toll when the dragon queen looks up to see a bright light coming from two of the small creatures. Thinking that this may be her end, she charges toward the pair of lights, roaring in defiance, "I am the mighty Dragon Queen Ashara, I will not fall here without taking you with me!"

Celestia switches from attacking to defending as she discards the spell she was going to use for her shield spell, then casts it as Luna focuses on putting more strength into an attack saying, "Do in now Luna!"

Luna opens her eyes, finishing with the spell and then casts a much stronger version of Starfire and calls out, "NOW...FALL!" and watches as her spell engulfs her body and burns her flesh away.

Ashara feels her strength leaving her, knowing that she is going to die soon as her body begins to fall. One wing gives one final flap, causing her body to roll onto its back as she falls from the sky, speaking to her master through her connection with him, saying, "I'm sorry...my lord...but my strength...has failed me. Please forgive me...for failing you..." then crashes onto the side of the mountain peak and slides down to the ground.

As Zovaal controls Arthas's body, he chuckles with amusement at the small, minuscule victory they had achieved in defeating the weak Equestrian Dragon Queen that Arthas had previously raised. He then shakes his head and grumbles at her failure to complete his task, saying to her through their connection, "How pathetic, I expected you to do much better against those ponies." then shrugs his shoulders and continues, "Oh well, I guess if you want something done...you have to do it yourself." then speaks to Sindragosa through the helm's connection and says, "It's time that we take the fight to these ponies and show them how ill-prepared they are for this fight. I will be there shortly."

Feeling relieved, she looks to the foes around her and chuckles menacingly, saying, "Enjoy your victory...for it will be your last. My master...will make...you...payyy." when her last word slips from her mouth and turns into her final sigh as her head falls to the ground, lifeless.