Author's Note

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL, OR HAPPY HOLIDAYS! FINISHED THIS JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS, SO I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THIS CHAPTER AS MY GIFT TO YOU ALL!"

Chapter 22: Darkest before the Dawn (Minor edit 12/25/23)

Celestia watches with fear-filled eyes as Ashara's corpse lies in the snow as several paladins work to sanctify her remains to make them unusable to the Lich King, replaying her last words in her head as a cold dread creeps over her body, hearing, "My master will make you pay."

As her body begins to tremble uncontrollably, she looks to the west to where Icecrown Citadel is at. Thinking she can see the flicker of faint blue flames suffusing Sindragosa's body, (which is actually just a figment of her imagination) she starts to hear a cacophony of thousands of moaning, groaning, rattling, and the shrieking or wailing of an army of undead marching out of the tunnel. With a horrified shudder at the army marching on at a frenzied pace, she looks to the others and says, "As soon as you all have finished with her body, return to the dragons, we have a city to defend and evacuate!" then blasts the top of the entrance with a powerful beam of magic, causing a loud crash from the tunnel as the entrance collapses on top of the soldiers.

A few dragons swoop down and incinerate any soldiers that are outside of the cave as the others finish sanctifying her body, then land so they can mount back up quickly and hurry towards Manehattan. Luna sees that Twilight couldn't get any of the citizens to evacuate as a large mob has gathered near the city limits with pitchforks, torches and other assorted tools for farming. Concerned for her citizens, she looks at the mob and says, "WHAT ARE YOU PONIES DOING, YOU NEED TO EVACUATE THIS CITY NOW!"

Amidst a veritable crowd of ponies, a headstrong Starlight says, "We won't let a foreign invader take our homes without a fight!"

Another pony is emboldened by her words and calls out even louder, "YEAH! The changeling invasion of Canterlot was repelled, so we can do the same HERE!"

Celestia tries to reason with the mob of ponies, but it does no good as she hears the cacophony of the undead approaching the city. Wanting to know where they are at, she flies up into the air to locate them and sees them just a few miles away, sprinting towards Manehattan and lands hastily shouting, "HOW CAN THEY BE THROUGH ALREADY?!" and casts her protective barrier over the whole city saying, "Sister, please lend me help once I begin to really strain to keep it up!"

Luna nods to her sister as she hears ponies cry out in terror at seeing what they are facing, watching helplessly as the army strikes the shield with their weapons or magic.

A half-hour passes by as the army of undead surrounds the city, with siege weapons beginning to appear with wagons loaded with glass barrels reinforced by iron rings. As the first of the barrels are loaded into the catapults, plague-bringers stand just outside the barrier, eager to rush in and spread the plague to the living inside.

Wincing slightly as the containers filled with a green, swirling cloud strike the shield and shatter on impact, Celestia focuses on maintaining the barrier. A little while later, she gasps when she feels a stronger attack hit the shield, still focusing while looking up to see Sindragosa breathing frostfire onto the shield.

Luna watches the area around the barrier turn green and hears some ponies around her beginning to worry about their safety when she sees black lightning race along the barrier, and hears her sister scream out in agony for the very first time in her life. Turning to her sister, she watches as she maintains the barrier while trying to curl up.

Somehow managing to stay standing throughout the attack, Celestia sighs with relief as a bead of sweat trickles down her forehead and falls off her chin. Left with no other choice, she says, "Luna, and Archmage Malin, open a portal to Canterlot large enough for these dragons to walk through! Then evacuate Highlord Tirion and King Varian, followed by their soldiers and then every pony else!"

Varian watches as the Lich King unleashes another attack, causing Celestia to scream out in agony while black lightning races all over her body. He sees Archmage Malin begin to create a large portal when he hears a loud, glass-like crack echo through the air. He looks up to see a large crack appear at the top of the shield, turning to Malin and says, "You better hurry Malin or we're going to die here and join the scourge!"

It takes Malin a minute to get the portal open as Luna says, "Dragons through the portal, now!" and watches as they hurry towards the portal while the soldiers do what they can to keep the ponies from racing toward the portal. Seeing a pony about to attack a soldier causes Luna to bellow in the royal voice, "DO NOT LOSE YOURSELVES TO PANIC AND DISMAY JUST TO SURVIVE! MY SISTER AND I WILL BE THE LAST ONES THROUGH AFTER YOU! SO KEEP CALM AND HAVE FAITH IN US TO GET YOU TO SAFETY!"

Celestia collapses onto the ground, curling up on herself as she howls out in agony from the black lightning racing along and throughout her entire body. When the attack ends, she nearly passes out from exhaustion as she says "LUNA! HELP ME MAINTAIN THE SHIELD!"

Nodding, Luna channels her magic and joins her sister in holding the barrier up, barely able to maintain focus as another attack hits them both. She hears her sister howl out hoarsely in agony as her horn begins to glow orange, a sign that she is nearing mana depletion sickness. Trying to take more of the burden onto her, she holds her sister and pushes herself even harder. She surprises herself as she manages to close up many of the cracks in the barrier, grimacing as yet another attack hits her even harder.

Tirion watches as the last dragon goes through the portal, asking King Varian to go first saying, "After you, King Varian."

Archmage Malin watches as both of the leaders go through and shouts to the soldiers, "Come on and get through already soldiers of Azeroth!" smiling as they each turn and sprint towards the open portal, one by one.

When half of the soldiers are through, he looks over at Princess Celestia and sees her horn changing colors and calls out to Luna, asking, "Why is her horn changing colors!?"

She looks over at her sister's horn slowly turning into a light red and shouts, "DROP THE SPELL SISTER! YOU ARE NEARING COMPLETE DEPLETION WHICH WILL CAUSE A BACKLASH IF THE SPELL FAILS!"

Barely managing to force herself to stay awake with desperation, she exclaims, "I WILL NOT ABANDON OUR SUBJECTS LIKE OUR FATHER DID TO HIS! I WILL NOT FAIL MY LITTLE PONIES, FOR THEIR LIVES MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME!"

Luna watches her sister fight to maintain the spell and bellows back, "YOU ARE NOTHING LIKE HIM, CECE! YOU LOVE OUR SUBJECTS MORE THAN ARTHAS EVER DID, YOU NEVER LET YOURSELF BE BLINDED BY YOUR PRIDE! FATHER HAD! PLEASE DROP THE SPELL BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!"

Celestia sighs and continues to maintain the spell a little longer, saying in a normal tone, "Alright sister, I'm sorr..." when she throws her head back, accidentally using the royal voice as another attack suddenly wracks her body, causing her to let out a blood-curdling and ear-shattering scream in full volume as she starts bleeding from her eyes, ears, nose, and the corner of her mouth.

She watches in horror as her sister's horn flashes red and then the bright, red aura explodes outward and unleashes a backlash that is transmitted to her as her sister collapses to the ground unconscious. It is her turn to wail out in agony as the combined pain from the backlash and her father's current attack, hearing a sickening spiderweb of cracks race out along the shield.

Malin watches with wide eyes as Princess Celestia's horn is blackened after the spell failed, while Princess Luna has no choice but to maintain the spell...on her own. He runs up and picks the unconscious alicorn princess up and looks to Luna saying, "We need to get you to safety Luna!"

Gritting her teeth through another attack while tears run in rivers down her face, Luna looks at the shocked and stunned ponies around her and shouts, "What are you staring at?! Get your flanks through...NOW!"

Zovaal stands a fair distance away from the shield, seeing its heavily damaged state and chuckles saying, "A well-placed sword strike will bring it crashing down around them all." and then starts to run towards the shield, turning the blade around in his hand to wield it underhanded. When he is a few feet from it, he uses all his strength to jump while raising the sword above his head and grabbing it with two hands, then drives it towards the barrier and pierces it. With a dark chuckle, he channels suffering through Frostmourne saying, "Now...you'll break...then die and serve me...in death."

The archmage watches as a light aquamarine-ish grey earth pony gallops through the portal when he hears Luna's wail match her sister's exactly, turning to look at her and sees that she, too, bleeds from her ears, eyes, nose, and mouth while her magical aura flashes red then explodes outward. Hearing a glass-like crackling of the shield collapsing, he races towards her as she falls to the ground unconscious. Throwing one sister over each shoulder, he races towards the portal as it begins to waver. Knowing that it will close really soon, he leaps into the portal as it starts to shrink rapidly.

Tirion watches as Malin emerges from the portal with the two sisters on his shoulders and asks, "What happened?! Are they okay?" Hurrying over to take his student from him, he shifts her into a princess-carry saying, "Come on, let's get them to the healers." and then makes his way towards the castle's medical wing to have them looked over by the nurses.

Varian looks over at the scared ponies who made it through the portal and sighs saying, "I apologize, but we are only guests here so we cannot help you with food or new lodgings, citizens of Manehattan. We must get the princesses taken care of first." He sees Princess Twilight sitting near a wall with her hands clutching Arthas's heart close to her chest while rocking back and forth, deciding to go help her deal with this situation. He walks over to her and sits beside her saying, "Princess Twilight, I know how you must be feeling so helpless right now after being forced to flee Manehattan. I was once forced to flee Stormwind when I was almost thirteen due to an attack from the Horde during the first war, and we fled to Lordaeron, which is where I first met Arthas."

Twilight slowly stops rocking to look at Varian and asks, "Could you tell me more about your childhood with Arthas?"

The king chuckles and says, "Of course, well, about the only thing that we really did together was duel and train with our weapons, although Arthas never beat me once in a duel."

The two of them go on to talking about what he knows of Arthas's past, which is surprisingly little, to Twilight's disappointment.

A few moments ago, after the barrier failed over Manehattan...

Starlight watches in shock as the portal snaps shut that the human just jumped through with the unconscious princesses on his shoulders, hearing glass shattering around her along with some cries of alarm. Forced to turn around saying, "They left us..." and watches the green cloud of mist begins spreading out around them.

A few ponies unable to get away fast enough breathe in the green mist and cough, then turn around and start heading for their homes to wait for their princesses to come to rescue them.

She begins to panic, breathing in more of the mist surrounding them as glass barrels continue to fall all around the city, suddenly feeling so helpless at being abandoned...again and screams out in despair, "NOOOO!!! THEY LEFT US BEHIND!!"

Starlight begins to completely freak out after the royal princesses abandon their own citizens to die, noticing a little while later how few ponies are around her. She takes a few steps to find someone and bumps into something lying on the ground, saying, "Watch it! instinctively. Looking down at the ground, she recognizes the pony she bumps into as the one that was standing beside her in the crowd. However, something looks very wrong with the mare, getting a closer look, she screams out in terror at seeing her body starting to rot away. As she stares at the mare rotting away, she screams bloody murder, then is horrified beyond reaction as the corpse gets back onto its hooves shakily. Seeing the sight of the wobbly undead pony before her causes her to lose control of her bladder as she pisses herself, then hears heavy booted steps approaching her from behind and turns around to see the Lich King everypony has been talking about lately walking amongst the rising undead ponies, thinking, 'I was so close to finding the scroll to get revenge...'

Zovaal looks around at the paltry number of undead ponies rising and then scoffs saying, "Pitiful, I will just have to go scourge one or two more cities before it is enough of a message..."

She then starts to cough harder as her vision begins to swim, causing her to drowsily groan out..."Sooo.....sleepy..." then feels her left leg give out, causing her unsteady body to fall over onto its left side as her eyes fall shut, letting out one more heavy breath before darkness takes her.

When she regains consciousness, she opens up her eyes feeling the need to serve her master. Shakily, she rises to her hooves and hears an order in her mind, telling her to wander Equestria and spread fear to the living ponies. Nodding her head and blinking dumbly, Starlight walks away, not knowing that her body has been forever changed and unaware that she is enslaved to the one responsible for her present state.

A couple of days later, in Canterlot Castle

Twilight paces back and forth in the hall, having great difficulty eating or sleeping due to her anxiety over both princesses still being unconscious. Totally freaking out over them not waking up yet after their horns have regained their natural color, she is startled when a pony suddenly talks to her and screams for a moment before asking in a panic, "HAVE THEY WOKEN UP YET!?!"

Doctor Hoof sighs and nods his head saying, "Princess Luna has just woken up, please go in and try to calm her down."

She nods and then trots out of the waiting room and into the recovery room, seeing Luna standing shakily near her sister's bed with her head lying beside hers and says, "I...I'm so sorry that she hasn't woken up yet, Princess Luna."

Luna straightens and spins around, expecting to see her father there, but sees Twilight there instead and sighs sadly before asking, "Do you know what happened after we both lost consciousness?"

She then hangs her head and says, "From what Archmage Malin tells me, as you suffered a really nasty attack, the spell failed and caused you to black out from the backlash. Once the shield started to shatter and fall apart, he grabbed you and carried you over his shoulder through the portal just before it could close. A few ponies made it through the portal, but many were left behind due to there not being enough time to keep the portal open. The news of the attack is all over Canterlot...and everypony is panicking about how the Alicorn Princesses were swiftly defeated at Manehattan, but they are utterly terrified at the news of dead ponies coming back to life."

She feels her heart break over how they were not able to save more as tears start to fall from her eyes, letting her head fall upon the bed beside her sister saying, "How could we have failed our subjects so miserably!?"

Varian strides into the room with a sigh saying, "Do not let yourself fall into the pit of despair, Princess Luna. You two have fared far better against the Lich King's might than others have. It pains me to know that a city and its citizens have fallen to the scourge, I swear that the soldiers of the Alliance will do whatever we can to bring the Lich King to Justice."

Twilight looks over at King Varian and nods saying, "I'm sure they both will appreciate your words, Your Highness. As long as we can ensure that he is not slain so that a suitable punishment can be delivered."

The king looks at Twilight as he sees Luna look over at him and sighs saying, "I cannot promise that the Horde will like that idea, so it will fall to you all to find a way to get them to agree to it."

Two days later, In Canterlot

Celestia sits at the breakfast table, barely able to eat anything due to how miserable she feels for having failed her citizens when the doors open to admit a courier into the room who tries to catch his breath for a moment and asks, "Is there news of more attacks from the Lich King or Azeroth? I really hope it is the latter because I can't take another bit of bad news or yet another city being scourged, I still weep for the citizens of Fillydelphia and Baltimare."

The courier then sets the scroll before Varian, saying, "It is a report of the battle between our forces and Deathwing's, Your Majesty."

Varian quickly takes the scroll and unrolls it, then reads through it, saying, "Good news at last...the last of his allies have been slain or cornered, and Deathwing has finally fallen. Since he has finally fallen, we can rally what forces we can after doing some cleanup. Fortunately, it will not take long, but I must return and take command of the forces.

She sighs sadly at hearing that and asks, "Could you spread word of our call for help against the Lich King?"

Varian, Malin, and Tirion then nod as Tirion says, "We will and I am sure that The Knights of the Ebon Blade will be the first ones here."

The High King looks at the courier and says, "You head back and spread the word around that there is to be a new call to arms posted on every warboard in every single city against the Lich King Arthas Menethil for the final time within a few hours, now ride forth and inform the captain of the garrison that fighters from the Horde and other factions are to be allowed through if they came to fight the Lich King."

The courier nods and then hurries out of the room to perform his tasks, passing by a pink pony trotting down the hall from where he came from. When he exits the castle doors, he hops onto his gryphon before taking off into the sky and heading for where the portal is located.

Celestia turns to see Pinkie Pie pronking into the room after being let in by the guards and asks, "What brings you here, Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie looks up at Princess Celestia and bows to her saying, "My Pinkie Sense was tingling, Princess Celestia, which told me that something good big just happened. So I came here with a friend to lend a hand, what happened?"

She looks at her and smiles, saying, "Something wonderful indeed, had happened. Deathwing has finally been defeated, which means Equestria can ask Azeroth for aid against the Lich King. I have already asked Varian and Tirion for their help to spread word of our request for aid to their people, and they agreed to do so."

She then prances in place with a wide smile on her face, saying, "OOH, OOH!" Then turns to her right and says in a rapid-fire manner, "Did you hear that, Lilly? Huh, huh?! The mean dragon aspect has been beaten, which means that we get to bring the fight to Arthas!"

Celestia then chuckles and says, "Pinkie Pie, there is nopony there."

Pinkie then giggles and says, "Oh, right, silly me! I sure hope that you don't let her appearance get to you, she really isn't all that bad once you get to know her." Then turns her head to look at where Lillian is beside her and nudges her side with her elbow, saying, "Come on out and say hello, there has to be a way for you to lend a helping hand."

Lillian turns to Pinkie as her stealth is canceled, saying, "Curse you, Pinkie..."

The princess then cocks her head as she notices a figure starting to fade into existence beside her, asking, "Hello, who might you-"

Highlord Tirion recognizes her at once, saying, "Remain calm Princess Celestia, she is no threat to you. That is Lillian Voss, she has sworn allegiance to no particular faction, she once used to be human, so she might be willing to help spread the word to the horde if you were to ask nicely."

Celestia then takes in her horrid appearance and asks, "W-Were you plagued by the Lich King?"

Lillian then turns to her and shakes her head saying, "No, I was slain by my father's own crusaders, then reanimated by a val'kyr at the Dark Lady's command. It took me a little time to get used to life as an undead because I wanted nothing to do with The Forsaken, so I started my own path and took revenge against the Scarlet Crusade. Once I destroyed them all, I came here at her orders to keep an eye on the Lich King's forces. However, I do need to report back on his latest journey back to the north with all his soldiers."

She cocks her head and asks, "You mean he just returned and is not making his way to other cities?"

Lillian nods her head, saying, "Correct, they just went north after plaguing Fillydelphia and Baltimare. They then went through a second gate that appeared to have been recently finished, when I took notice of a shipyard taking shape nearby."

Tirion then looks at Voss with narrowed eyes and says, "Since you brought up Sylvanas, it would be wise if you would do what you can to keep her from wanting her revenge against the Lich King."

She then says, "She learned her lesson the last time she tried to fight him, she won't do so again without being prepared."

The Highlord then nods and says, "Good, then that is one less thing we have to worry about."

Celestia gasps and then says, "He's intending to attack the other lands..." then looks at her with eagerness and asks, "Will you please take word to the Horde and tell them Equestria calls for their aid against the Lich King's forces?

Lillian nods once more, saying, "I know for a fact that members of the horde still harbor a thirst for vengeance against the undead for overrunning Orgrimmar, so I will spread the word after making my report to the Dark Lady."

She nods, saying, "Thank you very much for aiding us, Lillian Voss."

With nothing else to do here, she then turns to Pinkie and says, "When I return after this, we need to get back to your training. I'll meet you by the same place as usual."

Pinkie Pie then smiles and nods, saying, "Okie Dokie then!" and makes her way out of the castle.

Varian watches Lillian follow Pinkie in stealth, then heads out himself with the other two humans following behind him. Heading to where his men are at, he has them get their mounts and then flies back to where the portal is located.

Arriving at the portal a few hours later, they all get off their mounts and walk through the portal. When Varian steps out of the portal and into the keep with doors large enough to admit war machines through, he walks out of the keep and pulls his hood back to reveal his face and sees the captain working on making the approach smoother for war machines to roll through. He then turns to his men as Tirion leads his own men a short distance away to address them, and says, "Soldiers of the Alliance. When we get back to Stormwind, you all are to follow me into the castle and wait to receive a list of locations to visit along with another paper of what to tell the townspeople. Mount up and move out!"

In Azeroth...

As they all mount up and take flight, Varian spots a lone war bat to his left and thinks, 'That banshee had better not do anything to jeopardize our friendship with a potential ally, or there will be hell to pay...'

Lillian Voss makes her way towards Dalaran to take the portal to Orgrimmar, which takes her a good fifteen minutes of flying to reach. Once through the portal, she hurries out of the portal chamber to go find Garrosh.

Garrosh is atop a plateau overseeing the hanging of a part of Deathwing's jaw when he hears someone approaching quickly, turning around to see that it is Lillian Voss, and asks, "What business do you have with me, Voss?"

She stops and says, "The business I have with you is to inform you that the Lich King is still alive in another world, and he seems to have plans to return to claim this world too. I have gotten word that the Alliance are also going to be gathering troops to aid the struggling inhabitants."

His face contorts with rage as he roars and shouts, "That bastard still lives!?! He's on the other side of that portal, isn't he...ISN'T HE!!??" He sees Lillian nod and then roars again in anger and bellows, "WELL WE WILL SEE TO IT THAT HE NEVER GETS THE CHANCE TO TAKE ANOTHER BREATH!" He then turns to a bunch of orcs looking at the trophy with smiles on their faces and bellows, "YOU ORCS OVER THERE WITH SMILES ON YOUR FACES, GET OVER HERE THIS INSTANT!"

The group races over and stands in front of their warchief as one of them asks, "Yes, Warchief?"

Garrosh then huffs and puffs in rage, saying, "Fly to any locations the Horde holds and spread the word for able-bodied fighters to come at once to the gates of Orgrimmar, now go! Blood and glory await us, Lok tar ogar!"

They all shout, "For the Horde!" in unison and then take off to spread the word to all of the locations.

A passing Death Knight overhears the news about the Lich King still living and clenches her fist, thinking, 'He won't be around for very much longer...not if we have anything to say about it.' then summons a death gate and runs through it to go inform the others the news.

Back in Equestria...at Canterlot

Celestia organizes a contingent of twelve guards to go watch the gate for any activity, instructing them to question them if they are there to fight the Lich King. If they are, one guard is to escort them to the base of the mountain Canterlot is built on and inform them that one of the ruling princesses will be there once a large enough force has been gathered to take on his forces in the Frozen North. She also tells them that if they are either Horde or Alliance, they are to be kept miles apart from each other to prevent fights from breaking out. They are to then head straight back to their post after telling them that food and drink will be provided until the army is ready.

Once the contingent of pegasi heads out, she starts writing a letter to Twilight and her friends, writing, 'My loyal student, I need you and your friends to...'

In Ponyville, moments later...

Twilight takes the letter from Spike and reads through it hastily, saying, "I need you and your friends to travel to the Crystal Empire to begin searching for a way to cleanse the heart right away, for Deathwing has finally been defeated and I asked word to be sent to Azeroth that we require aid to defeat the Lich King's overwhelming forces. I hope you succeed at finding a way to cleanse Arthas's heart before we have no other choice but to end his life, but I have every ounce of my faith invested in you succeeding at this task. You haven't let me down yet, so work hard and fast, my brightest student. We do not know how long it will take for both armies to get here or how long this battle will take before we face the Lich King."

Spike blinks and says, "Woah."

She then looks at him and says, "Tell me about it..." Then rolls it up and puts it away, adding, "Well, Spike, we have our work cut out for us this time. You go find Rarity, and Pinkie while I go find the rest of the girls, alright?"

When the girls are all gathered, Twilight looks at them saying, "We are going to be gone for a while girls, what are we going to do about the Crusaders. They cannot come with us because it is too dangerous, who are we going to have watch over them?"

Applejack then says, "They can stay at the farm, there's no shortage of things for them to do, so they won't be bored very often."

Rarity nods her head, saying, "That will work for me as my parents are traveling all the time and have made me Sweetie Belle's legal guardian."

Rainbow then says, "Scoots can go there too since I won't be able to keep watch over her at her parent's place."

Twilight then nods and turns to Fluttershy saying, "Do you have anypony to look after your pets?"

Fluttershy nods and says, "Oh yes I do, I asked Tree Hugger to watch over them with Discord."

When they have everything sorted out with their pets, they take the girls over to Applejacks and their pets to Fluttershy's before making their way to the train station to get tickets for the Crystal Empire with their bags as well as their gear if they should need to join the fight.

Small Timeskip

Winter arrives as Twilight has not found anything helpful at all, a month passes as Tauren warriors from the Horde show up first. The next ones to arrive are the Death Knights, with a new group member, former Highlord Bolvar Fordragon. The next ones to show up are numerous parties of adventurers belonging to both the Alliance and the Horde, who annoy each other by making snowballs and pelting each other in the face or the groin. No blood is spilled, miraculously as they are not looking to fight each other, but have a good laugh at each other to steel themselves for the intense fight yet to come against the Lich King. As Garrosh arrives with the rest of his army and his war machines, Night Elves show up in glaive throwers with Dwarves driving their tanks who are not pleased about the Horde army slaughtering a garrison of Alliance soldiers who were told to let anyone through. They clean up the area as best they can and lay the soldiers to rest, leaving a man behind to inform paladins to stop and lend a hand sanctifying the graves so the soldiers don't rise from them.

Two weeks later, at the castle in Canterlot

Celestia is in the throne room with Luna holding court while the soldiers finish getting ready for a hard fight ahead when the doors open, shifting her eyes up to see who arrived. When Celestia sees that it is Highlord Tirion, Archmage Malin, and some woman with long, blonde hair, she and Luna both gasp at recognizing her from visions and dreams, as Celestia says, "Welcome back to Canterlot, Tirion, and Malin. I hope you all had a pleasant trip here."

Tirion speaks first, saying, "It was a peaceful trip...mostly."

Malin then chimes in, saying, "Unfortunately, we had to clean up the garrison on the other side of the portal due to Garrosh and his Horde slaughtering the soldiers that were told to let them through."

Jaina then huffs in disappointment, saying, "Bloodthirsty warmongers."

Celestia sees the question burning in her sister's eyes and speaks first, saying, "Welcome to Canterlot and Equestria, we have not met before. Though we have seen you in visions and dreams, what might your name be?"

She then bows her head respectfully, saying, "I am Lady Jaina Proudmoore, Your Majesties. Archmage Malin and Highlord Tirion have told me much about you and this land, is it possible that Arthas can be saved?"

Luna then speaks up with a smile and says, "We surely hope so, my sister has her brightest student working on a way to do that."

Jaina looks at the two princesses and reflexively asks, "Could they use some assistance?"

The solar princess then smiles and nods, saying, "I do believe that she might, for you both share a common bond with Luna and mine's father, Arthas."

Her eyes go wide as she says, "YOUR FATHER?!" then turns to Malin and Tirion, saying, "You never told me he had a family!"

Luna then smiles and says, "It is true, though he was never married. We shall have to spend time together to talk once the war against Arthas comes to an end an Icecrown is returned to where it belongs."

Jaina then smiles and says, "I would relish that chance very much if Arthas can indeed be saved, perhaps to rekindle old bonds."

Celestia then giggles and says, "I look forward to that as well, I have sent my student and her friends to the Crystal Empire, which you can find almost straight north of here. It has a towering crystal structure which is hard to miss from the air, you should get going so that you can lend aid to Twilight Sparkle, my student."

She nods and says, "At once, Your Majesties." then hurries out of the throne room, then makes her way out of the castle to summon her gryphon and fly to where the princess said the Crystal Empire is.