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

Chapter 3: When Hope is Lost

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Full Day Later

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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