Dragon King Torch stood atop his Pillar of Rule, looking down into the crowd of smaller dragons that had gathered on the Amphitheatre-shaped cliff right in front of him. His face was showing nothing but pure hatred, but deep inside, there was also a deep sadness over the loss of his daughter. However, as a King, he knew how to make use of even the most powerful emotions that he had and so, he turned the sadness he felt over her death into even more hatred towards her murderers.

“DRAGONS OF THE DRAGONLANDS!” Torch shouted, gaining the attention of every dragon present. “Today, the Equestrians have made a foolish decision. My daughter, Ember of the Dragon Lands, has been murdered by these filthy weaklings. This is not something that I can let them get away with! We have found the murderers and killed every single one of them, but that is not enough! Too long have these preposterous ponies tried to force their rules upon us. Now, it is our time to show them, who really is the stronger one! Onwards, my Dragons! WE shall eradicate these worthless weaklings from the face of the planet!” Torch roared and the smaller dragons voiced their agreement.

The collective roars from almost the entire Dragon Kingdom could be heard by everypony that was brave enough to be close to the border. Among them were three fillies and a light grey colt, who were sitting on a rock, only a few miles away from the gathering and grinning evilly at their plan’s apparent success.

Shining Armor and was heaving and panting when he finally reached the outpost. He and the reinforcements he had brought had made as much haste as they could to get here, at the cost of wearing themselves out in doing so. Their priority had been speed over anything else, as they knew that they were heading to the bastion anyways and not heading into battle right away.

Everypony knew that the battle was already over and they were only replacements, not reinforcements.

Once in view of the Gate Guards, its large wooden wings were opened and the tired company of guardsponies was led in, where Shining was immediately greeted by the bastion’s second-in-command.

“Captain Shining Armor, Sir!” He shouted, snapping to attention.

“At ease, sergeant.” Shining Armor replied.

“Yes sir! In accordance with—“ The sergeant started, but Shining Armor cut him off.

“I said ‘At ease’, sergeant! No formalities in the field, remember? Also, I think we have a bigger problem at hoof.” He chastised. The sergeant winced back, but quickly recovered from that.

“Uhh, yes, of course.”

“So, how bad is it?” Shining Armor asked, while gesturing the regiment behind him to enter the bastion.

“I... I’m afraid we don`t yet know, sir. We lost contact with the expeditionary force and thus far haven’t found any deserters or survivors who could report what happened. The only comfort we have right now is that the Dragons have yet to show any aggression.” The sergeant informed. However, merely a few seconds after he finished, a distant roar could be heard.

“Actually, scratch that last one. That sounded like a dragon rallying call and the only documented times they used this were during migrations and when assembling an army.” The sergeant calmly said.

Shining Armor, however couldn’t share his calm. “Everypony, get into position now!” He bellowed at his tired troops. Tired, but well aware of the threat, so even though they were tired, the all took up their positions. When he turned back around, he saw the sergeant still standing by his side with the same stoic gaze he had before.

“I must admit, I admire your calm, sergeant.” He complimented.

“I… feel honoured, that it seems like that to you, s-sir.” He stammered and Shining Armour noticed a certain golden liquid drip down from the rear end of the sergeant’s belly plate.

“Ah…” Shining assessed intelligently. “Well, in all honesty, sergeant, I would probably be doing the same right now, if I hadn’t taken a piss before coming here.”

At that moment, another roar echoed around them. This one was much closer.

“They’re coming!” one of the guards shouted, mere seconds before hundreds of dragons flew over the bastion.

“Quick everypony, get heat shields up!” Shining Armor shouted, casting a shield of his own to hopefully deflect the dragons. However, he was still just as exhausted as his comrades. A few dragons bounced of the purple dome that grew over the Fortress, however not before the dragons could set fire to the gate, rendering it useless until it had completely burnt down, by which point the dragons would likely swarm in and slaughter every single pony inside.

Shining Armor`s mind was racing, trying to find a solution, though the strain from the shield wasn’t exactly making things easier. Normally in such a situation, he would split up his regiment into smaller groups, of which each would have one pony cast a heat shield while the others fired at the dragons. The groups would be spread apart by a few hooves to avoid giving the dragons multiple targets for a single run. However, he didn’t have enough room to pull that off. He chuckled to himself, as he realized that the walls that were meant to protect them were ironically now the one obstacle that might doom them all.

The dragons reinforced their attacks once they had recovered from the sudden appearance of Shining`s shield. The strain of multiple hundred, if not thousand dragons banging against his shield put a severe strain on Shining Armor. He would’ve liked to claim that this was nothing for him, however his body was quick to disprove that. He no longer had the strength to support his own weight. His legs buckled beneath him and he fell to the ground, the sudden impact making his shield flicker just long enough for a few of the dragons to slip through.

“Shield the hospital!” The sergeant ordered from beside Shining. “Everypony who is not shielding or helping the wounded, fight off these damn dragons!”

When he was done shouting orders, the sergeant leaned down to Shining. “Sir, are you okay?” He asked with barely masked concern.

“Could be better.” Shining wheezed. “You take command for now. I have to—BEHIND- ARGH!” Shining tried to warn, but barely managed to get out enough to be understandable.

The sergeant turned around just in time to see a dragon charging towards them. He barely managed to bring up a shield, but the force of the impact threw him backwards anyways… right into Shining Armor.

And within merely a few seconds, the dome shattered and the Dragons swarmed in.

On a hill nearby the outpost, Frosty and the fillies sat, together with their Changeling compatriots and a newcomer. The former guardspony had several burns scattered across his fur and armor, but was still easily identifiable by the rank markings in his chestplate. The colonel stood beside Frosty and looked into the direction of the battle, although he didn’t seem to look at anything in particular.

The battle in the distance went on, but Frosty and the fillies didn’t seem to be interested in it at first. Only when the shield fell did they turn their attention to it.

“Finally. I was starting to think that they actually might win.” Scootaloo commented, as she and Applebloom dropped their little card game.

“Ah actually thought the dragons might just leave ‘em and move on.” Applebloom said next.

“Let’s just be glad that it worked out thus far. At least, we’re over the hardest part now.” Frosty said. “Now we just have to wait a bit for the carnage to spread and then jump in. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

The fillies and changelings behind him nodded in agreement, while the colonel still remained unmoving and stared into the nothingness behind the outpost.

Shining Armor and the few remaining guardsponies found themselves in a rapidly deteriorating situation. Not only had their numbers been cut in half in merely a few minutes, but he was also very tired and injured.

The sergeant had taken the brunt of the dragon’s attack which shielded Shining enough to give him enough room to escape. Sadly, the sergeant had bought this chance with his life.

The dragons had swarmed the bastion immediately after Shining’s shield broke down and had been slowly herding them into a small circle in the centre of the bastion. Shining was trying to find a weak spot in their line, but thus far was unsuccessful, which was hardly surprising, given his dazed state.

Once they all were herded together the dragons stopped their advance for a moment. Shining was about to ask what was going on, when a giant shadow blocked out the sun over him and an earth-shaking impact occurred right in front of him.

The largest dragon he had ever seen now stood in front of him.

Torch chuckled darkly, as he looked upon the feeble remains of the former bastion and its inhabitants. The few survivors that were there were herded into a single spot in the middle and were surrounded by his dragons.

Among those few was one that immediately caught his attention and plastered a big smile across his face.

“Well well, if it isn’t the captain of the royal equestrian guard. What a wonderful first trophy for my revenge.” Torch chuckled.

To say Shining Armor was not intimidated by this encounter would’ve been a blatant lie. However, that didn’t mean that he didn’t have some last remnants of fatigue-induced courage – and probably stupidity – left inside him.

“Cease your actions at once, dragonspawn! In the name of the Crown, I hereby put you under arrest!” He shouted, though he immediately noticed that his words were not really causing anything, but make the dragons around him laugh.

“You, put me under arrest? Heh, I want to see you try… after I’ve taken revenge.” Torch laughed. “You vile equestrians have murdered my daughter, so now I shall destroy your entire Kingdom!” He roared.

“What?! An equestrian would NEVER murder—“

“LIES! I myself have found the corpse of my daughter with an equestrian spear embedded in her chest. I myself have slain the murderers as they tried to flee! Now, prepare to—”

Torch was cut off by one of his dragons quickly flying up to him and bowing down.

“Your Highness, we have a problem!” He quickly said.

“Silence! Who dares interrupting me when I am about to kill my foe?! And what is that about a problem?!”

The dragon flinched back quite a bit, but nevertheless continued his report. “Sir, something is fighting itself through our lines. We are being pushed back!”

“WHAT?!” Torch roared, turning around and seeing that the dragon lines were indeed quickly dwindling.

Shining Armor was also looking past the dragon lord, through the masses of dragons and saw that more and more of them turned around to fight another unseen foe.

The lines seemed to thin out slowly, to the point where Shining could finally catch some glimpses of what was going on. His eyes went wide, when he saw his dead comrades stand up again and fight the dragons with even more prowess than before. It seemed that they had suddenly been infused with the raw power of an alicorn, while simultaneously losing their instinct for self-preservation.

Suddenly, he saw something jump over the dragon lines and towards them. He was just about to strain himself once more to try and erect another shield, when he identified the silhouette over him to be equine.

He had barely enough time to realize this and step back, before a gold-clad pony landed with its back to him and cast a dome shield around them.

“It’s the colonel!”

“The colonel is back!”

“The colonel has come to save us!”

Shining Armor heard the ponies of the original garrison cry out in relief. With more than just a little suspicion, he moved up to the ‘colonel’. “Colonel, I want an immediate report on where you have been!”

No reaction.

“Colonel, I believe you are fully capable to talk while casting, so answer right now!”

Again, no reaction.

“Colonel, cease your disrespect and answer, for Celestia’s sake!” Shining Armor shouted angrily, shaking the colonel - or at least trying to. However, no matter how hard he shoved, the colonel didn’t move and when he went up to look him in the face, he saw… that there was nothing. No strain, no sadness, no joy, no fear, just… a face. A mere picture, an emotionless depiction of the pony he once was, frozen in a completely calm and unfocused stare. Shining Armor followed that stare and through the legs of the dragon king, he saw that behind the lines of his fallen comrades, there were four hooded figures walking through the formation as if they were walking through the streets of Canterlot.

“You!” Torch roared. “What in the—Argh!” Was all he managed to say, before the leading pony of the four cast an unknown spell and shot it at the dragon. Torch clutched his heart and stumbled a bit, before he fell down crushing the gatehouse underneath him. He was dead.

His subjects saw this and those who were not engaged by Shining’s former brothers and sisters in arms tried to fly away, however seemingly just died mid-air and fell to the ground. The line of risen guardsponies worked its way around the dome shield, killing off the dragons one by one, while those who tried to flee were killed by whatever spell the hooded figures were using. It didn’t take long, until every last dragon present was a mere body in an endless sea of corpses.

When the battle was won, the ‘colonel’ dropped the shield and guards that were outside of it formed up beside the hooded figures. Now that they were all standing still, Shining noticed that, while their facial features seemingly remained untouched, their eyes had become black voids with dots within them, some of which were orange, pink or yellow, but most were purple.

As the turned guards formed up beside them, one of the hooded figures approached Shining Armor, likely their leader. The hood covered most of his face, leaving only a light grey muzzle and white horn sticking out.

“Good Day, Captain Shining Armor.” He greeted in a very coltish voice, making Shining Armor wonder about this pony’s age.

“Stop right there and identify yourself!” He shouted, making him stop. The colt’s mouth displayed a short moment of shock, though if it was genuine, Shining couldn’t be certain.

“My my, no need to be hostile. I don’t intend to be a threat.” The colt said.

“But you are aware that you are. Identify yourself now or I will be forced to detain you!” Shining Armor threatened.

“Oh, I doubt that would work… but since I need to reveal myself anyways, I suppose I will humor you… on the condition that, no matter who or what I turn out to be, you will not act hostile towards us.”

“Which implies that you might yet be hostile. I cannot trust you this way! And why would we want to give up our initiative anyways?”

“Oh, captain, I assure you that I am not hostile, however, you might perceive me as such.” The colt said cryptically.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shining Armor cut in.

“Oh, you’ll see. As for the initiative: If you were to act hostile, I would have to defend myself, which, as evidence might show, would be an inadvertently lethal outcome for you.” The colt said, pointing at the corpses that surrounded the group.

Shining Armor formed an ‘o’ with his mouth, as he looked around and then back at his very tired comrades, who even if this colt was not seemingly omnipotent were still no longer able to fight either way.

“Alright, then I agree to your terms.” Shining Armor finally said.

“Splendid.” The colt said with what sounded like genuine happiness, before throwing back his hood.

The survivors, including Shining Armor, gasped as they saw that the colt that had saved them was none other than the banished Frozen Blood.

“You… you are…!” Shining Armor stammered.

“Yes, I am Frozen Blood. It feels strange to be saved by the one whom your orders require you to see as your enemy, doesn’t it?” Frosty joked. “Jokes aside, I am very sorry that we didn’t arrive any sooner. I hope your losses aren’t too great.”

Shining Armor looked back at his wounded comrades and let his head hang. “Well, I mean, at least there are still a few left. Those dragons really beat us—nonono, wait wait wait!” He suddenly shouted, shaking his head. “I’m not falling for that, you are THE Frozen Blood that was banished because he was a threat to Equestria as a whole!”

“And what was that assessment based on?” Frosty asked.

“Well… it was because…” Shining Armor tried to recall. Thus far he never had the need to question his orders, so out of habit he just didn’t.

“Because I am a Necromancer.” Frosty finished for him.

“Yeah, that was it! You have strayed from the oath of harmony by employing vile black magic!” Shining Armor bellowed.

“Not by choice.” Frosty answered simply.

“… Come again?”

Frosty didn’t answer verbally at first, instead lifting his cloak and showing his Cutie Mark. “I haven’t learned Necromancy, but was born with it. I have tried to learn normal magic as much as I could before my banishment and when I used necromancy, I only did so for either self-defence or for other good reasons. You can actually ask Rainbow Dash about that.”

“Uhuh, so you claim that Celestia banished you for no reason?” Shining Armor questioned.

“Oh, I am very certain that she had her reasons. I just think that she acted a bit… prematurely. Maybe she had some unpleasant interactions with other necromancers?” Frosty offered.

“Prematurely or not, you have still been banished, so right now, you are trespassing on our territory.” Shining Armor noted.

“Actually, after I was banished, I went to the dragon lands and since the dragons just conquered the lands between here and their homeland and you haven’t formally retaken it, no, I am not trespassing.” Frosty answered smugly.

“Wait, you went into the dragon lands?! So you have caused all this?!!” Shining Armor shouted angrily.

“No, I haven’t caused it. However, I have seen it from afar and prevented it as much as I could.” Frosty said with an undertone of regret.

“Oh yeah? Then who do you say was the cause of all this?!”

Wordlessly, Frosty pointed to the colonel, who still stood unmoving by Shining’s side.

“The colonel? And why would he do that? Actually, colonel, where did you come from?” Shining asked, yet again getting no response.

“I’m afraid he won’t answer, Captain.” Frosty said, before swiping his hoof and making the colonel turn around. Immediately, Shining Armor noticed that he had the same purple eyes as the other fallen guards.

“You… you killed him?!” Shining Armor shouted, which was echoed by angry shouts from behind him.

“No, I didn’t. The dragons did, after he had invaded their lands and killed their princess. I had merely turned him, in the hopes of using him to lure the dragons away. Sadly that didn’t work as planned.” Frosty claimed.

“Aha, and why would I trust you? For all I know, you could very well just try to start a war between Equestria and the dragons.” Shining Armor argued.

“Then why would I completely overthrow my own plan by eliminating the dragon invasion force?” Frosty countered.

“I-I’m sure that you would have a reason… even if it all sounds a bit strange, I can’t just believe you like that.” Shining Armor said, seemingly finally wavering in his confidence.

“Do you remember what Torch said earlier?” Frosty asked.

“What? That with the equestrian spear? I mean, it could very well be planted evidence.” Shining answered.

“He also said that he had already dealt with the murderers.” Frosty said.

“Yeah, he did, but what—“ Shining started, but stopped, when Frosty pointed at the colonel. Specifically, at his charred armor and burned fur. Shining stared for a moment, then it seemingly clicked and he slowly covered his eyes in a gesture of shock and disgust.

“Yeah, I think now you understand.” Frosty said. “Well, while you digest that information, I think we should clean this place up a little.” He then said, before he and his three followers used their necromancy to rapidly deteriorate the dragon corpses and once that was done, they also released all of the dead guards - including the colonel – from their grasp. Their armours and equipment clattered, as one by one, the bodies fell to the ground.

“I left the bodies of your comrades, so you can give them a proper funeral. Again, I am very sorry that we weren’t here earlier.” Frosty apologized again.

“Oh, don`t be. We are all happy that you came at all, though… please, remove the colonel from here. I simply cannot allow even a single atom of this filth to stain Equestria even more.” Shining Armor said with disgust.

Frosty nodded and let the colonel rise again. Then, with a short flick of his head, he ordered him to run towards the dragon lands.

“Thanks.” Shining Armor said. “I just… I can’t believe that a pony like him would just do something like that.”

“So do I. In fact, I very much doubt that all this was just his own doing.” Frosty said.

“What do you mean with that now?”

“I mean that, if it really was just him acting out of his own interest, then he would have likely only had a few accomplices, but when he marched into the dragon lands, he had a whole battalion with him.” Frosty claimed.

Shining thought for a moment. He hadn’t really thought about it, but the emergency call did say something about equestrian expeditionary forces inside the dragon lands.

“So… you are suggesting that this was actually Celestia’s doing and that she tried to start a war with the dragons?” Shining Armor summarized.

“Not necessarily Celestia herself, but at least somepony with a lot of power.” Frosty corrected.

Shining Armor was tapping his chin in thought, seemingly contemplating his further moves.

“In any case, it was a pleasure to meet you, captain. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we sadly have to return to our exile.” Frosty said, offering Shining Armor a hoof, which he bumped after a short moment.

“Yeah, nice to meet you too. You don’t seem like too bad of a guy, maybe I can convince the princesses to revert your exile.” Shining Armor offered.

“That would be very kind, yes. Thank you. Until then, I guess we will try to make our way to the southern countries and try to settle in there. Good bye.” Frosty said, before turning around and leaving the bastion.

“Yes, good bye and good luck!” Shining shouted after them.

“Sir, what do we do now?” The mare from earlier asked.

“Well, I guess we should look into this matter a little. He mentioned Rainbow Dash, so I suppose visiting Ponyville and the Element Bearers would be a good first step to confirm his story. After that… well, that depends on what the elements say.” Shining Armor said, before gloomily looking around at the remains of the bastion and the bodies of his fallen comrades.

“I guess we should first bury our comrades, though. We can’t just leave them to decay like that.” He then said and the mare nodded in sad agreement.

The day after the battle, Twilight Sparkle had finally managed to trace Frosty’s steps to the dragon border.

She was following the same road that Frosty used, when she spotted smoke rising up in the distance. A few hundred hooves further down the road, she then realized with horror, that the bastion that protected the border to the dragon lands was severely damaged.

She went into full gallop and finally reached the gates of the bastion… only that there were no more gates. The gatehouse was completely destroyed and the walls, tents and structures inside were severely damaged. And then, there were the mounds. Small dirt hills in the base, some with small wooden crosses and guard armor on them and some without.

Graves? Maybe some with identified bodies and the others without? And then, there was that larger mound right at the gate. A mass grave, perhaps? Twilight looked over the outpost with shock, unable to believe what she was seeing.

“Oh no…” she mumbled to herself. “I… I am too late…”

Author's Note

And the tale of our dearest little necromancer finally continues.