When the day neared its end, most ponies were already looking forward to getting home and enjoying their precious free time. Princess Celestia was no different from that. After a hard day mostly spent drowning in paperwork or listening to the definitely not self-interested babbling of some stuck-up noble, she too was quite glad that she finally had some time to herself.

She had always wondered, how somepony who already had so much could still want more, while those who only had very little were content with what they had. This little quirk was one of very few things about the mortal races that she as an immortal being would likely never come to understand.

Choosing not to think too much about the negative characteristics of her ponies, Celestia instead fully indulged the dinner she shared with her sister. Sadly, it was void of any chatter, as Luna, despite being the princess of the night, was definitely not a night pony. She had actually argued quite a few times, that she could enter the dream realm while her body rested and join her sister in court during the day.

Alas, while that would have been a wonderful idea to both of them, Celestia sadly had to decline. After all, Luna wanted to be recognized as a princess not only by her sister, but by the entire population of Equestria. As such, to avoid her becoming the ‘background sister’ again, they thought it best to let her fully embrace her role as night princess and hold court during the night, where she alone would occupy the throne.

Luna barely registered that her breakfast cereal had already been placed before her and was instead fighting to keep her eyes open. However it was a hopeless cause, as her eyes slowly slid closed and Celestia got to enjoy the sight of her ever noble and graceful little sister gracefully plunging her head into the milk-filled bowl.

Once her tired mind realized that milk is not air – which actually took a few seconds – she gasped and sat up straight, thus pulling some milk into her throat and making her cough quite heavily.

Celestia had tried not to laugh at it, but in the end, her amusement won out and she started laughing. Even when Luna stopped coughing, Celestia couldn’t stop her laughter and only when a scroll popped into existence over her and bounced off her head did she finally stop.

Luna, too, had a short moment of laughter, but that quickly died down, when she saw Celestia’s serious expression as she read the letter.

“Tia? What has happened? Thou look as if our entire family has been slain.” Luna asked worriedly.

“Perhaps that is not quite what happened, but it surely comes close.” Celestia said. “Twilight Sparkle, the current bearer of the Element of Magic and my current personal student – the one, who saved you together with her friends – has just asked me to pardon the current most-wanted criminal in Equestria.”

“Oh…” Luna replied. “Well, what are the charges put against him?” She asked.

Celestia narrowed her eyes and leaned closer, before dramatically hissing “Necromancy.”

A few seconds ticked by without any movement on either side, before Luna spoke up.

“Is that all?” she asked sceptically.

“What do you mean, ‘Is that all’? Need I remind you, what a plague those necromancers were, back in the day?!”

“No, there is no need. We were both personally hunting them down, remember?” Luna pointed out. “’Tis just that, while a serious crime indeed, Necromancy is not something that would’ve immediately qualified a pony for the most wanted. We were expecting a bit more.”

“What?! How could you expect any more than this? This is already the most serious crime committed within the past five thousand years!” Celestia exclaimed.

“Oh, we are pretty certain there were more atrocious feats than mere –“ Suddenly, Luna paused and stared blankly onto the table, before she looked up and into her sister’s eyes. “This is about him again, isn’t it?”

“About whom?” Celestia asked back.

“Thou know, whom we mean.” Luna countered.

“No, I do not.” Celestia huffed.

“Tia, thee cannot remain stuck on events that transpired more than five thousand years ago! Thou hast to finally move on!” Luna ordered.

“No, I cannot simply ‘move on’, Luna! You know what he had caused! You know how much he destroyed! I cannot risk him or anypony even closely resembling him to ever come into being ever again!” Celestia shouted, showing Luna the grief and anger she had been hiding for the past few millennia. Luna recoiled a bit from that, the implications of her sister’s words ringing a few alarm bells in her head.

“Dost thou mean that this one resembles him? Tia, we hope thou know the meaning of this. If they share even just a minor resemblance then it might be a reincarnation.” Luna cautioned.

“Yes, I know. That was why I originally set Twilight onto him. However, now that she apparently dropped out, it seems I will have to find another way. I hope I can count on your help.” Celestia stated, while re-reading Twilight’s letter once again, trying to find any potential coded messages or something of that sort. After all, Twilight was a highly intelligent mare, who could very well be trying to fool Frozen Blood with this letter.

“Of course, sister. Thee can count on our aid.” Luna said.

“Thank you, Luna.“ Celestia said, smiling at her younger sister. “It is good to know that you are there to help me again.”

“Yes, it is indeed. We have long wondered, how you even managed to keep our lands upright without us.” Luna quipped.

“Oh, har har. Very funny, really.”

“…That’s all I heard. After that, they both didn’t really talk anymore.” Shining Armor concluded. He had been on Guard duty earlier this evening and had thus managed to listen in on the princesses’ conversation.

“Huh, interesting… so the princesses think that I resemble somepony from the past? Well, given the track record of necromancers as a whole and Celestia’s reaction to me, I doubt that their shared memories are anything positive.” Frosty thought aloud.

“Indeed, which is why we need to tread carefully from now on. Any misstep could uncover our entire operation.” Safe Count cautioned.

“I believe you mean your little ‘family’ you got running, in which case I can tell you that they most likely already know.” Frosty pointed out. “What they likely don’t know, however, is that you have allied yourself with me and will thus hopefully not search here… yet.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, yada yada, secrets here, secrets there, when does Trrrixie finally become important?” Trixie whined, making Frosty turn to her and smirk.

“Oh, soon, believe me. Very soon, indeed. In fact, I believe we could go on with your part this instant, now that Twilight has redeemed herself.”

Shining Armor huffed at that. “Yeah right, how could she ever redeem herself after what she did?”

“Huh?” Frosty wondered. “What do you mean?”

Asking this immediately made everypony in the room give him a questioning look. Every living pony, that is.

“What do I mean?! WHAT DO I MEAN?! Well, in case you forgot, she wiped out an entire Civilization!” Shining Armor bellowed, making Frosty shrink back with every word thrown at him.

“Uh, yeah… that… Shining, I’m, uh… I’m sorry…” Frosty said apologetically, making Shining Armor calm down and wonder, what that was about. This moment of calm didn’t last very long however, as he quickly started shouting again, this time at Frosty directly.

“What for?! Do NOT tell me that this was all some lie, I swear to the Princess, I will gut you right here!”

Both, Trixie and Safe Count gasped and covered their mouths in shock, as they heard the captain utter such a threat. Normally, such threats were only made by the most dangerous of criminals, so hearing the Captain of the Guard say something like this was utterly unacceptable.

Frosty, however, didn’t seem to care. By now he had regained his composure and was calmly looking at the fuming captain.

“No, don’t worry, I did not lie, I just…” Frosty started, uncomfortably scratching the back of his head. “When I went down to Ponyville to confront her myself and to keep her from committing the greatest mistake in her life, I… noticed something.”

“Which would be?” Shining pressed.

“That I… uh…” Frosty stammered, guiltily looking at Shining Armor, before finally sighing and letting his head hang. “You know… when your sister blasted our hut in the forest, I was… mad to say the least. In fact, I was so utterly mad that I could not stop antagonizing her, so… when I noticed her being nearby when the Changelings were killed, I assumed it was her. However, when I went to her, I found out that she did not know about changelings at all. Furthermore, she hadn’t used any larger amounts of magic within the last few days.” Frosty explained.

“What, does that… does that mean my sister is innocent?” Shining asked, a faint, hopeful smile gracing his lips.

“Most likely, yes.” Frosty answered.

At that, Shining Armor cheered and danced through the room. “YES! My sister is—“ However, he stopped when he remembered what he had said to her in his rage. “Oh no… OH NO! I-I-I’ve got to apologize! I have to make amends, I… oh no…”

“Yes, that would be the best, but before you do that… please let me finish.”

Shining looked at Frosty like he had just ripped him out of a trance. “Huh? What, there’s more?”

“Sadly, yes. And I don’t think that you’re going to like it.” Frosty implied hesitantly. “When I first encountered the Princess, I managed to get a glimpse at her soul and… it was tainted, in a sense. Not by necromantic energies, as Alicorn souls are completely immune to that. It was… something else and I don’t know what. All I know is that it seemed highly malicious.” He then added, bracing himself for another outbreak… that never came.

Shining Armor only nodded slowly as a response, making Frosty blink owlishly in disbelief. He had thought that he would have to forcefully calm him down.

“What?” Shining questioned, when he noticed Frosty’s stare. “Believe it or not, I still remember when you told me that it was either Celestia or Twilight and if you say that it wasn’t Twilight… that leaves only the princess and in all honesty, I… kinda had the suspicion that something was wrong with her all along. Even when removing the things I only know second-hoof, then there are still a few things that I witnessed myself that just… don’t befit her. Her actions have been much more aggressive than what I am used to see from her and her fixiation on killing you only adds to that.” Shining summarized.

“Indeed, which is why we have to take action as soon as possible.” Frosty said.

“Yes, I suggest we gather the Elements and—“ Shining suggested, but was cut off by Frosty.

“No.”

“No? Why? You said yourself that we have to act now!” Shining pointed out.

“Correct, but simply running in there and using the elements isn’t going to work, simply because for all I know she could be immune to them, since she isn’t fully corrupted. Also, as much as I trust all of you, I just can’t have any of you risk your lives for me, when I basically am immortal.” Frosty said.

“Pff, oh yeah great and what do you want us to do then? Sit here and pray for your success? Hah, fat chance.”

“Oh no, nothing like that. Believe it or not, there is actually quite an important role I have for you. You see, even I can’t go head-to-head against a deity, but luckily, said deity doesn’t just generate its massive power out of thin air either. The ponies that worship her give her the power she needs to rule over us all.” Frosty said, moving over to where Trixie was sitting. “This is where you come into play, Trixie. You as a showmare know how to work a crowd and thus can help me spread the word about what has happened. I know, this will likely have pretty harsh effects on her afterwards, but it’s the best option we have.
We will try to rile the ponies up as much as we can, so that they will hopefully go into open protest, which will hopefully be enough to weaken Celestia. Your job, Captain, will be to prevent the protesters from getting past the palace’s outer perimeter and running into their certain demise.” Frosty explained.

“Ah… so my role in this whole plan of yours will be normal guard duty?” Shining Armor questioned.

“Yes, although normally you are protecting what’s inside from the ponies outside. This time, you will be protecting the ponies outside from what’s inside.”

“Alright… I still don’t like this plan though.” Shining Armor agreed reluctantly.

“Me neither, Captain, me neither. However, it’s our only safe option for now.”

“FINALLY! It was about time Trixie finally was told what she was here for!” Trixie complained from where she sat at the large table in the middle of the room.

“Yeah, I know, sorry about that. Anyways, I suppose that is all there is for now. We will start spreading the word tomorrow, so please prepare for that.”

“Yeah yeah, you sound like a teacher, you know that?” Trixie teased, making Frosty chuckle a bit.

“Heh, oh really? In that case: class, you are dismissed for now. Have a safe trip home!” He said in a melodic voice, like a grade school teacher.

Shining Armor was the first to go to the door and as he passes Frosty, he stops and looks down at him for a moment, before sighing.

“I really hope that plan works out, you know?” He said tiredly.

“I hope so too…” Frosty replied.

With no further words spoken, Shining Armor left the room, followed by Trixie and a bit later by Sir Safe Count.

Finally, Frosty and the fillies were the only ones left in the room and when he ascertained that they were really alone, Frosty let out a long sigh and fropped onto his haunches. The fillies came over to him immediately and looked at him with very concerned eyes.

“Frosty? Are you alright?” Scootaloo asked first.

“Yeah… actually no, not really.” He said, running over his face and through his mane with a hoof. “We really need to finally wrap this up as quickly as possible. The web of lies I am weaving is getting tighter and tighter and if I’m not careful, I might trap myself within it.”

“An’ that would be bad?” Applebloom asked.

“Yes, very much so.” Frosty said, chuckling a little.

“Well, in that case, why don’t you let us help you relieve some stress?~” Sweetie purred, pressing herself against Frosty and licking his neck. In response, Frosty grabbed her in his forehooves and pressed a kiss into her neck, eliciting an erotic moan from her. However, he didn’t do anything more and just held her tight afterwards.

“Sorry Sweetie, I’m just… not in the mood right now. Heh, funny, it’s barely afternoon and I’m already…” He started, but was interrupted by a long yawn. “… tired.” He finished.

Sweetie Belle was a bit disappointed that she was denied the love she craved yet again, however her love for Frosty was far more than just physical and so, she thought to herself that she would have to make do with a little less.

“Then how about we just spend the rest of the day cuddling and relaxing a little together? Does that sound good?” She asked, getting nods form her fellow Crusaders and a tired smile from Frosty.

“That sounds like a very good idea. Yeah, let’s do that.” Frosty agreed.

The four of them then left the meeting room and went down the hallway tightly huddled together until a few minutes later, they vanished into their room.

Author's Note

So, here we are. I know this might sound a little sudden to quite a few of you, but we have reached the end of the story. Next chapter will be the Finale and then comes the ending, which I hope to publish on the same day. I hope you all enjoyed this story thus far and I wish you a merry christmas in advance!