My Little After-Dragons

It has been 3 weeks since Twilight and her friends, and the most important heroes of Equestria were taken away, and Spike still hasn’t gotten over it. When Celestia and Luna stepped in place for Twilight and her friends, they sent many of their subjects and asked for the aid of the other kingdoms to help find the ones who were taken, only for them to return with no success of intel.

Twilight was the closest thing Spike had to a family, aside from Celestia and Luna.

Ever since the day he woke up from his concussion and was informed of Twilight’s vanishing, he’s been a lot closer to Celestia and Luna. Shortly after Twilight had hatched him, Celestia took him back until he would be old enough to be raised by Twilight, which technically made her his actual mother, and ever since Luna returned and was reformed, she and Spike came closer together as she visited him often in his dreams, even when it was just a casual dream where they would talk to each other. This brought the two closer together as aunt and nephew, and they would do many activities together in the night when Spike couldn’t sleep at first.

But with Twilight taken to a place that they could never find in a short amount of time, they had to keep an extra eye on Spike should those monsters ever come back for him, too.

Right now, Spike was helping Luna set up vases of lavender around the spots of Canterlot she chose. Though they smelled nice, they couldn’t help Spike stop worrying about Twilight’s safety, or if she was even still alive.

Luna noticed this of course and could only give sympathy for him. “Spike, why don’t you take a break, I believe you’ve helped well enough with the lavenders.” She said warmly.

“Really? But I only did like 23.” He said.

“I insist, Spike. I really do.” Luna said with a smile.

Spike simply placed his current lavender in the vase and walked over to Luna, crawling up on her back and lying on it with his hands on his stomach.

Luna only smiled and went back to placing lavenders in the vases.

Spike was thinking before he decided to ask Luna something to help get his mind off about Twilight being okay or not. “Hey, Luna?”

“Yes, Spike?”

“When we get Twilight back, can I go to the Moon?” He asked curiously. “I’ve not been there since I wanted to help Twilight and the other’s save Rarity from the Nightmare Energy.”

“I believe we may find a night to do that, many things have changed since the energy was diminished.” Luna said with a smile.

“Thanks, aunt Luna.” Spike said as he went back to pondering his thoughts of the Moon’s changes. Luna couldn’t help but smile a little wider at him calling her ‘aunt’, that was something she’s not called her for a while since she was always busy looking for fillies that needed help to fight against their nightmares.

As soon as she was done with all the lavenders, she decided to turn in and take rest from today, bringing Spike with her to sleep with.

Once she placed him in her bed gently, she lied next to him and gave a small kiss on the forehead before joining him in his slumber.

Midnight…

Spike was sound asleep until he couldn’t feel Luna next to him anymore. He woke up to see that he was alone in Luna’s chamber. Then he looked down and noticed a small note on her mirror, he walked over and read it.

“‘Throne Room.’ Huh?” Spike was curious why Luna went to the throne, nonetheless he left the bedroom and made his way to the throne room.

Once he entered, he saw nopony around, except for what looked like a small, floating blue orb right in the center of the room. He approached it timidly and just gazed at it, wondering what it was. Then once he made contact with it, it suddenly flashed brightly and began to conjure an astral projection of a cold, dark, human knight with large spiky swords across his back. He stood strong and tall.

Spike stood back up and looked at the man nervously.

“Spike the Dragon… I know you may not know me and that I may not be someone you know well enough to trust, but I have knowledge of the horrors that have taken those you love from your homeworld, as well as to where they were taken…”

Spike was shocked upon hearing that this strange man knew where his friends and Twilight were.

Midnight Sky…

Spike was flying as fast as his wings could carry him, up to the moon and following what seemed to be a stream of starry lights, a look of determination and hope in his eyes as he remembered everything the man said before he left.

“Your current rulers of your homeland have already taken a journey to the Moon. The Princess of the Night has constructed a trail of stars for you to follow by the time you find this message, and awaits with her sister for you to arrive, as well as I. Come to the Dreamscape Castle, and I will tell you what I know of the threats your world faces, as well as to who I am. We await you in the throne room, make haste if you wish to save your friends… before it is too late.”

Just then, Spike landed upon a balcony of the Dreamscape Castle before making his way to the throne room of the place. Once he arrived, he saw Celestia, Luna, and the strange man that was projected in the message-spell.

They all turned to him.

“Spike, you’ve arrived.” Luna said with a smile.

“Of course I did, I got the message. So… who are you? And what were those things that took Twilight and her friends?” Spike asked the dark knight.

Suddenly the man conjured a very dark gate of black and purple with a horned skull above it.

“Follow me, Equestrians. I will explain all that I can to you on the way.” Then the man entered the gate. Though this kind of magic was unsettling, the two sisters and baby dragon entered the gate.

Once they did, it closed behind them.

Unknown World - Unknown Area…

Somewhere hidden within the darkened, starless skies of this unknown world, was a flying necropolis soaring across the grim storm clouds towards a specific region of the world.

Inside, the same gate conjured back on Equestria’s Moon, the dark knight, the two sisters and the baby dragon came through.

While the knight walked to the front and looked across the railing of this flying cemetery, the Equestrians looked around at their surroundings and felt a little intimidated by the things that it carried, such as decorative skulls and rotten corpses that were coming to life by these strange beings in dark cloaks with little armor.

After a few more moments of taking everything in, they approached the man at the balcony.

“So… what is this place, and who are you guys?” Spike was the first to ask.

“The world you look over now is Azeroth. This necropolis we stand within is Acherus, the Ebon Hold, it is our base of operations and training where we bring the dead back into mortality to fight for the safety of our world. We are the Ebon Blade, once living soldiers resurrected from the dead by the most powerful necromancer our world has ever known, who gave us a dark purpose to end all that lived upon this world and bring them back into the undead armies known as the Scourge. We were once his mightiest hands, meant to slay all that stood in his way… even those who didn’t.”

The Equestrians had widened eyes at the mention of people being resurrected by an evil necromancer.

“Should we be concerned about our safety then?” Luna asked suspiciously.

“Your fears of my brethren and myself are not necessary. Our resurrector betrayed us as we were only expendable to him, and attempted to leave us for dead in the past. But I am very pleased to say that he is no more, and that the Scourge no longer seek the destruction of Azeroth. Yet we are bound to the curse of undeath, and will never have peace… nor rest. Yet we found another purpose for ourselves, to do the things that the living cannot. They call us monsters for the dark things we do, but had we not been resurrected, Azeroth would never again have the chance to give new life for those who need it most.”

“So who are you, then?” Celestia asked.

“I am Darion Mograine, Champion of the Ebon Blade, I lead my brethren into battle under the command of our recently taken Deathlord, and the one who took the title of our former resurrector: The Lich King.” Darion said.

Spike was a little intimidated just by the sound of the person Darion had mentioned. Celestia placed the baby dragon on her back with her magic and smiled at him with comfort.

“The Lich King? I believe I have heard the term ‘lich’ somewhere before, but I never knew that they had a king.” Luna said.

“As I have mentioned before, the Lich King is this Azeroth’s most powerful necromancer, capable of raising even dragons and giants from the dead, and creating horrid monstrosities with only the bones to be found.” Darion said as he turned his attention to the three.

Even though Darion mentioned giants and other things that could be resurrected, he was surprised that he mentioned Dragons.

“I-I didn’t know there were dragons here.” Spike said with intrigue.

“There are very few realms that would be known to have dragons, but there are many more upon this world than perhaps your own.” Darion said.

Spike was really surprised, other places that had dragons as well? He would be sure to ask more about that, but he had to keep his focus on the threat at hand.

“So, Darion, about any other information about this Lich King?” Celestia asked.

“The former Lich King that raised us was cruel and cynical, taking pride and joy in torturing the living, even as far as taking the lives of women and children. He was unforgiving to those who betrayed him and would slaughter them with his magic blade. But the current Lich King who rules over the Scourge has been keeping them ‘maintained’, if you will. But taking up the mantle of Lich King is not a simple duty to undertake…”

“What do you mean by that?” Celestia asked.

“If the Lich King was slain, and no one took the mantle, the Scourge would continuously destroy all life on Azeroth, without rest and without mercy. For this reason, there must always be a Lich King… Or so it was thought.”

The three looked at each other confusingly.

“What does that mean?” Luna asked.

“It was only thought that if the Lich King raised the dead, only he would command them. But 7 years ago, it was discovered that the Scourge did only obey the Lich King, but the one who could see through the Lich King. Whosoever wore the crown of the Lich King could control the Scourge, but it would take everything their mind could fight against, to prevent the corruption of the one who created the crown. 7 years ago, the veil between our world and the afterlife was sundered when the Lich King’s crown was destroyed. Then it was discovered that it was not the Lich King that controlled the Scourge, but the one who made the crown in the first place: The Jailer. He was the one responsible for the Scourge’s zeal for death, and his ultimate goal was to destroy the one who judged souls when they passed into the afterlife. If our judger was destroyed, everything, including yourselves and those you love would have faded from existence.”

The three looked at each other very worriedly.

“Thankfully though, our champions defeated him, and he was destroyed within the realm he was banished to.”

Spike then got off of Celestia’s back and approached Darion, tapping his shoulder. Darion simply turned his cold, stoic gaze at the young whelp.

“I’m really sorry to get into a rush, but when will you tell us about what happened to Twilight and the others?”

“This will be provided by the Lich King himself. He awaits us in Icecrown in the frozen regions of Northrend.” Darion said.

“Is that where we’re going? How long will it take us to get there?” Luna asked.

“Not any longer, Princess of the Night. For we have already arrived.” Darion pointed up ahead at the spire of a tall, foreboding castle.

Spike was a little intimidated by the look of it, but then his face was horror-struck when he looked up to the sky.

Celestia and Luna also had frightened looks in their eyes when they looked up into the sky, seeing that it was broken like glass, and so much smog and grim thunder clouds that poured from random edges of the hole, the surroundings of it completely colorless and gloomy. But the most terrifying of this was the horrid spire of an immense, macabre, nightmarish tower looming over the castle just above in the other dimension, dark lightning flashes what appeared to be massive chains holding the tower in place.

“W-W-Wh-What’s that-t?” Spike asked, horror clearly visible in his face.

Darion simply looked up at the tower with a determination in his eyes with a cold expression.

“The Afterlife…”