"All that I am: anger, cruelty, vengeance - I bestow upon you, my chosen knight. I have granted you immortality so that you may herald in a new, dark age for the Scourge."
That feels like… movement.
She opened her eyes, golden orbs veiled by blue looking up at the grey clouds slowly zipping by. Yes, we’re definitely moving.
Finally.
She sat up, her platemail clanking as she shifted, and pulled a fair amount of dusty blond hair away from her face. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d brushed it, or the last time she’d even cared.
She watched the dockyards go by from the front as the ship, The Kraken, left the docks and began to pick up speed. It was a cold winter’s morning, and it was only going to get colder as they got closer to the Frozen Sea.
In life, she’d always enjoyed seeing the sea. She’d taken a vacation by train a long way to the east once just to see it, and could still picture the day clearly in her mind… but it felt like such a long time ago.
A month had passed since Stormwind had come under siege from the Scourge, an attack which had delayed the departure of the Valiance Expedition to Northrend by a week. At the end of that week, just when they had been ready to launch, the emissaries of the Ebon Blade had come, delaying it further, as King Wrynn had brought the most senior knights into his war council to ensure that none of the enemies’ strengths were left unknown and none of their weaknesses were left unexploited.
The Kraken was an icebreaker, one of the first of its class of ships, and a marvel of dwarven and gnomish engineering combined with human shipbuilding. It was equipped with guns and deck defence, crewed by thirty experienced sailors, but its main mission was as a transport for the roughly one hundred soldiers who would fight for the Alliance in the Northrend campaign. It fell into formation with the four other ships, all carrying similar amounts of crew and passengers, as they slipped around contested waters and steamed north.
For the officers, men and women of the Fourth Company, Second Battalion The Goldshire Rifles, the journey brought about mixed feelings.
On the one hand, they formed the main body of a noble crusade to destroy a force that threatened the lives of all they held dear. On the other, their survival chances on the frozen continent were not particularly high… and death would not be the worst fate that could befall a mortal man in this campaign.
For the woman sitting alone at the bow, however, their departure couldn’t have come soon enough.
She had wanted to be on one of the first ships that had sailed from the port for the frozen north, but no. “We can’t risk concentrating our forces.” Thassarian had said as he’d boarded The Stormbreaker with two of their brother knights. “You’ll accompany the second wave.”
And yet the vanguard had still contained significantly more death knights than were assigned the later waves. Most of the cohort who had joined the Alliance, were, in fact going first. She just wasn’t one of them.
And that grated tremendously.
It should have meant an two weeks of sitting in Stormwind twiddling her thumbs while they waited for confirmation that the expedition had established a beachhead at the intended landing site in the Borean Tundra, or indeed if it had survived at all. She’d lasted about an hour in the city before returning to Acherus. At least there were scourge to reap in the Plaguelands.
Thirteen and a half days passed and she’d duly reported early to the Stormwind Army headquarters, then to the Third Legion headquarters, then to the Goldshire regiment headquarters, then at last to the 2 GOLDS barracks where the sergeant-at-arms had turned white as a sheet upon first catching sight of her as she strode through his door.
Three hours of running around the city picking up random deployment orders had not done wonders for her temper, and upon realising this from the way she slammed down the stack on his desk he was quick to direct her to the company and ship she needed.
She’d kept herself to herself upon finding The Kraken, and upon boarding gave the ship’s crew and passengers as wide a berth as they gave her. She'd taking up residence atop the brass eagle, removed her twin swords and their scabbards from her belt and laid down out of boredom until they were ready to go. She’d left her helmet off but was sorely tempted to put it back on just to try to lessen the stares she knew she was getting. They, too, were beginning to grate.
She had no desire whatsoever to interact with the soldiers anyway.
Once upon a time she’d have cared. Not just what they thought about her, but also about them. Their wellbeing, their hopes, their dreams. She’d once felt that way about everyone.
But then she’d died, and had risen again.
She remembered her past life, remembered everything – but could no longer summon the positivity she’d once been able to feel.
Now she felt pain, rage, hatred and hunger. These things she could control, and sate through action. Bringing death worked wonders for that.
But what she felt above all else was loss. She’d lost her life, her friends, her family. Her world.
And they no longer even mattered to her – what hurt was that she had lost them, not because of exactly what she had lost. Above all, the most important thing she’d lost along the way was herself.
She tilted her head over to the side to watch Fourth Company’s commander, a major, give his briefing to the troops assembled on the deck.
It wasn’t a bad speech, she had to give him that, and like his men he seemed competent enough. She wondered how many would survive the coming days.
She’d never been taught military tactics or martial prowess back home – why would I have ever needed them there? It was so peaceful… so warm – but as a death knight she’d found herself to be an oddly quick learner in the arts of war, and had been given ample opportunity to practice them against the Scarlet Crusade and the Argent Dawn.
It was funny – well, odd, anyway. She hadn’t laughed out of genuine amusement for a very long time.
Back home, she’d been so… slow. Others had feared to give her the simplest of tasks, expecting that she would fail them or complicate matters for them further. Don’t want to do any more damage than you’ve already done, they would say. Nothing ever quite went as she planned, even if it all worked out in the end. Not that it always did.
Here, after coming back from the grave, everything had been so clear. First it had been his voice, urging her on, but even with him gone, the clarity remained.
By all rights she should have died her second death immediately, becoming one of the many rejects that Acherus had churned out at its prime. But somehow she’d survived.
Memories of her first trial flashed through her mind; a duel to the death with another potential acolyte, a blood elf. He’d been beating her relentlessly with the training blade when she’d stood up and exploded, channelling her fear and hurt into a wave of shadowfrost magic that flash-froze him solid. She’d picked up his blade in her other hand, and the feeling of a weapon in each had somehow felt good. Right. But not as good as when she’d shattered his body into a grisly ruin of ice, gore and bone.
And she’d gone from strength to strength thereafter, from depravity to fresh depravity.
Then… Light’s Hope. And now, a few weeks later, here she was.
Hungry for vengeance. Driven by the only emotions she could still feel.
There was no hope for redemption, but maybe she could achieve some measure of peace in the frozen north. Maybe his death would end her hunger, or salve her pain. Diminish her loss as no light could.
Or perhaps not. They probably wouldn’t even succeed. But she had no other purpose, no other recourse.
I can worry about that when the Lich King falls, she’d long since decided.
She sighed, watching the waves splash harmlessly into the side of the ship. Two weeks at full steam, and full steam they would go; they had to hurry to reinforce the expedition in the tundra before it was wiped out. It would be difficult for her to control herself that long, but she was strong enough to cope. The wait would be worth it.
The knight reached a hand into the bag containing all of her worldly possessions, feeling around for one of the few things, perhaps the only thing that still comforted her. She wasn’t wearing her gauntlets – there was no point sacrificing that much dexterity when battle couldn’t possibly loom. Just two weeks of boredom instead.
She found what she was looking for and pulled it out, careful not to squash it. She raised it up so that she could see it and sniffed. Nothing.
Her senses of smell, touch and taste were dulled by undeath, so that wasn’t too surprising. She always liked to check each time, though. Just to be certain.
She bit a large chunk out of it, rolling the baked treat around her mouth for a few seconds before swallowing.
There it was.
But was it a true sensation, or just a memory? She couldn’t be sure.
Just the slightest taste.
Just the slightest hint of blueberry.
Double update! Please check both of them out when you can! :)
6767894 I put them in line with the show around the start of Season 4... what age they are then is open to interpretation, and there have been an impressive number of debates about it. Personally, I agree with the line of reasoning that places them in their early-mid twenties; between twenty-one and twenty-five, based on the assumption that they age in the show roughly like humans and given the level of responsibility most of them have (business owner, chef, solo animal shelter carer, etc). This story is written with the Mane Six at that age.
-->
Oh wow, I didn't expect the Northrend offensives to start this early. Still, good stuff!
Ah yes. We never did find out if other ponies were sent to Azeroth.
6770559 Thanks! And keep up the good work!
Derpy the death knight? That is...really strange.
so, Derpy got sent over as well huh. died and got put up as a DK. thought it was applejack at first
DERPY DIED!!!!!
She also took a few levels in badass while she was at it
At first I thought 'OH MY GOD YOU TURNED AJ INTO A DEATH KNIGHT!!!!!!!!' Then I read the part about the blueberry. Ok I was wrong about AJ being a DK but yeah can't wait to see what happens next.
On a not so great side I got one nit pick I want to point out, The main 6 went through the Deadmines and then 3 weeks later the Wrath of the Lich King happens, what I thought they would at least go to Outlands at least or something but I can see it moving the story along so I can say that it's a small nit pick.
6772103 After reading the prologue of act 2 it is Wrath and now I know that was a dumb question
Uh... Shouldn't you link to that story?
6773125 I certainly can do; it didn't seem strictly necessary at the time I wrote it seeing as a search in the top bar will bring it up immediately - it's not like it's on a different site. Still, I've now updated the description to make it a hyperlink.
6771272 I understand how it seems like a big jump given the ingame context of the Deadmines being a 16-21 instance and Northrend being 68+. As I said when I first started the story, I had them come into the Warcraft timeline at the end of TBC (around the time of the SSO). This was done with the intent always being exposing them to Azeroth in Act I before moving on to Northrend in Act II.
So why not have them go through Outland, or some of the higher Vanilla stuff first? Partly - on a tiny level - because WotLK was the first xpac that I played at max level - it's the one I have the fondest memories of, and I know that I'll enjoy and be able to write better about content I played when it was current compared to vanilla/TBC which I mostly bulldozed through after it had been nerfed.
There's also a story reason for my decision - that Wrath was the first xpac to have a truly cohesive story arc. Vanilla barely had an arc to it at all before the Naxxramas patch, and TBC ended up having multiple characters turn evil with precious little justification (Illidan, Kael'thas, and to a lesser extent Zul'jin) and ended up having to pull in Kil'jaeden as a surprise final boss. Wrath's story not only progressed better through and in between the zones, it also had better story progression between the patches (even if the content of those patches sometimes left a lot to be desired *cough*trialofthecrusader*cough*).
On the one hand, I suppose, that means I could have done more of the same as the Deadmines - craft original stories of them in Vanilla/TBC settings that might end up quite interesting but would risk butchering the timeline if I ever intended to have them fit in with it again for WotLK - more so than I already have done to fit in the Deadmines around the SSO and Varian's return (I'll elaborate on that another time). Plus, the development I have planned for them would be lessened if they had already been to another planet or fought powerful dragons and demons - I want to try to capture the wonder I felt when going through Wrath for the first time and replicate it in their experiences.
By no means is Northrend going to be easy for the girls, just as it wouldn't have been for any of the troops deployed there to fight the Scourge in the lore. Plus, just because they're going to the continent doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to smash through all the raids and be capable of killing the Lich King... Perhaps they will, perhaps they won't. They certainly are going to have one hell of a struggle in the coming chapters, and I hope you'll enjoy reading them when they arrive!
Thanks again for your interest, and the same to all others who have posted comments! :)
6774892 Twilight had been studying the magic of friendship from the moment she arrived in Ponyville. Her preferred method of conflict resolution is talking things out, not violence - and certainly not taking a life. As far as she's concerned in that chapter, they could have had more success with negotiating if they'd handled it properly - in her eyes but AJ and RD were far too eager for a fight, and any chance they had went out the window. She doesn't have the benefit of any personal experience or indeed our hindsight in regards to the gnolls, and doesn't want to put too much faith in what she's found in (biased) textbooks when she's learned back home not to always judge by appearances and not to generalise.
It doesn't seem too much of a leap to me that she'd see greater virtue in serving to protect rather than serving for bloodlust, and would prefer if a guardspony were to join up influenced by the former rather than by both. I was perhaps a little too vague in specifying a thrill for violence in the second part of the quote - "the martial side" could've been clearer. I'll rework it now.
Regarding the "stressed" comment; I'm attempting to write Twilight as I think she would react to the situation given her background and upbringing. The line you quote is meant to be Twilight's perspective, and it is not meant as a value judgment from myself on the many and varied reasons that someone might serve. If you believe I'm mistaken to assume she'd think like this at that point in the story, fair enough. We disagree, and I'm open to being convinced that she would react differently, but just because I wrote her that way in the chapter in question does not mean that I personally hold an equivalent outlook on life.
...awww, Derpy....
(She's scarily similar to the personality of the DK I made. And then quit playing at level 59.)
So Derpy is now a Death Knight? This is gonna get interesting!
6804445
Did you even read what I said? I never said those they had to kill was sad, I said it was sad that it likely wouldn't be the last time they'd have to take lives. And THAT is sad because it goes against what they grew up with, in a world of relative peace. Not growing up in such a hostile world as Azeroth, it's particularly scarring for them.
Must admit I wasn't expecting the jump to the Northrend offensive. I was expecting a full run of vanilla. then Burning Crusade, before we reached Northrend. I'm not complaining though because Wrath of the Lich King was my favorite expansion.
I do have to wonder how Derpy managed to get to Azeroth though. We know how the Mane Six did, but Derpy seems out of place. It does make me wonder how many other ponies have inadvertently and unfortunately found themselves in Azeroth now. I'm kind of hoping they didn't all end up as humans. That'd be kinda boring.
Will our dear Death Knight be running into the Mane Six? And will they recognize each other?
I FUCKING KNEW IT! DERPY!!
The moment I read:
I knew it was Derpy.
6773125 I edit that story for Borsuq! It's good shit
Apologies all for the long gap between chapters, though it's about the time I was expecting to take. The good news is that I should have the start of Act 2 with you tomorrow evening, so 'til then!
Derpy? You turned Derpy into a DEATH KNIGHT?
YOU MADE HER INTO AN UNDEAD ABOMINATION THAT EXISTS ONLY TO DESTROY?
I am saddened.