“Dang it!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed from beside him, only adding to the surrealness of this situation.
Absorbed by Sindragosa as he was, Arthas didn’t think about asking his rainbow-maned friend why’d she said that. As confusing as that was, it rated pretty low on the list of things he wanted explained to him. Far more important questions were: why was Sindragosa alive? Why was she here? Why was she a baby dragon? (which oddly was the most confusing part of this situation), and why wasn’t she… Arthas might not have killed her, but he still had risen her from the dead into his service. While she had harbored a certain… resentment towards mortals, he would have thought she would be a little more aggressive towards him.
Of course, that would require her to know who he really was. And seeing how she wasn’t staring at him in surprise like he began to as he recognized her (and he was certain that she would recognize him in turn), Sindragosa had come to Canterlot already knowing. Which, Arthas had to admit, wasn’t difficult to figure out, considering the statue of Uther in the Abbey; even though he hadn’t raised the dragoness until years after the great paladin’s death at his hand, as frostwyrm she had retained enough intelligence to be able to learn about some parts of history she had missed out on, especially regarding the Scourge. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine that she knew Uther had been Arthas’ mentor. She also undoubtedly heard the rumors his cultists would discuss in Icecrown Citadel, about the ghost of a little boy, Matthias Lehner that wandered around that damned glacier, and even though he was now most commonly referred to by the name crystal ponies so ironically gave him, Sir Lightbringer, there would be quite a few ponies in Ponyville that would call him by that name. Sindragosa, like all blue dragons, was incredibly intelligent, and would easily put two and two together.
(Also, Arthas could easily imagine that one of his friends had simply blabbed about his real name to her. Probably Spike.)
And yet, the incredibly ancient dragoness who now appeared as a baby didn’t seem to harbor any visible ill will towards him. She turned her strange, unfocused gaze to Rainbow Dash. “I told you he would recognize me,” she said in barely invested voice. “I believe you owe me ten bits.”
Arthas decided he had enough. Looking from Sindragosa to Rainbow Dash, then at the Princesses, he finally broke his silence, “I’m sorry, can somepony explain?”
While some of his paladins voiced similar requests, Sindragosa growled quietly a few words in Draconic, which Arthas overheard (and was the only other person in the room that could understand them), “Somepony, by the creators…” before she jumped down from the table she was sitting on and glided down to stand in front of him.
Gazing into her milky eyes, Arthas immediately recalled what he had glimpsed in her memories after he had raised her into undeath, how the blast from the Dragon Soul, that had nearly annihilated the Blue Dragonflight and mortally wounded her, had also blinded her. “I guess she was brought back in a similar state she had been in the moment of her death?” Arthas wondered. “Sort of like the scars on my chest..”
“To be succinct, about a week ago I just appeared near Ponyville, alive and in this ridiculous body,” the blue dragon began, almost impassively. “After conversing with Spike, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Liturgy for a bit I pieced together that you were also brought back to life here - ah yes, on that note,” she added with a quick eye roll, “I told the fillies that you were dead, my apologies-”
“I’m still not convinced you didn't make that one up,” Scootaloo interjected, glancing at the young dragon with a raised eyebrow, her violet phoenix-eagle hatchling Glory perched on her head chirping in agreement.
Sindragosa barely acknowledged the comment with a wave of her claws and continued, “- I was kind of surprised everybody else knew, I’ve got to admit - and then I told them that we know each other and how we’ve basically been through the same fate.”
“I’m pretty sure I have more innocent lives on my conscience,” Arthas argued in his mind, but didn’t interrupt the dragoness. If that was all she had told his friends, then she had omitted a great deal; how he was the one who raised her, how he preyed upon the anguish and hate she had felt in her dying moments to bend her to his will and used her as a tool of war. “Could it be that she doesn’t remember?”
“They were confounded, of course,” Sindragosa continued, “but also thrilled for you to have somebody from your past here, and were kind enough to provide me with food and shelter until you came back from your journey, and all of them decided to surprise you with a party. And during the preparations I had an argument with Rainbow Dash on whether you would recognize me or not, and so we made a bet,” she finished with a shrug.
“That about sums it up,” Twilight added as she trotted over. “We're all excited that you’d now have a friend who understands what you’ve been through, even if it makes the whole issue about you being brought back to life here even more puzzling than it already was,” she said, raising her eyes briefly to the ceiling in mild annoyance.
As her gaze returned to Arthas’, though, he noticed a slight worry in her eyes, an unspoken question. Of course, Twilight knew what exactly he had been through, and as such she probably harbored some misgivings regarding Sindragosa’s story. Arthas could imagine that Celestia and Luna, who also knew about his past, were also worried, and he wouldn’t be surprised if they had brought this up to the others. Of course, they didn’t know who Sindragosa was; while telling Luna or Twilight about his past he never saw any specific reason to mention the name of the mighty frostwyrm he had raised or her story (or even mention that at all, to be honest, since it didn’t play such a big part in his life). If they knew, they would both know that Sindragosa was omitting a great deal from them, as well as that technically they shouldn’t have anything to worry about, as anything “evil” she might have done before coming to Equestria had been done while under his control. Honestly, whatever power had decided to resurrect people who had been a part of the Scourge could have picked much, much worse, like Kel’Thuzad for example.
While on the other side of his soul he could sense Bolvar, Ner’zhul and the piece of his soul discussing this new development and what it could mean for the damned still chained to the Lich King’s will, Arthas turned back to Sindragosa. “Indeed. Though I must say, I am relieved to know that I am no longer the only being I know of that has been so mysteriously resurrected. Especially since for all we know whatever brought both of us back could have picked somebody who could have spelled trouble for this world instead,” he added humorously, while at the same time giving the Princess a quick, meaningful glance.
They smirked, understanding what he meant, he heard Apple Bloom exclaiming, “Wait, so ya two really were dead?!” By the time Arthas turned to her and other other fillies, she was already looking at everypony else with a pout along with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, “And all of ya knew it?!”
“As entertaining as that conversation would be,” Sindragosa spoke up, her wings spreading, “I think Arthas and I have some quick, um, catching up to do. You wouldn’t’ mind if us Azerothians would talk for a few moments in private, would you?” she added, turning her head slightly towards the Princesses.
Although the question was directed to them and everypony, her blind gaze didn’t leave Arthas. “Is she threatening me? Or am I just being paranoid?”
One thing was for certain; she wanted to talk alone, without others overhearing them. Arthas couldn’t blame her: he had been in the exact situation she currently was. He knew how alien this world could seem, even with everypony being so welcoming. He would have given much all those months ago to have somebody going through the same thing and talk about it with them.
Also, she could be trying to kill him or exact some other form of revenge.
“Well, I would be delighted to reminisce with you in peace, if nopony minds,” Arthas replied, glancing at the Princesses who nodded in permission. “We won’t be gone long. In the meantime, why don’t you tell our friends about how your trial at Dread Isle went?” he added, turning to his paladins. “I’m sure they would be very interested in hearing about everything that happened there.”
“Um, sure, of course Sir,” Storm replied, his eyes on Sindragosa who was already in the air, flying towards one of the ballroom’s service doors.
Arthas began to make his way after her, and was almost immediately joined by Twilight. “So, is Sindragosa, well…” she began in a hushed tone and trailed off as she fell in step beside him.
“I did not kill her, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Twilight’s eyes widened slightly. “I wasn’t going to ask that!”
“You really should, though,” Arthas remarked to himself. “Considering how many I actually killed, there would be a good chance that an Azerothian returned to life on this world would be one of my victims.”
Guessing by the look Twilight was giving him, she must have figured out what was going through his head. “What I wanted to ask is if she’s really, well, ‘not bad’. I would have thought that most ‘good’ people would try and tell everypony about who exactly you used to be, but she didn’t mention a word to anypony, just that you both had similar fates in past lives.”
“I’m confused why she didn’t reveal more, myself,” Arthas agreed. “Her words aren’t exactly true, as she hadn’t committed any crimes before being turned into an undead, though I’d imagine that she had meant it in a sense that we were both part of the Scourge. I would say that… she’s complicated,” he finally said after a brief hesitation; that was all he could reveal in such a brief time. “But she won’t bring harm to anypony, and as for me, well, blue dragons are known for their logic,” he added hopefully. “She probably already realized that taking revenge on me would be pointless.”
Twilight released a sigh. “Well, I’m glad to hear that, because we really grew to like her! She taught me quite a lot about magic in just a few days! And Spike and the fillies were almost inseparable from her for most of this week, even if it was clear that they were annoying her a little.”
“I’m glad to hear she started getting along this well,” Arthas replied, easily imagining how annoyed she must be after being treated like a child when she was easily older than all of them put together. Finally reaching the door, he nodded at his paladins. “You should really listen to what they’re telling the others, instead of trying to listen in on us.”
“Oh, stop it, I wasn’t going to listen in-” Twilight began, but Arthas cut her off.
“We bumped into the echo of Clover the Clever.”
Twilight’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. “Wha- why didn’t you say that earlier!”
And like that, she was gone, racing back to everypony. Chuckling, Arthas followed through the door after Sindragosa…
… only for the door to shut behind him while an invisible force grabbed him and shoved him against the wall, knocking the wind out of him. In the precious second when he was incapacitated, Sindragosa flew up towards him, her claws glowing with arcane magic that held him now, and breathed. Cold enveloped him, freezing his body and forming a prison of ice around it. Within mere heartbeats, he was frozen against the wall, with only his head free.
The tiny dragon allowed herself a triumphant smirk for a few moments, before frowning, and uttering a groan. As Arthas watched, confused by her behaviour even more so than her sudden attack, watched as she pressed her claws to her face.
“How are they so… friendly, and happy, all the time?!” Sindragosa finally let out an annoyed growl, releasing her face to turn her blind gaze towards the door.
Arthas stared at her, as the comprehension regarding what she had said and his current situation slowly dawned on him, and before he could help himself, he threw his head back and started laughing.
“I knew you had to hold some resentments,” he explained as she sensed Sindragosa’s attention on him. “Thank the Light, I was starting to think that I was just paranoid. Oh, and since you brought it up, if you don’t like them being friendly and happy, you can call everypony here and see what their reaction would be to you freezing their friend to the wall,” he added with a nod towards the door.
Sindragosa smiled nefariously in response. “Oh, really? I would have thought you’d want to keep our conversation private. I mean, unless you want everybody to learn what you really are,” she said, shrugging as if nonchalant.
Likewise, Arthas also shrugged nonchalantly; that is, he would have if he wasn’t encased in ice from neck down. Despite it, though, he ignored his predicament - after all, this paled in comparison to the icy powers he had once commanded, even though he was now alive he still found the ice’s cold to be a mere inconvenience - and replied calmly, “If you are referring to the fact that I was an evil mass murderer, they already know.” He would have lied if he said he didn’t take a little satisfaction in watching Sindragosa’s surprise. “The Princesses, Twilight, and my paladins even know all the specific details, about the Scourge and the Lich King.”
“They know?!” Sindragosa repeated, shocked. She quickly recovered, though, and frowned at him. “If they know, why are they… friends with you? I could maybe understand not killing you, but… seriously?!” she finally exclaimed, throwing her arms out in exasperation.
“Yeah, I find this confusing too,” Arthas confessed. “I suppose it’s largely because none of the atrocities I commited affected them, and that they don’t really have any point of reference with them being such a peaceful nation on a mostly peaceful world. Also, I did spend most of my time here helping everypony.”
His remark caused the young dragoness to once again press her claws against her face. “Ugh, this world is so annoying… if you told them about your past, shouldn’t they know who I am?” Sindragosa asked, resuming her frown. “Or at least, Twilight and their Princesses?”
“Please don’t take it the wrong way, but when telling them about my horrifying past I didn’t see much reason to tell them the names of my every minion.”
Sindragosa’s frown turned into a deadpan. “So if I’d ask them who Kel’Thuzad was they would also not know that name?”
“Well-” Arthas began to reply, then stopped as he realized how pointless this conversation was. “Wait, is this really something you want to argue about?”
“Of course not!” Sindragosa hissed, her anger flaring up.
As the dragoness didn’t continue immediately, content for the few seconds to give him a blind, angry glare, Arthas assessed his situation. Despite her seemingly feeble form, Sindragosa was clearly dangerous. Even though she was now an Equestrian dragon, she retained an Azerothian blue dragon’s frost flame, but even more importantly, she retained the ability to use magic. Which, now that Arthas thought about it, he really shouldn’t be too surprised about it; there wasn’t any particular reason why Equestrian dragons shouldn’t be able to use magic. They just didn’t, as odd as the thought of a race capable of using magic never using it was. His mind went back to how humans were first taught magic by the high elves; could it be that the dragons never had anypony to teach them? And what did it mean for other races of this world? As far as Arthas knew, only unicorns, alicorns, changelings and half-pony hybrids, the hippogriffs and centaurs, were capable of wielding arcane magic, channeling it through their horns. But what if other races could learn to wield it like Azerothians, though concentration and hand gestures?
“So only griffons, minotaurs, dragons and diamond dogs in this case I guess… Didn’t Daring Do mention something about two-headed diamond dogs that were capable of using magic? Huh, guess she might not have been too far off...”
Leaving that musing for later, Arthas turned his thoughts back to Sindragosa. She wielded magic. That made her very dangerous; being a blue dragon, an incredibly old one at that, meant that she - in all likelihood - knew more about magic than anypony on this world. If she’d decide to kill him, she would very likely succeed.
Of course, though, there was a matter of her possessing a body of a baby dragon. Not only did it mean that she didn’t have much in the way of physical strength (or claws or teeth), logically she should also be weaker magically. Even now, Arthas felt certain that if worse came to worse he could still easily break the ice around him and incapacitate Sindragosa.
“I was planning to threaten you with revealing all I know about you to those ponies,” the dragoness resumed, calming down and spreading her forelegs, magical glow surrounding her claws, “but I suppose I can improvise.”
Four big shards of ice appeared around her, all pointing their razor sharp ends towards his head.
“I assure you, you don’t have to threaten me,” Arthas replied, remaining calm but also alert.
“I’ll be the judge of that. Now,” Sindragosa said in a harsher tone, as with a flick of her claw one of the shards floated closer to thim, “tell me, why did you bring me to life in this ridiculous body?”
“What?” Arthas exclaimed, surprised. “Why would you think I did it?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Master,” Sindragosa replied sarcastically, sneering at the last word, “maybe because the other time I've risen from death it was because of you? Or maybe because I find it odd that I, the most powerful being you ever raised, am the only one - so far - other than you to be brought back to life on this ridiculous world?”
Her arguments were valid enough that they actually gave Arthas a pause. “Hm, yes, it is indeed strange,” he admitted. Putting away any musings about why that was, he continued, “But I assure you, I had nothing to do with you returning to life, not to mention my own return. Think about it,” Arthas urged her, noting that the shard of ice itched closer to him. “I’ve raised you once, yes, but as an undead, after finding your actual body while wielding the very powers of death. Both of our bodies are alien to us, fully alive; neither of us carries necromancy taint; and when you were brought back I was practically on the other side of this world. And most importantly, but all that is holy, why would I bring you back to life as a baby dragon?!”
Sindragosa’s eyes slightly narrowed, but to Arthas’ relief, it wasn’t out of anger, but out of consideration. “If you didn’t resurrect me, then who did?”
“I’d assume the same being that brought me back,” Arthas retorted with what was the only guess he had regarding this matter.
The dragoness snorted. “So does it mean that some unimaginably powerful and knowledgeable being is determined to reassemble the Scourge on a world of magical talking ponies? Who do you presume it could be?” she immediately asked, not waiting for a reply to the first question.
“I don’t know. But I might have some clue as to ‘how’,” Arthas added. “I’ve been told about a strange construction called ‘the Gate of Tartarus’, that supposedly is a portal to a prison housing the greatest evils Equestria has known. Shortly before I was brought back to life, its guardian left his post for several days. The Princesses theorized that it might have something to do with it, and after hearing from both me and Brann Bronzebeard about titans, they began to suspect that this might be tied to them somehow. We are currently waiting for him to arrive on Equestria so that we could go examine the Gate.”
Sindragosa listened carefully to him. “Twilight mentioned some of this to me,” she finally said. Finally, she waved her claws, and as their glow disappeared, so did the ice shards. “But since you hadn’t checked it in those six months you had been alive, I assumed this couldn’t be really related. Why didn’t you examine it?”
“I’ve had other things on my mind.”
A part of him enjoyed the look of utter bemusement on Sindragosa’s face.
“Are you jesting?!” she exclaimed after a few seconds. “Were you too preocupied starting this little cult order and making friends to look into who brought you to life here?!”
Taking offense to the ridicule in her voice, Arthas replied coldly, “I have quite likely committed more atrocities than any mortal ever. Excuse me if I had some issues I needed to work through.”
“Ah, how could I forget, I feel so sorry for you,” Sindragosa snorted, but instead of continuing the argument, her attention shifted away from the ice-bound Arthas. She began to slowly fly around the kitchen, scratching her chin while deep in thoughts. “Hm… the titans - or their constructs - are about the only ones I could think of that could be responsible for resurrecting us,“ she said after a few moments. Frowning, she added, “Well, them and the Burning Legion.”
“The Burning Legion?” Arthas repeated, a little surprised. “What makes you say that?”
The young dragoness glanced at him briefly before replying, probably wondering if she should explain this to him or not. Finally she shrugged and turned her head away as she said, “The Highborne councilor of the night elf queen that was responsible for bringing them to Azeroth named Xavius had his entire body completely destroyed shortly after the demons invasion began. Sometime later he returned as a demon creature called a ‘satyr’.”
Arthas’ eyes widened. Of course, he knew that (he had the very memories of Sindragosa within his mind - or rather, the Lich King had but part of his soul still made him but whatever - after all), but until she pointed this out he hadn’t considered that Xavius return as the first of satyrs was eerily similar to what happened to him.
“The Burning Legion must have the ability to bring back others in different bodies too, clearly,” Sindragosa continued. Raising one foreleg, she examined as she added, “Of course, that night elf was a demon when he returned, and neither of our bodies has any of their fel magic, so they can’t be responsible. As for the titans… I find it hard to envision them returning anybody to life in a body made of flesh, as all their creations were made of either stone or metal.”
“Those are interesting points,” Arthas said thoughtfully. “I hadn’t even considered the possibility of demons being capable of something like this; if I had, I would have investigated this Gate of Tartarus sooner… hopefully, it won’t be long before Brann arrives in Equestria again and we’ll get some answers as to who’s responsible for bringing us here.”
Sindragosa snorted. “Brann… That’s the dwarf who investigates titan relics, correct? Hm, well, I would say that I’d be enough to examine this gate and we should go straight away, but the few experiences my flight had with titans’ creations taught me that it’s preferable to be cautious.” She then turned her head towards him, measuring him with her blind gaze. “I suppose we shall call a truce for now.”
As she said that, Arthas sensed some of her hostility disperse, enough that he didn’t think releasing himself to be unwise. Opening himself to the Light, he breathed deeply, then directed it’s energies to his body and the ice around him, using his strength to break the weakened prison easily.
He fell down to the floor, landing on his hooves a bit awkwardly; his body felt a little numb after being encased in ice for several minutes. Nevertheless, he rose to a standing position and looked back at Sindragosa. The dragon was good at masking her emotions; Arthas knew she had to be surprised by how easily he had escaped his prison - otherwise she wouldn’t have bothered trapping him in the first place - but she showed none of it.
“I didn’t realize we were at war,” he responded to her words.
Sindragosa’s features hardened. “You raised my corpse and cursed my spirit. You enslaved me,” she hissed. “Your only saving grace is the fact that you weren’t the one who killed me. I told your friends that we had similar fates but that was a lie. We have nothing in common.”
Arthas met her anger steadily. “We both suffered, and had our lives stolen from us. We have that much in common.”
The dragoness didn’t reply to his words, just continued to stare at him angrily, then finally snorted and turned away.
Arthas didn’t press his luck. “What about everypony else?” he asked, glancing at the door. Judging by the fact that nopony came to see what was going on, he assumed that the warding placed on the ballroom so that he couldn’t sense his friends worked both ways, and probably also dampened sounds. “I was under the impression that you were getting along with them.”
Sindragosa once again glared at him for a few seconds before replying, “They are aggravating, but became much more tolerable once they finally comprehended that contrary to my ridiculous body I am not a child. I suppose you could say that I grew to find their company enjoyable. And I won’t lie, both them and this ridiculous world intrigues me. So no, you don’t have to worry about them,” she finally said, shrugging. “I won’t try to harm them.”
Arthas nodded slowly. He could sense that there was something Sindragosa wasn’t telling him, but in all honesty he wouldn’t expect her to open up to him about her feelings regarding his friends. For now, he was satisfied with her reply.
“Then let us return to our friends before they start to worry,” he said, taking steps towards the door. “I’m afraid we’ll have to explain that you lied a little; they’d be surprised when they’ll notice that you and I aren’t exactly friends.”
“Well if they knew about you as much as they say they do, I am sure they won’t be surprised,” Sindragosa snorted. Arthas stopped and looked at her. The blue dragoness stayed still, a little confused, then after a few seconds she got the message and groaned. “Fine, I will apologize.”