//------------------------------// // 169. Dark Bargain // Story: Rebirth of the Damned // by Borsuq //------------------------------// “What I am trying to say is,” Sindragosa said as she brought her explanation to an end, “I am sorry that I had embellished a little when telling you about my relationship with Arthas… or plainly lied to you about our supposed friendship, I suppose. I hope you will keep in mind the particular situation that I had found myself in and forgive me for this deception.” Arthas could sense a slight annoyance in the little dragon as she apologised, but all things considered he couldn’t blame her. In fact, he was satisfied that Sindragosa did seem earnest despite her annoyance, even if the apology had to be forced out of her. Everypony else in the room also seemed satisfied, and aside from Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, not at all surprised. “Aww, it’s fine, we forgive you,” Pinkie Pie was the first one to exclaim, quickly appearing next to Sindragosa and giving her a friendly hug. “No hard feelings, Sindy!” “T-truly?” Sindragosa asked, staring at her in bemusement. “Just like that? And did you just call me ‘Sindy?” she added, frowning and getting out of her hug. “Well, it ain’t like we aren’t used t’ ya Azerothian folks lyin’ a tad when first meetin’,” Applejack spoke up, with a meaningful glance at Arthas. As he chuckled sheepishly, she turned back to Sindragosa. “Plus, considerin’ Arthas’ past, it had been somewhat alarmin’ t’ hear somebody say that ya were good friends and not try t’ warn us or anythin’.” “Oh?” Arthas thought, though the fact that the remark was amazingly accurate kept him from feeling hurt. “Wow, AJ, that’s a bit harsh,” Rainbow Dash commented, although Arthas knew her well enough to know she was amused. Applejack raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s also the exact same thing ya said after meeting the lass,” she pointed out. Arthas was about to join the few others ponies who started chuckling at the remark, but just as he was about to Scootaloo spoke up, “Wait a second, what exactly do you mean by ‘Arthas’ past?” Everybody exchanged hesitant looks at the question. Apparently, all had forgotten that while the majority of those gathered here knew very little about Arthas’ previous life, the fillies didn’t even know about him being evil. The only one of them who knew was Liturgy, who had heard about it before with the rest of the Crystal Empire due to King Sombra’s spell, and it looked like she had kept it to herself. “I really should have just told the entire truth about myself after arriving in Equestria, instead of revealing different amounts of information about my past life at different times to different people,” Arthas commented, sighing mentally. “Ummm…” Applejack hesitated, glancing at Arthas. He turned to the fillies, opening his mouth- “Oh, that he was evil,” Spike replied to Scootaloo’s question, waving his claws dismissively. “Oooof course,” Arthas thought, not even annoyed, unlike Twilight who pulled him over with her magic with a disapproving hiss. “Spike!” The three fillies, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, stared at Spike with their eyes and mouths wide open in silent shock, then glanced around at everypony else, as if wanting a confirmation. When nopony corrected the young dragon or laughed to show that it was a joke, Apple Bloom finally regained her voice. “Horse Apples.” Now it was Applejack’s turn to hiss in disappointment, “Apple Bloom!” “What? Ya can’t expect us t’ believe that Matt was evil?” Apple Bloom asked, then rolled her eyes and amended, “Or, Arthas, whatever.” “I mean, it is odd how he didn’t say what his name really was,” Scootaloo spoke up. “Or how he never really talked about his past- wait a minute,” she suddenly said, frowning. “Why does it look like everypony else besides the three of us already knew?” she asked, giving Liturgy in particular a stink eye. “Because they do,” Arthas replied before anypony else could. He walked close to the fillies, at the same time taking a glance around the room to see if somepony had any objections to this; noticing that they all seemed to agree that he should tell the young ones too, he continued. “I had told almost all of them myself, actually. Liturgy learned about it along with the rest of the Crystal Empire because of King Sombra’s spell, and Zachara was told by Zecora, I assume,” he added, shrugging; he didn’t really care about it. “I did not tell you three because I thought you shouldn’t be bothered with the problems I’ve dragged along from my previous life… although fate clearly had some other plans,” he said with a glance at Sindragosa, who shrugged, “seeing how you stumbled upon some of them. Regardless, I am really sorry for not telling you so much about myself.” The three fillies exchanged looks. “So…” Sweetie Belle said, looking at him with a troubled frown. “You really were… evil?” He let out a heavy sigh. “‘’Evil’ doesn’t even begin to describe what I was, I’m afraid,” he confessed. Looking around the room at all his friends, he continued, “You have known peace for so long in this world that I don’t think you could even begin to imagine all the things that I did. There were some… reasons why I ended up the way I did, reasons that one could say alleviate some of my responsibility, but I assure you, those reasons matter little to my entire former world, nor do they matter to me. I will always feel more guilt than I could possibly convey in words,” he added quietly, averting his gaze from his friends for a moment, then turned back to the fillies with a calm expression. “Does that answer your question?” The fillies stared at him for a few seconds in numb silence before the three of them all snorted and frowned. “No it doesn’t ‘answer our question’!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in annoyance. “Yeah, we want some actual explanation!” Scootaloo added. “The same one you gave everypony but us, apparently!” “Wait in line, Scoots,” Rainbow spoke up, snorting. “He didn’t tell us much more than that, actually. Well, most of us,” she added; Arthas caught her giving Twilight a playful smirk. “She’s right; I actually haven’t told much more about myself other than what you know,” Arthas admitted to the fillies. “Over time they did learn a thing or two more, but I never told most of the gathered here the whole story of my former life. I told Princess Luna after agreeing to serve the kingdom by establishing the paladin order, and she told Princess Celestia. Twilight basically figured it out after I slipped about something, so after she asked I told her as well. I revealed it to my paladins during their trial, as I thought it was appropriate for them to know,” he added with a shrug. As few ponies glanced at the paladins, who all gave different degree versions of awkward smiles, Arthas continued, “However, for some time now I had been thinking about telling all of you about my life as well, and I think now would be the perfect time to do it. Everypony except Princess Cadance and Shining Armor is here, we had another Azerothian here to confirm for you that all I say is true… and actually, exactly because of Sindragosa you should all know; if she has been brought back to life too, then Light knows who else could be brought back in this fashion on Equestria. And that is beside my fears about having more guests from Azeroth like Brann in the future.” “You actually ‘fear’ that?” Fluttershy asked, sounding a little surprised and concerned. “What I meant by that is that each visit forces Equestria more and more to get dragged into Azeroth’s problems, and that is something I would prefer to avoid,” Arthas explained. “I’ve committed enough evil on that world that I don’t want to feel responsible for another one getting engulfed in war and misery. Regardless,” Arthas continued after sighing deeply, “I suppose I should consider myself fortunate that the first other Azerothian you met was somebody as reasonable as Brann. Before anybody else comes along at whatever point in the future, I would prefer that you’d all learn the truth about my past from me. I know that, considering how much I have lied or hid from you in the past, it might be presumptuous of me to think that you would all believe that what I’ll tell you will be the honest truth, for worse and better, but-” “Oh dagnabbit, of course we’ll believe ya,” Applejack interrupted him, rolling her eyes. “Would ya quit dancin’ ‘round the subject already?” “I think what Applejack is trying to say,” Twilight began with a brief sheepish smile at the earth pony, “is that we understand that this isn’t something that is easy for you to talk about, for numerous reasons. But over the months you've spent here we got to know the real you, and at the very least we know that what you tell us now will be nothing but the honest truth.” Arthas’ eyes lingered a moment on the lovely lavender unicorn, then scanned the rest of the room. All of his friends matched his gaze with trust and encouraging smiles. The sight of that felt as if the very Light was touching his heart… but at the same time though, he couldn’t help but notice that his paladins exchanged somewhat awkward glances, and his happiness evaporated. He knew very well that his friendships could be ruined by what he was about to tell them. Twilight could accept his past, but would the others? “Well, regardless, I cannot hide it from them forever,” Arthas thought, glancing at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “From any of them.” He heard Luna clear her throat. “While I agree that it is about time for you to tell all your friends the whole truth about your past, I must add that I am not quite sure if everypony present is of the right age to hear everything.” “I don’t plan going into very specific details,” Arthas replied before either Apple Bloom, Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle could voice their outrage (Liturgy in contrast remained calm and compliant as ever). “What I am about to say is pretty much known on Azeroth to children younger than them.” “Yes!” Scootaloo exclaimed happily, then cleared her throat and added in a calm voice, “I mean, thank you M- Arthas.” As the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders voiced their thanks as well, Arthas turned back to address everybody. “This tale will take some time, so perhaps it would be best if we would all sit down. But before I start, there are two things I want to tell you,” he stopped them before they could move to sit on the cushions around the tables with snacks. Only Sindragosa ignored him and flew over to one table, though Arthas could sense that he still had her attention. “First, as I said, it’s a long tale, so I would ask that you don’t interrupt me until I finish. I expect that, even though I’ll do my best to explain everything as I tell it to you, you will have many questions and many comments, so please hold onto them until I finish.” To his confusion, as soon as he finished that sentence, Pinkie Pie raised her hoof into the air. “Um, yes Pinkie?” “Yeah, question: how will we know that you finished telling us about your past?” the pink pony asked, tilting her head. Arthas blinked in surprise, then resisted an urge to deadpan at her. “I die at the end,” he stated, hoping he didn’t sound like he was pouting. “Oooh, right, gotcha,” Pinkie replied, giggling a bit nervously. Ignoring the interruption, Arthas resumed, “The other thing I would want to ask of you is…” he paused, hesitating as he searched for the right words to convey what he meant. “What I will tell you, it… it’s a lot to take in. I understand if any of you need some time to think about what I will reveal and how it makes you feel about me. All I want you to know is that whatever you may think about me, I won’t blame you; after all, I’ll probably still be thinking worse of myself than that anyway. Now then,” he added, before any of them could speak up, as he trotted over to one of the tables, “why don’t we get comfortable? Sindragosa.” he turned to the blue dragon; she had taken a bite out of one of the gems that were most likely prepared for her and Spike to eat. Upon hearing her name, she turned her head slightly to the side, to show she heard him. “If I omit anything, feel free to interrupt me.” Sindragosa narrowed her eyes, but she quickly shrugged. “As you wish,” she said, before finishing eating the gem. As everypony picked a cushion to sit on and formed a small circle, Arthas risked one more glance at Twilight; even though she had accepted him after learning about his past, he couldn’t be sure how the others would react. There was a small strain between him and his paladins after they learned. It was only natural that he was having doubts about what he was about to do. However, one encouraging look from those lavender eyes were all he needed to be reassured that this was something he needed to do, both for everypony, and for himself. “As you know by now,” he began, “I had originally been a human, a paladin of the Silver Hand and of the Kingdom of Lordaeron. A strange sickness had begun to spread through the land…” The dim light seeped through the crack in the door, accompanied by the shuffling of paper. A smile spread across her face. Not because they had been right; she knew that the moment her wards had alerted her. She was smiling in excitement, in anticipation of what was about to happen, like a predator when it knows a prey is within its reach. Walking softly through the door, the noises her steps could make muffled by her magic - and by the ridiculously ornate rug for a library, she spared a moment to make a mental note of this pony noble’s pointless extravagance in case they’d want to use him one day while glancing at said rug with disinterest. She was pleased to find that her “prey” had her back turned to her, sitting beside the desks and going over a big rusty tome. Enticing mortals was always easier when one makes a powerful entrance, after all… Sitting down a few yards away from the intruder and wrapping her long feline leg around her hind paws, she glanced at the books and scrolls she had gathered from the shelf onto the table. Most of them were ancient (at least, by ponies’ standards), the kind of texts one wouldn’t find in this land outside of their capital city’s archives… and the private libraries of a few noble families. A loud CLAP! sounded through the library as the intruder closed the tome she had been reading and put it away, grabbing the next. “So, she’s looking for something specific…” she mused. They had figured as much, but it was about all they knew about her. She had to be careful. Unlike those mongrels she had been dealing with, this one was skilled in the arcane crafts; and, as she realized being so close to her, quite powerful too. Powerful enough that she couldn’t risk relying on subtle spells to hypnotize her and manipulate to serve them, like that Royal Treasurer. It would be best to use the old fashion way: entice her with the promise of whatever she wanted. Which was going to be difficult without knowing what it was, so… “I’m not sure Lord Goldwatch is going to appreciate the way you throw around those ancient tomes,” she mused out loud, causing the intruder to shout and actually jump up in alarm. She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. “How in the world she evaded ponies’ notice…” The glow around the intruder’s horn became much brighter as she turned around, but the sight of her gave her pause. “A griffon?” she exclaimed, her fright giving way to confusion. “What’s a griffon doing in a unicorn noble’s castle?” “Oh, I have my ways of getting around,” she replied with a smirk, casually flexing her talons in the air. “Like you, I would think. Tell me, is Lord Goldwatch the third or fourth noble who’s library you have raided in the past few weeks?” The unicorn blinked rapidly in surprise, even more confused. “H-how do you know that?” Smirking, she rose and walked slowly around the library. “One of your previous victims noticed their wards had been tampered with, and mentioned it to… an associate of mine. A little bit of investigating told us that he hasn’t been the first noble that somebody had probably visited. This was intriguing enough that I decided to approach you.” The pony, shaking off her confusion, had kept her eyes on her as she circled around her. Narrowing them, she asked, “Why would you want to approach me? Can’t be that you wanted to rat me out to Lord Goldwatch or have me arrested,” she added, “if that were the case, you would have come together with his household guards or the Royal Guard.” The unicorn was catching on quickly. She masked her annoyance; of course she had to be somewhat smart. “Breaking into the secret library of a noble,” she started to list, ignoring her question for now, “breaking all the magical wards-” “Or what passed here for magical wards,” she snorted in her thoughts. “- and leaving without taking anything. That says quite a lot about you,” she told her, finally stopping and looking straight at her. “Well, for somebody who can think, which I find to be quite rare. It told me that you are looking for something. Something that cannot be found very easily, but what you think can be found in a private library of a noble. Why a noble, though? What could be so specific that you think it could be found in the possession of a House descending from the Arcane Council, unicorns that used to move the sun and the moon before the Royal Sisters came to power?” She allowed herself a smirk. “Magic. Some spell, perhaps? But what kind of spell could it be that you couldn’t just find in the Canterlot Archives, that a noble couldn’t report being stolen because it shouldn’t be in his possession?” “Is there a rest-stop between now and the point?” Her eyes widened as the pony spoke up. Staring at the deadpanning face of the unicorn, it took all her self-control to not smear her against the wall of this pitiful library. “Not one for long-winded speeches, I take? Fine then,” she replied,remaining calm and pleasant as she reminded herself how useful this arrogant mortal could be. She could always kill her later. “You are looking for some powerful, ancient, possibly even somewhat evil spell. And it so happens that I know an abundance of those. Perhaps the prize you seek isn’t in the ponies' possession, but mine?” The unicorn smirked and rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I don’t mean to sound racist, but I kinda doubt that? Especially in regard to what I am searching for. Besides, you still haven't answered my question: what do you want with me?” she asked, narrowing her eyes and sounding a little impatient. “So arrogant… well, fortunately, arrogant mortals are even easier to manipulate…” A smirk appeared on her beak. “I happen to be in need of the services of another one who knows a thing or two about magic,” she told her truthfully. “It’s a, shall we say, delicate matter, which is why I’d rather not use official channels to hire some wizard.” “Ah, a delicate matter, that explains this,” the unicorn remarked, still insolent, but now at least she sounded intrigued as well. “And what this delicate matter would be, exactly?” She was a little surprised that this was the first question she asked. Considering the disregard this unicorn had displayed to her kind’s own laws, she had assumed she would be more interested in what she would get in return. “Then again, she’s still a pony, I suppose.” “Nothing drastic, I assure you. Not even of… well, this kind,” she explained, waving her talons around the library they both had sneaked into. “I merely require your help to teach griffons about magic.” An amused snort escaped the unicorn. “Good one. No really, what do you want from me?” “I’m beginning to understand why even other ponies call unicorns arrogant.” “Try teleporting away,” she told her, sitting on the other side of the table from her. When the unicorn raised an eyebrow questioningly, she smiled and added, “Humor me.” The pony frowned, but a subtle change crossed her features as she focused on performing a teleportation spell. Or rather, tried to. If this pony wasn’t so inferior to her, she would probably feel immense satisfaction at the sight of her eyes practically bulging out of their sockets in shock. “Wha- what did you do?” she demanded from her. “I’m just preventing you from teleporting away,” she replied, taking a sip of wine from the goblet she just conjured in her talons. With a flick of her other paw, another one and a bottle of wine appeared beside the pony. “Wine?” But the unicorn was completely disinterested in drinks. “You- you just used magic!” “Indeed, and I intend to teach other griffons how to use magic, too. However, once they learn, I would like somebody else to continue teaching them spells and more, as I’m afraid I would be far too busy with other endeavours to devote myself to this task,” she said, taking another sip of the wine. “And… you want that to be me?” the unicorn had realized. “Why me? I only know how unicorns use magic. Wouldn’t some hippogryph be a better choice?” “Magic is magic, no matter who uses it,” she told her. “Once the other griffons learn how to focus their minds and channel the arcane energies, they will be able to learn from you. And I believe you would have a lot to teach them; surely, figuring out the right spell to bypass all the wards the nobles put around their castles couldn't have been easy, let alone casting it so skillfully that your presence would be untraceable. Well, almost,” she amended with a smirk. “As for why I won’t look for some hippogryph to help us, well, aside from the few who have come to the service of the crown or some lord, none possess the skill and power I’d require. That, and I prefer if this little project would remain secret for some time.” “Why’s that?” the pony asked, frowning. With unexpected interest, she added, “Wouldn’t it make sense for all the griffons to know that they can learn magic? How can you hide something like this from them?” Though on the outside she remained as calm as it befitted an experienced politician as her, on the inside she thought over the unicorn’s words. She hadn’t expected her to be so invested into this matter. She even sounded angry. “It must be easy for you,” she told her, placing the goblet on the table and sighing. Her reply confused the pony, causing her growing anger to disperse. “To be a pony, where everyone can use magic. Even non-unicorns have magic, even if they cannot cast spells. And now there are rumors of some ‘holy magic’ being taught somewhere near Canterlot. But griffons? We never knew magic. Aside from maybe an artifact or two, our only experiences with magic come from dealing with ponies. Even hippogryphs, as rare as they are, come from… well, different kind of dealings, I suppose,” she allowed herself a joke. The unicorn briefly snorted in amusement while blushing. “Services of wizards are sought by the king and nobles because of its usefulness, but a lot of griffons distrust magic, some even fear it. Can you even begin to imagine how the discovery that we can actually learn magic would affect our society? How many would want to use this for their own ends, and how many would wish to stop us from spreading magic through the kingdom? Some among my friends even fear that the king himself would want to take drastic actions if he would find out about my ability to use magic.” “Ugh, never liked politics,” the unicorn remarked, annoyance clear on her muzzle, though directed at the ‘plights’ she had told her. “You really think even the King of Griffonia would be against it? But… if that’s so, why would you want to teach griffons how to use magic? You’d be putting yourself in great danger.” She nodded, looking down in a fake display of worry. “Indeed, but it’s the price I’ll have to pay for bringing my people the gift of magic. For at last making us truly equal to our pony friends.” Looking up back at the pony, she was almost stunned at the dumbfounded expression on her face. Before she could ask what exactly caused her such surprise, the unicorn was already looking away, frowning and covering her muzzle while in deep thoughts. “I… never thought about it like this,” the unicorn finally said. “You’re right, ponies have magic, something no other race can do. And we all should be equal, right?” “My thoughts exactly,” she replied, smiling graciously, though inwardly surprised how eager she sounded. “Well then, I- no wait, hang on,” the unicorn stopped, just when, as it looked about, she had accepted her offer. But she continued to be in the same eager mood as before. “Earlier you said that you know ancient spells that I might be looking for. Assuming that I was really looking for one of those, was this what you were offering in return for my help?” “But of course,” she told her. “You would be compensated for your time as you help with our efforts, too, but primarily I intend to repay you by teaching you what I know about ancient and powerful spells and rituals.” Her eyes were all but glowing. “You know a lot of those, I take?” She chuckled. “Oh, you have no idea. Does this mean we have a deal?” The unicorn laughed as well. “Well, it certainly beats breaking into libraries of some nobles. Yes, we have a deal, miss, um…” she trailed off awkwardly, only now realizing that they never introduced themselves to each other. “Lady Katrana Stormcloud,” she told her in reply, extending her forepaw. The unicorn grabbed it with her hoof. “Starlight Glimmer.” Sindragosa had to give him credit, he actually told them the entire truth. And them, too; they actually stayed and listened. After what felt like hours, the former-human’s tale came to an end. He told them the story that was pretty much known to everybody on Azeroth, of how he had encountered the Scourge and what measures he took to stop it, slowly losing his humanity, only to pick up the Frostmourne and lose it completely. Sindragosa had known all of this; even if she had been enslaved to the Lich King’s will, she had retained enough of herself to learn about what happened on Azeroth before she was raised into undeath. As such, she paid little attention to Arthas, focusing instead on everybody else, curious how they were going to react. As it was predictable, given how peaceful the world they lived in was, the description of the undead alone had scared them (especially the young ones, as much as they protested that they weren’t afraid). The concept of people rising from the ground, of loved ones coming back to attack their families, was admittedly unpleasant. Stratholme was when they had all begun to really realize just what kind of tale this was going to be. Only after hearing what he had done there did they stop trying to interrupt him and listened in silence. Although, it had looked as though Applejack and Rainbow Dash were about to speak up when he got to the part where he lied to his soldiers and betrayed the mercenaries who fought for him, but in the end they let him explain his thought process and continue on. When he had gotten to Frostmourne, Sindragosa actually paid attention. Though she felt an unpleasant shiver go down her spine at the name of the blade, she was intrigued at the concept of a living being having his soul removed. After all, blue dragons were curious about all forms of magic, even about schools of magic that they would never experiment with, such as necromancy. And so she turned her head towards him, to better hear him describe what he became after Frostmourne stole his soul, being unable to feel anything aside from the briefest of emotions. “I wonder how exactly the blade's magic worked,” Sindragosa had mused. “It couldn’t have been just a simple matter of it ‘sucking out his soul’; it wouldn’t leave such marks… unless that was done to him in the Shadowlands?” In the week before this meeting, she had overheard Twilight mentioning that Celestia and Luna planned to use some spell to “mend his soul”. She wondered if they actually realized just how much it needed it. One of the few benefits of being a part of undead army for a while, an army that consisted of a large number of people who lost their eyes due to rot and decay was that, even after being brought back in this ridiculous body, she retained the ability to see the world around her through “the eyes of her soul”, or simply put, through the Shadowlands. It was a very useful ability to have if somebody was blind, but it also caused her to see everybody not as they appeared in the living world, but as their souls. Which, admittedly, in most cases didn’t make much difference. The two alicorns were the only ones really that differed, both appearing larger and glowing with light, the younger one mixed with a bit of shadow. But of course, there was also Arthas. The best description that came to Sindragosa was that his soul looked like that of a young colt who had only recently regrew his skin after it had been removed. Suffice to say that, if it hadn’t been for all the horrors she had seen, she probably couldn’t look at him for too long. Such were the matters she mused over as he continued his tale. Once he explained how he couldn’t feel any remorse or pity, his friends had an easier time to accept all the deeds he had done later, even though each was more horrible than the other, until finally they came to an end, thanks to Fordring and the Ashbringer. Silence fell after his tale ended. Sindragosa found herself hoping he would have continued, explaining a bit what exactly happened to him after he died, so it could shed some light on how they were both brought back to life. However, it didn’t look like it would happen, and considering what everybody was trying to process now Sindragosa couldn’t blame them for not thinking about such matters. “Wow,” the changeling, Wind Reaver, finally broke the silence. “You were not kidding about this being a lot to take in.” “Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “I mean… if this was a book or a game this would all sound cool and exciting, but since it really happened and to somepony we know… just, wow,” she ended awkwardly, smiling sheepishly. “I can understand that this isn’t easy to wrap your head around,” Arthas said. “If you have any questions, I will answer them.” It didn’t appear at first as if anybody was about to ask, until finally Scootaloo raised her voice: “Soo… that’s the whole truth about your past, right? You told us everything now?” Arthas nodded. “Yes. Um, well,” he added suddenly, hesitating for a bit and looking to the side. “I mean, I suppose…” “What is-” Sindragosa wondered, but then she recalled herself. “Oh, that.” “You forgot to tell them that you are the rightful King of Lordaeron,” she answered the question for him nonchalantly.