Arthas wasn’t surprised to see that Celestia had already returned from the Crystal Empire; he had sensed her on his way back to the ballroom they had previously occupied. The power she radiated, even though not nearly as strong and intense as when she had threatened him, was easy to pick up even without extending his senses.
Neither was he surprised to see that the group waiting at the chamber was missing one pony.
He tried to imagine how he would have reacted, back in his old life, if any of his close friends - Jaina, Muradin, Varian, Falric, Marwin, Balnir, or even his sister - had revealed to him some unthinkable secret. Arthas knew he would struggle with coming to terms with it, and he came from a much more violent world. How could he be surprised that in a world of peace loving ponies, his most gentle friend needed more than an hour to contemplate what she had heard?
Honestly, the only thing that mildly surprised him upon his return was seeing that Sindragosa had dozed off on a pillow, though she stirred awake as he entered.
As if sensing his amusement at the sight, the blue dragon snorted, “When you get brought back to life in the body of an infant, we’ll see how often you would need to take a nap.”
“I’m pretty sure you falling asleep has less to do with your body’s age and more with the fact that you spent all night up reading my astronomy books instead of going to sleep like I kept telling you,” Twilight remarked, with a slight frown.
Sindragosa narrowed her blind eyes at her and stared in quiet indignation for a few seconds, during which Apple Bloom asked in a hushed voice “How the hay can she read, anyhow?”
“I am hundreds of times older than your entire civilization, young lady,” the blue dragon finally replied. “I do not require bedtime.”
Arthas hid his amusement as Twilight didn’t back down, “That may be so, but your body clearly does.”
“Word of advice,” he chimed in before Sindragosa could reply, “don’t get into arguments with that mare, I hardly ever won any in the past six months.”
As Twilight smirked in amusement, Arthas heard Sindragosa whisper to herself, “The Lich King, everybody.”
“Well,” Twilight said at the same time, “being on the wrong side of an argument doesn’t usually do any favors.”
“Hey Arthas!” Rainbow Dash greeted him as he sat beside his friends. The pegasus mare looked at him sheepishly. “Um, Fluttershy had a- a thing, one of her animals- ugh!” she grunted as Applejack nudged her roughly, disapproval clear on her face.
Arthas chuckled warmly. “I am heartened by your attempt to spare my feelings, Rainbow, but I am not hurt by Fluttershy's decision to leave. I understand that what I revealed to you can require time for some of you to think over what I said. I wouldn’t blame anypony if they’d decide right now to follow Fluttershy’s example and contemplate about it. And speaking of,” he added immediately - forestalling any assurances from his friends that they didn’t need to - as he looked at Celestia, “how did Cadance and Shining Armor react to the news?”
In the corner of his eye he noticed Serenity straightening slightly. Other than him, though, only the Princesses and Nymph had paid that any attention.
“So, she told Nymph?” Arthas wondered, somewhat surprised. “I would have thought she would prefer to keep it to herself for now… then again, I suppose she’d need to confide in somepony, for if left alone it would overwhelm her.” His paladin indeed seemed much calmer than when she had left him; clearly, talking about those bizarre circumstances had helped her get a better grasp on the situation. “But how did she manage to talk with Nymph in private?”
Celestia’s voice pulled him out of his musings. “They were surprised and shocked, so about as well as one could expect. Of course, they both agree that your past life doesn’t diminish all the good you’ve done for the Crystal Empire and Equestria. Oh, and Shining Armor wanted me to pass along that now he is VERY happy you’re not living with his sister anymore,” Celestia added with a smirk.
As a few of their friends snickered, Twilight let out a groan. “Spike, remind me to have a talk with my brother next time I see him,” she said to her assistant, her brow furrowed.
Arthas, who was also amused, couldn’t help but speak up, “Honestly, I don’t blame Shining Armor. After all I was sort of almost in the same position as he,” he added as the thought occurred to him while Twilight glared at him sharply.
“Wait,” Rainbow Dash chimed in, “how exactly were you almost in the same position as ‘sister living with a former corrupted by evil super villain’?”
“Well-”
“‘While also having a crush on him?” Rainbow Dash added with a smirk, then stuck her tongue out when both Arthas and Twilight deadpanned at her.
“So glad I added ‘almost’,” Arthas sighed, then continued, “I mentioned that my sister had been almost betrothed, right?”
“Actually, it was Brann who brought it up,” Twilight pointed out, then added “You know, now that whole part about her being forced to marry makes way more sense, now that we know you were a prince.”
“My father wouldn’t have normally arranged Calia’s betrothal,” Arthas immediately explained, feeling slightly defensive. “Actually, that whole thing seemed weird and out of character for him, but it wasn’t until I became the Lich King that I figured out what exactly had happened; and, of course, by then I didn’t care. I suspect that my father - and, in fact, probably every leader of the Alliance - was under the spell of Lord Prestor.”
“Under his spell?” Twilight asked, surprised. “Who was that guy?”
“Deathwing.”
CRACK!!!
Startled, Arthas turned his head towards the source of the noise. Remains of a shattered glass laid on the floor around Sindragosa, but for a moment it didn’t look like the blue dragon cared.
“Held the glass too tight,” she finally said, releasing her clenched claws and waving them, an arcane glow surrounding them.
As the pieces of shattered glass floated up and reassembled themselves on the table, Arthas cleared his throat and turned back to the conversation. “So yes, even though that betrothal never became official, I would say that I can understand Shining Armor’s concerns.”
“Wait, hold on a second!” Applejack exclaimed, bewildered. Glancing around, Arthas noted that she wasn't the only one. “The giant, world-destroyin’ death dragon was almost yar brother-in-law?”
Arthas opened his mouth to reply but Sindragosa cut him off. “Azerothian dragons can change their shape - much like your changelings - and pose as mortals. A pity the dragons of this world don’t possess that ability.”
“How do you know we can’t do that?” Spike asked, frowning.
“Because even though I retained my frost breath somehow, I cannot change my shape,” Sindragosa retorted. “I assumed I would draw less attention to myself if I was walking around Ponyville as a filly instead of a dragon so I tried to change but nothing happened. Returning to the subject,” she continued, turning her blind gaze away from Spike, “on Azeroth dragons would use this ability to better observe mortal races in case any of them would pose a threat to our world. However, we’d never influence mortals with our powers or attempt to force them to become our mates… but of course, if it's him we’re talking about…” she trailed off, snarling.
“I assume he was attempting to destroy the Alliance from within,” Arthas spoke up, careful to not call Deathwing by name and upset her further. “Probably at the order of his Old God masters. I recall hearing rumors around the court that ‘Lord Daval Prestor’, as he called himself, was to be named the King of Alterac - the previous king, Aiden Perenolde, had betrayed the Alliance in the Second War, and my father and the other leaders were attempting to depose him, long story - which would give him tremendous power in the Alliance, and by marrying a princess from the House of Menethil he would solidify his position. That’s the best idea I can come up with regarding his actions, which are subtler than what he’s up to right now,” he couldn’t help but remark. “I only know about this because I know from Ner’zhul’s memories that he had approached him in the form of Daval Prestor while forming an alliance between the orcs and his Black Dragonflight.”
An angry snarl came from Sindragosa’s direction, though at least this time she hadn’t broken anything. Arthas made a mental note to avoid mentioning Deathwing and his flight in the future around her.
“Geez,” Wind Reaver exclaimed, shaking his head, then turned to Twilight, “if you two would have gotten together, you’d have the weirdest combined family ever.”
Both Arthas and Twilight glared at the changeling, but then quickly turned their gazes at Rainbow as she snorted and covered her mouth. Rarity, on the other hoof, chastened him, “Really, that’s your take away from that?”
“Hey, I’m just stating the obvious. Admittedly, in a very humorous way, but I thought all of us could use some humor after those dark revelations.”
“Perhaps we’d best move the conversation along now,” Luna spoke up before an argument could break out. As everypony turned their eyes towards the royal sisters, the alicorn continued, “There was another important matter we wanted to discuss with all of you after you’d heard Arthas’ story.”
“When Arthas came back to life on Equestria,” Celestia began, “we had assumed that it was a singular, one of a kind occurrence. Admittedly we should have given such an unheard of event more thought, but we can’t do anything about that. Now,” she said, nodding at Sindragosa, “we know of another such ‘occurrence’.”
“You’re worried that there could be more like us coming,” Arthas easily figured out. After all, that had been on his mind as well after meeting Sindragosa.
“Or if they had already come,” Celestia replied with a serious expression.
“Oh, come on,” Rainbow exclaimed, rolling her eyes. “I think we would have noticed some clueless, cutie mark-less adult ponies walking around Ponyville, not to mention different creatures. I mean, sure, Gilda was awful enough to be from Azeroth, but I knew her since she was a kitten…”
“I have no doubt that you would, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia retorted with a smile, “but that would only happen in case other Azerothians would be returned to life somewhere around Ponyville, too. For now, we don’t know enough to make an assumption that this is indeed the case.”
An unpleasant shiver went through Arthas’ spine. He hadn’t thought about the possibility of other people being brought back somewhere else on this world than near Ponyville, like he and Sindragosa; even if in his case it was near the Everfree Forest’s border with Ponyville, to be precise.
“Fortunately,” Princess Luna spoke up, “the Night Guard had confirmed that there hadn’t been any cases of adult ponies without cutie marks or unusual creatures appearing out of nowhere aside from Arthas and Sindragosa. But even though those fears were put to rest, we cannot exclude this happening in the future going by just what we know now.”
“The Gate of Tartarus will now be under constant observation until Brann Bronzebeard will join us to examine it,” Celestia declared, then her eyes scanned over everypony in the room. “In the meantime, I would ask all of you to be on a lookout for ponies acting oddly and seemingly not knowing anything about our world.”
“But what’s the big worry about?” Pinkie Pie questioned, puzzled. “If more people like Mattie or Sindy show up, wouldn’t that mean we would have more unfortunate people who died tragically redeem themselves?”
Ignoring the annoyed growl from Sindragosa, Arthas spoke up, “It’s not that easy, Pinkie. We not only don’t know how or why the dead of Azeroth are being reborn on Equestria, we also don’t know how the forces behind this choose who gets to be reborn again. Which means we wouldn’t know who else could be brought back. I know it might seem harsh considering what I had done, but there were people on Azeroth that entire worlds are better off with them staying dead.”
“You were extraordinarily fortunate that the two beings brought back to life from Azeroth are us,” Sindragosa added, pointing at herself and Arthas. “He had quite possibly committed more evil than any mortal had ever had, but all of that he had done under the influence of powerful, dark forces. And myself, well…” she hesitated for a second before continuing, “I have some issues, issues exploited by Arthas to bind me to his will when he was the Lich King, but I am wise enough to not act on them.”
Arthas frowned slightly; what she had said wasn't entirely true. As wise and logical as blue dragons were, knowing what he knew about those ‘issues’ of hers, Arthas knew that there was one specific issue she would most definitely act on, and considering that they were talking about the dead being returned to life…
“That brings us to our next point,” he heard Celestia say. Turning his attention back to her, he realized that the Princess was addressing him. “Do you think you would be able to predict who we could expect to appear on Equestria next, and who among them we should be concerned with?”
“I might have some ideas,” Arthas admitted thoughtfully. Glancing back at Sindragosa, he continued, “What Sindragosa and I have in common, aside from having died obviously, was that we were both members of the Scourge. Based on what we know so far, it would be reasonable to assume that the next person who would be brought back would also have been a part of the Scourge. On one hoof, it would be fortunate for us, as I not only know every being who had served the Scourge - willingly or not - but also I’d know pretty much everything about whoever would be brought back to live.”
“And on the other hoof?” Luna questioned, even though she most likely had figured it out.
Before he could open his mouth, Sindragosa replied for him, “If the person brought back to life had been forced to serve the Scourge, they would very likely want to kill him. I assume that would inconvenience you?” she added quizzically, though without much interest.
“Heck yeah that would inconvenience us!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, narrowing her eyes at the blue dragon in clear annoyance.
Arthas smiled briefly at her before continuing, “Regardless, the fact that both myself and Sindragosa were also not willing members of the Scourge - or entirely willing in my case, I suppose - could have been another reason why the two of us had been brought back to life first. However, there is one more thing we have in common, that could have also been a deciding factor: we were the two most powerful members of the Scourge. And if that had indeed been the case, then that would mean that the next person who would be brought back would be Kel’Thuzad.” Scowling at the thought, he crossed his forelegs on his chest. “And that would be a whole world of problems.”
“Wait, Kel’Thuzad?” Twilight asked, frowning in confusion. “I thought you said liches like him can’t die, that they regenerate themselves after a while.”
“Yes, a lich can regenerate their corporeal body as long as their phylactery is intact,” Arthas confirmed, nodding. “That’s how Kel’Thuzad was able to return after his first defeat in the Plaguelands two years ago. However, something happened when adventurers of the Alliance and Horde stormed Naxxramas in Dragonblight. Kel’Thuzad had hid his phylactery somewhere in his chamber in the necropolis, but it must have been damaged during the fight somehow, as he wasn’t able to regenerate again.”
An unpleasant pang coursed through him. Arthas ignored it. He didn’t want to think about what Kel'Thuzad's phylactery used to be.
“And now that Naxxramas was shot down by the Alliance after the war, it must have been destroyed,” he resumed, his voice surprisingly calm. “In any case, it would be better to assume that he could be reborn on Equestria due to just how dangerous he would be.”
“How so?” Rainbow Dash questioned. “I get that he’s powerful and what-not, but if he would appear we could just grab the Elements and blast him back into a pile of bones.”
“Ah have’ta agree with Rainbow,” Applejack added. “Surely he wouldn’t be so powerful the Elements of Harmony couldn’t defeat him, right?”
“I realize this might come as a surprise to you, considering your past experiences, but not every evil can be defeated by a magical beam,” Arthas retorted seriously. “In terms of raw magical power, yes, from what I heard about the Elements of Harmony’s power you would be able to defeat Kel’Thuzad with ease; you would have been able to defeat my old self, even. However, there are many ways one could neutralize you. From what I’ve heard, Discord did just that,” he added, looking from each of his friends that was a Bearer of Elements of Harmony, all five of them that were present here looking a bit sheepish after his remark. “Thank the Light he turned out to be even more arrogant than I had been.”
He ignored that Rainbow rolled her eyes and muttered “Had been?” under his breath.
“I can assure you, Kel’Thuzad would be cunning enough to find a way to neutralize you, too, and unlike Discord he would attempt to make it permanent,” he said, knowing it wasn’t ambiguous enough that anypony in the room - aside from maybe the fillies and Spike - wouldn’t realize what he was suggesting. “Not only that, he was very powerful, even before he had heard the call of the Lich King and learned the dark art of necromancy from him, not to mention before his transformation into a lich. In life he had been a member of the ruling body of Dalaran, the city that served as a focal point of study of magic on Azeroth for thousands of years. In death, he…” he hesitated briefly, finding the words he was about to utter surprisingly unpleasant. “He was my most trusted advisor, basically my right hand- hoof, whatever. And considering what you now know about my past you can guess that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of his character. Kel’Thuzad engineered the Plague of Undeath that swept through Lordaeron by finding a way to infect the grain with it, he created the abominations, monstrosities made from multiple corpses, studied the very Book of Medivh that I am keeping for Dalaran in the most secure vault of my Abbey as per Brann’s request, and summoned probably the most powerful demon ever to Azeroth using practically nothing but incantations from that book. But the worst thing is,” he paused, just so they realized how worse it was, “he’s very charismatic.”
Wind Reaver scoffed, interrupting him. “How is that ‘the worst’? And how can a floating sack of bones be ‘charismatic’, exactly?”
“I was referring to the time before I had killed him, obviously, when he was still a mortal man,” Arthas retorted with a roll of his eyes. Pointing at himself and Sindragosa, he continued, “Seeing how the two of us had been returned to life in actual living bodies, I’d assume that Kel’Thuzad would be as well. And as for ‘how is that the worst’: it’s because of that quality and his cunning that he was able to start the Cult of the Damned, by playing into people’s fears and hardships, promising them equality, power and eternal life. Both the overworked laborers, burdened by the taxes necessary for the upkeep of the internment camps, and the rich nobles that were always hungry for more power, were either fooled to join his cause or joined it willingly. Within just three years, many of Lordaeron’s northern towns were under the complete control of the Cult of the Damned.”
“So he started his own religion?” Wind Reaver interjected again, his eyebrow - whatever changeling’s equivalent of an eyebrow was - raised. “Damn, no wonder you two were friends.”
As Arthas glared at him, finding the remark utterly unamusing, Celestia spoke up, “I agree with your assessment, Arthas, that this is the most dangerous quality of an already dangerous individual.”
“I will instruct the Night Guard to investigate any individual that would start any new movements in Equestria,” Luna said. “Of course, it would have to be done carefully, as ponies have the right to create various forms of organizations, clubs, even religions if they’d want to,” she added, with a nod at Arthas.
Arthas nodded, deciding not to point out the fact that it was the Princesses who had asked him to teach ponies about the Light. “Other than Kel’Thuzad, the majority of the most powerful members of the Scourge - at least, those who had died their final death - were the ones who had been forced into serving it. Many of them had been noble people in life, but even if we’d overlook how they would react to meeting me, there’s the problem of how much their death and enslavement had affected them.”
“If they were of noble heart, I’m sure they could overcome the shadow that death had cast on them,” Luna replied. “After all, you had.”
“Yes, well, my case was a bit different than theirs had been,” Arthas retorted politely, not wanting to start an argument. He had been corrupted by the Lich King, yes, but he was never controlled. He was never made to do all those atrocities… He rubbed his temple and focused on the task at hoof. “Anub’arak, the King of Azjol-Nerub. If Kel’Thuzad had been my right hoof, he would have been the left one. Like many nerubians, he was killed in the War of the Spider, and was later raised by Ner’zhul. He was chained to the Lich King’s will, but he was never completely broken. Even when I first met him I had my doubts if he wouldn’t turn on me.”
Sindragosa snorted with amusement. “It would be ironic if he would be brought back to life on Equestria and turn on you here, wouldn’t it?” she asked with a smirk.
“Wait,” Twilight interjected. “If Ner’zhul was the one who killed and raised him…”
Arthas interrupted her, already seeing where she was going with this train of thoughts. “Ner’zhul wasn’t really Ner’zhul at this point, he was the Lich King. And then I became the Lich King, so I’m positive that for most people there wouldn’t be much difference. Also…” he hesitated. “Anub'arak had been defeated by the Horde’s adventurers soon after the start of the War for the Northrend. He was too valuable to leave dead, however, so I had crypt fiends collect his remains and I raised him again, and when doing so I broke his mind further. I even forced him to be happy about his renewed servitude,” he added, grimacing in dismay at the memory.
“What?!” Pinkie exclaimed, looking at him in shock. “You FORCED him to be HAPPY?!”
“I believe I had said that after losing my soul every aspect of my personality had been twisted,” Arthas replied calmly, though not without regret and shame. “In life, I wanted my subjects to be happy, so in death I had made them happy. Really fleshes out how much of an arrogant and petty bastard I used to be, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, Ah would say so without usin’ crude language in front of youngin’s,” Applejack said, with a nod at the fillies, who all - except for Liturgy - groaned.
“Sorry,” Arthas replied, raising a hoof in an apologetic gesture. “In any case, Anub’arak has more than enough reason to despise me. More importantly, though,” he added, turning to the Princesses, “nerubians aren’t exactly the most pleasant of people, even if they are by far the most reasonable of aqir offshoots. It’s hard to predict how Anub’arak would react to finding himself in the world of Equestria but I can’t help but think it wouldn’t turn out good.”
“If I may interject…” Nymph spoke up unexpectedly. When Princess Celestia nodded that she can continue, she began, “I think there could be an additional problem to consider when talking about this Anub’arak. Hivespeaker, you were a human and were brought back as a pony; Sindragosa, on the other hoof, who was an Azerothian dragon, was brought back as an Equestrian dragon. Clearly, whatever brought you both back to life had given you bodies that bore some similarities to the ones you had in previous life.”
“Some more than others,” Arthas remarked privately, glancing at Sindragosa. Physically, there were very few similarities between ponies and humans; one could argue that earth ponies were more alike to dwarves. “I miss having fingers.”
“It would only make sense that whoever would be brought back to life next would follow suit. Even disregarding the Hivespeaker’s belief that there is a connection between the changelings and Azerothian’s aqir, it’s clear that out of all Equestrian races, we bear the greatest resemblance to nerubians. Which means, if Anub’arak would be returned to life with the ability to change his shape. Finding him would be much more difficult,” Nymph said, turning to the Princesses.
Luna’s brow furrowed. “Don’t all changelings have a telepathic connection with Queen Chrysalis, though? Surely-”
A cough interrupted her. Everypony turned their eyes to Wind Reaver as he cleared his throat, glaring at Luna in annoyance.
“As we've learned, there are ways to disrupt this connection,” Nymph spoke uncomfortably after a brief silence. “But more importantly, the bond all changelings share with our Queen develops over time, from the day we hatch from our eggs as larvaes. It would be unlikely that a person brought back to life in the body of a changeling would be in any way be connected to my Mother.”
“Since we are on the subject,” Wind Reaver spoke up, his eyes still on Luna, “have there been any news regarding my mate?”
“If there had been any news, you would be the first to know,” Princess Luna replied, not unkindly. Ignoring his dismissive snort, she continued, “The Night Guard has been continuing their search for your missing mate throughout Equestria, cooperating with the changelings your Queen delegated this task to. They’ve been methodically investigating any area that could be used to hold somepony in secret, searching for any signs of magical wardings, any rumor, going through various accounts and asking any informant they have to find anything suspicious that could point to a changeling being imprisoned. They are doing everything in their power to find her. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for you, but please be patient.”
The changeling snorted again but nodded in agreement. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t already know that this is the best way to find her.”
“Um, Sister?” Princess Celestia spoke up, troubled. “Some of what you just said doesn’t sound legal.”
“Oh, doesn't it?” Luna retorted, surprised. When her sister opened her mouth to reply, she cut her off by adding “Well, Sister, rest assured that it is. But we have gotten off topic,” she said, turning pointedly to Arthas.
The paladin’s eyes shifted between the two alicorns, with the older sister frowning in annoyance at the dismissal and the younger acting as if there wasn’t any problem. Quickly deciding to not dwell on it - and understanding that intelligence agencies could sometimes cross the border of their country’s law - he resumed, “After those two the most powerful members of the Scourge would probably be other frost wyrms - that is, blue dragons - like Sindragosa. Out of them the most notable would be Sapphiron… like Sindragosa, the blue dragons are creatures of logic, so he could follow the same trail of reasoning as her and not cause any problems. That being said, I had actually personally killed Sapphiron, raised him as a frost wyrm, and then gave him to Kel’Thuzad to serve as his personal guard dog, so I can’t imagine him not holding a grudge,” Arthas said, frowning in self-disgust.
“Weeell…” Tucker said after a brief silence, “you’ve also killed that Kel’Thuzad, sir, so it evens out, right?”
Arthas glared at him. “How would that…” he began, trailing off as he realized that his paladin attempted to disperse the mood with humor. He shook his head and sighed.
“It would be great if the next people from Azeroth to come back were dragons, too,” Spike spoke up. As Arthas looked at him, he saw the purple dragon looking at Sindragosa. “Maybe it would be some of your kin, even?”
“Oh, damn it,” Arthas thought in alarm, noticing a slight furrow of the blue dragon’s brow and nostrils flaring.
“Death knights,” he quickly said, redirecting everypony’s attention back to him, before Sindragosa could lash out in anger. Noticing in the corner of his eye that she calmed down, he continued, “It would be very likely that some of them would be brought back, considering how powerful they were. I myself was one, after all… Fortunately, their power stemmed from the necromantic magic they could wield while undead, so they would pose less of a threat than others. Most of them had been paladins or simple warriors.”
“It is fortunate to hear,” Celestia said. “Can you think of any particular former death knights that could appear on Equestria?”
Arthas frowned thoughtfully. “The most powerful death knight, after myself, had been an orc named Dranosh Saurfang. Commander of the Horde’s vanguard during the War for the Northrend, son of famed orc veteran Varok Saurfang, a strong, honorable warrior and charismatic leader. Killed by yours truly,” he added, trying - and failing - not to grimace; if he was going to take a pause every time they were to talk about somebody he killed… “Dranosh Saurfang is the first person I had named so far that Equestria would actually benefit from if he would be brought back to life.”
“What do you mean, exactly?” Luna asked.
“Well, in case we have more interactions with Azeroth, as we seem doomed to have, I had stated before it would be beneficial if we could form amiable relationships with the two greatest powers in that world, the Alliance and the Horde. Now, the Alliance would be easy to befriend, as your culture, customs and laws bears strong resemblance to most of its nations. Plus, you’d have Brann to speak on your behalf, so even if you refuse my suggestion to offer them my head on a platter- augh!” he yelped as Twilight pulled his ear.
“I think we have established that we don’t find that amusing,” she said, ignoring a few snorts - ironically - of laughter. Releasing him, she sighed and continued before he could speak, “Yes, we do understand that your entire world had been hurt by you. But doing something like that would be against everything Equestria stands for, and it would not mend the wounds you caused. So please stop making such suggestions, even jokingly.”
Arthas, massaging his ear, sighed. “You are right, I’m sorry. To all of you,” he added, glancing at everypony else. “This is no joking matter and I know fully well that you wouldn’t accept such a suggestion. The point I was going to make, though, is that I believe even with the Alliance knowing you’re harboring me you could still form friendly relations with them. The Horde, though… the cultures of most of the nations that comprise the Horde are vastly different from Equestria.
“The only one who resembles your country is Quel’Thalas, and I had caused too much damage to this kingdom for the elves to befriend you easily while I draw breath. Lordaeron suffered even worse because of me, obviously, and the Forsaken are ruled by somepony who hates me with every fiber of her being, so there goes the entire eastern half of the Horde. As for the western half, they hate me for the indignities many of their dead had suffered, for denying them the peace of death and enslaving them, with Dranosh Saurfang being the most notable one. But, if he would come back to life, they would get one of their heroes back and he could speak on behalf of Equestria. Although, for the life of me, I can’t imagine an orc being reborn as a pony,” Arthas added, scratching the side of his head. “The Saurfang family comes from the Blackrock Clan, who used to live in caverns… diamond dog, maybe? The orcs do use wolves as mounts, so considering a human was reborn as a pony it would make sense…”
“Interesting thought,” Princess Luna said. “I’ll instruct the Night Guard to check with the few diamond dog packs that occasionally trade with pony merchants if they had been recently joined by a confused new member. We’ve been so worried about cutie mark-less ponies appearing out of nowhere that we hadn’t even considered searching for other races that live in our kingdom.”
“An unfortunate omission,” Celestia agreed, nodding. Turning to Arthas, she asked, “What of Saurfang’s reaction to you, though?”
“Obviously, he wouldn’t be happy,” he began. “I killed him, tortured his spirit, and bound him to my will. Fortunately, if that word can be used here, the orcs consider death in battle to be very honorable, glorious even, and he hadn’t been a death knight for long. I finished breaking him only shortly before the Ashen Verdict’s assault on Icecrown Citadel, the only people he fought were the adventurers who had helped Tirion Fordring defeat me. I don’t think he even killed anypony. So, yes, even considering his reaction to me, he might be literally the best person for Equestria to be brought back to life.”
He ignored the annoying, pessimistic voice at the back of his head that said that, given their track record, it is very unlikely for something that fruitful to happen.
Princess Celestia nodded thoughtfully. “That’s good to know. Who next comes to your mind?”
“There were many powerful death knights among the Scourge ranks. But the most powerful after Saurfang would have been… the Ashbringer,” he said, smirking at the name. “The first wielder of the blade that freed me from Frostmourne. Highlord Alexandros Morgraine, former paladin of the Silver Hand and its leader after the death of Uther, death knight and leader of the Four Horsemen in undeath.”
“The Four Horsemen?” Rainbow repeated the name, her eyebrow raised in amused surprise. “You do know how ridiculous that name sounds, right?”
Rolling his eyes in response, he began to explain, “They were a group of the most elite death knights. Each of them was powerful, but together? As I am now I would have lost to them, maybe even with the help of all four of my paladins,” he added truthfully, glancing at them. Storm frowned in concern, Guard was looking at him thoughtfully, Serenity bit her lip nervously, and Tucker rolled his eyes, as if thinking he was joking. Turning back to the Princesses, Arthas continued, “And Morgraine was the finest warrior of them all. When he was alive, with that blade in his hand, he turned entire legions of undead into ashes; when he fell, his death had corrupted the sword, turning into a weapon of darkness. For better or worse, though, after Kel’Thuzad had raised him and made him the leader of the Four Horsemen, he kept them in Naxxramas, as his royal guards, so he didn’t have much opportunity to cause harm to the living. Sometime later a small group of Argent Dawn members had infiltrated the necropolis and killed him.”
“Buuut let us guess,” Wind Reaver exclaimed, his head resting on his forehoof, “you were the one to kill him, right?”
“No, he was murdered by his son, actually.”
His reply caused Wind Reaver to lift his head up in surprise. Everypony else was equally shocked and stared at Arthas, some agape.
Scootaloo was first to break the silence. “Your world sucks.”
Arthas didn’t try to deny it. “Why do you think I keep trying to discourage everypony here from further interacting with it? But to be fair, the current state of affairs on Azeroth is largely my fault,” he admitted, sighing. “Even this can be easily traced back to me.”
“Why would his own son kill ‘im?” Applejack asked, bewildered.
“Like myself, he was corrupted,” Arthas replied, frowning at the thought. It hadn’t occurred to him how oddly similar his and Renault Morgraine’s life had been. “His life too had been steered by a dreadlord. Balnazzar, the last of the Lich King’s jailors left on Azeroth - or at least, so I had thought at the time - had infiltrated the Order of the Silver Hand by possessing the corpse of paladin Saidan Dathrohan.”
He paused at the mention of that name. Saidan Dathrohan. One of the five first paladins. One of the four that were present at his ceremony to become a paladin. A hero of the Second War, a paladin that had been challenged by Archbishop Faol to become the embodiment of Libram of Holiness.
Killed by a damned demon, his remains desecrated and used to split the Order he had served and turn half of it into a mockery of itself.
Rage like he hadn’t felt in a long time fired up in his heart. “I should have killed Balnazzar when I had the chance,” he thought, recalling how the dreadlord had fled from him along with his two brothers upon his return to Lordaeron. Almost immediately, though, he replied to himself, “Right, because that has worked so well with Mal’ganis, hasn't it? Killing him wouldn’t have changed a thing…”
“Arthas?”
The sound of his name broke him out of his musing. He shook his head and looked at his friends, who looked at him with concern. “Forgive me, Dathrohan… he was a good man. He didn’t deserve that. Balnazzar posed as him to corrupt what had been left of the Order of the Silver Hand, but he found Alexandros Morgraine to be impossible to twist to his service. So he conspired to have him killed, and manipulated Renault Morgraine, his son, to do it. After it was done, Balnazzar took control of the Order and remade it into the Scarlet Crusade, while those who noticed that they were straying from their noble purpose left and formed the Argent Dawn.”
“Now, wait a moment,” Twilight spoke up. “This Balnazzar is the same one you’ve mentioned who had taken control of part of the Scourge after the Lich King - Ner’zhul - had begun losing power, right? But you said he had been killed by Sylvanas,” she said, tilting his head in confusion.
Arthas nodded and opened his mouth to reply-
“That’s because demons can’t be killed.”
Blinking in surprise as he heard the disinterested voice, he turned his head to Sindragosa, who was still sitting beside the table. Her blind gaze was not even focused on them, despite speaking up, as if she found the conversation boring. Arthas stared at her in silent confusion… confusion that only grew deeper as the precise meaning of her words had registered with him.
He opened his mouth to question what exactly she meant, but a gentle cough from behind caught his attention. Arthas turned his gaze to Celestia, who had cleared her throat. “Perhaps this would be a good time to approach the second subject we were hoping to discuss today.
“Namely, the Burning Legion.”