//------------------------------//
// 56. ... comes suprises of Day 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

	Matthias thanked the guard for leading him towards the office of Royal Physician, and knocked on the door.
“Come in.” the voice of Princess Celestia replied.
 	Once he opened the door and entered, Matthias saw a room resembling the one he saw in Luna’s memories within the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, belonging to doctor Horn. It too had a lot of shelves containing books about medicine, as well as some weird plants and stuff. However, at the moment, what took his attention almost immediately, was neither of the Princesses, or the unicorn mare that he didn’t had yet the pleasure of meeting, but rather, what was in the center of the room between all of them.
“The guards you’ve send to that facility have reported back, I take?” Matthias asked, staring at the green crystal/amber-like block that scared the life out of Twilight...
… and the barely visible pony inside.
“Yes, they did.” Celestia answered his question. “Matthias, may I introduce to you doctor Angelic Touch, the Royal Physician, and one of most talented ones we ever had.”
Matthias looked to his right, averting his gaze from the block, and regarded the unicorn. She had a coat blue as the sky, and her mane and tail were white as clouds. Her hair covered one of her eyes, but the one he could see was violet. Her cutie mark was a symbol of a pole, which had wings near the top ended with a sphere, and had two snakes wrapped around it’s length.
“Pleasure meeting you, doctor.” he told her, bowing his head in respect.
“Likewise... despite slight concern you will bump me out of my job.” the mare replied jokingly.
Matthias smiled at the comment, but returned his attention to the matter at hoof.
“Pleasantries aside, might I ask, Princesses, what did your guards found?”
“Of course.” Luna told him, and levitated in from of her a small file, and, glancing at it, continued: “The facility is a deep underground complex, the precise amount of floors is unknown, due to many of them being caved in. One of the rooms, the one who had the second biggest residue of magical energy left, even had a huge hole in it, which opened to the side of the cliff. The guards suspect that the tunnels you and your friends have discovered also used to be part of the facility, as well as that cave in which Ursa Major now lives in. However, they were unable to find out much about it, other than it appears to be swept clean.”
“‘Swept clean’?” Matthias, shocked, asked. “Why do they think so?”
“Who could have done it?” he wondered. “Nopony should know about this place.”
“They couldn’t find anything that wasn’t destroyed. No notes, no books, no runes that weren’t broken, no sign of experiments other than broken pieces of vials... and, despite the lingering stench of decay, there were no corpses.”
“Did they found any leads as to who took all of this?” Matthias asked, wondering why did they left this trapped corpse behind.
“No.” Celestia said, shaking her head. “ Other than magical residue here and there, there are no signs of anypony alive being there within last thousand years. Whoever it was that took everything must have been skilled in magic, to be able to hide it from those guards. One of them specialises in using her magic to detect any form of disturbance, magical or otherwise, and yet she found close to nothing... other than in two rooms, the one with the hole in it, and another one on the same floor, some type of powerful spells were performed... and in the latter, recently.”
“How ‘recently’?”
“She couldn’t tell. There is too much magical residue, both in the facility and the forest itself, and it causes her spell to be less accurate. Also, there is a matter of how powerful spell it was, to leave such strong imprint.”
“Hmm...” Matthias bit his lip, wondering what could possibly tell them more. “How did that other room looked like?”
“It seemed to be a bedroom of some sort.” Luna replied. “There was a bed in it, and some other furnitures, but other than that, there was nothing. The guards did mention one more thing... they said that the feeling of uneasiness they could feel radiating from that place was different in that room... and, in a way, much more intense and worse.”
“This seems to lead to nowhere.” Matthias sighed, shaking head. “And what about this?”
“Well, for one thing,” Angelic Touch answered, “the pony within is still alive.”
Matthias eyes went wide as they darted towards her.
“But...” he stuttered in shock.”... that’s impossible!
        “We thoughts so to, but we’ve been proven otherwise.” Celestia said. “We’re lucky that Radar Sense - that royal guard - checked few times to be sure. This block...”
“We’re not sure until we’ll have test results of samples confirmed,” the Royal Physician cut in and continued, “but if they resemble the amber in which Changeling Queen captured you in more things than just the general look, then it is entirely possible.”
“How so?” the paladin asked.
“Well, we’ve picked up some leftovers of that amber before the real wedding took place, and ran some test on it.” now the mare had his full attention. “This substance had very peculiar magical properties. Once captured inside a block of it, the victim has his strength, be it physical or magical, or ‘holy’, suppressed, and slows down it’s metabolism, while sustaining it at the same time. It also is unable to sense magically, and shields it’s victim from being sensed as well. If you scan it with magic, it shows no sign of presence, no a single sign of life, no magical residue...”
“Then how did this Radar Sense...”
“Do you know how nervous system works?”
Now Matthias got it.
“Ah, so Radar Sense checked if there was any sign of electrons ‘movement’ inside? Impressive.”
“Not as much that you figured it out so quickly.” replied the slightly shocked unicorn.
“Let’s just say that due to some circumstances, I know next to everything about bodies.” the earth pony explained, with a hint of both discomfort and pride in his voice.
“Oh, really?” amused Celestia asked. “If that’s so, then how many ribs do ponies have?”
Matthias opened his mouth to give her an answer, when he realized that he had no idea.
“One would think that I would have checked after I had all of them shattered.” he thought 
annoyed as he cleared his throat and turned his attention back to Angelic Touch, ignoring the chuckle that both Princesses gave:
“But how could that pony be still alive after more than thousand years?” Matthias asked, at the same time hoping that this would give the Royal Physician the impression that this was just some form of jest.
The Royal Physician glanced at Celestia and Luna, not understanding the why they were chuckling, before she answered:
“As I said, the changelings’ amber slows down metabolism of ponies, as well as all of their life function, and can do so to the point of them being on level barely sustaining life. All life functions, including aging.”
“That... shouldn’t make sense.” Matthias thought, unsure.
“But if this is the case, then this pony would need something to keep himself alive.” he pointed out. “There should be a limit of how long the amber can sustain pony, even if his life functions would be halted so drastically.”
“That is correct.” Angelic Touch replied, biting her lower lip as she thought about this for few heartbeats. “I suppose... that this pony was supplied with some sort of... energy, before he was sealed off. However...”
“... you cannot prove if this is right or wrong, with this amber blocking your scanning.” the 
stallion finished. “You want to release this unfortunate pony.”
“Yes, Matthias, but this could prove... problematic.” Luna replied. “Since we don’t know how this amber exactly works, we don’t know how releasing the pony inside will affect him or her. It could even kill him. With both you and doctor Angelic Touch here, this should be much safer.”
“Hmm...” the paladins hummed, trying to foresee any possible problems. “This plan is based almost entirely on assumption of this amber being similar to the one changelings can create. How long until those test results will come?”
“At best, it will take two weeks.” Angelic touch replied, pouting. “It took us three to study that one from changelings, and this one is much more... condensed.”
“Condensed? Why do you think so?” 
“The amber in which you were trapped was made out of the same substance that Princess Celestia was imprisoned at the time, and that was much more condensed, probably because that bug didn’t know what to make out of your powers, so she made sure you would stay unconscious... which, for some reason, didn’t work, while it should.”
“That actually raises a good question: how did you woken up, Matthias?” Celestia asked him. “I had trouble staying concentrated, and, as the doctor said, I was in weaker form of prison.”
“I...” Matthias said as he frowned, trying to recall. “I was having another nightmare, and then I heard...”
“... I heard Twilight calling out for my help.” he realized. “But... how? Based on what Angelic Touch just said, it should be impossible. I might have some telepathic powers left in me, from my time as the Lich King, but I haven’t tried using them, and even overlooking that, I shouldn’t be able to use them during such circumstances.” his frown deepened as he recalled something else. “Now that I think about it, during few times this past month I had a feeling that I knew what Twilight thought at the moment, but I just assumed it was because I know her so well... Could there be some sort of... connection between the two of us?”
        
“We would have noticed that.” Ner’zhul reminded him within the Helm of Dominance on Azeroth .
“Then how would you explain that?” Arthas asked.
“... Who can explain love?” Bolvar joked in response.

Back on Equestria, Matthias shook his head to as the other piece of him continued to argue with human and orc.
“I cannot remember.” he said, hoping that they would believe him.
He did not want to bring Twilight into this. Unfortunately, Luna and Celestia must have somehow guessed, because they were smirking.
“Well, anyway...” Angelic Touch started, sparing a glance at Princesses. “... considering  that this block of amber contained this pony for at least a thousand years, it must be much more condensed than the one you were trapped in. We don’t know for sure if this amber is similar to the ones changeling use, but... even so, I believe that it would be best if this pony would be released as soon as possible. In case that supply I mentioned earlier... could run out.”
“I suppose you’re right, doctor.” Matthias sighed. “It would be very ironic if he died in there while we wait for test results.”
“It’s settled, then.” Celestia said, gaining attention from everypony. “Luna and I will cast a spell that will brake the pony inside free. Dr Angelic Touch, Matthias, be ready to heal him or her, if need arises.”
 	Matthias shifted his position to stand next to the unicorn as the two royal sisters stood on either side of the block, their horns shining. He run over prayers for healing, and at the same time, prayed that he would not need them:
“Light, make it so that the unfortunate soul inside is safe from harm once we free it. None of us here wishes to inflict pain or bring danger to it by our actions.”
As he prayed, the lights from Celestia’s and Luna’s horns now encircled the block of amber, causing it to shine bright as both sun and moon at the same time.
“Celestials’ Lights..”
With a loud crack, the amber prison was shattered to pieces.
Matthias stared at the pony which was inside of it, now being gently held by magical grip of both alicorns. It was an unicorn stallion, appearing to be slightly out of teen years of his life, but Matthias couldn’t be sure of that, since he, like everypony else, was momentarily blinded by the intensity of the Princesses magic. Before his eyes managed to adjust, the pony moaned and spoke:
“Where... where am I?”
“You’re in Canterlot.” Celestia replied gently, no less surprised by how quickly he regained senses that everypony else in the room. “Don’t worry, you are safe here.”
The unicorn glanced at her, and asked tiredly:
“And... who am I?”
“He has amnesia?” Matthias wondered, exchanging a glance with Angelic Touch, and both of them crept closer to take a better look at him.
Before either he or the doctor made a step, the unicorn colt’s eyes wided as he regarded Celestia.
“Wait, are you an alicorn?!"
The Princess smiled as she said:
“Yes, I...”
“‘Cause I always wanted to bone one!”