//------------------------------//
// 70. Rising Storm 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

	Matthias stood in the snow, pondering on what to do now.
It has been about few hours since he came back to the arctic to observe the fallen unicorn. Since that time, he used what tracking and hunting skills he possessed to remain hidden from him, while at the same time being close enough to discover as much as he could about Sombra.
Number one, he could turn invisible.
It was rather annoying to keep an eye on somepony, who not only was made out of smoke and shadows, but also couldn’t be seen to boot. Thankfully, Matthias could easily tell where Sombra was thanks to his new-found sense.
Number two, the unicorn was clearly insane.
Matthias could hear him muttering to himself, and what the blizzard didn’t hush out, sounded like: ‘Crystal... need crystals... my slaves, they will be again... all of them... my kingdom...everything will burn... I’ll break them... my crystals... need the crystal heart... be complete...’, which overall, didn’t make much sense, other than Sombra’s state of mind wasn’t great, and that he was clearly evil.
And most importantly: he was really powerful.
Matthias had other senses that the five normal and the sixth new at his disposal. His time as Lich King, while overall tragic to him now and to everyone back on Azeroth, helped him develop awareness of energies around him; to the point that even now, while being just a paladin, he could compete with mages in terms of sensing power. He had not resorted to it until now, not wanting to have anything in common with his previous self, but for the good of the Crystal Empire and safety of his friends, he concentrated, and found out that if they fought again, he could lose if he wasn’t careful; even if he was better prepared and had the advantage thanks to the Light.
He also discovered that Sombra was still alive.
Despite not possessing a body, and being quite clearly a ghost, Sombra wasn’t dead, nor undead. This further convinced Matthias that the unicorn was in some way connected to the Old Gods, who were outside the cycle of life and death. How is that possible, he absolutely had no idea.
Matthias, needing to sort this information out, moved away from the evil unicorn and thought about his next move. As he felt King Sombra distance himself from his location, he continued to contemplate within the blizzard. There was part of him that urged to attack now, taking advantage of the element of surprise, and make him pay for all the misery he caused thousand years ago. But, having made once the mistake of following path of revenge, he decided against it. Matthias knew that that as paladin he could not have anger in his heart during fight. This wasn’t about making Sombra pay, but the safety of everypony. And because of that, he would not risk his life foolishly, not when there was still a chance that he wouldn’t have to.
Finally, Matthias made his decision. He rose and headed back for the empire. The paladin was curious as to what his friends managed to discover, and feeling that for the moment he learned all that he could have about Sombra through observation. Matthias wondered as he trotted about how he could possibly defeat him if he had to; it wouldn’t be easy, that’s for sure, and that’s even when overlooking his powers. He hoped that whatever the Crystal Empire used to protect itself could do something about him but...
So engrossed in his thoughts he was, that he almost didn’t noticed the dark shape some distance ahead of him, lying in the snow. Once Matthias realized that he was not alone, he quickly confirmed that Sombra was nowhere near, before he quickly advanced. He had a bad feeling that this dark shape was one of his friends that came looking for him.
The reality proved much more dreadful.
“I-Invincible?!” he gasped, looking at the too familiar steed, in all too familiar situation.
It was like in a nightmare; the Invincible was churning up the bloodied snow with two powerful, unharmed rear legs and two shattered forelegs. Matthias felt his stomach heave at the sight of the limbs, once so long and straight and lean and powerful, hanging at odd angles as Invincible kept trying and failing to stand. Then the image was mercifully blurred by the snow and the rush of hot tears that spilled down his cheeks.
“Hold on!” Matthias cried, immediately at his side, his forehooves, surrounded by Light, near the shattered legs. “I can’-”
The almost instant return of Sombra’s presence was the only warning he got.
Matthias jumped to the left, while from Invincible’s chest emerged black crystal pillar, which was intended to go right through the paladin. Despite moving out of the way in just a nick of time, the speed of the crystal was enough to wound him. Matthias cursed as it cut his shoulder, but had more important things to worry about.
Namely, an insane unicorn king.
Sombra was hovering above him, his horn again formed and charged for an attack. Matthias was well aware that if it managed to break Shining Armor’s protection spell in one shot, he was as good as dead if he lingered.
Not bothering to heal his shoulder, the paladin began to run, while at the same time Light formed it’s shield around him. It also hastened his movement, giving him chance to reach Cadance barrier before...
Sombra’s horn fired.
The magical missile hit a good distance behind Matthias, but he was still within the blast’s range. The empire’s border was barely ten meters away. Not having time to think, he jumped. The Light protected him from most of the damage as the blast hit him, and threw him straight into the Crystal Empire. Before he went through it, Matthias felt satisfaction at the sound of Sombra’s angry roar.
He landed on his side on the grass, a bit ungracefully, but in one peace and that’s all what mattered. The paladin got up to his hooves and asked the Light to heal him, while he tried to decide what was worse: the fact that he got almost killed by such obvious trap...
… or that the fallen unicorn could also show his enemies their memories.
 



 
“The last page of the book mentioned a crystal heart as the faire centerpiece, so I used my magic to cut one out of a crystal block.” Twilight replied to Applejack’s question, looking proudly at her work.
“Nice work, Twi. Think we're ready to get this faire up and runnin',” said Applejack.
Twilight nodded and, just to be sure, she took another glance at the book they found in the library and compared with the tents and booths they just finished setting up, each featuring a traditional product or event. Everything looked fine.
“Okay then, Pinkie Pie and I will go to Cadance and Shining Armor, and then I’ll announce the beginning of the Faire.” she told everypony. “The rest of you, make sure the crystal ponies have a good time, so-”
“What is all of this?” asked a surprised voice, and everypony turned around to see the owner of it.
Matt was looking around at everything that’s set up, confused, which couldn’t be said about Twilight.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to fight King Sombra.” she accused him sternly, seeing that he his snow-white coat was covered in dirt here and there, and that there was blood on his shoulder.
His eyes widen in surprise at her words, but they quickly snapped back to the traces of the red liquid.
“I forgot to wipe it...” Matt muttered, and then shook his head. “I fell into Sombra’s trap; I truly had no desire to confront him. But let’s get back to my question, shall we?”
Twilight wasn’t entirely convinced that the stallion was speaking truth, but she decided that either way she had no control over it. She should probably just be glad that he was okay.
“Well, all the ponies here had some sort of amnesia, but we found out in the book from the library about 'Crystal Fair' that was held every year to renew the spirit of love and unity in the empire so they could protect it from harm.”
Again, he looked at her confused, but then Matt just facehoofed himself and muttered something that sounded like: ‘of course’; which seemed to be said in tone that was both amused and annoyed. Rolling her eyes, Twilight continued:
“Since you are back, you’ll be on the jousting demonstration with Rainbow.”
“Wait, ponies can joust?” he asked, once more surprised.
“Err, of course we can?” Dash asked, confused.
“Oh… okay, never mind then.”
“Rainbow, show him quickly to the arena, so he can pick the armor of his size.” Twilight told the pegasus, and then she nodded at the rest. “All right, you all know what to do, the show starts in ten minutes!”

“So how did ‘Samba’ manage to land a hit on you?” Rainbow asked him as they made their way towards the arena.
Matthias hesitated, not sure how much he should reveal.
“He showed me... a memory.” he finally told her. “It was so realistic, that I forgot that it was impossible to happen again; and on top of all, Sombra was far away.” the paladin snorted, angry that he fell for it, and infuriated that the unicorn king dared to use that memory against him.
He shook his head as he once again reminded himself that paladins should not act with hatred in their hearts. Not to mention that it was exactly the opposite of what this ‘Crystal Faire’ was about. While Matthias still had no idea as to how renewing the spirit of love and all that could protect the empire, but he reminded himself the phrase he used whenever something didn’t make sense: ‘It’s a world of talking colorful magical ponies, don’t bother understanding.’
Once they reached the arena, Rainbow led him to one of the tents next to it. Inside, they found couple sets of armor, as well as long pinnacles for jousting, some shooting targets, stocks of hay... which Matthias has found himself violently pushed into it.
He turned around to see Rainbow land on him, her face twisted in a grin both terrifying and lustful.
“You heard Twilight, we’ve got ten minutes.” she told him.
The paladin was about to protest on account of the danger waiting outside of the empire, but then recalled what this Fair was about.
“Love and unity, huh?” he chuckled.
 
Due to the short time they had, their usual ‘battle’ for dominance lasted only few seconds, and resulted in Matt’s win. Surprisingly, Rainbow didn’t actually mind that. Over those few days, she found out that it actually turned her on more when she wasn’t in control, in contrast to her usual attitude.
So she quite happily rolled over on her stomach, and arched her back, while Matt mounted her and bit her hair. Despite him being really gentle their first time, the earth pony was fast to realize what Dash liked, and was happy to oblige.
 
They were still in the process of cleaning themselves up - which wasn’t easy due to one trying to ‘help’ the other now and then - when they hear the ever-irritating sound of Pinkie’s flugelhorn.
“What in Light’s name was that?” Matt asked her.
“It’s Pinkie’s-” she paused once it sounded again for some reason. “-flugelhorn. Apparently, crystal ponies loved to play on it.”
“Hear ye, hear ye.” they both heard the voice of Twilight announce. “Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor do cordially invite you to attend the Crystal Fair!”
They hastened up and emerged from the tent, free of the hay and their bodily fluids. Outside, there were many crystal ponies, looking around the Fair with the usual sad faces Rainbow saw as she asked around the empire, until few of them smiled happily, which had an outstanding effect: not only their faces brightened up, but their coats and manes as well.
“Huh, I guess this is some sort of side effects of the Sombra’s reign.” Matt commented, mildly curious. “That, and the amnesia from earlier. Either way, it seems that the Crystal Faire is working.”
“Of course it is what did you expect? Anyway, for now, let’s mingle between them and see to it that they have fun with the rest of activities, before we’ll show them main event.”
Having said that, Rainbow flew up, feeling better with her earlier tension and crankiness gone after the few minutes of their fun. On the way to join the rest of their friends, she spotted the first crystal pony she asked for information, and headed towards her.
“We totally nailed it, right?” Dash asked her happily.
The crystal pony moved on, probably wanting to see more of the activities. Rainbow followed her, eager for some conversation.
“Must be feeling a lot of love and unity about now!”
She flew for a while, before she realized that the other pony stopped by the food stand.
“Gonna have some grub, huh?” Rainbow asked once she caught up. ”What are you thinking? Crystal Empire berry pie? Maybe some crystal corn-on-the-cob!”
She turned back with the cob, only to see that the crystal pony was gone.
“What is with these ponies?!” the cyan mare asked aloud, confused.
 



 
Matthias trotted through the fair, observing how the crystal ponies here and there changed colors from sad and darkish to happy and lightish as the curse the Sombra put on them began to disappear thanks to the spirit of love and unity.
“And yet, they’re still not made of crystal.” he noticed, glad he would be able to prove Brann wrong once he would get back.
He joined Applejack as she was looking at Rainbow, who in her excitement was besetting somepony, unaware of her discomfort, which resulted in the other mare escaping.
“What is with these ponies?!” the cyan pegasus asked in her confusion out-loud, but brushed that thought off and began to eat the cob she was holding.
“Ya two did it just now, didn’chya?” Applejack whispered to Matthias, glancing at him sternly.
In reply, the paladin coughed and looked around. He’s gaze rested on two mares passing them by, who were talking between themselves.
“Seeing all of this, I feel like I'm starting to remember.” said the one holding balloon. “Remember things from before the king.”
“Me too.” replied the other, who was eating cob, before she tossed it off as they both regained their true colors and gasped: “The Crystal Heart!”
“The Crystal Heart?” Matthias wondered in confusion.
“Do you think they really have it?” the crystal ponies continued to their talk, when Rainbow moved to them to.
As the pegasus joined their discussion, Matthias turned to Applejack.
“What are they all talking about?” he asked her quietly.
“The book said that the Crystal Heart was the center of Fair or somethin’, so Twi cut out one-”
“Of course you can't.” a new voice interrupted her, as well as Rainbow, to which the remark seemed to be directed to.
They all glanced at the pony who said it. She was an elderly mare with a hat on and a scroll for a cutie mark, and she was also holding a bunch of balloons.
“The whole purpose of the Crystal Fair is to lift the spirits of the crystal ponies,” she continued, concentrating on her words, “so the light within them can power the Crystal Heart, so that the empire can be protected!” she gasped as she too regained her colors, and added happily. “I do work at the library!”
Matthias, however, wasn’t happy at the moment, nor were Rainbow and Applejack.
“W-what's that about 'powering the heart'?” Dash asked the apparent librarian as he and AJ joined her.
“I just can't believe you found it!” the older mare said, unaware of what reaction her earlier words had on them. “King Sombra said he'd hidden it away, where we would never see it again! I only hope it will still be as powerful after all these years...! Mm, funnel cake!”
As the librarian trotted away, the trio exchanged worried glances.
“You didn’t realize it was an artifact, didn’t you?” Matthias asked, and the looks the mares given him confirmed his suspicions.

Few moments later, he, Twilight and Rainbow joined Cadance and Shining Armor up on the royal balcony, while Applejack was left with the fake Heart to make sure none of the Crystal Ponies discovered it wasn’t the authentic one.
“I didn't know it was an actual relic!” the lavender unicorn said as she frantically turned the pages of the book. “The book didn't mention anything about the crystal ponies powering the heart!”
She stopped at the end, where, to everypony’s shock, there were few scraps of paper, marking the spot where a page once was.
“There was a page missing...” Twilight voiced what each of them thought, “how did I not notice?!”
“It's alright, Twilight.” Princess Cadance told her, in attempt to comfort her, but what happened next did the opposite.
Cadance fell.
Shining Armor was quick to grab her before she hit the ground, exhausted after the long time of keeping the shield around town, which now was disappearing. Matthias immediately felt the presence he fought with not so long ago surround the town.
“Twily...” Shining Armor said, worried, but was cut off by the sound of familiar roar.
The paladin muttered curse under his breath and prepared to extend his will across the empire, in effort to bath in Light’s protection. The prayer was almost on his tongue when he stopped, realizing how futile it would have been. Matthias might be the champion of Light and possess imaginable willpower and concentration, but in the end, he was just a mortal. Whatever shield he might have put forth, he would lack the mental strength to keep it up longer than a few seconds. Shining Armor was a different matter, for it was his special talent, and Matthias long ago had realized that in such cases limits had a little matter, and Cadance was an alicorn.
Once again he cursed as he looked in the direction where King’s Sombra main presence was located, now able to see and hear him, as he considered his options. If he would assume his Light form, he should be able to protect the empire like the Princess just did, but his limit for staying in that state was two minutes, and it would leave him weakened. If he were to fight Sombra after that…
“The empire is under attack.” Shining Armor said, and Matthias turned to regard him as he trotted back to his wife.
He helped Cadance get back to her hooves and recover. After looking at her husband lovingly, determination returned to her features as she once again cast her spell. Cadance’s magic enveloped the empie, and Matthias felt Sombra’s presence retreat...
“No.” he realized, concentrating. “There is something... a piece of him managed to get through. It’s weakening Cadance’s spell!”
He knew they had to do something about it, and he knew that it with the fair going and this Crystal Heart needing to be found, it would be best if he did it alone.
“I can sense some of Sombra’s presence on this side.” he told the rest, who all looked back at him, worried. “It’s not too strong, but it will make the spell fail faster if I don’t deal with it.”
Matthias gaze rested on Cadance, who struggled to keep her spell going. At this rate, it would break once again, and then...
An idea came to Matthias. He wasn’t certain it would work, but it was safer to try now.
“Before I’ll go, I need to check something.” the paladin told them as he trotted towards the Princess. Ignoring their puzzled gazes, he sat in front of her. “Your Highness, I need you to take my hooves.”
Cadance, no less confused than the rest, on top of being almost exhausted, listened and grabbed his hooves with her own.
“What are you doing?” Twilight asked as he closed his eyes. “I thought you said you couldn’t refresh somepony with Light after overusing magic.”
“I can’t.” Matthias replied. “But there is more to me than just the Light, although I pray to it now that this will work.”
After saying that, he concentrated. Matthias reached deep down into himself. As the Lich King, he commended vast powers, and even though most of them came from Frostmourne, he had power of his own. It wasn’t magic, not exactly, but here he was a pony; and ponies, even those that didn’t have horns and therefore couldn’t use magic at will, were all magical beings.
With great effort, Matthias reached his inner magic, that which granted earth ponies their connection with earth, as well as increased strength and stamina. The paladin was delighted to realize how strong he was, and briefly wondered how he would fare if he was returned to life in a body of a unicorn, but he pushed back the thought as he began to channel his supply of magic to Cadance.
At first, the process was slow, due to Matthias never doing something like this without Frostmourne. It was much different than channeling the power of the Light, in which he now once again excelled at. But finally he got the knack of it, and poured almost half of what he had to offer into the Princess. He would have given everything, but he was unsure if it wouldn’t have any side effects.
He stumbled back, slightly shaking, feeling the sense of loss; but earth pony’s magic, which granted the strength and stamina, was easily replaced by him with Light. In a matter of seconds, he was back to normal.
“What did you do?” Cadance asked, rejuvenated, but not quite to full power, which was to be expected since she was an alicorn, while he was a regular pony, and also still tired.
“I channeled my magical energy, which all ponies have, into you.” Matthias replied, shrugging. Seeing Twilight gaze, he added: “It’s a nifty little trick that I’ll show you later. Anyway, the Light will grant me it’s strength once I need it, so I figured I might as well give some of my energy to Cadance.” he bowed, and moved to the edge of balcony. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have something to do. It shouldn’t take long. May the Light protect us all.”
Granting them blessing before he departed, he jumped down once again, and landed painlessly thanks to the Light. Ignoring the gazed from crystal ponies and some of his friends, he run to where he could feel Sombra’s presence.
 
He stopped just by the border, to see the two crystal pillars, now black as the one the fallen unicorn tried to kill him with. Realizing that Sombra must have put some of his essence into them in that short time the empire was defenseless, Matthias extended his hooves and began the exorcism ritual that he would have trying on Shining Armor’s horn if it wouldn’t be so painful.
The presence within the pillars grew bigger.
The paladin quickly jumped back as all around him huge black pillars emerged from the ground, each the size of a tree.
…and a few of them contained evil presences as well.
“So this is what happened to them.” Matthias thought as some of the pillars broke, revealing the shapes hidden within. “All this time, they were with him.”
The Six Shadows of the King surrounded him.