//------------------------------//
// 75. Return from the Crystal Empire 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

        “I’m not going back to Ponyville today.” Matthias announced once the train started to move, much to surprise of everypony.
        “What?” they all asked. Soon Rarity added: “But why?”
        Matthias didn’t missed the subtle shake of head at the direction of the still-sulking Twilight she gave him, meaning no doubt that they were all going to throw ‘cheer up’ party once they arrive in Ponyville, courtesy of Pinkie Pie.
        “I need to give the Princesses my field report.” he answered, barely stopping himself from rolling his eyes. “And I also want to discuss few matters with them regarding the abbey and the order, with the idea to allow crystal ponies to it being chief among them.”
        “Really?” Twilight asked, her head perking up a bit at this news.
        “Yes, I already found one candidate that seemed promising.”
“Hold on!” Rainbow Dash cut in, looking offended. “You said I cannot become a paladin, but some random pony catches your eye?”
        “Rainbow, becoming paladin takes conviction and devotion.” replied tired Matthias. “Last time I checked, you wanted to join Wonderbolts, and if you became a paladin, you would have to give up that dream.”
        “I can do both!” she proclaimed with confident smirk.
        Matthias just glared at her, making it clear that she couldn’t.
        “What’sa ‘field report’?” Applejack asked, taking advantage of the quiet moment.
        “A military report from battles and such, given to superiors.” Twilight explained for him, and then turned to Matthias. “Is it really necessary? I mean, the Princess will learn everything from me...” her voice trailed off as she realized that she was going to hear from Celestia that she failed.
        “You don’t know how the whole battle went. I will need to discuss some aspects of it with Princesses.”
        Twilight nodded, and she went silent for a while, looking as if thinking about something.
        “Will you... um... mention about your... what Sombra said?” she finally asked uncomfortably.
        “They already know about it.” he replied after a second, looking away as he lied. While Luna did know, Celestia probably didn’t. “Why are you all... okay with this?” he asked all of them, being hesitant for a bit, but needing to know.
        “Because you’re our friend, duh!” Dash told him, rolling her eyes.
        “Matt, you told us that you were possessed by dark powers, so it wasn’t your fault. At least not all of it.” Twilight added, seeing that he was about to protest.
        “Yeah, and we all saw how often ya mope around.” Applejack said. “We can see that ya feel really terrible about it.”
        Matthias sighed. He was heartened by their words, but... had they knew all of it...
        “So, that thing... it was all true, wasn’t it?” Twilight asked, once again uncomfortably. When he nodded, she added: “I’m sorry about your father...”
        “He was a great man.” the stallion sighed. “He did not deserve to die like that.”
        His dark thoughts were interrupted by the massive yawn he gave.
        “I must be more tired than I thought.” Matthias murmured, a bit ashamed that he yawned after talking about his father.
        “Maybe you should take a nap?” Fluttershy suggested. “It will be awhile before we reach Canterlot.”
        The idea was tempting, and was already thought over by Matthias, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep, despite his exhaustion.
        “I have too much going in my head to fall asleep. Aside from a serious matter, I am even wondering should crystal ponies need to wear armor or not.” he shook his head, surprise that he had to think about something ridiculous like this. “I will rest later. For now meditation will be enough to collect myself.”

        Few hours later, when they were still far away from Canterlot, Twilight was still sulking and Matt was still meditating. Rainbow frowned at him, despite the fact he had his eyes closed. She would have expected him to join them in trying to cheer Twilight up. Tartarus, he was in love in her, wasn’t he?!
        The cyan mare shook her head. Thinking like that this was a bit unfair. Matt has been through much harsher ordeal than the rest of them, not to mention that he was forced to relive some of his past. Recalling what Sombra said, Rainbow briefly wondered what did that past include, and what kind of pony - “Man.” she corrected herself - Matthias’ father was. What the paladin said seemed to point out that he was a swell guy. She didn’t want to imagine what Matt must have felt. While Dash has barely visited her parents since she moved to Ponyville, she loved them dearly, and just couldn’t believe going through what her friend had to.
        “Special friend.” she once again corrected herself, making a mental note to stop making fun of him whenever he was down while thinking about his past.
        Rainbow didn’t actually mind that he was resting or whatever. Even if he was fully awake - because she suspected that he was just pretending and actually napping the whole time - Dash wouldn’t try to get some alone time with him. Twilight needs everypony’s attention now, and that took priority, even if she just kept staring at the floor of the compartment.
        Just as Rainbow was about to say something, she hear Matt gasp.

        “Sorry, I must have... dozed off, despite what I said.” he replied awkwardly to their confused stares.
        Rainbow Dash snorted at that, and Matthias shoot her an angry glare, but inwardly, his concentration was on the other side of his soul.
        “Was that your doing?” he accused Ner’zhul, but to his surprise, the old orc shook his head.
        “No. What we saw came from you.”
        “I think that with passing the third step, your connection with the Holy Light has deepened.” Bolvar told him. “That must be why you received this vision.”
        Arthas rubbed his temples, not sure what to think of it.
“The Light doesn’t give me the answer of what am I doing here, but sends me vision about that instead?” he asked out loud, despite not expecting any answers from the other two.
        “Should we... rethink our plan?” Bolvar asked him, and it did not escape Arthas’ notice as to what tone he used.
        “You think I would turn my back on this because of some vision?” the pony asked the man who is shaped-like flame. “There is nothing that will stop me, not after everything I’ve done.”
        Bolvar Fordragon, paladin in life and the current Lich King, smiled approvingly.





        Matthias yawned, looking half interested at his friends, especially at the pacing Spike.
        “Keep it together, buddy...” the baby dragon mutters to himself for about tenth time already, “gotta stay strong... for Twilight...”
        They are all currently in front of the castle in Canterlot, waiting for Twilight to finish telling Princess Celestia what have happened in the Crystal Empire. Save for Matthias, everypony was anxious. Aside from Spike, the ones who were taking it worst is Rarity, who was laying on the ground - which spoke something about the seriousness of the situation - and Pinkie Pie, who was biting her hooves and had to be comforted by Applejack, while both of them followed Spike pacing back and forth with their eyes.
        An exasperated sigh accidentally escaped his lips, and Rainbow Dash glared at him.
        “Okay, seriously, what is the matter with you?” she asked him, angry. “I get it that you might feel down after killing Sombra and think of Twilight’s test and her worries to be unimportant, but you could at least try to be more considerate of her situation!”
        The rest of them stopped their... whatever each of them were doing, and looked at Matthias, who noted to himself to remind them this situation at some point.
        “I don’t think this to be of little matter.” he told them for now, being calm despite his slight irritation. “In fact, I think that Twilight’s concern about her future is more important that mine about past.”
        “So what aren’t you showing it more?” Dash asked him, tilting her head to one side in confusion.
        “You’ll see soon enough.” Matthias reply ambiguously, and turns his gaze to the doors.
        Five mares and one dragon quickly shrugged that off and returned to their activities.
        “She's totally gonna lose it!” Spike said, breathing heavily from his approaching panic attack. “Keep it together buddy... gotta stay strong... for Twilight-”
        He is cut off by one side of door hitting him in the face, opened by a familiar lavender hoof.

        Twilight jumps from the shadows of entrance to the daylight, unable to keep the joy in her heart to herself any longer.
        “I passed!” she screamed in delight, pacing in place from the excitement.
        Her friends all erupted, cheering for her and looking relieved... save for Matt who, to her utter amazement, had his cocky smile on face. It took her a split second to recall that of everypony, he was the only one who did not offer her any words of support of comfort, and something clicked in her head.
        “That little... thickhead!” Twilight screamed in her mind, unable to think of worse insult. “He knew I would pass all along!”
        She was about to do something drastic to him, but that had to wait for later as Spike jumped to her and hugged her.
        You were prepared to do your best; Twilight heard Rarity sing, when she looked up and being released from Spike’s embrace, she saw the other unicorn approach.
Had what it takes to pass the test; Rarity continued, coming closer, and the lavender 
mare blushed from being praised like this.
All those doubts you can dismiss; the white unicorn lifted Twilight’s head, not letting her 
not enjoy this moment, and lead her away towards the train station;
Turns out you were
Prepared for this! And then the others joined in

Matthias watched this getting further away as his friends perform an improvised musical. He barely stopped himself from laughing, as out of nowhere an image appeared in his head of a certain individual from his past rolling in his grave.
He wished he could just simply join in with, but he had his duties. Even if Princess would be lenient enough to let him come at later date - which wouldn’t surprise him in the least - his sense of duty prevented him.        
“Besides, Twilight would most likely frown at me all the way to Ponyville for not telling her that she was going to pass.” Matthias chuckled, as he walked into the castle, searching for the Princess.
        On the way, he couldn’t help but notice two new additions to the collection of stained glasses: one commemorating Spike bringing the Crystal Heart to Cadance so she could inspire the Crystal Ponies, the other of two ponies facing each other in battle, one basked in Light, the other drowned in darkness.
        Doing his best to not frown at the undeserved homage, Matthias continued his search, when his ears caught some discussion coming from the balcony, recognizing the two voices to belong to Celestia and Luna. Being curious, he kept closer, trying his best to not alert the Princesses with his presence.
        “I told you, little sister, she would succeed.” Celestia said, as he reached the barely opened doors.
        “I did not doubt it.” Luna replied, although she sounded a bit defensive. Matthias, to his confusion, saw through the cracks between the doors that her horn glowed. Nearby her head there was an aura of magic, meaning she was holding something. “I merely suggested that I should accompany them as well. And before you ask, yes, I agree that she’s almost ready to fulfill her destiny.”
        “Wait, what?” Matthias thought, intrigued, as he tried to see more through the crack in the doors. 
Unfortunately, he accidently moved one and it creaked, making both of the Princess turn their heads. Realizing that it would be better to not get caught spying on them, the paladin opened the doors, making it appear as if he just came. However, he managed to get a glimpse of an object that was held by Luna’s magic before it disappeared.
It was a book, with a symbol of two stars and swirly pattern.
        
        Prepared... for this! everypony finished singing as the train rode towards Ponyville.
        Twilight wished that Matt was here to sing along, but she understood that he had his duty.
        “Besides, I would probably be mad at him for not telling me that he figured I would pass.” she realized, amused.
        “Yeah,” Spike’s nervous laugh interrupted her train of thoughts, “I knew everything was going to be fine.”
        And he passed out.
        Giggling, the unicorn levitated the small dragon to one of the beds. As she did so, she noticed that Pinkie was looking around the compartment, seeming... confused?
        “Um, girls?” she asked glancing at them. “How did we get here so fast?”
        Twilight rolled her eyes. Pinkie Pie was always being a Pinkie Pie.





        Many hours later, Matthias was finally allowed some moments of real relaxation (even if he was certain that Twilight would pass, knowing how she felt made the trip back much more stressful). He lay down on Luna’s sofa, watching little Moonlight play on her mother’s bed with Celestia’s pet ‘bird’.
        “You seem to look at Philomena strangely.” noticed amused Luna, who lay nearby two smaller figures. 
        “Well, you’ll have to excuse me, but my past experience with phoenixes hasn’t been pleasant.” he replied, shrugging his shoulders.
        “Ah, right... Al’ar, correct?” Luna recalled Keal’thas’s pet that she saw in Matt’s memories, watching her daughter giggle as she tried to reach for the circling Philomena above her with her hooves. “Very curious how similar Azeroth’s and Equestria’s phoenixes are, even if Azeroth’s seems to be more creatures of flames than of flesh.”
        Matthias nodded absentmindedly, too tired to bother pondering on that matter. The discussion with Celestia and Luna about Sombra, that dark being, the six undead ponies, the crystal ponies, the order... it took a huge toll on him. He preferred to just enjoy watching cute princess being a foal.
        As if the little thing could read minds, she lost interest in Philomena and turned to him, making that adorable sound again. Luna quickly picked her up and levitated her to Matthias, placing her on his back, much to Moonlight’s amusement.
        “You two cannot be serious.” the paladin thought, looking at Luna who bore a grin.
        To make this situation even more embarrassing to him, Philomena landed on Moonlight’s cradle, and Matthias could swear the damned bird was smirking. Sighing inwardly, he rose, being careful to not drop little alicorn off his back.
        “Does the princess wish to ride on her knight?” he asked in a foalish voice, as Moonlight hugged his mane and giggled. “Very well then, we shall ride!”
        And he proceeded to do one of the most embarrassing things he had ever done: prance around the room while having a small foal in his back.
        Surprisingly, after the first lap Matthias realized it wasn’t that much embarrassing, although Luna’s laugh wasn’t helping with that matter. Even so, he began to jump higher and higher, much to the little princess’ delight. They would probably continue to do so for a long time, but soon her small body demanded rest, as she began giggle less vigorously.
        “Looks like it’s time for bed.” Luna said as Matthias stopped, a bit winded.
        The Princess of the Night took her daughter off his back and put her inside her cradle, kissing her at the base of her horn as she whispered: “Goodnight”. Moonlight yawned in reply and almost instantly, she was asleep.
        “You know, Luna...” Matthias whispered as they moved away, wondering if what he was going to say made any sense. “I think... that for the first time, I’m almost... happy that my life turned out like it did. Had it not, this wouldn’t take place.”
        Luna glanced at him, and smiled sadly, understanding what he felt too well.
        “I’m happy that you think so.” she replied. “But I know you well enough to know that you will regret everything till the end of time, even if personally I am glad things turned out as they did.”
        Matthias sighed, knowing that she’s right. His sigh turned into yawn as his exhaustion reminded him of the sleeping foal, making Luna grin with amusement.
        “Well, seems that not only my daughter needs to be put to bed.” she chuckled.
        “I will agree with some of that statement.” Matthias said, not liking that last part. “It is really late, after all. But I think it will be enough if you’ll just assign a guard to lead me to my quarters.”
        “Quarters?” Luna replied with a mild surprise. “I was going to send you to Ponyville.”
        “Huh?” he asked, confused, before he realized what she meant. “Oh! Magic, forgot that. I must be more exhausted than I thought.”
        “I figure that sleeping in Twilight’s home would be more relaxing for you than in the castle.” Luna continued, and then allowed herself to grin once again. “Or, if you want, I can cast a spell that will allow you to walk on clouds and send you to Rainbow Dash’s house instead.”
        It took him a couple of second to realize what she said, but when he did, he looked at her sharply.
        “You were spying on us.”
“Not exactly.” she replied, and although she pretended to sound ashamed, it was clear to Matthias that the Princess was highly amused. “I was just curious how would thing go between you and Twilight after you decided to be friends, so I kept checking on you until I saw... few things.”
        The last words were said with a blush, to Luna’s credit.
        “So you weren’t spying on me and Twilight, but on me and Dash you were peeping.” he corrected his earlier statement.
        “Sorry.” Luna apologized. “I just wanted to know how would Cadance’s plan go-”
        “Wait, Cadance’s?! I thought it was Rarity’s!”
        “Look at the time! Bye!”
        Matthias interrupted her spell with a flash of Light before she could send his to Ponyville. But as he was about to ask any more questions, he sighed, realizing he didn’t care that much about any of that.
        “Nevermind.” he said, but recalled one thing that mattered to him. “What was it that about Twilight’s destiny you were talking about?”
        Luna’s jaw dropped, but she quickly pulled herself together.
“You were spying on us.” she repeated his own words from earlier.
        “Should be more careful how loud you speak. So?”
        For some reason, Luna again giggled.
        “Oh, Arthas... why tell you this, when it will be more amusing to wait a few months for everypony to find out?” she asked him, winking. “Trust me, it is nothing to worry about... and you will find this matter highly amusing.”
        Matthias was about to object, since it was his friends destiny that this ‘matter’ was, but he stopped himself. Luna said it was nothing to worry about... right? And he was patient, to some extent. A few months won’t be that long.
        “Very well, I shall trust you on this. Good night, Princess Luna.”
        “Good night, Prince-”
        “King.” he interrupted her. “I am the King of Fallen Lordaeron.”
        Luna’s expression turned from mildly surprised to a sadly understanding, knowing what this title meant.
        “Good night, King Arthas.”
 Her horn flashed, and when Matthias blinked, he was in front of familiar tree with a library in it.