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Say Goodbye

Author's Note:

I've just realized that I haven't officially greeted my readers to this story, so APOLOGIES on the delay and THANK YOU for joining me.

This is the first bit of fan fiction I've attempted writing in some time, I just felt like I really needed to take a break and go back to my roots as a writer. I had several ideas in my head, this one won out. Mostly cause I mean....it's the Lich King. C'mon, bruh. Who else deserves to terrorize Equestria?

Anyways, I hope you're enjoying so far, please leave it a like and a comment if so, and if you aren't, don't you FUCKING DARE touch that tempting red thumb you little shit! But leave me some constructive criticism so I know what you want to see polished.

I'll update when I can/have something worth updating with.

The dark figure put its arm around Twilight and together they were swallowed in a ring of frost, and disappeared, leaving Celestia alone in a cold and empty world.

19 hours later

Celestia sat alone in front of the balcony of her suite, looking up at the moon. Luna had raised it somewhat early, both to mark the occasion of grief, and to allow Celestia time to sort things out with herself. Tears had come and gone and come again many times, her dinner tray was poked at once or twice, and her door had remained closed after two attempts by Cadence and Shining Armor to join her.

"Forgive me," She cried as she left them hours ago, "I must....deal with this in my own way. I will be back tomorrow."

She intended to keep that promise, and for the time being also intended to remain alone. She sobbed all the harder, realizing that she was tripping over herself for the thousandth time. It happened long ago, after her parents, it happened after Luna was sent away - rather, after she banished Luna to the moon - and now it was here again. The ghosts of her past yelling at her, scolding her, berating her for actions taken in the belief that they were right. Only they weren't. Now she was here again, weeping, shaking her head.

She learned to grow from failure, but failure always hurt her. Especially when it hurt someone else.

Good, she told herself, I hope it hurts. I hope it burns a hole so hot in your heart you'll never forget.

Luna's grasp was closing in around her, but Celestia slipped through it, retreating away from any pony contact, even from hundreds of miles away. That was awfully childish, Celestia realized, to shake the hoof from off her shoulder, to pout by herself like a filly. And she was a Princess of all things! ...The most unfit Princess that ever was.

STOP - Imagine if your enemies knew how weak you were. Imagine if your subjects found out how fragile you are right now...

But it's not just now. I'm not that strong. Never was. I posture and speak loudly, and that's usually enough. Not anymore. Not with Twilight dead. Oh, God.....

She bit her lip and tried not to scream, falling onto one side, literally behaving like a foal. She didn't care. Let the whole world see her. She was okay with just walking away from it all now. She was never meant for godhood. If she continued on like this, she told herself, she really was just going to get up and leave. They'd be better off without her.

Luna tried once more to comfort her, but Celestia ran again. Run, run, run she told herself.

Keep running. You never deserved to be here in the first place. If not for Twilight you wouldn't be, Equestria wouldn't exist anymore, and this world would be in ashes. She was so much more than just a student and friend She was a savior. She wasn't supposed to die...ever.

I played with fire.....flew too close to the sun. I got burned. Hard. And now Equestria will be ashes.

What makes you so sure of that?

Maybe Celestia was just too weak to keep her sister away, or maybe Luna was better than Celestia ever gave her credit for. Regardless, her question broke the line of thought in the Solar Princess's head. Small and weak as the voice was, it was growing stronger, despite Celestia's efforts to abandon it.

You defeated me when I was in the wrong. Together we defeated Discord. Why put so much stock in Twilight Sparkle? Yes, she was a dear friend and student, and you groomed her well to take our place one day......but she was not a savior. Don't put that on her.

Celestia's reply was a weepy mumble, "She was...every time we were all but doomed, she stepped up, saved us all. I was never a fighter, you know that. In this new era, where things just seem to go wrong again and again...she was the pony to rally behind."

So it is all about Twilight being the defender of Equestria? You are so concerned about our well-being that because one Princess has died we are fated to go to ruin? Tell me you're not that delusional with emotion right now.

"You know it's not just that," Celestia said, louder, less tears and more conviction in her throat now, "Yes, she and her friends were out greatest defenders, that is absolutely true, and yes she was my dear student and friend, but more than all that....."

Luna waited, Celestia bowed her head, "Well....isn't that enough?"

That is more then enough to warrant grief. She deserves to be remembered, but there is nothing to be done. She would have you remember her and move forward, not wallow in pity.

"Nothing to be done? Isn't there?", is what Celestia wanted to say, but even in this state she realized how dangerous a thing that was to consider.

Luna's voice was growing more distant.

Stop crying...I would like to be there for you, but night is truly beginning now, and I must go. Take care, sister. The world is not ending, though it may seem so. As always, I send my love.

Luna opened her eyes and the pool of blood at her feet drew her gaze instantly. She felt it drip down her face, felt the next drop pool up in her eye like a tear. She had been standing when she made contact with Celestia, but was now practically laying on her stomach.

There was more going on than unrest and changeling meddling. Her magic had never been contested like this, and never before had she been so undermined, by her sister or anypony. She let her mind fly away with thought while she let her body rest a moment, wiping her face almost clean.

What was the world coming to? The death of Twilight Sparkle, the loss of control in her magics, the despair setting in the Crystal Empire, especially with the other Princesses....nothing like this had ever been orchestrated before. Discord would never play so silently, even if he were back to his old tricks, Chrysalis could not possibly interfere with dream magic...could she? Tirek was still bound in Tartarus, the sirens had not been seen in over a thousand years, and this did not fit their MO either.

Soon she grasped a new thought; a new player then?

Luna took to her feet again, wobbling against the wall of her room, and looking out into her moon. At least that was unchanged. At least some things were incorruptible. For now.

The grave was to be set up in a small memorial park, which was being constructed over the site of the bombing. After long discussion about the wisdom and appropriateness of doing so, as well as the considerations that Twilight spent almost all her life in Canterlot and Ponyville, they felt comfortable laying her to rest there. It seemed fitting. Twilight Sparkle was the emissary of friendship, and would be remembered for her final attempts at making peace between discontent factions.

Celestia selected the inscription herself.

Princess of Friendship
Beloved Mentor, Hero, and Guardian
In Loving Memory
CR 980-1002

"If ever there is one thing to cherish in magic, it is that it is always made better when used for benevolence. Always to better ourselves. Always to bring light." - Starswirl the Bearded

Celestia also worked with the Crystal Empire's finest craftsmen to forge a silver statue to watch over the grave. It was taken from a photograph Twilight had sent her during her first year in Ponyville, with her friends surrounding her on the balcony of the old library she once called home. Only Twilight herself was made into the statue, of course, but they kept the shimmering in her mane and the glow from Luna's moon in the original picture. It made her seem more picturesque but not overly Princess-y. She wouldn't have liked being made into a national effigy.

With her weeping largely over, Celestia put on a brave face and said the things that sounded appropriate, and was able to get by through remembering better times. She had to try very hard, but she was able to blot out the dark voice in her head. The one who kept whispering, possibly Sombra, definitely the one she heard when she fell asleep the past few nights, and most strongly last night. Definitely not one to heed, as it called to her, dropped the breadcrumbs in her path.

Another aspect that kept her sharp was the vendetta tempting her at every turn. There was a way out...It wasn't pleasant, and it was foolish to even consider, but if she played her cards right she could bring Twilight back. She shivered as she looked over floral arrangement patterns, not truly looking at them, but considering this forbidden rose.

"Is something wrong, Princess?" The shop owner asked.

"Sorry, my head is in a few different places right now...didn't sleep well last night. You know how it goes. Show me this one."

This was not an act of benevolence. She did not know the force behind this offer, but she knew, even from one dream, that it could never be trusted. Hard times lay ahead, but Twilight was gone, there was no bringing her back. Under no uncertain terms could she allow herself to even try to bring Twilight back. Celestia bit her lip, realizing that, but it had to be that way. No resurrection, no cheating death, no going around the issue. She's gone, forever.

Oh but her family. Won't they be happy to see her again? Imagine how happy she'll be when she finds a stallion of her own, all the good she could do. Isn't one deal on the edge of morality worth all that good to come down the road?

She shushed the voice in her head for a while longer, knowing that as the day went on everything she did would play second fiddle to the mental dance between her desires and her conscience.

Shining Armor watched his soldiers position around the door, while he strode up and knocked. Silence.

"This is the Imperial Guard, please open the door."

More silence, and then another knock. Then a third.

"Last chance!" Shining warned, knocking so hard the door bent inwards a bit. Not so much as a peep, not even a mouse scurrying on the floor.

He nodded to the guards beside him, and as a trio they split the door in half, bursting through with spears aimed to defend themselves. The lights had been smashed, the glass lie broken on the floor, and the candles had burned themselves out some time ago. The sparse furniture had been toppled and left strewn across the ground. The alchemy instruments - whether used for their intended purpose or not - that had once decorated the tables were smashed to pieces.

Most alarmingly, dried pools of blood and shallow trails that led in contradicting directions were everywhere.

"This doesn't look good..." One of the men said, lifting a tattered bed sheet off some of the wreckage.

"No, but we know what we're here for. I trust our information, find the green gems."

He bit back a tear, thinking about how easy this would be if Twilight had come along. She would've had a spell to sort this place out, put every little thing back in its proper place. She was good like that. Damn it, she was the best sister he could have asked for.

Sifting through evidence of drug brewing, illegal gambling, and other crimes they weren't here to arrest the occupants for, they found a small hatch in the floor, covered under a carpet, and later by the fallout of whoever had been here before them.

It was locked well, and despite attempts at forcing it open by several guards, its secrets remained hidden. Finally, Shining Armor joined four others and with spears and a little magic forced the seal open. The air pressure dropped. Breathing became a chore quickly. A faint emerald glow attracted their eyes right to a changeling corpse.

Flecks and specs of green crystal dotted her lips and nose, radiating a foul presence, and smell. Some of the guards backed away, but Shining covered his nose and peered closer. She'd been dead for a while, it seemed, her body mid-decay. Shining also backed away when he realized she was laying on top of more bodies.

"I want samples," He ordered, moving outside the dwelling with the immediate subordinate officer into the little alley, "And I want this place kept quiet. Nobody knows what we're taking away, nobody else gets in there without my permission."

"Yes sir."

Shining Armor took one last look at the recorded housing of five changeling occupants of the Crystal Empire. He wondered just how many more drug dens like this were hiding amidst the splendor of his corner of the world, how hollow the infrastructure really was...

The rest of Twilight's friends had awoken after her passing, filled in by Rainbow Dash or one the Princesses about the unexpected loss. They took it about as well as could be expected. Fluttershy and Starlight Glimmer came in by train too, each of them walking into the tragedy one by one.

The funeral went as about expected too. It was as pleasant as funerals ever were, and the idyllic cementing of Twilight's legacy was embraced by all. Her parents and not-as-close friends, mentors and students and even shaky acquaintances, namely Discord, showed up to pay respects. Only Luna, who remained in Canterlot to finish international visits by foreign embassies, the same visits Celestia had been attending to before the nightmare began, did not attend. Celestia led them in a fond farewell, sending off the first Princess of Equestria that had ever been killed.

She decided not to bring that aspect of it up except where necessary.

Tears were shed, stories shared, and bonding was done by all who attended. It was perfect, except for the fact that it never should have happened at all. The outdoor activities were cut a bit short as a storm moved in from the north. Celestia watched it roll in with suspicion. He was trying to be heard. Trying to leech into her passing, offering to take it all away. No more funeral, no more grief, no more suffering. He offered to make everyone in attendance happy again.

"I'm so sorry Celestia," Discord said, walking up behind her, head bent low, "I truly did enjoy her. She was...a real Princess."

"Thank you, Discord. I hope the funeral was not too...boring? for you?"

"Well, the concept in general is unusual. I, erm, I find it hard to think of things to say in times like this. E-Excuse me, Fluttershy's breaking down again."

Celestia watched him disappear in a white flash and pop back into existence behind Fluttershy, who was on her knees, crying into her hooves. Discord patted her on the shoulders and made them both disappear.

Not a minute later, Twilight Velvet and Night Light came up to her, and she let the storm be, turning to walk with them.

"Thank you so much for everything you did for our daughter," Night Light said, spooning his wife's head against his own, "She spoke the world of you. You were her hero, from the very first day of magical kindergarten."

"Thank you, both of you. She was one in a million. Literally. I'm so sorry this had to happen to Twilight. She was the brightest star in Equestria's future."

Velvet wiped her eyes, sniffling, "She wrote us after becoming a Princess, you know? That was the happiest I ever knew her to be. She said her life had....started anew. It was on a whole other level. I think that was because she saw herself become more like you."

Celestia nodded, unable to prevent fresh tears, "I...I didn't realize it was to such an extent. She wore discomfort on her sleeve when she ascended. Thank you for telling me."

Night Light sighed, "I'd give up anything to bring her back. I would trade places with her a million times over. My girl..."

All three took a minute to clear their eyes, mostly Velvet, who remained cuddled against her husband, and later son, when Shining Armor approached them with Cadence.

"I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle...we tried everything," Cadence said, hugging them both.

"We know," Velvet replied, "We're not mad."

"She lived a full life in only twenty years, thanks to the teachings and examples of all of you. We're the proudest parents," Night Light paused to clear his throat, "Proudest parents in the world," He finished in a whisper.

"I didn't want to bring it up earlier," Shining Armor said, "But she told me she found a mare here that really caught her eye. Said they went out late one night. She wanted to meet her again. I only wish she'd told me her name so I could've invited her."

Celestia stepped away as thunder rolled overhead. Lightning struck the palace, but the magical insulation kept it from doing anything serious, just breaking up conversation and recollections.

"Excuse me," The Solar Princess said, stepping out into the corridor.

She fled to the suite that had become her dwelling place. From there she flew out into the night, not bothering to bring a cover from the storm. She let the rain pelt her, let the thunder and the lightning crackle and taunt her. This, more than anything thus far, confirmed to her there was an intelligence behind this feeling.

It was goading her, it knew she knew it offered a trap. It knew and it laughed. It knew that she was more resolute than ever to keep her mind off the temptation, but that she was failing. With every passing second she was a mere step away from coming to it with Twilight cradled in her arms.

"But I haven't given in yet! And I won't! She's gone! SHE DIED! I'll learn to live with that....one day the pain will stop....one day I won't feel it anymore."

Thunderous laughter broke again, and she heard the message within: Very well. Just be sure and make up your mind about it. Wait too long, her body will be too broken to carry.

Celestia snuck out early in the morning, so early Luna had not yet taken her moon away. Nobody walked the palace except for the servants and guards on the night shift, few and far between. The town was more deserted, one or two forms wandering home in drunken stupors. The memorial place was void of all life except the flower bundles left to honor the fallen Princess. Celestia moved them all away in one quick burst of magic.

Twilight's body had already begun to decay after only days in the ground. Her skin, marred by the attack, had become sinewy and tight around her skeletal frame. It felt wrong to dig her out of a grave, just as wrong as it had felt to put her in one. To Celestia though, the weirdest part was hiding the corpse in a large wrap and disappearing into the night with it while the silver statue watched her flee.

The journey to the place of Twilight's resurrection was filled with tentative fear, and long internal debate. There was still time to go back, switch the real body out for the fake, forget it all. It was a trap, she knew it, she saw it coming. But Twilight...the hole left in everypony's life by Twilight...

She flew over the city, and then into open plains and wide spaces covered in snow, and eventually over a forest, whose woodland timbers were equally buried in the white powder. Twilight's body was getting heavier in her grasp, but she sped up anyways.

In the relative silence of the wild, Celestia could think more clearly. Only one thing was coming to her though.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The Frozen Falls stood before her, echoing desolation and despair from countless years previous. What was this place, before it was the Frozen Falls? Who might have lived here in a different time, in a different state of the world? These musings also passed through her mind as Celestia glided down towards the figurative edge of the world.

The white edge made her feel small, a shrimp swimming into a whale's mouth. The snow began to fall heavier, and soon she couldn't see the timber behind her and hardly any of the wild expanse beyond, where only the most foolish fliers had gone and disappeared before. Now it seemed the only way to go was down, so with beating wings she took her deceased friend and flittered into a descent. The darkness was all consuming in minutes. Her horn shown a light gold, illuminating the black rock that told stories of every winter since winter came to this part of the world.

Halfway down the rock was inlaid with ice, and soon after the rock disappeared leaving an enormous frozen sea stuck in time. Old fish and water-faring mammals, the likes of which she had seen only in ancient books or never before at all were inlaid in the ice. What was once their entire world was now the tomb that buried them alive and preserved their bodies against time's blade.

Finally, at the very bottom, bones turned black and gray with time sat as puzzle-pieces, half buried in large piles of snow. Celestia landed on a large chunk of ice, sticking out from the snow, a jagged path leading under the frozen ocean. It smelled purely of nature. No living thing had been here in quite some time, eons, perhaps.

The jagged road turned down a slope, towards the dark center of the world. Her hoofsteps were impossibly loud, echoing through countless chambers and halls, reverberating in the old ice, coming back in distorted moans. She took it slow, and several times nearly lost her footing. She often turned her head, looking for the exit, and the faintest of lights it gave, but even by now it was swallowed in the dark.

Soon she came upon a tri-fork in the road. The middle path turned left and upwards, into a spiraling staircase. The right path kept the altitude low, and led into a place she could hear rushing water. The left path was broken, and the shards of the shattered path were scattered about the fork. Out of curiosity she leaned left, and saw the beginnings of a great, gaping chasm.

She continued on the middle path, trusting her instincts and climbing the stairway. Suddenly she realized how cold she was, shivering with a numb body, heading towards the place that felt worst. When she reached the top, she once more came to a fork in the road, the two paths leading in opposite curved directions; she had a hunch they led to the same place, but went right.

After spending some time on this path she came into a new, darker tunnel, and after another short stint there, came into a room with light. Crystals embedded in the floor and walls shimmered with blue light, shining on the path, and a skeletal dragon whose open maw gaped at the travelers on it. Most of it's body was encased in the frozen ocean above, but one claw also loomed over her as she passed. How would a dragon end up at the bottom of an ocean? Perhaps this one was a sea drake? Maybe it was moved here some time ago by something sinister?

As for the source of the blue light, Celestia had no idea where it was coming from. The most likely source for the light seemed to be the crystal themselves, and if that were the case it was possible that other areas of this dungeon were not so dark either. On the other hand, they may be trapped, or toxic in some way, and she took caution of them as she traveled under the dragon.

Now she was back in a tunnel, but this one was short. It led upwards a bit, and then opened onto the second story of a circular cavern, one half of which was blocked off by an ice wall, or perhaps this was more of the frozen ocean? She took a descending path and found one peculiarity in the wall: a sword.

It was a ghastly work of warfare, occult at best, demonic at worst. The hilt was sticking out from the ice, an open invitation. Most of the blade remained in the wall. Celestia laid Twilight's body down on the icy floor, and used her magic to grasp the hilt. She made contact for mere seconds, but heard thousands of voices, crying out, pained, desperate.

She took a step back, eyeing the blade before her. The dark voice from her dreams, the one made of many dissonant whispers and the one who had put these voices in the sword, she realized, called to her.

"Do it....break the wall...."

Celestia swallowed, and grasped magically at the hilt again, and all at once the terrifying host of victims were in her mind. The blade glowed blue and emanated a chilling mist. All it took was a single pull. Several cracks began to form around the blade, and after a brief struggle against the wall, it came loose and tore the barrier into pieces as it did. Celestia dropped the blade and turned away, temporarily blinded by thousands of tiny shards of ice and the spray of destruction.

As the chaos settled, the room grew darker. He was massive, towering over Celestia, looking down at her with those glowing blue eyes. Celestia felt her knees quiver, but forced them up, and stood to her full height. She met his gaze, and he seemed to smirk behind the black helm that guarded his head.

Without a word he bent to pick up the blade, and Celestia stepped forward, "Before anything else, bring her back. Save Twilight from the dead."

"No one commands the Lich King," he said.

So that is what he is called...

"Kings keep to their words. Else they are not Kings at all."

He stared her down a moment, then shifted his gaze to the weapon in his hand, "My blade is named Frostmourne. Within it, the souls of the damned are held," He paused while Celestia looked down and towards her fallen student, "or given back into fallen bodies. The changelings did well to end her life."

Celestia glowered, "As I thought...the voices and whispers, the mental clouds over myself and many others...even the attacks going as far back as the assassination of Thorax I bet. It was all your hand behind them. But what did you want...to draw me here?"

The Lich King held the runeblade high and let out a low growl, and through the ice flew several blue and white wisps, channeled into the blade like lightning to a storm rod.

"Only a being of immense power could find and release me," he said, pointing the edge of the blade towards Twilight Sparkle, "So thank you for that."

"You knew I would do anything for her, didn't you?"

"She resisted my call. I had to take drastic measures. Besides..."

One of the wisps formed on the edges of the steel, and shot into her body, which gasped and convulsed. Celestia rushed over, calling out her student's name. Twilight stopped suddenly and opened her eyes, glowing blue, and as she spoke her voice gained the echoes of the dead, just like her resurrector.

"Princess Celestia....I'm cold."

"She'll make a fine Death Knight," The Lich King said, "as will you."

Celestia had half turned around and he was there, Frostmourne swinging in an arc to take her head from her shoulders. Celestia teleported to the top of the Frozen Falls in time to get away with only a few strands of her mane being taken instead.

She hardly had time to fly over the edge and begin blasting the falls. If she could bury the Lich King he would never threaten this world. But she had to be quick. She overworked herself, giving the magic blast 130% and firing as fast as she could. The rocks tumbled in a great avalanche, the frozen ocean below splintered and large chunks broke and fell down to keep the evil she had unleashed down.

The fallout was surely felt as far away as the Crystal Empire, but she realized it was all in vain when a familiar pink teleportation flashed near the timberline.

Twilight....no...

"Surely you aren't foolish enough to believe her will is her own? I restored her consciousness, but she is mine, and always will be."

"I'm sorry Princess Celestia....I can't...resist his call....anymore!"

Twilight grasped her head, fighting his demons but losing quickly. Her pained expressions turned to dull, expressionless acceptance, and her eyes took a deeper blue hue, and she stood up straight beside him inviting her to challenge them.

"I will save you, Twilight. I promise."

"Promises are the foundation of regrets," The Lich King replied, "I will break you, and then I will spread death and destruction to this world. Town by town, nation by nation, you will all serve me!"

Hidden behind the brush, corpses began to stir, and rise. Out shambled a small army of undead, some of the bodies fresher than others, changeling, pony, and beast all alike. Celestia stayed airborne, watching them heed the call of their master. There were probably fifty or sixty of them, not to mention Twilight and the Lich King himself. Celestia felt the sweat running down her face. This was far more than she could deal with, if the Lich King was indeed as powerful as he seemed to be.

"Now die alone."

"She is NOT alone!"

That voice...so she did know. Celestia realized it was foolish to be surprised. She was the most likely to know, probably the only one who could keep her in check too. A faint smile came to her lips, her eyes threatened to water, "Luna..."

Luna teleported beside the Solar Princess out of nowhere, and put a hoof to Celestia's shoulder, "You did something very foolish, sister." She smiled, "I understand why you did it, but we'll speak on it later. For now, let us send this miscreant back to oblivion," She turned back to the edge, and shouted beyond Twilight and the Lich King, "To arms!"

Shining Armor led the charge of over a hundred strong cavalry, soldiers with weapons on hoof to dispense justice. The Lich King and his minions were surrounded and Shining Armor made the call to close in as the Princesses flew down, magic bounding out of their horns. Cries rang from the living forces.

"Be gone, wretch!"

"For the Empire!"

"In the name of Celestia, Luna, and Cadence!"

Twilight watched them, unable to cry out or even speak at this point. Her horn, too, was glowing with magic, and she felt her gaze shift towards her mentors and friends as they flew down to fight. She understood what she had to do, the only thing she questioned was if she was upset over it or not. Was she content to serve her new master, or was this all his will dominating her own? Was undeath going to be a grim, content service, or an eternal torment?

She supposed she would quickly find out.

The Lich King smirked, "More soldiers for the cause...excellent."

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