• Published 8th Oct 2012
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Rebirth of the Damned - Borsuq



Months after his death, Arthas Menethil, long known as the Lich King, is given another chance. In a world populated by talking ponies, of all places.

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137. Changing Relationships

“Thanks for earlier, Rainbow,” Twilight started. “That ‘Bloody Mare’ of yours really helped me. Where’d you learn about it?”

“Cloudchaser told me how to make it when I mentioned to her at work when I was having a hangover after the wedding,” Rainbow replied, shrugging.

“Guess this proves we can always learn something new from our friends,” Twilight chuckled. “Now then, could you perhaps tell us what was so important that we would all gather here and kick out Spike?”

“Indeed,” Rarity added from the opposite side of the library’s main room. “The Ponytones start their performance in half an hour, so I would very much like if you could hurry up.”

“Yeah, sure…” Rainbow started, then trailed off, nervous.

She had decided that, since she yet again moved telling Arthas that they were “breaking up” back a few more days at least, she should at least tell her friends about her… broadened orientation. Especially since Applejack invited her for this camping trip tomorrow, in case she and Rarity would feel uncomfortable with her around. Rainbow would understand and not go, giving them some time to get used to this. Because of that, she asked all her friends to come to Twilight’s library shortly before the Ponytones performance would start.

Taking a deep breath, Rainbow started again. “Sorry I gathered you all here on such short notice but… Fluttershy, you mind paying attention?” she asked, irritated, noticing the other pegasus wasn’t looking at her.

Fluttershy, whose gaze was sliding around the library’s walls, snapped. “Oh, sorry,” she said, blushing with embarrassment.

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow resumed. “Lately, something came up that I think I should tell you about. Seeing how you’re all my best friends and all.” She paused, wondering how to best phrase it. “You see…”

“Ya’re pregnant?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rainbow almost fell over, taken by surprise. “No!” she quickly shouted, glaring at Applejack, who was chuckling. “Very funny.”

No wonder Arthas didn’t like it when I joked about him getting Applejack pregnant. It really is more annoying than funny.

“Calm down, darling,” Rarity chided her. “Just tell us what you want to say.”

“Ugh, fine,” Rainbow sighed. She closed her eyes, not able to look at her friend. “I… recently realised that I… like mares in the same way most mares like stallions,” she finished awkwardly.

Feeling heat rising on her cheeks, Rainbow sighed and looked at her friends. As she expected, they looked surprised and awkward.

“Well, Ah guess this explains a few things,” Applejack was first to speak up.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure you want this discussion to go that way?”

Her comment made Applejack’s face grow red. “Um, sorry, sugar,” she said, scratching the back of her head. “Ah just did’n know what to say.”

“So,” Pinkie Pie took over, tilting her head, “do you have hots for us now?”

“What? No!” Rainbow quickly assured them. Realizing how that could sound, she explained: “I mean, no offense guys, but you’re like my family, that would just feel wrong. Although,” Rainbow added when a thought hit her; she glanced at Twilight and smirked, “when Twilight and Arthas finally get together, I wouldn’t mind-”

“Rainbow!” Twilight interrupted her, blushing fiercely. “Out of the question!”

The pegasus mare raised her eyebrows. “Which one, you getting together with Arthas or the three-”

Before she could finished her last word, Twilight wrapped her magic around her mouth, gagging her. Rainbow looked at her friend with amusement as she scowled at her. “Can we get back to you being bisexual, please?” Twilight asked.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” Rainbow replied as the unicorn canceled her magic.

And you can bet I will bring this up again in the future,” she added inwardly.

“So,” Twilight resumed, having calmed down somewhat, “getting back to the subject, how did you find out for sure? I mean, you’ve mentioned to me that you suspect you might be bisexual, but-”

“Really?” Rarity interrupted her with a question. “When did that happen? And why did you discuss this only with Twilight?” she added, turning to Rainbow.

“W-well,” she stammered; Rainbow did promise Twilight to not reveal to the others how Trixie had kissed her, “a while back, Wind tried to mess with me, saying how I was being selfish with… the things I do with Arthas, despite how Twilight feels about him. Even if she had given me her permission;” Rainbow rolled her eyes, then paused and rubbed her chin; “although, since even back then we called the two of them on being stupid…”

Twilight sighed. “Can you please stay on the subject?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Where was I… oh right, Wind being a jerk. After he said all that, he changed into… well, me,” she said, blushing with embarrassment at the memory. “And… he started kissing me. So after I kicked his tail, I went to talk with Twilight about Arthas and if I letting him kiss me when he was a mare was a sign that I might be bisexual.”

“Sounds like that should’ve been the least of yar worries,” Applejack observed. “Ain’t ya forgettin’ that what mare he was at the time?”

Before Rainbow could reply, a loud explosion of laughter draw her and everypony’s attention. Pinkie Pie was rolling on the floor, laughing maniacally. “Oh, I can’t, this is so funny!” she managed to rasp. “I need to start hanging out with Windy more! Think of all the pranks we could pull!”

“Oh goodness, Ponyville is doomed!” Rarity exclaimed, lifting her foreleg to her forehead.

“Yeah…” Rainbow said, looking at the still laughing Pinkie up and down, “good thing I hate the guy, otherwise I would probably join in. And back to him being me,” she added, turning to Applejack, “I was lost in the moment, I bucked his face after a few seconds.”

“‘Lost in the moment’?” Applejack asked, one eyebrow raised.

“I’m hot, what do want from me?” Rainbow shrugged, feeling slightly uncomfortable. “So… do you guys have a problem?”

“With what, dear?” Rarity asked.

“With Hoofington Reapers winning the Cup,” she replied sarcastically. “What have we been talking about the past few minutes? I was asking if you have a problem with me liking mares.”

“Why would you think we would have problem with that?” Fluttershy asked, as if that never occurred to her.

“Well, I dunno, cause you might fear that one day I might make some moves on you or something?” Rainbow answered with a question. “You know, kinda like I had with Applejack when I got drunk? Or how I will with Twi and Arthas- OW!” she shouted as something pulled at her ear.

She glanced to the side to see Twilight horn glowing. The unicorn was looking at her bemused as she released her ear. “Are you going to be like this all the time?”

“I will stop the moment you get together with Arthas,” Rainbow promised (possibly falsely), sticking her tongue at her.

As Twilight groaned and buried her face in her hooves, Rarity cleared her throat. “Moving on for now,” she said, turning to Rainbow, “Rainbow, the fact that you had discovered that you’re bisexual doesn’t matter to us.”

“Like you said, we’re like family,” Fluttershy added, smiling. “We’ll always love you, no matter what.”

Rainbow was touched when everypony else nodded in agreement. “Thanks guys, I’m so relieved,” she said, and realized that her voice shook a bit and there was something wet in her eyes. “Oh great, you made me all sappy…”

Everypony laughed warmly, and Pinkie and Fluttershy went over to hug her. “So,” Applejack asked as she replied to their hugs, “ar ya gonna tell yar folks about it?”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. Until now, it hadn’t occurred to her that she would have to tell her parents about it as well… at some point. “Um, yeah, probably at their funeral,” she said. As five pairs of eyes drilled into her scornfully, she exclaimed: “What? You think it’s going to be easy, just walk up to your parents and basically say that it can be possible they won’t have a grandfoal as I might end up in a relationship with another mare?”

“Oh, you’re finally thinking about taking your love-life seriously?” Rarity asked with excitement. Rainbow facehoofed. “That’s wonderful. Oh, this reminds me; you never actually answered Twilight’s question. About how exactly you found out that you’re bisexual?” she explained, smirking. “It wouldn’t happen to be caused by some lucky mare spending a night of passion with you, would it?”

Rainbow smirked. “Why, as a matter of fact, it would.”

“Is it somepony we know?” Rarity inquired. “And is this something serious, or more alike to your relationship with Arthas… which, on that note, you still haven’t ended, have you?” she added, frowning.

“Ugh, I’m working on it,” Rainbow grunted, not wanting to think about that issue for now. “And no, it’s nothing serious, neither me nor Daring are looking for a relationship.”

“Well- wait,” Twilight stopped, staring at her with wide eyes. “Did you just say ‘Daring’?”

“Yep,” Rainbow replied, smirking.

“As in... ‘Daring Do’, ‘Daring’?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow brushed her mane.

Everypony started at her, now more shocked than when she told them about her bisexuality. “You’re kidding,” Twilight finally recovered.

“And how do you think I knew about her lecture today?” Rainbow replied, raising an eyebrow. As Twilight’s jaw dropped, she shrugged. “Besides, you can ask Arthas later, he-”

“Wait, what?!” Twilight exclaimed, now even more shocked.

“- saw me and Daring leave for my house,” Rainbow finished, rolling her eyes.

She wondered if she should mention to her that Arthas also had a chance to sleep with Daring that night (or rather, with her and Daring), but Rainbow figured it would be funnier if Arthas would tell her himself.

“Oh,” Twilight exclaimed, calming down. “I see… but… how the heck did you even meet Daring Do? She’s not somepony who you can just run into!”

“Storm ran into her within the tunnels of an old diamond dog’s empire under the Everfree Forest.”

Rainbow blinked, surprised. The one who said those words was Rarity. “How could she know that? And besides…” Daring had told Rainbow briefly about how exactly she came to Ponyville, but she did not mention the pegasus paladin.

She wasn’t the only one looking at Rarity with confusion, the others were too. “How do you know that?” she asked, perplexed.

“Because Storm got into those catacombs while searching for a birthday gift for me,” Rarity replied, smiling. “He came to my house last night after all you of you had already left, and I heard about it from him.”

“Was that why he and that other knight fellow were in the town’s market when Zahara started her commotion?” Applejack asked. By now, the others had already heard about the misunderstanding earlier today. “Now that I think about it, they were comin’ from yar boutique's direction.”

“Yes, Knight Guard Shield came to gather Storm-” Rarity started to explain, but Twilight cut her off.

“Oh? So you’re saying that he stayed overnight at your place?” she asked, smirking.

Rainbow giggled as Rarity blushed hearing the subtle accusation. “Twilight, your suggestion offends me,” she said, while Rainbow offered the lavender unicorn a hoof bump. Twilight giggled as well and bumped hooves with her. “He came to my house exhausted and tired, of course I let him sleep at my place, and just sleep,” Rarity added before either Rainbow or Twilight could make another comment. Then, however, the white unicorn surprised everypony by giggling. “Though we are going on a date after the Ponytones performance.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, smiling. “That’s wonderful to hear.”

“Thank you, dear.”

“So,” Rainbow asked, mimicking Rarity’s earlier way of speaking, “is this something serious?”

“Well, I would like to think so,” Rarity confessed. “I really like him, and think he really likes me too-”

“Of course he really likes you, who wouldn’t?” Fluttershy asked, smiling. “Oh, I’m so happy for you, Rarity!”

“Wait,” Twilight suddenly said, gaining everypony’s attention. “Wasn’t Spike sleeping at your place? Did he-”

“Yes, he heard us talking about going on a date,” Rarity sighed. “The poor thing was devastated. I talked with him later, and I think he’s now feeling better. Still, I think it would be best if you would keep an eye on him.”

“Of course I will. I cannot believe I didn’t notice him feeling down,” Twilight chided herself. “Ugh, what a great day to wake up with a hangover.”

“Hey, look at it this way: at least you gave Spike something to worry about,” Rainbow pointed out. “I think it distracted him from his own feelings.”

“Well, seeing as I don’t plan on getting another hangover anytime soon, I will have to think of something else,” Twilight replied, shaking her head. “And since letting him be alone is probably not going to help, how about we start going? The performance can’t start without you, anyway,” she nodded at Rarity.

“Indeed, darling, let us go.”

As everypony started heading towards the door, Rainbow Dash trotted to Rarity. “So,” she whispered conspiratorially, “Storm, huh?”

Rarity turned to her with confusion. “Yes, why- NO!” she exclaimed as she realized what Rainbow was alluding to.

Rainbow Dash erupted with laughter. “Geez, relax, I was just kidding,” she managed to say.

The unicorn huffed. “You’re horrible, you know that?”


“C’mon, tell me what you meant!” Spike tried again, becoming more and more frustrated.

“Spike, if asking me eleven times didn’t manage to get an answer out of me, why would you think the twelfth time would work?” Arthas asked, glancing back at the baby dragon sitting on his back as they made their way through the crowd. Noticing the girls in the corner of his eye, he added: “Now hush, the others are here.”

Spike thought reluctantly before nodding in agreement. Arthas resisted an urge to chuckle; he was adorable when he pouted like that.

“Hello girls,” he greeted Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and, a bit surprisingly, Nymph, who was sticking close to the timid pegasus. “Seeing how Rarity is not here, I’m guessing that the performance is about to start?”

“Looks like it,” Twilight replied as she trotted next to him, letting Spike jump from Arthas’ back to hers. “Lets try to see if we can find some space next to the stage.”

As Twilight led the way, and the others followed, trying to get through the crowd, Arthas moved so that he would walk beside Rainbow. His earlier talk with Spike, coupled with the events of a last few days (not to mention the threat from the incarnation of the Sun), finally gave him the push he needed to do something he should have done a while ago.

Actually, scratch that,” Arthas corrected himself. “I shouldn’t have done any of that in the first place.

Taking a deep breath, he leaned to Rainbow. “Hey, Rainbow?” he whispered. “Can we talk after the concert?”

The pegasus glanced at him. After a second, her eyes widened. “You want to break our deal?” she asked, sounding surprised.

Arthas' jaw dropped. “Um…” he stammered, trying to figure out how just how exactly Rainbow had guessed that based on just that one sentence.

His confusion only deepened as Rainbow started giggling. “And what exactly is so funny?” he asked, starting to get embarrassed.

“Sorry, not that,” Rainbow whispered back. “I sorta wanted to break our deal myself.”

“R-really?” Arthas asked, surprised.

He wasn’t sure how to feel about that one.

“We’ll talk about it after the concert, okay?”

Arthas smiled. “Sure,” he said, realizing that he felt somewhat relieved.

Since Rainbow herself wanted to break their little deal, it looked that the talk he planned to have would be much less awkward than he feared. Maybe more embarrassing, but…

Shaking his head, he stopped to stand beside his friends, as the Ponytones (Rarity, Big Macintosh, and two ponies Arthas was only vaguely familiar with, Toe-Tapper and Torch Song) started getting on the stage.


“That was wonderful,” Fluttershy exclaimed much later as the concert had ended.

Arthas had to agree with her. He was really impressed with the four ponies’ performance. They all had beautiful singing voices, and they sung in perfect sync. And Big Mac was the most surprising of all.

Who would have thought that a stallion who says so little could sing so well,” Arthas thought as he applauded together with the rest of the crowd.

It looked that Applejack was of a similar opinion. “Can’t wait to congratulate that brother of mine,” she said, as the crowd had began to disperse. “He sounded better than ever.”

Maybe he had a good motivation this time,” Arthas thought with amusement, glancing at Nymph.

He twitched his ears as he heard Fluttershy speak to Applejack. “Oh, um, this reminds me,” the shy pegasus started. “Rarity told me at the spa earlier that the Ponytones’ members will be hanging out later after the concert, so Big Mac will probably be busy.”

“Oh, really?” Applejack asked, surprised. “Huh, he didn’t mention it me. Well then,” she said, turning to the others, “Ah guess Ah’ll go home. Gotta prepare for tomorrow and all.”

Everypony wished her good night as she went to gather her sister. As soon as she was out of earshot, Nymph sighed. “I really wish we could avoid lying to her…”

“Me too, but you heard what Rarity had said-” Fluttershy started to tell her, but Twilight interrupted her.

“Wait, what’s going on?”

“Um…” Nymph stammered. “I’m… going on a date with Big Mac.”

“Really?!” Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie and Spike exclaimed at the same time.

“Um, yes,” Nymph replied, blushing. “And Rarity said that Applejack would need some time to get used to the idea, so…”

“Yeah, it’s probably for the best if she learns about it later,” Twilight said. “She really seems overprotective of her sister sometimes, Light knows how she would react if she knew about you going on a date with her brother.”

“You really shouldn’t comment on others being overprotective of their siblings, you know,” Arthas pointed out, smirking. “Remember the wedding in Canterlot?”

“Oh, for the-” Twilight glared at him as the others chuckled. “I was right. Wasn’t I?” she glanced meaningfully at Nymph, who smiled nervously. Twilight shook her head, ignoring the laughter. “In any case,” she said, “don’t let us keep you. Go on and have a fun night with Big Mac.”

“Thank you, Twilight, I will. Goodnight,” she said to everypony as she began to trot away towards the back of the stage.

“I’ll also go, I need to get up early tomorrow,” Fluttershy told the other, and after they exchanged farewells she also left.

“Well, it’ll be a fun day when Applejack learns of this,” Rainbow commented looking in the direction where Nymph went. “Think it’ll put an end to her suspicions of Nymph planning something nasty?”

“Probably not,” Twilight groaned. “Think you could try together with Rarity to warm her up to Nymph and changelings during your camping trip?”

“How am I supposed to do that when I hate the only other changeling around?” Rainbow asked, then blinked around. “Come to think of it, where is Wind? I haven’t seen him since Nymph healed his injuries.”

“You know, now that you’ve mentioned it,” Arthas started, also looking around, “I think I haven’t seen him the whole day. Could you look for him?” he asked, turning to Rainbow.

The pegasus frowned. “Why me?”

“I know you dislike him, Rainbow, but you’ll have the best chance of finding him, given how you fast you are,” he praised her, knowing only too well that it was the easiest way to get her to do something. “Also,” he added, having only just now noticed this himself, “Pinkie already left.”

“What?” Rainbow exclaimed, and looked to her side where the pink pony used to be. “Oh, that sneaky… ugh, fine, whatever, I’ll look for him,” she said, resigned. “I think I can guess where he went to, anyway. We’ll talk later,” she added quietly, so that only Arthas heard her. “But you can assume we have officially broken up, if you need to,” she said, nodding at something beside him as she spread her wings.

Confused, Arthas looked behind him, to see that Rainbow was pointing at Twilight. Annoyed and embarrassed, he turned back to Rainbow, but the cyan mare had already flew away. All he could do was sigh at defeat.

“Now that the others are gone,” he started, turning to Twilight, “how do you feel? You weren’t exactly in top shape when I left you at home.”

His words caused the lavender mare to blush fiercely. “Um about that…” she stammered. “How… I mean… I don’t remember anything after you opened the door,” she confessed, looking down on the ground. “What… what exactly happened?”

Arthas was glad she wasn’t looking at him. Thanks to that, she missed the relief on his face. “Oh, nothing bad. I guided you to your bed, brought a bucket just in case, and left.”

Twilight looked up at him, ears perked. “Really? Oh, I’m so relieved… I was afraid I did or said something stupid,” she confessed, smiling awkwardly.

“No, you didn’t,” Arthas lied. His eyes moved to Spike, who was sitting on Twilight’s back and was giving him a meaningful stare. Sighing, he started: “Twilight, listen-”

However, in that exact same moment, he was interrupted. And what made this even more annoying than the act of interruption usually was, was that it was caused by two people who were actually pushing him to talk with Twilight in the first place.

With only a cough as warning, Spike burped out a small green flame, that quickly materialized into a letter from Celestia.

Twilight, who was as surprised as he was, grabbed the letter with her magic. “A letter from Princess Celestia at this hour?” she murmured as she broke the seal and unrolled the scroll. “That’s odd…”

Arthas gave her a moment to read the letter, while Spike tried to glance from behind her. When her eyes widened with surprise, he asked. “What does it say?”

Twilight looked at him. “She wants to see both of us tomorrow morning in Canterlot.”


“Well, that’s taken care of,” Celestia said as she burned the scroll she had just finished writing with green flames, sending it to Spike.

“I must admit, I didn’t expect this matter to be resolved so quickly,” Luna said. “Or that we would be seeing Arthas so soon… together with your student, no less.”

Celestia nodded in agreement. They were still within Luna’s bedchambers. The news brought by Raven, and their repercussions, took priority over starting a night court or other businesses, and required their utmost attention.

“Everything else aside, it will be nice to see those two,” she commented as Luna nuzzled her daughter. “Maybe they will finally realize that they should just be together.”

“Oh, they probably will,” Luna replied, shrugging. “I was talking with Arthas the previous day, and he mentioned that he plans on breaking his ‘deal’ with Rainbow Dash.”

Her sister’s words made Celestia stare at her with eyes wide as plates. “R-Really?” she asked, shocked.

So I didn't need to meddle…” she realized, suddenly feeling really stupid.

“Yes, so it probably means he finally decided to buck up, as they say,” Luna replied, unaware of her sister’s embarrassment.

“Ugh, you could have told me that before...” Celestia started, only to stop as she noticed the sharp look Luna gave her.

“‘Before’ what, sister?” she asked, frowning.

For the first time in literal ages, Celestia felt like a small filly that was about to get scolded. “W-well… I might have, sort of… tried to give Arthas a little push…”

Not wanting to make this situation longer than it needed to be, she quickly told Luna about what happened after she left the Abbey. When she was done, her sister was gazing at her with disappointment. “You know,” she finally said once Celestia was done, “I would be willing to bet that some ponies believe me to enjoy it when you mess something up…”

“Oh, would you stop it?” Celestia interrupted her. “What was I supposed to do? Wait until Twilight would realize how she really feels about the stallion she loves bucking with one of her best friends? I dread to think how it would have ended.”

Luna groaned. “Well, glossing over how the thousand year old Virgin Princess shouldn’t give relationship advice-”

She was interrupted by a pillow hitting her straight in the head. Celetia, who had flung it, managed to speak calmly: “I am not having that discussion with you, sister.”

“And why, exactly?”

“When have you noticed that Moonlight’s father was in love with you?”

Celestia comment made the smug expression disappear from Luna’s face. The younger alicorn looked away, not able to meet her sister’s gaze. “When he told me,” she said.

Sighing, Celestia laid beside her sister. “I’m sorry if bringing Bolt up brought you pain,” she started, but Luna shook her head.

“No, quite opposite in fact. It made me remember how happy I was when he first kissed me… stupid stallion,” she murmured, smiling. Sighing, she turned to Celestia. “Very well, sister, you’re right; I am not much smarter in those matters than you. But you must still admit that unleashing your powers on Arthas did not serve to help him and Twilight; rather, it seems to me you wanted to take out your frustrations on him.”

“Can you blame me?” Celestia asked, sighing. “He and Twilight are being so silly… honestly, at this point, I think it would take a miracle to finally make them see that they are meant to be together.”

Luna nodded, understanding her sister’s frustration. She, too, wanted to see Arthas and Twilight become a couple. She even considered finding some pretense to send both of them to the Moon for a few days.

A miracle, huh?” she repeated in her thoughts what her sister had said, as she took her daughter into her forelegs.

The tiny filly was dozing off, even though knowing her she was going to wake up halfway through the night, and would fall to sleep again in the middle of the day.

As she looked at her daugher, Luna realized something. Smirking, she glanced at her sister. “Tia? Are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

Celestia looked at her with confusion, not understanding, until her eyes laid on the foal. “Oh, little sister,” she whispered as she smiled and began to giggle, “you are truly evil.”

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