• 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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38. Old problem

Matt ran fast towards Sweet Apple Acres, not giving the others time to catch up with him, both because he was worried about whatever it was that caused Big Mac to come running for help, as well as because he didn't want to find out what a unicorn that was able to maintain a barrier around Canterlot all by himself could do to a stallion that he thought had slept with his sister.

He felt a bit guilty about leaving Twilight to explain all of that to Shining Armor by herself, especially with Brann who was, undoubtedly, still laughing, but he would make it up to her later. He also needed to talk to Spike; this time he really overdid it. Although, since Spike didn't understand what his words were implying...

"Okay, I am NOT having a talk about the birds and the bees with a baby dragon!"

Matt shook his head, noticing that he finally reached Applejack’s house. He slowed down, thankful for the Light refreshing him during the long run. Matthias trotted over to the door and knocked.

"Oh, thank goodness ya're here." Granny Smith exclaimed as she opened the door for him.

"Applejack and the others will be along shortly." Matt told her, nodding his head in a greeting as he walked in. "What happened? Big Mac mentioned something about Apple Bloom."

"Well, ya best see for yerself. She's upstairs in her room, with her friends."

Matthias looked at her, raising an eyebrow, but didn't ask any questions, and instead turned towards the stairs and went upstairs. As he entered the corridor, he saw the heads of Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo poking out from one of the rooms.

"Matt, come quickly!" they both said, with fear on their faces, and beckoned with their hooves.

Now Matthias was starting to get worried. What could have possibly happened to Applebloom?

"Can somepony please explain to me what happened?" he asked as he trotted over to them.

They both moved to let him enter. Matt glanced at the bed.

His jaw dropped.


"I swear that's what happened." Twilight told her brother.

They well all running towards Sweet Apple Acres, although they hadn’t managed to catch up with Matt yet. It took them a bit to leave the library, with all that ruckus, and with Big Macintosh nearly fainting. They tried to ask him about what happened, but he said that they had to see it for themselves. And so they left, leaving Spike to look after Big Mac until he would have rested and joined them back at the farm.

Recalling about the dragon, Twilight made a mental note to have a chat with him. And with Matt.

"I can’t believe he just ran off like this!" Twilight thought, angry that the stallion left her to explain to her brother and sister-in-law about what happened a month ago.

"You're sure that you're telling the truth?" Shining Armor asked, glancing at her.

"Yes! Matt and I are just friends, for pony’s sake!" she told him, and at once, glared back at him: "And while we're at it, I would like to point out that it's none of your business if I have a special somepony or not."

"Like it wasn't your business about who I was marrying?" her brother bit back.

"That was different!" Twilight said, not believing that he brought up that incident before the wedding. "She was an imposter!"

"Well, you didn't know that at the time."

She was about to reply, when Brann laughed again.

"I'm starting to like this place more and more." he said, panting.

"How can you run so fast on just two legs?" asked Rainbow Dash, who's been flying over their heads, to the dwarf with confusion on her face.

The dwarfed laughed in response.

"Lass, ye have no idea how often I had to run in my life. Usually there is something huge chasing me, though."

Twilight glanced at the dwarf. She felt a bit uneasy with him tagging along, but he offered to help, so they had let him join them. Still, everypony that they passed by were staring at Brann with wide eyes, which made her a bit uncomfortable.

When they finally reached Applejack's family's farm, she was out of breath, as well as a few others.

"Wow. That's a lot of apple trees." Brann remarked.

"Thanks’." Applejack replied with pride in her voice.

"Applejack, do you know anything about what could have happened to Apple Bloom?" Twilight asked her as they made their way to the door.

"Well, she did say that she was sick when Ah knocked on her door and tried to wake her up in the morning." the farm pony replied, worried. "She sounded as if she had a sore throat, so Ah figured Ah could let her sleep."

"I hope this is nothing serious." whispered Fluttershy.

"Ah hope so, too." Applejack said, as they all entered her family's house. "She's probably upstairs, in her room. All of us won't fit in there, so ya'll make yourself comfortable, Ah will go check on'er."

"I'm going too." Twilight said.

Applejack nodded and they went up the stairs. When they reached the top, they nearly bumped into Scootaloo.

"We heard you enter. Come in." she said as she ran back into Apple Bloom’s room, from which was emanating a golden glow, that was without a doubt Matt's doing.

Twilight and Applejack exchanged glances. They both noticed the strange expression on the young pegasus's face. After a second of hesitation, they went into the room. Inside, there was Granny Smith, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Matthias, who had his forelegs stretched over the bed, and in the bed, basked in the Light, was...

The two mares looked wide-eyed at Apple Bloom, who they recognized only by her bow. On the bed was laying not a filly, but a mare that was well past her youth. Applejack's younger sister now looked older than Granny Smith!

"What happened?!" Twilight asks as soon as she manages to find her voice.

Applejack just continued to stare at her sister.

"Ah... Ah don't know." Apple Bloom answered with a rusty voice. "Ah woke up this mornin' and I was old!"

"Why ya didn't tell me 'bout it?!" Applejack asked her.

"Ah... Ah thought that maybe it would end sometime later. And Ah didn't want anypony see me." she answered, cowering under her coverlet, thinking that Applejack was mad at her.

"We found out that she... was like this, when we'd broken through the window when she refused to come out." told them Scootaloo.

Twilight glanced at Matt, who, through the entire conversation, kept his eyes closed as he concentrated on his prayers.

"Can’t the Light help her?" she asked him.

He shook his head.

"I thought that this was some sort of curse, but it seems... natural." he said, as he lowered his forelegs and opened his eyes.

"Ya're tellin' me mah sister aged 'naturally' by eighty years in one night?!"

"Twilight, do you know any spells that could help?" Matt asked, ignoring Applejack's question.

"I... don't know. Maybe." she answered.

There were few spells that could alter the age of pony. She ran them through her mind, and picked the one that should work. Twilight closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and aimed her now glowing horn at Apple Bloom. The violet aura enveloped her... only to disappear without doing anything.

"It didn't work." Twilight unnecessarily stated, surprised.

"Then again, if even the Light can't heal her..."

"Ya hav'to do somethin'!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, starting to panic. "Ah can't be so old and still not have a cutie mark!"

Twilight rolled her eyes, wondering how could that be the only thing the old filly could think about.

"I will teleport back to library and look if there is something in my books." she said, backing away. "I will also send Rainbow to fetch Zecora."

"Good idea." Matt commented, once again lifting his front hooves. "I will try again with the prayers; it can't hurt, at least."

Twilight nodded and made her way down, wondering what could have caused this. If that spell she used didn't work, then it couldn't be any of the aging spells. Maybe it was some sort of disease?

"No, Matt have said that Light could cure almost all diseases." she thought, shaking her head.

"So, what happened?" everypony asked her as soon as she entered the main room of the house.

"Something caused Apple Bloom to age dramatically. She appears older than Granny Smith now."

Everypony looked at her, surprised. Except for the dwarf.

"When ye say 'appears' do ye mean, she looks aged, or that she was aged?" Brann asked in a voice that spoke of experience.

"Eww... I think the latter, she also sounded old, but I didn't check." Twilight answered, raising an eyebrow. "Why do you ask? Have you already seen something like this?"

"Well, aging somebody is not uncommon back on Azeroth." the dwarf replied. "Warlocks can suck away someone's youth, or, for that matter, life, and use them to heal themselves, and there was one mage that once cursed a friend of mine and made him look old, but other than that, he was physically as strong as before, and magically even more."

"Do you know how to cure it? Matt tried asking the Light, but it didn't seem to work, as well as my spell."

"Well, if it was something like the warlock thing, then we could technically restore her youth by making the warlock reverse the process."

"Technically?" Twilight asked, suspecting what he meant by that.

"Nobody had tried that before." Brann admitted, confirming her suspicion.

"Great." she frowned, and then sighed. "We still don't know how it happened, so we will worry about that later. Rainbow!" Twilight said, addressing the cyan mare. "Go to Zecora and tell her what happened. We might need her help."

"On it!" the pegasus saluted, and flew away.

"Wow, she's fast." Brann commented.

"I'm going to my library, to see if I can find anything useful." Twilight told the rest of her friends.

"I will go upstairs." Cadance said, getting everypony's attention. "Maybe my magic could heal her, or at least make her feel better."

"Great idea." Twilight told her sister-in-law, smiling, but she soon gotten back to being serious. "Okay, everypony, I'll see you in a few moments."

And with that, she teleported herself back to her library.


Matthias concentrated, trying to find anything in Apple Bloom that spoke of some sort of anomaly. But he found nothing. There was no wound, either of body or of soul, no sign of disease, no curse... She appeared to be fine.

"I don't understand this." Matt confessed, although he still kept basking her in the Light. He didn't know if it was helping in anyway, but it did calm her.

"What'ya mean 'don't understand this'?!" Applejack asked him.

Matt knew she was angry only because she was worried about her sister, but she wasn't exactly helping right now.

"Are you sure nothing strange happened to you yesterday?" he asked Apple Bloom.

"Ah already told'ya, we were at the school, after that Ah helped Applejack paint the barn, and later, we all tried mud wrestlin' to see if we would earn our cutie marks!"

"Mud wrestlin'?" her sister asked her with wide eyes. "Who the hay told ya'll to try that one?"

"Can we please focus here?" Matthias said, although that was the same reaction he had when the fillies told him that.

Noticing that he could hear the sound of hoofsteps coming, Matthias glanced at the door, and saw Princess Cadance coming in.

"May I come in?" she asked.

"Sure, Princess." Applejack replied, startled by her voice. She cleared her throat. "That's my grandma, Granny Smith."

"Nice to meet you." Cadance told the old mare pleasantly, but she added. "I just wish that the circumstances were different."

"Likewise." Granny Smith said, bowing as much as she could in her age.

Cadance turned to the three fillies, one of which seemed as old, if not older, than Granny.

"Hello, girls. How are you feeling, Apple Bloom?"

"As if mah name should be 'Apple Wither'." the old filly chuckled. "Ah feel better when Matt is doing that Light thing of his."

Matt rolled his eyes at her words. But still, if it was helping her, he wouldn't stop to preach her.

"I thought that maybe my magic could help you." Cadance said, coming closer. "Do you mind if I try?"

"Not at all, Yar Highness."

Cadance closed her eyes and lowered her horn, which was now glowing with a blue energy which also surrounded the filly. Matt glanced at her, wondering if Cadance's...

"How did Twilight describe it?" Matt thought. "Love-spreading spell?"

Anyway, it seemed that her efforts brought similar results to Matt's.

"Ah feel even better now!" Apple Bloom said, her spirit returning to her voice. "Do Ah look youn' again?"

"No." Scootaloo told her sadly.

"U-oh." Apple Bloom winced.

Cadance glanced at Matt, who shrugged his arms in response. Both of them continued their efforts, hoping that either Twilight or Zecora would have some solution.

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