The Restless Dead Awake
Within the far north someone awoke; the ice covering him had finally been shattered.
‘How long was I asleep?’ he asked himself, placing his hands on his head. His head was pounding with the memories of two, no, three lives. It took a few minutes, but his mind finally settled.
It had been nearly ten thousand years since he was frozen in ice on the Frozen Throne.
Getting up stiffly, he pulled out the blade near him. Frostmourne, the soul stealing sword. He could feel the souls of all he had slain. All who stood against him. He heard a moan behind him and turned to it.
An elf was sitting up slowly, but she looked lifeless: red eyes, pale blue skin, an elven bow strapped to her back and elven ranger armor. She looked to the man clad in armor and asked, “What happened?”
A urge came over him to kill the elf- the banshee, as he knew her. However, he pushed it back and answered, “We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years, Sylvanas.”
“Yeah, I can see that. What happened before we got frozen?” she asked.
He stood there in thought. What happened before that? It was a blur now that he thought about it.
“All I remember is something about a sibling fight, ice creatures, and a lot of fire.”
All around the area were bones, carcasses, weapons and husks of broken war machines. The man could still feel the carcasses’ essence still there, just enough to reanimate them.
The man had another surge of memories, one stood out, it showed him raising his hand over a pile of bones and skeletons, ghouls and nerubians coming back to life and bowing down before him. He looked around and sent out a command to them, “Get us free.” The dead did as he said and began to cut into the ice. A blizzard could be seen through the hole they tore through the ice.
Both of them walked out and saw nothing around for miles. Another rush of memories came to the man; it showed a giant castle rising out of the ground with him standing with both his arms raised and dozens of frost wyrms flying around it. He knelt down and wiped away the snow from his feet. This one hadn’t been asleep. He pulled out his runeblade, gathering up energy.
With a thrust into the ice his sword broke through, sending magic into the bones. Massive cracks formed in the ice as the skeletal form of a massive dragon shot out. The giant frost wyrm took off down a cliff and into a canyon of ice. The snow and ice glowed as the sleeping undead awoke.
Sylvanas looked around as the voices of screams echoed in the winds. The distant spectres of banshees had seen the great dragon being raised.
“Mistress! You are awake at last,” one of them whispered with her echoing voice.
“Yes, yes I am,” Sylvanas replied.
“What happened here?” the man asked the banshee.
“In the time you both have been frozen, the old citadel is in disrepair, but as for the outside world we have no idea. Most of the Forsaken have left, and the only beings who last visited this land were a creature calling himself a Draconequus and a Mok’Nathal called Rexxar.”
“What did this Mok’Nathal look like?” Sylvanas asked.
“He was wearing a large bear skin over much of his body when we saw him, though we did see that he had a bear with him that he called Misha.” The banshee answered.
The man walked to a clearing so as not to eavesdrop on their conversation. He felt a power inside him urging him to raise Icecrown once again. He raised his arms, and an earthquake befell the tundra. A giant crack broke through the ice, and a castle the size of a mountain shot out a few miles ahead. It was in great disrepair, but the ice had preserved most of it.
A high pitched neigh broke his focus as a skeletal horse galloped and stopped right in front of him. “Invincible, it’s good to see you,” he told the undead horse. Sylvanas turned to her banshee; her forsaken were lost and needed to be found.
Far away in the forests of Everfree a strange creature looked over two globes. His body was mismatched with the head of a goat, the long body of snake, one of his arms was a lion's paw and his other a bird talon. His legs were the same, with one foot being reptilian and the other of a horse. Finally his tail was draconic. He was wearing a cloak over his body.
His name was Discord, the spirit of Chaos.
He looked up for a moment, feeling a change in the winds. He stood up and pressed his staff on the ground its gems dangling as he looked into them. “So it seems the ancient dead have awoken,” he smirked seeing visions from within.
He smiled, seeing from each gem a different possibility. “Things are getting interesting, perhaps I should inform someone... but who?” he asked as he ran his talon through his goatee. Looking up into the sun he smiled. “Of course Tia and Lulu.” He said with a smile. With his hands raised he disappeared with a snap appearing in the palace of Canterlot.
Discord walked for a bit until he finally found the two rulers of Equestria. They both were draped in silk dresses. However they each seemed to look like opposites. Celestia was a white Alicorn, who was taller than her sister, with an ethereal four colored mane. Luna was a blue, smaller Alicorn who Ethereal mane was like the night sky. “Ah, just the two I wanted to see.” Celestia turned to face him. Pushing a strand of her hair back.
“Discord, what brings you here?” She asked.
“I felt a change in the Forces of Magic, the frozen cold of death has awaken, after so long and I feel that the world will soon be changing.” Discord said cryptically.
“Sister we must inform everyone in the council about this.” Luna requested.
“Very well, I will.” Celestia sent letters to all the members, before both of them teleported to the old castle in the Everfree.
They arrived in the throne room where a round table was set up and seated there was Chrysalis the Changeling Queen, Magma Bronzebeak the Griffin King, Steel Heart the Minotaur King, the Dragon Queen Drages, the Diamond Dog Shaman Rex, and finally came the Yak Prince. The Council of Everfree was assembled.
”So what’s so urgent?” Chrysalis asked. She was dressed in a outfit that seemed to be as bug like as she was. She had come with her wings and holes gone via her shape-shifting abilities.
“I felt a disturbance in the forces of magic.” Discord answered.
“What is it this time?” Drages asked. She was golden scaled, wearing exotic gems and jewels, her outfit was an elegant looking dress that was covered in light armor. “Is it related to those other Dragons? Or is it Stormweaver Island?”
“No it’s up in the north, I feel the dead rising back to life.” Discord stated.
“So the undead are walking the planet already what’s different about now?” Rex asked. He was a red-furred diamond dog with bear furs and totems.. He looked on at the others. Unlike most of the others, he wasn’t the leader of his people but he was influential.
“What’s different is that the force I felt was able to shift the forces of magic,” Discord clarified.
“So what? Us griffins can just beat them back into the grave.” Magma boasted, holding his hammer in his talons. He was dressed for battle it seemed, with armor forged with the finest and most expensive gems and craftsmanship.
“You griffins are so brash. We must rely on tactics rather than brute force.” Steel Heart said. He was dressed casually in leather armor, with one broken horn. His eyes bore scars of battle.
“Oh really? What, you want to sit and wait for them to attack us?” Magma asked.
“No, I just don’t think charging in without a plan is a terrible idea.” Steel Heart said calmly.
“Can we not fight? Look, whatever problems you have can be settled outside this meeting.” Rex commented.
“Very well.” Magma finished.
“Now then, any ideas for what we should do?” Chrysalis asked.
“How about we send an expedition instead, to look into it?” Luna asked.
“That’s actually a good idea,” Discord agreed, “They will be there to scout and see how much of a threat the undead pose. If they are an immediate threat we can focus our full might on them.”
“Very well, we shall each send a caravan to the frozen north.” Celestia said.
“I can’t send any dragons there. Our Ice Dragons mysteriously vanished the last time we sent them there for gems.” Drages said.
“Hmm yes, that happened shortly after those “Other” Dragons started appearing.” Celestia agreed.
“Perhaps, Tia, you can send with them some of the Sunwalkers, may haps one of the more talented of them?” Discord asked.
“Very well.” Celestia finished.
They all departed and went back to their own kingdoms, but Drages was on the brink of crying. She remembered when her consort and son joined the expedition to look for gems, but never came back.
In the Canterlot barracks a white Unicorn was busy in a sparring match. His opponent held two swords in his hands while he held his own. As the warrior came for the strike his attack was met with a bubble of light. The unicorn took the opening and disarmed his opponent with his sword pointed to his neck. “That wasn’t fair using the Light you know!” The warrior screamed at him.
“In a real fight expect anything, remember that.” a messenger came up.
“Sir Shining Armor, I come bearing a message for your eyes only.” The Unicorn removed his helmet and took the sealed letter. Shining opened it and read it to himself.
“Sir what is it?” a guard asked.
“Get the other Sunwalkers, we are needed by the Princesses.” Shining ordered.
“Sir yes sir!” the guard ran out the door.
The sunwalkers lined up as they were soon greeted by Princess Celestia. “Princess.” Shining said giving a bow.
“Shining Armor, it’s good to see you,” Celestia looked over at the assembly. “There’s to be an expedition to the north, Discord believes something has awoken, and I would like you, with a few Sunwalker knights to go with them.”
“Yes Princess” Shining bowed, before he turned to a few of his best knights. They boarded the chariots and flew off to the rest of the expedition.
Princess Celestia’s face turned grim and said “If they are back I must prepare.” she walked back into the castle to tell Twilight about the expedition. As she entered back to her study she pulled out a book. Hearing about the undead caused her to pull out the book. This book was written by a Forsaken and told of their leaders. Celestia began to write it down for her prized student.
Back up north the Citadel was being fixed up as shades scouted out. “The shades have informed us that much of the ice around us is mostly inhabited, however there seems to be a lair to the far east that has shown signs of it being used.” a dead, spider-like being reported.
“Thank you Anub’arak,” The Lich King said.
“Has there been any sign of the Forsaken?” Sylvanas asked.
“No my lady, however we are only looking out around the area. It is possible they have moved out across the world while you slept.”
She dismissed the Nerubian and it burrowed back underground, moving across the landscape with others searching for signs of the Forsaken. A shade came floating in. “Forgive me for intruding, but I have come across strange astral beings made of ice. I followed them for a bit, and as I came back, the blizzard weakened and I discovered what appeared to have been ruins of a town long frozen.”
“Do you know the way?” Sylvanas asked.
“I do, my lady.” the shade stated.
“Then take me there.”
“As you command.”
Sylvanas followed the shade. After a few hours, it led her to a town, with what looked like anthropomorphic horse corpses strew across the roads all the way to the square. There were blue shade-like beings in the shapes of horses floating everywhere.
“Strange, these corpses are not like anything I have seen before.” Sylvanas said, the cold had slowed the decay and almost mummified the remains.
She could sense their souls still lingering the town, but fused with another unidentifiable source.
‘Those shade-like beings must be the souls of these corpses.’ Sylvanas thought. One of them looked down at her, before ignoring her, flying off into the cold. ‘Either that, or they must have caused this.’
Without a word the Elf and and the shade left the town. When she got back, she saw the Citadel was getting more lively (or as lively as undead could get). More of the undead were found and brought back. Walking back into the chambers of the Citadel, where reconstruction was being planned. “So, what did you find?” Arthas asked.
“An old town, with a lot of frozen mummified corpses. There seemed to have been a settlement here in the time we were frozen.” Sylvanas answered.
“Hmm, I’ll send a Skeleton Mage there to raise the corpses into undeath.” He said as he looked over what was a crude map of what they know. He was deep in thought, while many of the forces were being recovered not all of them could be. For now they had to enforce their position and scout out for potential ‘recruits’ like the town they had found.
Afterwards, they can scout out the world get familiarized and then forge their place. “I’m going to retire for the day.” Sylvanas said as a nod of acknowledgement was given to her, and she headed for her chambers.