Over the next few week the civil war was fought. Both sides not making any progress, for neither had too great an advantage. The cold winters were growing worse, and the casualties were numbering in the thousands. Twilight, being the head of magic at Canterlot was not taught magic for warfare, so was not of much help to Lord Dawn, so he turned to seeking out the outlawed practitioners of magic, the old ones who tampered with forces that were forbidden. They had all been locked away hundreds of years ago, in a tomb under the palace, given immortality for their mastery over these magics.

Lord Dawn walked down the ancient winding stone staircase, with five guards accompanying him to help with any heavy lifting. They came to a large stone wall with many arcane symbols engraved on it. He walked up to the wall and placed his hand on it. His veins began to glow as he channelled his magic into the runes. He removed his hand and stepped back as the wall began to move aside with the sound of stone grinding against stone. A stench so foul thrusting itself upon Lord Dawn and the guards, all except Dawn recoiling from the horrid scent. He walked forward into the burial room, hearing a crunch as he stepped in.

The guards all looked to the floor with their lanterns to see the ground was packed with bones and the walls were lined with skulls. “What is this place milord?”, one of the guards asked in slight fear.

Dawn walked over to the center of the room, “This is where Celestia locked away five powerful magic users… She feared their potential, and stopped them by locking them in the royal tomb and binding the door. The bind had grown weaker with her gone, I am about to offer them amnesty for their services…”, Dawn explained to the acknowledgeable guards.

“But, Milord, they are dead…”

“They are merely asleep, preferring to keep close to their passion, they sleep in their own special way known as a ‘Death Trance.’ Their power does not fade with time this way… Now each of you, stand at the head of a tomb.”, Dawn commanded.

The guards all walked over to the heads of each stone coffin, as ordered. They were unsure what would happen, so they readied themselves.

Dawn charged up his magic, placing his hand on each of the coffins and pulsing magic into each one. Once he finished with the coffins, he looked to the guards, who were ready to open the tombs on Dawn’s order, “Open them…”, he ordered.

Each of the guards barely cracked open the tombs before a flow of dark green energy shot out in a torrent and struck each of them. The all screamed in terror and pain at first, soon feeling weak and being unable to make a sound as they began to shrivel up into dried husks of what they once were.

Lord Dawn stood unflinching at the sight of the guards being killed in such a horrid fashion.

Each of the tomb’s lids slid off onto the floor. Out from each tomb rose a man with Dark Blue hair, pale skin, and red eyes; A woman with silver hair, pale skin, and Green eyes; A man with black hair, skin that was pale and he was skinny enough that one could see his bones through his skin, his eyes were also completely white; another man rose with red hair and green eyes; and the last to rise was a man with purple hair and purple eyes.

The man with white eyes looked to Dawn, who was bowing to them, “I see that one of our own has summoned us back from the grave… Is it time our plans come to fruition? Or have you come to inform us that you have failed and you require assistance?”, his voice was raspy and sounded like it tore at his throat, but he seemed to not be bothered by it.

“The age old plan has come to fruition, there is a civil war and they are beginning to spill their own blood. We are sure that the ritual will have many to rise…”, Dawn explained while looking only at the floor, not considering himself worthy of looking upon the five elders.

“Well done, young fledgling, you will have a place in the new world. We will wash over this land in a tide of death and make sure this land will become a paradise for our followers like you… Now go, we require some time to accustom ourselves to being waking beings once more…”

“As you wish, Master…”, Lord Dawn said as he backed away. He walked back up the staircase into his private chambers that once belonged to Celestia.

“Looks like the awakening was successful…”, a man with coal-coloured hair spoke to Dawn as he entered the room.

“Have you risen their new hero?”, Dawn turned to him.

“I cast the spell a while back, War Heart should rise soon, he will not remember anything when we arrive and brief him on ‘Who he is.’”, The man said with a smirk.

“Excellent… You should take care of that soon. With him as an animated corpse that is so powerful, we will be unstoppable.”, Dawn smiled.

“I will go pick him up now…”, The man declared as he vanished in flash of pale green light.

The man teleported to the base of the mountain where War Heart was buried. He concentrated for a moment before teleporting to the top a smirk still on his face. When he arrived at the peak he saw the grave was dug up and empty. His expression turned to one of shock, “Oh no… He’s not here…? He’s going to rise any moment now and now he might be in the hands of someone that is our enemy…”, he paced as he pondered on where he could have been taken.

Twilight was in her room reading one of the novels she had packed, this one afternoon was rather peaceful for her, she was able to actually calm down enough to read in bed.

The black feather that she had picked up the night before floated off the dresser she had placed it on, beginning to glow green.

Twilight turned to the feather, putting down her book as she looked at it quizzically, “What the-? What is this?”, she asked herself.

The feather began to shine brighter as bits of bone formed around the point, rapidly showing form of a wing that grew a spine attached to it. There was a faint sound of screaming that could be heard by Twilight that was almost haunting. The bones soon formed a full skeleton. Twilight backed away in horror as the scream was now loud enough for her to clearly hear. She backed up into the wall out of fear of what was happening. The bones stopped forming and flesh seemed to just grow upon the bones, the screams were ones of agony. After a moment the flesh was covered by skin and hair was grown back in the form of red and green which was spiked forward. The screams stopped as the new person went from being on all fours to collapsing onto the floor, unconscious.

Twilight slowly walked over to the man with black wings, “War Heart…?”, she wasn’t sure what to feel at this point, a mixture of bliss and longing. She realised that he was nude on her floor and covered him up with a blanket in case anyone walked in. she paced in her room trying to figure out what to do, “Oh Celestia, what do I do? Is this really War Heart? He was dead… How can this be possible…? What do I do with him?”, she spoke to herself.

War Heart slowly opened his eyes to see the red carpeting of the floor. He slowly lifted his head to face a wooden dresser. He sat up in silence, then spoke, “Where am I?”

Twilight cleared her throat, “You are in Canterlot.”, she explained.

War Heart quickly looked to Twilight, startled from her response, “Who are you?”, he spoke with confusion.

Twilight was surprised at his response, thinking he perhaps lost some of his memory. She walked over to him and knelt in front of him, so that she could question him on what he remembered, “I am Twilight Sparkle, Can you tell me what you remember?”, she asked.

War Heart rubbed the back of his head, “My name is…”, he paused as he struggled to recall his own name, but couldn’t, “I don’t know… I can’t remember anything…”, he said with confusion.

Twilight felt sorry for him as he couldn’t recall anything. She spoke to him once more, “Your name is War Heart, we are close friends. You…”, she paused for a moment trying to think of a way to explain what happened, “You were sleeping over and you fell off the bed. You must have been having a bad dream and hit your head on the ground.”, she lied to him blatantly, but War Heart obviously couldn’t tell.

War Heart sat there wrapped in the blanket Twilight threw on him trying to take in all that he was told.

Twilight realized he was still sitting on the ground in nothing but a blanket, ‘Maybe I should get some clothes for him… But I can’t just buy anything, he’s too big for normal sized clothes…’, she thought to herself. She looked at War Heart and smiled, “I’ve got to go do something, I’ll be back soon, don’t leave, please.”, she said as she threw on a coat and scarf, then went outside into the streets of Canterlot. She walked for a few minutes before arriving at the new Carousel Boutique. She walked inside to see Rarity at the front desk.

Rarity spotted Twilight enter, “Hello, Twilight, It’s been a while. How can I help you?”, Rarity asked in her friendly tone.

“I have a friend that needs clothes, could you tailor some for him?”, Twilight asked.

“But, Of course, just get him to come down here and I’ll make some for him.”, Rarity replied.

Twilight scratched the back of her head, “There is a problem there… He’s sort of unable to walk around the streets due to the fact he isn’t wearing clothes…”, she explained hesitantly.

Rarity rose an eyebrow, “What kind of weirdo have you befriended, Twilight?”, she asked.

“Well, he’s living with me at the moment, and he’s bigger than most people so there are not any clothes that fit him…”, Twilight smiled nervously.

Rarity rolled her eyes and smiled, “A new ‘friend’? You could have just admitted that your new boyfriend had no clothes. I’ll fetch some fabric and my tools and we’ll head over and make him some new clothes in no time.”, Rarity said as she walked into the back room and came out with her tools and fabrics floating behind her via magic, “Let’s go.”, she said as she walked out the door.

Twilight stood and thought for a second, “Boyfriend…?”, she said to herself, giggling at the idea of having War Heart to herself. She then exited the Boutique and walked after Rarity.

They both walked into Twilight’s room where War Heart was standing at the window on the opposite side of the room looking at the sky.

Twilight blushed, not sure how to explain to Rarity or quite sure how she would react.

Rarity just walked over to a corner of the room and started unpacking her tools, not really caring about War Heart standing there exposed. She walked over to him and realized he was very tall, which was about the only thing that surprised her. She tapped on his shoulder, actually having to reach up to do so to get his attention.

War Heart turned to Rarity, “Hello?”, he said before looking to Twilight, “Who is this?”, he asked Twilight.

“I am Rarity, Twilight’s friend. She asked me to make you some clothes.”, Rarity told him while stretching out her tape measure and taking his measurements.

War Heart rose an eyebrow, not quite sure what she was doing.

Twilight walked over to Rarity and whispered to her, “I’m surprised you aren’t at all bothered you’re doing this…”

Rarity looked to Twilight, “I’ve had to do this for pretty much everyone in Ponyville when we got back from the Gala, I really don’t mind anymore.”, she whispered back. Rarity kept taking measurements and floated over some fabric and tools. She was a bit concerned over the fact that his skin was almost freezing, that his body had almost no warmth to it. She shrugged it off and continued working until she finished with him wearing new denim pants and a heavy black coat.

“I’m feeling a bit too warm…”, War Heart declared taking the coat off.

Rarity looked at him quizzically, “It is freezing outside, Dear, you will need that coat to keep warm.”

War Heart looked down at her, “I would prefer something less restricting. The sleeves are too long on that coat…”

Rarity sighed, “Very well…”, she said as she floated some more fabric over to her and make him a tight fitting short sleeved shirt of cotton.

War Heart examined the shirt on him and smiled, “Thank you, this is much better…”, he said to her.

Rarity smiled, ‘He is so going to freeze to death…’, she thought to herself. She walked over to Twilight, “You might want to get him a check up with a doctor, he’s freezing and says he is too warm.”, she whispered to Twilight before packing her things and leaving.

Twilight went over to War Heart taking his hand into hers and finding out she was right. She looked up to War Heart to see him looking back at her, “I want to take you to meet somebody.”, Twilight said to him.

War Heart nodded, “Okay, who?”, he asked as Twilight started walking while holding his hand.

“She is going to make sure nothing too bad happened to you when you hit your head.”, she explained to him on the way.

They both arrived at Cura’s office, Twilight knocked on the door. A voice from the other side responded, “Come in!”

They both entered the room to find Cura sitting at her desk with a bottle on the desk and a wine glass in hand while she looked over reports from doctors all over Equestria. She looked up at the two of them entering the room her eyes turned to War Heart. Her eyes widened as the glass slipped out of her hand and shattered on the floor.

Twilight and War Heart were both startled by the breaking glass. Both looking at each other then back to Cura.

Cura took a moment to collect herself then stood up, “Take a seat.”, she said as she sat on her chair.

Twilight and War Heart both sat down on the couch across from Cura.

“So… What do you need?”, Cura asked.

Twilight spoke up, “He needs a check up, He is cold to the touch and he doesn’t remember anything.”

Cura stood up and floated her doctor’s bag over to her, opening it and taking out a thermometer. She stuck it under War Heart’s tongue and used a stethoscope to check his pulse, lifting his shirt and pressing it against his chest. She moved around the receiver trying to find the heart beat. Her eyebrow rose as she couldn’t find one. She took out the ear pieces of the stethoscope and felt his neck for a pulse by hand, still unable to find a pulse. She took back the thermometer to find his temperature was below room temperature. She looked to Twilight and motioned for her to follow her then looked to War Heart, “We’ll be back in a moment.”, she then took Twilight out into the hall and closed the door.

“What’s wrong with him?”, Twilight asked with concern.

“He’s dead… That’s the only way I can explain it. What have you done? Have you been messing around with things you shouldn’t be?”, Cura questioned her with hostility.

“No, Of course not, I was reading in my room and he just… appeared.”, Twilight was honest in her response.

“Well, whatever it is, he is dead and walking around… It isn’t just by chance that he is the one to appear in your room?”, Cura said without really believing Twilight.

“I suppose I should have guessed you recognized him by your reaction to seeing him.”

“I’ve been spending a while learning the physiology, I can recognize almost anyone I’ve done work on in the past, and I’ve had to deal with his wounds plenty, so he’s pretty recognizable. The fact that he’s massive and the hair is a dead giveaway. I suggest you try to keep him out of the public eye as much as possible to avoid an incident, understand?”, Cura explained to Twilight.

“I will keep him in my room, there isn’t really anywhere else I can keep him.”, Twilight replied.

“Very well, just keep him low profile.”, Cura said as she entered the room again with Twilight to see War Heart looking to the sky from the window.

Cura spoke up, “Well, you are perfectly healthy, you may go now. Make sure to stay indoors, you might catch a cold.”, Cura told him as she walked over and started cleaning up the glass she dropped earlier as well as the spilt wine on the floor.

Twilight motioned for War Heart to follow her. He did so without hesitation, feeling lost in a sense and feeling like she was his only guide. They walked back to her room. It was night now and war Heart was feeling slower and slightly dizzy.

“What’s wrong with me…?”, War Heart said weakly.

“You’re tired, just lay down and go to sleep on the bed.”, Twilight said as she closed and locked the door to the room.

War Heart laid down on the bed, soon falling asleep.

Twilight touched War Heart’s cold lifeless hand, “How is this possible…?”, she whispered to herself. She noticed his skin was almost white; it was so pale. She looked at his face that expressed a peacefulness that only the naïve possessed. She stroked his hair and smiled, happy to have him back. She laid down next to him, facing him. She fell asleep smiling, feeling blissful in the fact her lost love was back in her life once more.

During her sleep, War Heart was tossing and turning. His dreams came back to haunt him once more. He dreamt of Unex again. He saw the things he did and the one he couldn’t stop.

Deadbeast stood in the middle of the street, staring at War Heart, who had no idea what was going on.

“Who are you?”, War Heart asked, standing merely steps away.

Deadbeast did not answer him, he only stared into his eyes. He lifted his arm and pointed behind War Heart.

War Heart turned around to see a young woman with rainbow streaks in her hair. She was crying in her house of clouds, alone. War Heart was confused and walked towards her. He stopped as something caught hold of his leg. He looked down to see the sickly hand of a young man in red clothes.

The sickly one looked as if he were rotting and already dead, “Murderer…”, he groaned to War Heart. He squeezed War Heart’s leg tighter.

War Heart pulled away and stepped back from the rotting man. He looked around him and saw more rotting men around him, all slowly moving towards him. They all groaned and moaned at him, “Murderer…”, and, “Monster…”, in voices that lacked life or emotion other than dulled pain.

Another voice spoke out, it was coming from Dash, who was still crying, “why did you leave me…?”, she cried.

War Heart was completely confused, not knowing what any of this meant. He looked towards Dash to see her still crying. He started running towards her, not knowing why. He was soon delayed by one of the moving corpses tripping him by grabbing his leg. They soon swarmed him as he thrashed about, soon being restrained by the dozens of corpses.

Deadbeast walked through the crowd of corpses and stood over War Heart, looking down at him judgingly.

War Heart’s eyes grew wide as he was helpless. He waited for something to happen.

Deadbeast, with blinding speed, thrust his hands into War Heart’s gut, piercing his flesh and tearing War Heart open to reveal his innards to the corpses who began to tear out his insides.

War Heart screamed in pain as his organs were torn out and gnawed upon.

A ghostly woman’s voice whispered in his mind, “Wake up War Heart…”

Everything went black for a moment for War Heart. The next moment he shot up to a sitting position, panting in panic from his nightmare. Twilight was sitting on the bed next to him, “Are you okay, War Heart?”, she asked in urgent concern.

“I don’t know… I’m not sure what happened…”, he said not even able to make eye contact with Twilight. He was still breathing heavily, feeling his belly where it was torn open in his nightmare.

Twilight wrapped her arms around him and stroked his hair, “It’s okay, it was just a bad dream… You’re safe.”, she whispered in a soothing tone to him.

War Heart felt the warmth coming from Twilight’s embrace, which helped calm him. Her voice also soothed him, soon his breath slowed and he began to relax once more. He laid back down, rubbing his eyes with his hand then sighed.

Twilight knelt next to him on the bed, “Are you going to be okay?”, she asked quietly.

War Heart nodded, “Yes… Thank you for being here for me… I didn’t know what was going on in that dream…”, he replied, still distracted by what happened in his nightmare.

“What happened in the dream?”, Twilight asked, hoping she could make sense of it for him.

“Well… I was standing on a street… There was this… man with white face paint. He didn’t speak, he only pointed behind me and I saw a woman crying, she had rainbow streaks in her hair.”, War Heart struggled to recall the dream.

Twilight’s eyes shifted from side to side as he described Dash, “She… You and her…”, Twilight thought about telling him the truth, but suddenly realized that doing so would cause him to return to her. Twilight spoke once more, “You two were friends, but… There was an accident… She died… You tried to save her but couldn’t…”, Twilight struggled to tell him but got it out.

War Heart looked down as he felt the loss of a friend sink in.

Twilight instantly felt a mix of guilt and relief all at once. She knew he would not seek her out now, and that she could have him to herself finally. An idea came to her head, “And when I said we were close friend, I meant that we are in a relationship.”, she said blushing.

War Heart looked to her, his eyes wide, “I’m sorry that I forgot… You’ve been so kind to me, I should have realized… I’m sorry.”, War Heart pulled her towards him and hugged her.

Twilight smiled as she laid her head on his chest feeling his cold skin but she didn’t mind it, “It’s okay, you took a nasty blow to the head. You’re back here with me now, that’s what matters.”, she said in a happy tone. She closed her eyes to go back to sleep, as did War Heart, who now felt more at peace knowing that he had someone who cared for him so much, so close to him.