Clash of the Dragons

Chapter 3

The Dragonborn has followed his Royal Guard Pegasi escorts for about an hour, for a while he simply kept his mouth shut, but started to get bored from just walking, so tried to make conversation.

"So," Dragonborn started, "what's this world we're in?"

"Equestria," one of the Royal Guards shortly answered.

"And I take it there are more of you... talking horses in the world?" Dragonborn asked.

"We're called ponies," the another Royal Guard said is a slightly sharpened tone, as if taking some offense to what their biped visitor said.

"Oh, alright, sorry," Dragonborn quickly apologized and decided to change the subject, "So, where are we going?"

"Ponyville," one of the Royal Guards answered.

"Well, we've walking for an hour, how much further is this.. Ponyville?" Dragonborn asked, feeling extremely awkward in saying the town's name.

"Just a few more leagues, nearly there" the another Royal Guard answered, "We have a faster way, but you can't fly, can you?"

"Do I look like I can fly?" Dragonborn rhetorically asked.

"Halt!" called out a voice that came from the Everfree Forest that neighbored the road Dragonborn and the Royal Guards were walking.

Coming out of the forest were a group of soldiers that Dragonborn instantly recognized, and he didn't like what he saw.

"Thalmor...." Dragonborn muttered under his breath, clinching his teeth and trying to contain his rage.

Torenon was leading the group of Thalmor soldiers as they approached Dragonborn and the 2 Royal Guards.

Torenon introduced himself, "You are standing before the Thalmor, I am Torenon, Thalmor general and commander of this squad you see before you."

"What business do you have here?" One of the Royal Guards asked.

"We saw your patrol and noticed you are detaining a dangerous fugitive," Torenon answered, "I must ask you both to hand this Nord over to brought to Thalmor justice."

Dragonborn scoffed, "Thalmor and justice, I got my own idea of how these words go together," Dragonborn then pulled out his sword, "Just try to to slap me in irons, see what happens."

"I suggest you let us handle this, Sir," The other Royal Guard told Dragonborn.

"You don't realized what sort of people you're dealing with," Dragonborn warned in a serious tone, "These Thalmor are evil, they kill, imprison, or torture anyone that questions their beliefs of elven supremacy."

"Are you 2 going to be so foolish to believe the lies of a barbarian?" Torenon asked.

"You Thalmor and your Aldmeri Dominion are an entire nation of liars!" Dragonborn angrily retorted, pointing his sword at Torenon's direction.

"Enough!" One of the Royal Guards called out, he turned to Torenon, "We do not know what crimes this.. Nord has committed against you, but they aren't of any concern to us in Equestria, if you want him to be handed over to you that badly, you can come with us to our commanding officer where both you and he and say your respective sides of the story, he will decide which of you is telling the truth."

Torenon laughed mildly in contempt, "You think I should bargain for what I can just take?"

The Thalmor soldiers pull out their weapons while the mages ready their spells, making it obvious they plan to attack.

The Royal Guards readied themselves for battle, "If you're any good with that sword, human, feel free to defend yourself."

Dragonborn grinned, "Oh, trust me, I'll do alot more than that."

"Attack the winged horses if you have to, but focus on the Dragonborn," Torenon commanded his troops, "the Dominion wants his head brought for all of Alinor to see, and we all know what happened to the other Thalmor that tried to kill him."

Many of the Thalmor soldiers and mages start charging at the trio while Torenon and a few other soldiers move behind them.

"This shouldn't take long, watch this!" Dragonborn readied himself to perform a Shout, "YOL TOOR SHUL!"

A large burst of flame came out of Dragonborn's mouth, engulfing many Thalmor soldiers and mages in fire and killing a good amount of them. Both the Royal Guards and the Thalmor were shocked and amazed by what he did.

Torenon simply gave a cruel smirk, "Impressive, Dragonborn, but you just left yourself vulnerable for this!" He casted a fireball spell at the Dragonborn, who managed to block it with his shield but still staggered slightly from the impact, the Royal Guards flew out of the blast radius and one of them swoops toward a cluster of Thalmor, he spreads his wings, which slice at the the soldier he flies by, much to the Thalmor's surprise.

"These wings are sharp as swords!" one of the Thalmor soldiers said in surprise.

"Don't worry about them, just do as I say and rush the Dragonborn while he still can't Shout yet!" Torenon commanded, and the rest of the Thalmor soldiers did as they were told.

The Dragonborn however, was almost effortlessly tearing through the soldiers that were coming at him, blocking and unleashing various slashes with his shield and sword respectively.

"Don't worry about me!" Dragonborn called out to the Royal Guards, "I can hold them off, I suggest focusing on the lone mage leading them, they'd be disoriented without a leader and he'd be outnumbered fighting the 2 of you."

The Royal Guards decided to go with the Dragonborn's strategy as Torenon sees one of the them flying toward him, he conjures a Bound Sword with one hand and casts a thunderbolt spell at the Guard, who manages to narrow dodge the spell. When the Guard was close enough, Torenon tried to slash at the Royal Guard with his Bound Sword, only for the Guard to parry it with one of his wings as he flew by. Torenon then turned around too late as the other Royal Guard slammed his metal-plated hooves at Torenon's chest, knocking him off his feet.

The Royal Guard then started lowering himself toward Torenon, but once he was close enough, Torenon quickly pulled out a Daedric dagger that he hid in his robe and stabbed the Royal Guard in the lower gut. the Guard cried out in pain as Torenon was given enough time to to slam the pommel of his Bound Sword on the Royal Guard's head, knocking him out. Torenon then tried to finish the job by attempting to chop the Guard's head off with his Bound Sword, but the other Royal Guard flew over and blocked the attack with one of his wings.

Torenon suddenly noticed the damage his took, the Guard he knocked out managed to break his upper ribs before being knocked out.

Clearly I underestimated those 'Royal Guards', Torenon thought as he found himself 'banishing' his Bound sword and started cradling his broken ribs with his arms, they're clearly better trained than even Thalmor Soldiers, not to mention they fight in a strange way. Fighting this other one in my condition would be suicide.

"FUS RO DAH!"

both Torenon and the one still-conscious Royal Guard turned to see The Dragonborn use another Shout that blew the Thalmor Soldiers in front of them several feet away. Torenon saw corpses laying at the Dragonborn's feet and realized that Dragonborn killed half of his troops before Shouting.

"Damn it! this isn't good!," Torenon swore to himself, "Thalmor! retreat!"

The rest of the Thalmor quickly turned and ran as Torenon did the same.

"I don't think so!" Dragonborn exclaimed as he chased after the retreating Thalmor.

"Wait!" called out the Royal Guard as he flew in after the Dragonborn.

Torenon quickly thought of an idea, Perhaps I should give a little parting gift first.

Torenon saw how the Royal Guard was flying closer to the Dragonborn to stop his pursuit, Torenon waited just until the Royal Guard was close enough and quickly casted a fire rune spell just inches in front of the Dragonborn.

By the time Dragonborn noticed the rune, it was just too late for him to stop himself and he accidentally stepped on the rune as the Royal Guard was close enough to grab him, causing them both to be caught in the rune's explosion, knocking them back afew feet.

Torenon saw that now both Royal Guards were knocked out, but not killed. Dragonborn, however, was quickly recovering, so Torenon quickly ran into the forest with his troops.

As Dragonborn recovered from the blast, he saw how the remaining Thalmor have already escaped.

"Oh, Son of a-" Dragonborn stopped himself when he remembered the Royal Guards escorting him. He tended to the first one by first pulled out the Daedric dagger that pierced his belly, and using a healing hands spell to heal the wound, he then turned to the other one and did the same with the burns he got from the fire rune explosion.

They're both unconscious but they're still alive, thank Talos, Dragonborn thought, they still needed to escort me to their superiors, that has to be why one of them tried to stop me from chasing after the Thalmor. But what could they be doing here? they didn't just come here to kill me, they must've thought they could find something they can use in this world. But at least clearly those ponies would sooner make friends with me than with them.

Dragonborn turned to the direction he and the 2 Royal Guards were heading, those guards were bringing me that direction, so that's as good a way to go as any. but I can't leave those guards behind.

Dragonborn turned to the unconscious Royal Guards and sighed as he found himself dragging both guards by their hind legs as he went down the road for what the Royal Guards called 'Ponyville'.

"I just hope whoever lives in this Ponyville doesn't get the wrong message seeing me like this," Dragonborn said to himself.