Chapters Chapter 1
It as cold as usual in Skyrim, though the Dragonborn found it slightly warmer ever since he dealt with both the threat of Alduin and took back Skyrim for the Empire.
The Dragonborn was a male Nord with brown hair and a short beard, wearing an Iron Helmet, Studded Armor, Iron Gauntlets, and he wielded a Steel Sword and Banded Iron Shield.
And after becoming Harbinger of the Companions and Archmage of the College of Winterhold, as well as wiping out the Dark Brotherhood, killing a certain 'King in Rags', helping some friendly Daedric Princes while flipping off certain, more malevolent ones, and several other things he spent much of his adventuring time doing, the Dragonborn found himself still looking around Skyrim for things to do in between killing dragons and selling booty from various bad guy-filled places he emptied.
The Thalmor have placed a warrant for his death after he killed a good majority of their people in Skyrim, they seemed particularly ticked at how he killed Elenwen, the Thalmor ambassdor to Skyrim. But all attempts they made in killing the Dragonborn ended in complete failure, and the Dragonborn, oddly enough, always looked forward to fighting more Thalmor should they show up. He hoped that the amount of Thalmor corpses he piles up would help make a difference for when the Empire inevitably does go to war with the Dominion again, he even carries an Amulet of Talos hoping it might tick off a secret Thalmor agent great enough to help draw them out of cover.
But it's now been months since the Thalmor have been seen anywhere in Skyrim, and its people couldn't be happier. though to the Dragonborn, the only downside to it was that he was left with even less things to do.
After selling some of dungeon loot in Whiterun, the Dragonborn decided to take a rest in his house called Breezehome before doing anything else, he was tired and sat in a chair just looking at the fire of his Whiterun home and drinking a bottle of mead.
He felt like taking it easy just for a little while, let the buzz from the mead do its work.
But then, he heard a knock on the door.
"Come in!" he called out in his Nordic accent.
A courier entered the house and said, "hey there! I got something to deliver to your hands only."
The Dragonborn took the note from the Courier's hands and quickly read it, "Hmm, that's strange, I have to check this out, Thanks." He gave the courier 10 septims as tip and the courier left. The Dragonborn walked out along with him, mumbling "oh well, my work is never done..."
Meanwhile, in Ponyville, Equestria. Just one day earlier.
Twilight Sparkle was doing a little experiment in the library based on a new arcane book she ordered that was only recently published, called 'Rifts and Planes' which discussed in great detail about recently discovered maigcal theories and possibilites of other dimensions.
She placed 2 electric rods parallel to each other in the center of the library's ground floor and flipped a switch on each of the rods, causing both of the to unleash bolts of lightning at each other.
She suddenly heard a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Twilight greeted, and Rainbow Dash entered the library.
"Hey, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash greeted, but saw the electric rods and asked, "Okay, I'll bite, what are ya working on now?"
"Well, I recently read some discoveries on how we could have several planes aside from our own and how it may be possible to open access points where one can manifest to them," Twilight said.
"Uh, Twilight," Rainbow Dash said confusingly, not understanding a single word Twilight, "You do realize who you're talkin' to, right?"
"Oh! right sorry," Twilight slightly flustered in embaressment, "In short, I learned it might be possible that there might be other dimensions, or universes. So I'm trying to open a gateway to one of them."
"Oh, I guess that's cool," Rainbow Dash commented, "Anyway, I came by hoping you got that latest volume of Daring Do today."
"Perfect timing, Rainbow Dash!" Twilight exclaimed, "It just got delivered half an hour ago, I already placed it on that table over here for you."
"Thanks, Twi!" Rainbow Dash said as she picked up the latest Daring Do novel.
"Also, if you want," Twilight added, "you can stick around for a minute and see how this experiment turns out, I'm just about ready to get started."
Raindow Dash decided to humor her friend and said, "hey, why not?"
"Excellent!" Twilight said, pleased with RD's response.
Twilight then casted a spell at the electrical poles, a strange purple magical sphere started appearing.
"I think its working!" Twilight thrillingly said, ecstatic as she started putting more concentration into her spell, which caused the sphere to grow larger, and what looked like a small hole in the sphere to start opening.
But, suddenly, a strange beam of energy came out of the hole and enveloped Twilight, causing her to stop her spell but somehow didn't change the hole in the sphere in any way.
"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash cried out, she, well, dashed for her only to be blocked by a strange barrier surrounding Twilight.
"Soooooooo ," said a strange, deep, and ominious voice that got both Twilight and Rainbow Dash's attention, "A mortal has tried to open a pathway to my plane of Oblivion, but not one from Nirn? Or even any other plane of Oblivion? "
"Who Are you?" Twilight asked, "Show yourself!"
"A quadripedal mortal that can speak? " The strange voice asked, "Interesting, but to answer your question, I am Boethiah, Daedric Prince of Conspiracy, but I sense you know nothing of those things. And while I would enjoy seeing you both, along with the rest of your kind, trembling in absolute fear before my full glory, I am forced to admit I cannot physically manifest in your world. However, it does not mean I cannot demonstrate my might through other means ."
"Oh yeah?" Rainbow Dash asked, then boasted, "try us, then! We've caught bigger fish than you!"
The strange voice, named Boethiah, laughed briefly and said, "Courage born from ignorance, there isn't a mortal that truly knows me that does not either worship nor fear me, even some of the Daedric Princes are right to tremble at my name. Perhaps a demonstration on a fraction of my power will show you what happens to mortals that tangle with Daedra! "
The barrier the surrounded Twilight vanished, but she and Rainbow Dash saw they had bigger problems when a group of 4 strange bipedal creatures suddenly appeared, they somewhat resembled humans, who in Equestria were considered little more than mythological creatures, but unlike humans, those creatures each had pairs of curved horns on their heads, wore red and black skin and hair, and wore demonic-looking armor and weapons, with one holding a greatsword, one dual wielding one-handed swords, one wielding a mace and a shield, and another wielding a bow with a quiver of arrows. The last one was an exception as he wore a black robe and was wielding what looked like a staff.
One of the creatures said in a partly etheral, but mostly loud and hammy tone, "You are strange mortals, this is not Nirn, but you will bleed like its denizens!"
the creature with the mage staff casted a fireball spell at Twilight, who unleashed a magic barrier that stopped the spell from hitting her, but caused the fireball to make a big explosion that destroyed the electric poles Twilight placed in the library, but somehow didn't have any affect the gateway she opened, which stayed as if was. Twilight also briefly sighed in relief to see none of the books were damaged from the explosion.
"What are these bipeds?" Twilight instinctively asked.
"We will answer!" One of the other creatures said, "we are Dremora! and you are but sacks of flesh fit to feed Scamps! prove us otherwise!"
"That won't be a problem!" Rainbow Dash boasted, she quickly flew at the Dremora that was holding a demonic-looking two-handed sword and bashed at him before he could react, knocking him off his feet. but the mage Dremora retaliated by casting a lightning bolt at RD, which she narrowly dodged.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called out, "there's too little room in the library to fight these guys, we'll have to lure them outside."
"Right!" Rainbow Dash said affirmatively.
Fortunately, Twilight and Rainbow Dash were able to easily lure the Dremora out just by falling back out of the library with their new foes following suit. Several of Ponyville's other citizens saw these Dremora and looked with horrified shock and confusion, but oddly enough, the Dremora were completely unbothered by their new surroundings despite knowing for fact it isn't Nirn.
The mage Dremora attacked first by firing a lightning bolt at Twilight, who quickly fired a magic beam with her horn, cancelling the 2 spells out, one archer Dremora started firing arrows at Twilight immediately after she blocked the Dremora mage's spell before she could notice, fortunately the arrow were stopped, much to the surprise of the archer Dremora, in midair by sompony else's magic, Twilight noticed this and turned to see Rarity next to her, who blocked the Dremora's arrows for her.
"Rarity!" Twilight said, pleasantly surprised, "You got amazing timing!"
"Think nothing of it, Twilight," Rarity said with her usual charm, she turned to look at the Dremora, "Now who or what are these... grimly-colored brutes?"
"They call themselves Dremora," Twilight replied, "I'll explain everything later, but right now we have to stop them before they can hurt anypony."
"And they'll certainly have another thing coming!" Rainbow Dash said as she flew at the Dremora with the dual-wielding swords. But the Dremora managed to jump out of the way at the nick of time, only to feel something on his ankle, he turned his head to see Applejack has lassoed his ankle, she quickly yanked her rope, causing the Dremora to trip and fall face-down to the ground, dropping his swords in the process. Rainbow Dash quickly grabbed one of the Dremora's sword with her teeth, and impaled the fallen Dremora's back with it. The Dremora roared in pain before suddenly vanishing along with his swords.
Applejack came over to Rainbow Dash and they gave each other a high-hoof, Rainbow confidently said, "Well, that's one down-"
Dashie got cut off when the Dremora with the greatsword tried to slash them, Rainbow Dash and Applejack quickly jumped out of the sword's way.
"An' four more ta go," Applejack finished for RD, "Where in tarnation did these guys come from, anyway?"
Before anyone could answer her, Applejack Rainbow Dash, and the Dremora heard a voice say "Yahoo! Mr. Tall, Dark, and Scary!"
The Dremora wielding the greatsword turned to see Pinkie Pie with her party cannon.
"Say hello to my little friend!" Pinkie said as she fired her party cannon and a cream-colored blur slammed right into the Dremora's breastplate, creating a massive and fatal-looking dent. The Dremora fell to the ground and saw it was Fluttershy he got hit by before he too vanished.
"Bleed! bleed and die!" The mace and shield-wielding Dremora narmishly said as he tried to swing his mace at Fluttershy, who, intimidated by the sight of the Dremora, ran off and hid in a nearby bush before the Dremora could get his chance.
"Ya got some nerve talkin' like that to Fluttershy!" Applejack called out the mace-wielding Dremora as she charged at him and tried to buck him, only for the Dremora to block the attack with his shield.
"Allow me!" Rainbow Dash said as she flew straight at the Dremora only to slam into his shield, causing not only the Dremora to stagger considerably and struggle to keep his feet, but also Rainbow Dash to land on the ground hard, rubbing her dazed head.
"Oww..." Rainbow Dash groaned, "What is that shield made of? he took that hit almost like it was nothing!"
"That won't be problem!" Said Rarity as she went behind the Dremora, moved her head between his legs, and swiftly moved her head upwards, catapulting the Dremora into the air, Rarirty then bucked at the Dremora's back while he was in midair, breaking his spine and causing him to vanish as well.
The mage and archer Dremora appeared surprised by the loses they took, but kept straight faces, trying to look unfazed, but Twilight and her friends could tell the tables have turned on their foes.
"These creatures are stronger than they look, Kynreeve," the archer Dremora said to the mage Dremora.
the mage Dremora said, "We clearly underestimated them, but the battle has not been lost yet, I have an idea."
The mage Dremora started fired lightning bolts at Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, who all only narrowly dodged them, Twilight stood between them and the mage Dremora and summoned a magic barrier that managed to block any additional lightning bolts the Dremora tried to cast.
"Wait!" The archer Dremora briefly interrupted, "the pink one that was with them is gone, there were 6 of them, the yellow one retreated after taking one of us out but the pink one vanished when we looked away."
"Must be getting reinforcements or something," The mage Dremora said, "No matter, we will deal with both the pink and yellow one after we finish those 4 off, now let's see how well that barrier can block an attack with within!" he casted a spell that summoned, somehow from within Twilight barrier, a strange creature that looked like a bunch of floating rocks set in a formation just slightly similar to that of the upper body of a human. But before Twilight could react, the creature fired a lightning bolt at Twilight, who didn't have time to block the spell and was hit and knocked out as a result, with the barrier she already projected vanishing as well.
"Twilight!" her friends all said at once, they ran to her aid only to be blocked the summoned creature that attacked her.
"You still think we are pushovers?" the mage Dremora asked, "This Storm Atronach should make swift work of you all."
Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash readied themselves for having to face the Storm Atronach, the Atronach fired another lightning bolt that Rainbow narrowly dodged and retaliated by flying at it and bashed into it, the Atronach staggered and was clearly hurt by the attack, but Rainbow Dash found herself electrocuted upon being in contact with it and promptly pulled herself off the Atronach.
Somewhat weakened by the shock she took, Rainbow Dash said, "Alright, anypony know how you fight something that's got lightning all over him?"
"Ah'd have thought you'd know, sugarcube," Applejack said to Rainbow Dash, "Isn't weather one of yer jobs?"
While the 3 still-conscious ponies were busy with the Atronach, the mage Dremora looked at the archer Dremora and said, "I will keep them busy with my magic, you go look for the other 2 that left."
The archer Dremora nodded as he turned only to see a certain pony's pair of eyes and find himself somehow completely and suddenly unable to move, while hearing the sharp-sounding words, "How dare you!"
The Archer Dremora was looking straight at Fluttershy, he couldn't understand it, but he figured that somehow looking into Fluttershy's eyes with that... stare, is leaving him frozen in place.
"Just who do you think are are suddenly coming to our world and harming my friends?" Fluttershy scolded.
"What accursed sorcery is this?" the archer Dremora asked, struggling to break free of whatever's causing that 'stare' to keep him from moving to attacking, "This is not Illusion magic!"
"It not what matter what it is!" Fluttershy said in a sharpened tone but didn't raise her voice, "You should 2 be ashamed of yourselves! coming here only to cause violence when obviously none of us have done anything to you!"
"What is going on with you, Caitiff?" the mage Dremora asked, hearing what Fluttershy was saying to his remaining troop.
He was about to turn when the archer Dremora cried out, "don't turn! this creature has eyes that paralyze you if you look into them!"
"You dare use nonsense as an excuse for insubor-" The mage Dremora was cut off when he heard the sound of a saw on wood... from above?
He looked up to see Pinkie Pie sawing off a thick and heavy-looking branch of the Golden Oaks Library, clearly intenting to drop the branch on both the remaining Dremora. Pinkie was just more than halfway finished sawing when she saw that the mage dremora has already spotted her.
"Uh oh!" Pinkie exclaimed, the mage dremora fired an ice spike with his staff, which startled Pinkie enough that she managed to narrowly lean herself away from the attack, only to lose her balance on the branch and end up clumsily falling to the ground head first.
"Pinkie!" Fluttershy cried out in shock, turning her attention away from the archer Dremora, which breaks him free of her 'stare'. Fluttershy went to Pinkie's side to tend to her friend, "Are you okay?"
Pinkie Pie was looking upside down and appeared dazed and confused, but otherwise wasn't badly hurt.
"Why Fluttershy!" Pinkie exclaimed with her usual cheerfulness but seemed to have her vision disoriented if what she said next was any indication, "you didn't tell me you had triplet sisters!"
free from Fluttershy's stare, the archer Dremora pulled an arrow out of his quiver and readied himself to fire it at Fluttershy, the mage Dremora likewise readied his spells with the obvious intent on finishing both ponies off.
But then, Twilight woke up from being knocked out by the storm atronach to see in horror that the 2 remaining dremora were about to kill Fluttershy and Pinkie as well as how Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were struggling to hold their own against the storm atronach.
Twilight saw the partially sawed-off branch on the library just above the 2 dremora and promptly fired a magic bolt from her horn at the branch, breaking it off and causing it to drop hard on both the dremora, seemingly breaking their skulls and killing them instantly, causing them both to vanish. Twilight turned to see that the storm atronach that the mage dremora conjured earlier has suddenly vanished as well.
The Mane 6 all found themselves briefly sighing in relief.
"Wel, that was just a little harder than I thought," Rainbow Dash commented.
Suddenly, Twilight and her friends, along with the rest of Ponyville, heard Boethiah speak again, "I see you creatures are tougher than you look, most impressive. But do not think that summoning afew low-ranked Dremora is all I am capable of doing in your world, I just figured out why my powers are being restrained in this world, and even so, you have only witnesses the smallest fraction of my power ."
"Rarity, wasn't Spike with you helping at the Boutique earlier?" Twilight asked in a whisper, hoping Boethiah couldn't hear her.
"He certainly was," Rarity answered also with a whisper, "But when we heard the uproar that these curve-horned brutes caused I told him to stay in the Boutique where it was safer."
"Good thinking," Twilight whispered, "I'd hate to see those Dremora coming after him, anyway, since they've dealt with, bring Spike over so I can write a letter to Princess Celestia about this."
"Oh, I would not bother with that if I were you ," Boethiah said, both Twilight and Rarity were shocked to see that the so-called Daedric Prince was able to hear them, "Your one of 3 'Princesses' is already heading for this little town you live in, she clearly knows I am here and is the reason most of my power is suppressed in this world. I would like to have a word with this Goddess-Princess ."
Twilight looked around and indeed saw Celestia flying toward Ponyville. she gently landed close to the Mane 6 and calmly walked toward the library, she had a slightly stern look on her face but wasn't looking at anyone in particular.
Celestia entered the library to see the small portal Twilight opened earlier.
"Show yourself!" Celestia commanded, "I know you're here and I know you can hear me!"
"You think I could even if I wanted to? " Boethiah asked, "Your very existence suppresses my strength, I am in a position where you are asking for the impossible ."
"Then tell me who you are and what you are doing here," Celestia said.
"I already told some of your subjects that I am Boethiah, Daedric Prince of Conspiracy ," Boethiah said, "One of many gods to the mortals of Nirn, and as for why I am here, I just recently discovered your world when one of your subjects had the bad fortune to opening this gateway to my Plane of Oblivion you already see before you, so I thought I'd have me some fun and brought some of my Dremora servants to... show a taste of my power. But a small group of your subjects proved quite capable of disposing these warriors. But, despite my powers being held back here moreso than in Nirn, there is still plenty of ways I can amuse myself here ."
"If you think you can turn Equestria into your own private playground and harm my little ponies as much as you want," Celestia threatened, "I can promise you this; it's never gonna happen!"
"If you weren't able to hold me back in this realm, I would see to it you suffer dearly for your insolence... " Boethiah said, though her voice sounded like it was trailing off, as if she was thinking something "But, for now at least, I am in no position to do so. I do have other plans though ."
"Plans? what plans?" Celestia asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Now why would I tell you that? " Boethiah asked, "That would be spoiling the fun, suffice it to say I suggest you get ready to welcome some guests. But for now, this exchange is over. "
The portal in the library vanished. Celestia sighed and walked out of the library, she came to see Twilight in front of her, with her friends standing behind her. Twilight clearly felt guilty for what happen.
"This was my fault, Princess," Twilight said apologetically with her head hanging down, "I casted a spell to test those recent theories on transdimensional travel and.."
Celestia lowered herself and moved her hoof under Twilight's head, gently tilting it upward so that Twilight was facing her mentor, Celestia gave a reassuring smile and said, "You had no way of knowing something like this would happen, Twilight, none of us did."
Celestia then looked away at nothing in particular and added while resuming a serious expression, "Still, we do have a serious problem in our hooves. While I can no longer sense this Boethiah, she left implying that there will be something coming."
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Twilight asked.
"For now? not much," Celestia said regretfully, "We know too little about this Boethiah and this world she lives in. Though she oddly enough kept bringing up our one advantage; she said my existence alone keeps her from using the full extent of her power, she didn't say it outright, but I suspect she's afraid of me."
Rainbow Dash scoffed, "Somehow I wouldn't be surprised.."
"I'll head back to Canterlot and have detachments of guards brought to all Equestrian Towns, including Ponyville, for good measure," Celestia said, she then turned to Twilight and her friends and added, "I want all of you to notify me if anything unusual happens, regardless of how slight or trivial it might seem, at this point we can't be too careful."
Twilight gave a small smile and nodded at her teacher, "you got it! we'll keep our eyes peeled."
One day later, back in Skyrim in the College of Winterhold.
The Dragonborn arrived to the College courtyard to see Tolfdir standing close to a strange portal, examining it.
Tolfdir turned to see Dragonborn and they both greeted each other by shaking hands.
"Well, you certainly came a little earlier than I figured," Tolfdir commented.
"Good to see you again too, old friend," Dragonborn greeted, he then turned to the portal Tolfdir was looking at, "I take it this is what you sent that message to me for?"
"Precisely, Arch-Mage-" Tolfdir said, but the Dragonborn cutted him off.
"Please, Tolfdir," Dragonborn said, "Call me Dragonborn, you know that's what everyone else does nowadays."
"Very well, Dragonborn," Tolfdir said with slight awkwardness, he knew his friend as both Arch-Mage and Dragonborn, but he was more used to refering to him as the former, "Anyway, we found this strange anomaly suddenly appeared out of nowhere, it has magical properties similar to that of an Oblivion Gate. we've been getting reports that portals like this one have appear all over Skyrim."
"Something like this can't be possible anymore," Dragonborn commented, "Didn't Martin Septim's sacriface during the Oblivion Crisis make it impossible for several Oblivion Gates to appear like that again?"
"That is true," Tolfdir agreeed, "though I suspect the only way this could be possible is if these portal don't lead to any planes of Oblivion."
"So it's technically not an Oblivion Gate, but its made in a similar fashion," Dragonborn added, "Any idea when this portal leads to?"
"None at all," Tolfdir said, "none of us in the college dared to walk in, and it has been reported that those few who did go in haven't returned."
"Sounds like fun!" Dragonborn cheerfully said, "Consider me sold!"
"Wait!" Tolfdir said with worry, "Don't you think you should be more-"
"Cautious?" Dragonborn finished for Tolfdir, "Come now, Caution is your thing, charging to deal with problems head-on is my thing, we're two sides of the same septim, you know?"
"Still, I don't like the idea of you just walking in," Tolfdir said, "This isn't a Dwemer Ruin or a Thalmor stronghold, we have absolutely no clue what could be in here. But I guess I can't really stop you, can I?"
"Nope, you can't," Dragonborn said plainly, "Just relax, old man, I'll get to the bottom of this, I'll be back, I promise."
"Well, alright," Tolfdir said, part resigned and part reassured, "Good luck!"
"Who needs luck when you're me?" Dragonborn asked rhetorically as he calmly walked into the portal.
Author's Note
For those who haven't already guessed, I decided to portray The Dragonborn as he was in the trailers, partly because I thought it'd be cool but mostly because I thought it would tie more closely Skyrim's viking-esique approach to things as I'm mainly using elements from Skyrim in this Elder Scrolls/MLP cross-over, but there will be elements from Morrowind and Oblivion too *wink wink*.
Chapter 2
Dragonborn came out of the other side of the portal and found himself standing on a dirt road leading through a forest, he also saw in front of him 2 Equestrian Pegasi Royal Guards, who were standing around, facing the same direction as him and therefore didn't notice him yet.
Though he didn't know what they really were yet either, and thought, looks like someone left their horses behind, that's at least one sign there are people here.
The Dragonborn was about to walk around the Royal Guards only for them to have quickly heard his footsteps and promptly turned around to see him.
"What are you, strange creature?" one of the Royal Guards asked, much to Dragonborn's surprise, "Did you come from the other side of that portal?"
The Dragonborn couldn't believe his eyes, "Talking horses with wings and armor? did someone put skooma in the last batch of mead I had?"
"Answer our question!" the other Royal Guard barked sternly.
The Dragonborn calmly folded his arms and said, "I guess you 2 have never heard of a Nord before, but to answer your second question, yes, I did come through this portal, now if you don't mind.."
The Dragonborn tried to walk past the royal guards, but one of them blocked his path by spreading one of his wings.
"You are a stranger here, biped," the royal guard blocking Dragonborn said, "stay where you are, as soon as our relief arrives, you will be taken to our superiors, who will expect you to tell them everything you know about where ever you came from."
"What a coincidence!" the Dragonborn exclaimed, "I came here to find out as much as I can about where we are now, so what say you 2 step out of the way and let me pass so I can get to that?"
"No," both the Royal Guards plainly said in unison.
Damn it! Dragonborn swore to himself, I shouldn't just kill them, they're likely just doing their jobs and I know too little about this place. I guess for now I have no choice but to wait and cooperate.
Fortunately, another duo of Royal Guards, coming to relief the 2 guards that were watching the Dragonborn, arrived just seconds later.
Speak of the Daedra , Dragonborn thought, pleased to see the relief's sudden arrival.
Meanwhile, in an undisclosed part of the Everfree Forest.
Trixie has been falling in a rough patch ever since that humiliating time in Ponyville, when those 2 colts Snips and Snails brought that Ursa Minor over and how Twilight made her look like a fool when she dealt with the situation.
Even now it still made Trixie's blood boil thinking about it. Fortunately for her, she paid some 2nd visits in towns she already performed in, which helped her earn enough money to help get her back on her hooves. She did what she could to make sure word of what happened to her in Ponyville didn't get out anywhere else, but the most she could do was keep that event from getting too public.
So her reputation has suffered considerably after a while, though there are still some devoted fans that were generous enough to still pay for her performances and even help her out in what other ways they could, a good chunk of Equestrians have mostly ignored her after they heard about what Trixie personally dubbed the 'Ponyville Incident' when she arrived to new towns, more-so than how her career was so successful in the past.
What popularity Trixie salvaged was so far the only thing that help her mellow out, but she remained determined to figuring out a way to put Twilight in her place.
But after seeing what Twilight did in dealing with that Ursa Minor, Trixie figured she had to step up her game if she hoped to even match the skill Twilight demonstrated. so she spent a good amount of her time practicing her magic in the Everfree Forest.
Whenever she could afford it, she would buy supplies for staying in the Everfree Forest for extended periods of time, leave her newly built wagon in a carefully selected hiding place in the forest, and then would set out to practice her magic on the dangerous local fauna.
She was so bitter about how she was humiliated earlier that she actually found herself disregarding the dangers of some of the weaker creatures she fought with, but she was considerably more cautious with what she picks fights with and, much to her own surprise, has been doing surprisingly well.
She grinned smugly as every spell she's casted gets progressively stronger with every use, it was a slow process, but as creatures like Cockatrices or even Timber Wolves (though she strictly targeted strays to assure she didn't have packs coming after her) have proven to become gradually easier to beat, she started to become confident that her plan will be well worth the time it was taking.
She at one point spotted a lone Timber Wolf from behind a tree, which didn't seem to notice her. She took this opportunity and casted a fireworks spell at it, which, much to her surprise, brought down the Timber Wolf with one shot.
Trixie gave a smug grin, but it gradually vanished when she remembered how long it took for her to get this strong, "this is already getting easier, but it's still a slow process, Trixie has spent months here yet she still can't even begin match what Twilight pulled off on that Ursa Minor."
Trixie found herself collapsing to the ground, sitting down hard as if suddenly realizing something, "By the time Trixie can surpass what that absurd librarian did months ago, Twilight might be able to pull off stuff that is far greater. Trixie needs to find a faster way if she wants to get revenge, but what faster way is there?"
Trixie heard snorting directly behind her, she quickly turned around to see, much to her dismay, a Manticore.
The Manticore unleashed a loud roar as it charged at Trixie.
Trixie was scared, but tried to push her fears aside, she was partly confident that her spell practice should at least give her a chance against the formidable beast.
"You dare challenge the might of the Great and Powerful Trixie?" Trixie boasted in as couragous a voice she could muster and fired a fireworks spell, which only managed to cause the Maticore to stagger slightly, but appeared unscathed by the attack.
"That spell blows up a Timberwolf with one hit yet it does nothing to this beast?" Trixie asked herself in disbelief.
Trixie then summoned a storm cloud and had it fire a lightning bolt at the Manticore, which shocked it abit, making it clear that the spell did do some minor damage, but now it appeared more ticked as it charged after Trixie.
"By Celestia, Trixie should've known this was a bad idea!" Trixie said as she found herself running away from the angry beast.
After a few seconds of running through the forest, however, she accidentally tripped on a stuck-out tree root and her faced smacked the ground, she found herself dazed from the fall as the Manticore was getting closer and closer to her.
But suddenly, a strange bipedal figure moved between Trixie and the Manticore, it looked very similar to the mythological humans, but it had pointy ears, a pointed chin, wore long jet black hair, a strange looking black long robe, gloves, and boots, anyone in Tamriel would easily recognize him as an Altmer Thalmor mage, but Trixie obviously didn't know about such things.
"Stay behind me if you wish to live," the Altmer mage warned Trixie as he fried a spell that shot a large ice spike at the Manticore's leg, causing to roar in pain.
"You pathetic weakling!" the Elf sneered at the Manticore as he used both hands to prepare another spell. The Manticore heard his insult and was even more ticked as it charged furiously at the bipedal wizard.
But the Thalmor mage casted a powerful fire spell with both hands, that not only pushed the Manticore a few feet away, but also caused it to be engulfed in flame.
What pure rage the Manticore had within it had turned to fear and panic as it started running around looking for a body of water.
"Now to finish the job," The Altmer mage said as he casted another spell that managed to paralyze the Manticore into laying on its side, helplessly immobilized as it was still being burned alive. He then casted a spell with both hands that unleashes a deadly spray of lightning at the manticore, eventually turning it to a pile of ash.
Trixie, upon seek the strange biped, was amazed, shocked, and partially grossed out by the mage's performance, the mage turned to Trixie and said, "I've been following you and observing your performance for around an hour, I can see that you are of apprentice level in terms of magic-based combat at best."
Trixie's horn glowed, she found herself offended by the mage's remark, "You dare to mock the Great and Powerful Trixie?"
"I've slain this creature when you were only able to run like a coward," the elf pointed out, "Is it really smart to try and provoke someone like that?"
Trixie saw her incidental savior had a point, she sighed as she cancelled the spell she was preparing, "Who are you anyway?"
"I am Torenon, Thalmor mage and general," the Altmer introduced himself, "And your name is.. Trixie? this place is obviously filled with creatures well beyond your league, so what are you doing here?"
"If you must know, Trixie was practicing her magic on the weaker fauna," Trixie answered, "You see, there was this ridiculous librarian unicorn that upstaged Trixie and messed up her reputation, you're looking at Trixie's efforts to get stronger with her magic so she can have revenge on her."
"Odd coincidence," Torenon commented, "You see, my government has been searching for a barbaric Nord who calls himself Dragonborn, in a cold wintery land called Skyrim, he's been killing Justiciars, butchering some of our high-ranking officials, disrupting many of our operations. That human is wanted by the Aldmeri Dominion dead or alive, and many of us have been trying, and failing, to take his head. perhaps we can help each other?"
"Wait a second," Trixie said, realizing something, "You don't call yourself human? but you have skin, hands and wear clothes like the humans of mythology."
"Human? bah!" Torenon scoffed, "Anyone else of my kind would be greatly offended by you calling us that. I am an Elf, or more specifically, a High Elf or Altmer, if you knew about such things, you'd see my ears, eyes, and other more.... well-crafted features make me very different from the Men races like Nords or Imperials. now, do you want my help, or not?"
"Possibly," Trixie answered, "But what's the catch?"
"Ah, you're clearly more clever than that slip up you had would indicate," Torenon complimented, "Well, it's obvious that you know more about this world than I, but I came here to investigate this world in search of whatever I can use to pursue some... personal goals. The details are irrelevant now, as I am still at square one with said goals. But if you agree to be hired as my guide and to provide assistance whenever I ask for it, I will immediately start in helping you in your desire for revenge. And as a bonus, I will agree to let you be a temporary apprentice to me in the arts of Destruction magic, since your kind CAN use magic, right?"
"Certainly is!" Trixie boasted,"you're looking, in fact, at one of the rare unicorns that are talented in all kinds of magic!"
"Good, than you should have no problem with-" Torenon was cut off when he heard someone say;
"General! we've found something!"
"Must be my troops," Torenon groaned in annoyance, "Wait here, I should be back in a minute."
Torenon walked off somewhere, with Trixie waiting for him as she was told, and sure enough, Torenon returned.
"There's something that thoroughly demands my attention," Torenon said, "But I think we can use it to our advantage."
"What are you even talking about?" Trixie asked, understandably confused.
"I mentioned earlier of the fugitive known as Dragonborn," Torenon answered, "Apparently he's in this world as well, he seems to be escorted by 2 winged and armored... ponies," Torenon felt slightly awkward saying the word 'pony'.
"They must be Royal Pegasus Guards," Trixie said, "No doubt taking your fugitive to their superiors, or perhaps even to Princess Celestia herself."
Torenon thought for a moment and said, "Say, this librarian that upstaged you, do you know where she is?"
"She lives in Ponyville, just a few miles from here," Trixie answered.
"Than perhaps we can take 2 birds with one stone, if you understand the metaphor," Torenon said, with Trixie nodding affirmatively, "Here's what I'm thinking...."
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.
Chapter 4
Torenon and his remaining Thalmor soldiers returned to their base camp in the Everfree Forest, they used healing potions and spells to recover from the damage they all took from their failed attack.
Torenon used his own healing spell to heal his broken ribs when he said, "Clearly we underestimated those creatures, but at least we know how they fight, so we should be ready next time we face any of them."
"Ready?" One of the Thalmor soldiers asked Torenon, "Do you need to be reminded that you were nearly killed yourself by those winged horses?"
"It was my own mistake," Torenon admitted, "I assumed Dragonborn would be the only real threat and that alone has cost us greatly, I'll contact our government for reinforcements, but in the meantime, we'll stay put in the camp to recover our strength."
the other Thalmor soldiers simply grumbled in response as they continued to heal themselves. Torenon pulled a crystal ball out of his robes and casted a spell and it, which caused it to start floating in mid air, glow a green light, and then project what seemed to be a holographic projection of what seem like a group of nobles of the Aldmeri Dominion, which consisted of a small group of Thalmor mages sitting in in a row in a long, narrow table.
"I have confirmation that the Dragonborn is in this strange world that I have learned is called Equestria," Torenon told the nobility of the Dominion, "I have also learned that this is a world mainly populated by sentient horses with varying colors on their coats, manes, and tails, as well as having strange symbols on their flanks."
"Are they hostile?" one of the Dominion nobles asked.
"I will admit I have made them that way toward the Thalmor," Torenon answered, "I saw the Dragonborn being escorted by 2 winged horses that have shown to be obviously part of Equestria's military, I attacked them because I thought we had the advantage of superior numbers, but Dragonborn convinced the winged soldiers to let him take the bulk of my troops, they nearly killed me and the Dragonborn wiped out half my men, so I was forced to retreat."
"You should've figured such a tactic wouldn't work on the Dragonborn," another of the Dominion nobles critizied, "He is known to have single-handedly fought large groups before, you let your overconfidence cost you dearly."
"Rest assured, I won't make that mistake again," Torenon said, "But I will still need reinforcements."
"See that you don't" another of the Dominion nobles said, "We'll get you what we can, but we're still trying to regain our strength from the Great War, we can't afford to engage an active campaign on this world, are you certain you can find something here worth all this trouble?"
"I know this world can somehow greatly suppress the powers of Daedric Princes," Torenon answered, "I don't think I need to tell you how invaluable it would be if we got our hands on something that has that kind of power."
"Very well, you may proceed for now, and if you manage to kill the Dragonborn along the way, all the better, but if this turns out to be more trouble than its worth-"
"It won't be," Torenon interrupted, "I'll make sure of it myself if I have to."
The projection of the Dominion nobles vanished and the crystal ball returned to normal as Torenon grabbed it and placed it back in his robe.
Torenon then said to his men, "there is something I need to tend to elsewhere, just call for me if something demands my attention."
Torenon walked out of the camp and went to see Trixie waiting for him in a small clearing nearby.
"Well, Dragonborn is clearly beyond my strength," Torenon said, "Time for the plan 'B' we talked about."
"That is where Trixie fits in, right?" Trixie asked.
"Precisely," Torenon said, "you said Ponyville is not far from here, right? as we planned, all you have to do is approach the Dragonborn, tell him that a Dragon was terrorizing everyone in Ponyville but briefly flew off to get to a certain town, tell him Twilight Sparkle worships the Dragon and is the only one that knows where its going, and that Dragonborn will have to rough her up to get her to tell her where the Dragon is. I suspect that whether or not Twilight is able to defeat him, which is highly unlikely, she'll be weakened enough that you can approach her and unleash upon her your desired arcane revenge."
"Trixie supposes that can work," Trixie said, "But where do you benefit from this exactly?"
"If this Twilight manages to defeat Dragonborn? He'd be out of the way," Torenon answered, "If she can't defeat Dragonborn, he might get arrested or executed for attacking her, which would still mean he'd be out of the way, or at least he'd be forced out of town from making an enemy out of your kind, where at least he won't be getting help from anyone here. However this turns out, it would do wonders for the Thalmor's efforts against the Dragonborn."
"Trixie supposes that makes sense," Trixie said in agreement, "Don't worry, Trixie knows a shortcut to get ahead of him so that he'll think I came from Ponyville."
"Then you better get to him quick before he gets there too early," Torenon said, "Just hurry right along, I will wait here."
Trixie nodded and dashed off.
Meanwhile, on the road to Ponyville.
"WULD NAH KEST !"
Dragonborn dashed several feet forward with his Whirlwind Sprint Shout, still dragging the unconscious Royal Guards with him. He then starting running until he was able to Shout again and, "WULD NAH KEST !" Whirlwind Sprinted again, rinse and repeat.
"I just hope Brynjolf or no one else in the Thieves Guild hears about this," Dragonborn said to himself out loud in a deadpan tone, "Otherwise, there'd be laughing coming from the Ragged Flagon so loud that I'd be able hear it all the way from Windhelm."
Dragonborn looked ahead to see a silhouette of what looked like a town from a distance. Dragonborn figured that is must be Ponyville up ahead.
"It'll still take me a bit to get here," Dragonborn said to himself, "But at least I know I'm on the right track."
Suddenly, he sees Trixie, who seemed to be coming from the town, running toward him as if something terrible has happened.
When Trixie got to him, she stopped briefly, trying to catch her breath, after a few seconds, Trixie spoke in a overly dramatic tone, "OH! woe is us! such a tragedy! oh, if only we know of a mighty hero that can save us!"
"Mighty hero, you say?" Dragonborn asked, thoroughly flattered, then boastfully said, "Well, you're in luck, you just happened to stand before the mighty Dragonborn!"
Dragonborn decided to temporary let go of the Royal Guards he was dragging, which Trixie only just now noticed, Torenon didn't say anything about the Royal Guards after his encounter with them escorting the Dragonborn. But Trixie could tell the Guards weren't dead and decided not to question it.
"Oh, really, gallant warrior?" Trixie asked, pretending to be in awe, "Oh please, you must help us! a terrible dragon has terrorized our fair town, it has left for somewhere but it will be back to bully us even more! PLEASE! you must save us by slaying that horrible beast!"
"So the Dragons are in this world too?" Dragonborn asked, he was still too far from the town to get a good view of how it looked, and he knew it. But by the same token, he was slightly suspicous of the azure-colored pony's over-dramatic talking, but decided to go along with it for now, "Well, fear not, lass, for you just happened to be turning to the perfect Nord for fighting dragons. Do you know where the Dragon left for?"
"None of us have any clue, oh dashing swordsman!" Trixie said, still trying to uphold her 'traumatized villager' facade, "We were all too scared of the dragon to follow it, but there is one pony who'd know and she lives in this very village up ahead, her name is Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight Sparkle? What kind of name is that? sounds like a pet name a Dunmer would give to their Azura-devoted child or something. Dragonborn thought, then spoke, "Where can I find this... Twilight Sparkle?"
"She lives in the Golden Oaks Library, it's a big hollowed-out tree built as a library, very easy to spot, much like Twilight is, she has a lavender coat, a purple mane with a pink stripe on it, and a purple tail. Be careful, Twilight worships the Dragon, she won't just tell you where the Dragon is, you might have to rough her up to get her to talk."
"Good enough, don't worry, I'll take care of everything," Dragonborn said as he grabbed the Royal Guards he was dragging down the road with him and continued down the road with a "WULD NAH KEST !"
The booming Shout from so up close caught Trixie completely by surprise, to the point where Trixie's heart felt like it jumped several feet up.
"Torenon already told Trixie about these 'Shouts' that human can do," Trixie said to herself, at genuine awe with what she just saw, "but to see this for myself... no wonder Torenon's men didn't stand a chance against him, what else is he capable of?"
Trixie and Torenon later reunited on a hilltop just a short distance outside of Ponyville, they were simply waiting to see how their plan will be turning out.
"He seemed to have fell for our trick," Trixie informed Torenon, "He's heading for Ponyville as we speak."
"Excellent!" Torenon said in a pleased tone, "the only way this plan could fail is if-"
Torenon was cut off when he and Trixie heard a certain deep roar. The High Elf turned to the direction he heard the roar and saw a silhouette he was all too familiar with.
"What!-? How is this possible?" Torenon asked, "Those portals are way too small, it should be impossible for one of them to come through!"
Meanwhile, in Ponyville....
The town is filled with tremendous anxiety, ever since the Mane 6's encounter with Boethiah a day ago, almost everypony in Ponyville, as well as everypony in Equestria for that matter, were considerably on edge with the idea of being threatened by creatures from another world.
This was not helped by how just recently today, there were strange portals that suddenly appeared at random parts of Equestria, which was why Princess Celestia had Royal Guards posted on any portals that her subjects were able to find; to keep anypony from going in those portals as well as to watch for anything that comes out.
In the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight was struggling to find anything that could tell her how to close the portals, despite how even Princess Celestia couldn't find anything. The fact that Boethiah is using a form of magic completely foreign to anything in Equestria made it impossible for the Equestrians to even understand how the said magic works.
Spike came downstairs to see Twilight still futilely searching the ground-level shelves for whatever can get her anywhere involving Boethiah.
Spike could tell Twilight was stressing out from this, he asked with great concern, "Twilight? are you alright?"
Twilight sighed, then sat down, wiping the sweat off her forehead, "No, I'm not alright, Spike, but thanks for asking."
Spike moved to Twilight's side and started stroking her mane as an attempt to comfort her.
"It's just so frustrating!" Twilight said in agitated voice, "First that Boethiah showed up, she sent those Dremora creatures to attack us, now we have these portals appearing everywhere. And no one knows what to do about it!" Twilight took a deep breath and sighed again, she then spoke somewhat more calmly, "At least with Discord, we knew what we had to do to beat him. But Boethiah, I have absolutely no idea what to do, no pony in Equestria does."
"Come on, Twilight! you're anything but 'no pony'!" Spike encouraged as Twilight turned her head to him, "You're one of the smartest ponies I know! You and Princess Celestia are the only ponies I can imagine figuring this whole thing out. So what you can't find anything in the books?"
Twilight thought for a moment, then suddenly hugged Spike, much to his surprise, she then said, "Thanks, Spike! and you know, you might be right. I might just be looking in all the wrong places, but where else could I find all the right answers?"
Spike hugged back, "You'll think of something, and who knows? maybe the things we need to know will fall into our laps, you never know with this-"
"DRRAAAAAAAAAGOOOOOOON!" called out a panicking voice outside.
Twilight and Spike rushed outside, they saw several ponies running around, screaming in panic. the Royal Guards Celestia posted earlier were doing what they can to restore order.
"What's going on?" Twilight asked.
Carrot Top starting running past Twilight and Spike, she screaming "Help Dragon attacking!" She suddenly to Spike and said with a calm, friendly voice, "Don't worry, we don't mean you, Spike," then returned to running around in panic.
Suddenly, Twilight and Spike could hear a deep, monstrous roar echoing through the air, that was when, just seconds later, they saw a Dragon fly over Ponyville!
But this Dragon looked very different from ones ones in Equestria, it had no front legs but had large wings where they could be and it had brown-ish gold scales all over its body. but it looked no less intimidating.
The dragon landed on the roof of one of the Ponyville houses and spoke briefly in what seemed like an actual language of sorts, but neither Spike nor Twilight could understand anything he said, until the dragon then spoke in their tongue, "You world is strange, but it matters not, you will tremble before the might of the Dov as the Joore Se Taazokaan, the mortals of Tamriel had many ages ago!"
"YOL TOOR SHUL !" the Dragon 'shouted' as fire came out of his mouth. causing the house in front of him to start to catch fire.
Twilight turned to Spike and said, "Spike, quickly send a letter to Princess Celestia, tell her what's going on then stay in the library where its safe, I'll go gather our friends and see what we can do."
With great haste, Spike ran back into the Library to do as he was told. Twilight quickly ran to gather her friends.
Author's Note
(Author's note: ooh, cliffhanger! And in case any of you will freak out later, keep in mind I was thinking up this story just before Season 3 of MLP:FiM came up, so please don't get mad if you find afew things that are contradictory to the events of season 3. The farthest I'll go chronologically is having this story take place after 'Crystal Empire' for reasons that will be explained later. Aside from that, thanks for the feedback and stay tuned!)
Chapter 5
After Twilight gathered her friends, they came to see the Dragon near the center of town fighting the Royal Guards.....and winning.
"Surround it! see if we can't attack in on multiple angles!" one of the Royal Guard Sergeants commanded.
As some of the pegasi Royal Guards tried to circle the Dragon, however, it seemed to have quickly realized their plan and started flying upward.
""Is he trying escape?" Twilight asked curiously, but she quickly got her answer.
"STRUN BAH QO !" the Dragon shouted, and suddenly the sky became thick with dark clouds and it started raining.
"You gotta be kidding, he can control weather too?" Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically, but suddenly, a lightning bolt struck just barely inches away from where Rainbow Dash was standing, which caused her to jump in surprise, "Yikes!"
Just seconds later, several lightning bolts struck at several of the Pegasi Royal Guards surrounding the Dragon, striking them hard into the ground. The Dragon then started to fly to another part of the town.
"No biggie, I'll just fly up there and put those clouds back in line!" Rainbow Dash boasted as she started to fly up toward the storm cloud the Dragon created.
When Rainbow Dash arrived to the clouds, she grabbed one the clouds and tried to move it, but the cloud zapped her upon contact, she tried to endure the electricity when she tried to move the clouds. But her efforts proved futile, those clouds looked as though they were stuck in place.
Rainbow Dash finally decided to let go of the cloud. She looked at herself to see she was heavily singed from the damage the clouds gave her.
Rainbow Dash flew back down to her friends, "Okay, scratch that idea! but maybe Fluttershy can 'stare' him down?"
"Ah should hope so, here he comes!" Applejack exclaimed as she saw the Dragon was heading right for the Mane 6.
Before Fluttershy could even prepare herself to use her 'Stare', she was startled and intimidated to see that the Dragon has quickly flown in close to the Mane 6 and shouted, "YOL TOOR SHUL !" unleashing another powerful fire breath attack.
"Look out!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she quickly pulled Fluttershy out of the way while the rest of the Mane 6 scattered away from the fire blast. The Dragon then decided to fly off to yet another part of Ponyville and used his Fire Breath shout again to engulf some of the buildings into flame.
"Okay, good news; we're all still alive," Rainbow Dash said, but looked up to see the storm clouds were clearing up, as if what control that Dragon had over weather had somehow wore off, "And we don't have to worry about lightning now. Bad news;" Rainbow Dash held up a fainted Fluttershy, "Fluttershy's fainted, so no 'stare' for us."
"It must be from that shouting that Dragon was doing," Twilight said "I saw when he first shot out fire, he wasn't breathing it out, he was shouting it, maybe the shouts shocked Fluttershy into fainting. But anyway, we'll have to try something else; Rarity and Pinkie Pie, you two get Fluttershy to a safe place then see if you can help get those fires out, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and I are gonna see we can't get that Dragon's attention. Even if we can't bring him down, we should at least be able to keep him distracted until Princess Celestia arrives."
Meanwhile, just outside Ponyville.
Dragonborn finally arrived to Ponyville, he could already tell something was going on when he saw several ponies running around in panic and several Royal Guards, like the 2 that Dragonborn has been dragging down the road with him, that were doing what they can to restore order and get the civilians to safety.
Dragonborn was quickly greeted by a group of more Royal Guards who saw that he was dragging the 2 Royal Guards by their rear legs.
But Dragonborn was the first to speak, "before you jump into any hasty conclusions, I'll have you know your two friends here are just unconscious, and it wasn't even me that caused it."
"then just stay put," one of the Royal Guards told Dragonborn, "We don't have time to deal with visitors right now, not until we deal with this current crisis."
Suddenly, both Dragonborn and the Royal Guards heard a bellowed roar coming from the opposite side of the town, and Dragonborn could recognize that roar anywhere.
"And by 'current crisis'," Dragonborn said, "You mean 'dragon attack', don't you?"
"Precisely," the Royal guard answered, "It suddenly just came here out of nowhere afew minutes ago and started tearing up the town. But some.. well-known citizens have volunteered to drawing the Dragon's attention, allowing us time to get the civilians to safety."
"Say no more," Dragonborn said, "Consider yourselves lucky that I came by then, just leave that Dragon to me."
Dragonborn dropped the royal Guards he was pulling around, pulled out his Steel Sword, and quickly ran past the Royal Guards.
"Halt!" the Royal Guards all commanded as they flew (or ran in the case of the Earth Pony and Pegasi Guards) after the Dragonborn.
"Sorry to do this, but you'll have to trust me," Dragonborn said as he turned a corner, as the Guards were about to turn the same corner along with him, he Shouted, "FUS RO DAH! "
The Dragonborn's Unrelenting Force Shout effortlessly blew the Royal Guards away and slammed them into the nearest building behind them, knocking them out, Dragonborn then continued to make his way to the Dragon.
Meanwhile...
With Rarity and Pinkie Pie helping out in combat the fires the Dragon started, and Fluttershy still fainted from the shock of the Dragon's shouting, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were the ones who found themselves fighting the Dragon, it wasn't easy for them in least.
The Dragon suddenly felt a strong tug on his right leg, he turned his head to see Applejack has lassoed his right ankle and tried to pull him down with the rope in her teeth and her legs wrapped around a wooden pillar of one of the buildings, however, the only thing Applejack ended up doing was keeping him from going anywhere.
"Great idea, Applejack!" Twilight praised, "he might be easier to deal with if we can force him to the ground."
"I'll second that!" Rainbow Dash said, "Besides, there's room for only one tougher-than-tough flyer in Equestria!"
Rainbow Dash started flying at the Dragon, and repeatingly rammed at either the Dragon's head, or sometimes his back, in an effort to force him to the ground. Twilight tried firing magic bolts from below the Dragon. And while it looked as though they did some damage, the Dragon seemed to be mostly just soaking up their attacks.
"He's tough, but clearly not invincible! let's try to keep it up!," Twilight said, but thought, What could be taking Princess Celestia so long? she had to have gotten Spike's letter by now, and that Dragon might destroy half of Ponyville by the time we finish him off by ourselves.
The Dragon, while he did not suffer much damage from the bombardment Rainbow Dash and Twilight were giving him, was having difficulty finding a chance to fight back, but at one point, the Dragon saw Rainbow Dash fly away to a slightly greater distance, no doubt to get better momentum for a stronger attack.
The Dragon immediately saw this as an opening and quickly shouted, "IISS SLEN NUS !"
Next thing Rainbow Dash knew, she found her entire body encased in ice. and herself falling toward the ground.
Twilight gasped, "Rainbow Dash!" She quickly forgot about the Dragon and quickly used her telekinesis to stop Rainbow's falling.
And while Twilight was busy gently lowering the frozen Rainbow Dash to the ground, the Dragon turned his attention to Applejack, who was still holding the rope that kept him in place. The Dragon used a combination of pulling the rope with his leg and flapping his wings much harder than usual that ultimately caused him to tear off the wooden pillar Applejack was still gripping tightly with her legs. The Dragon then used the rope to swing Applejack straight at Twilight, who just finished safely landing the frozen Rainbow Dash to the ground, and ended up with Applejack crashing into her, knocking them both out.
The Dragon then saw his opportunity to finish off his 3 pony opponents and decided to land in front of them.
The Dragon shouted "YOL TOOR- "
But his Shout was interrupted when a strange grey blur slammed right at the side of his face, caused his Fire Breath shout to shoot at a nearby building instead, missing his opponents. The Dragon was dazed by the impact of whatever hit him, but quickly recovered to see in front of him was a certain grey Pegasis that anyone in Equestria could recognize as only Derpy Hooves, who just sat where she was not looking at the Dragon.
Derpy looked very confused, "Wait, did the Guards tell us to evacuate this way? or that way?" She asked herself as she pointed her 2 front hooves at 2 random directions.
Derpy heard a loud snort coming from behind her, she quickly turned around to see the Dragon, who clearly looked very ticked off.
Derpy chuckled nervously and said, "Oops... my bad?"
The Dragon gave out a loud and intimidating roar, prompting Derpy to fly away to escape her scaled foe. The Dragon flew up a short height and pursued the cross-eyed Pegasus.
By the time Twilight and Applejack regained consciousness, they already saw Derpy was getting chased by the Dragon.
"Oh no! he's going after Derpy!" Twilight said in shock.
"Ah'll see if Ah can't pull Derpy's hooves outta the fire, so to speak," Applejack volunteered, "You see about defrostin' RD here, she might have better chance doin' this than either of us."
"Good thinking, Applejack!" Twilight said as she started casting a fire spell that gradually started melting the ice off of Rainbow Dash, "But you gotta hurry before that Dragon kills her!"
Applejack nodded with a tip of her hat and started sprinting after both the Dragon and Derpy while Twilight continues to trying to free Rainbow Dash from her icy prison.
As Applejack was going after the Dragon, she saw how, fortunately, the rope she got on him was still tied to the Dragon's right ankle, If Ah can at least get to that rope , Applejack thought, That should buy Derpy some time to get outta here, but right now that Dragon is flyin' way too fast, no way Derpy's gonna out-fly that fire-shouting varmint .
Unfortunately, Derpy was already well within range of another Shout, which the Dragon decided to use, "FUS RO DAH !"
The Dragon's Unrelenting Force Shout blew Derpy out of course, causing her to bounce off a wall of a nearby building and land in the middle of the road unconscious.
"MAMA!" cried out a young voice that Applejack recognized, she saw Dinky ran out out an alleyway to tend to her unconscious mother.
"Dinky! you gotta get outta here! quickly!" Applejack called out to Dinky, who was too busy trying to wake up her mom to pay attention.
"Wake up, Mama!" Dinky pleaded desperately while shaking her mom's head in an effort to wake her up, "Come on! please! you gotta wake up!"
The Dragon landed in front of Dinky and the unconscious Derpy, Dinky looked at the dragon with sheer terror, but was unwilling to leave her mother to get killed by it.
The Dragon was about to unleash another Shout, but was interrupted when he felt a strong tug on his right ankle, he turned his head to see Applejack was pulling him back with the rope she used on him earlier.
Applejack was always strong, but the Dragon seemed to be stronger. The Dragon used his right leg to make a sudden yank on the rope, causing Applejack to get sent flying toward the Dragon.
And as soon as Applejack was within range, the Dragon swung his tail at Applejack, sending her crashing into a nearby building and knocking her out.
By the time that happened though, Twilight had just finished defrosting Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow was shivering, "Geez, first that Dragon called up a storm, next he tried to roast us, now he froze me solid! when did they start pulling these tricks up their sleeves?"
"You know we don't have time for that, Rainbow Dash, we've got to get back that dragon, he's going after Derpy now!" Twilight said quickly.
"Say no more!" Rainbow Dash boasted, "That Dragon ain't gonna smoke Derpy on my watch!" She quickly started flying toward the Dragon with Twilight following her, but thought to herself with uncertainly, At least I hope not .
Dinky tried what she could to help her mom regain consciousness, and even tried to push her away from where the Dragon was, but her efforts on either one of those things proved futile. She saw the Dragon, who managed to cease the brief interruption he had, was getting ready to unleash another Shout.
By the time Twilight and Rainbow Dash managed to arrive to the scene, they already saw Dinky and what the Dragon was planning to do, they feared they might be too late.
"WULD NAH KEST !"
"YOL TOOR SHUL !"
Dinky flinched and covered her face as she saw the sudden burst of fire, but seconds later, noticed she didn't feel any fire on her, she uncovered her face to see not only that she and her mother were completely unharmed by the Dragon's Fire Breath, but also saw a strange bipedal figure standing between them and the Dragon.
This bipedal figure could only be the Dragonborn, who managed to get between the Dragon and the 2 ponies he tried to kill, and raised his shield to defend against the Fire Breath shout.
Twilight moved to where Applejack was knocked out and used telekinesis to lift the cowgirl pony onto her back. Rainbow Dash likewise flew past the Dragon and scooped the unconscious Derpy onto her back. Fortunately, the Dragon seemed to be too busy looking at the Dragonborn to worry about what the 2 mares were doing with the other 2 mares.
As Twilight also moved pass the Dragon to rejoin Rainbow Dash. RD, Twilight and Dinky all looked at the Dragonborn with a mix of curiosity, suspicion, and awe. They noted he had horns, but could tell it was just part of the helmet, whether or not he was human, Rainbow Dash and Twilight could tell that at least he wasn't a Dremora, especially considering how the way Dragonborn was dressed made him look almost nothing like a Dremora.
The Dragonborn briefly observed the damage done to the buildings, he figured this had to be the Dragon's first arrival here, as the damage looked too recent, and there would've been obvious signs of patchwork if this was the Dragon's second coming. But he wanted clear verification.
He quickly turned to the 3 Ponies and asked, "Is this the first time that Dragon attacked?"
Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Dinky seemed slightly hesitant, but RD decided to answer, "uh, yeah! he just came out of nowhere and wreaked the whole town like he owns it!
"Yeah, technically, this has been the only time a dragon came over and attacked us" Twilight added, she figured the incident with Spike and his birthday doesn't really count, as it was more internal a threat than it was external, and the dragon Fluttershy used her 'Stare' at wasn't so much attacking the town as it was simply polluting it.
So that azure Unicorn really was trying to trick me , The Dragonborn thought, But why? maybe I'll find out soon enough.
Dragonborn then said as he pointed his sword at the Dragon, "In that case, just worry about getting to safety, you can leave this Dragon to me!"
"Just who or what are you anyway?" Twilight asked curiously.
The Dragonborn turned to the Dragon, took afew deliberate slow steps for dramatic effect, and said as he readied himself to face the Dragon as he faced many of his kind before, "I am The One They Fear , for in their tongue, I am Dovahkiin, DRAGONBORN!"
Chapter 6
The Dragonborn simply stood where he was as he and the Dragon glared at each other.
Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Dinky took this as a chance to escape and ran to get an unconscious Derpy and Applejack, as well as the still-conscious Dinky, to safety.
"You think that human could pull this off?" Twilight asked Rainbow Dash.
"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash said with a somewhat cynical look, "Did you take a good look at this guy? he looks pretty much like a viking trying to bring down a Dragon the old-fashioned sword-and-shield way, I don't see how that cliche is gonna work when we couldn't do much better ourselves."
"You could be right," Twilight said, "It does seem a little far-fetched, but he sounded a little bit like he's done this before. But why did he ask if this was the second time a dragon attacked us?"
"How should I do know?" Rainbow Dash asked, "I've never been to wherever he's from."
"He must have came from wherever those portals lead to," Twilight pointed out, "And the fact he hasn't attacked us on sight does suggest at least that not everything in his world wants us dead."
The trio of Ponies made it out of Ponyville and went to a clearing at the outskirts of town where some Royal Guards were escort some of the civilians to safety, they saw Twilight and Rainbow Dash with Dinky by their side and Applejack and Derpy on their backs. The Guards stopped to allow the group to approach them.
As two of the Guards took over carrying Applejack and Derpy on their backs, Twilight said, "When Applejack regains consciousness, let her head back to town, we'll likely still need her help if we're to turn the tide on stopping this dragon," the Guards nodded.
Twilight then turned to Dinky and scolded, "And Dinky, try not to get killed next time!"
Dinky chuckled nervously.
Back in Ponyville, the Dragonborn and the Dragon were still glaring at each other, though the legendary Hero of Skyrim could see fear in the Dov's eyes, despite the creatures efforts to hide it.
"So, even here none of the Dovah are beyond your reach, Dovahkiin," the Dragon said with what seemed like some respectful admiration.
"Nor are any beyond my power," Dragonborn said, "You know you can't win this, right?"
"I am not Alduin, Dovahkiin," The Dragon scoffed, "Regardless of the outcome, I will not prove a Nikriin, a coward, as Alduin has when you first proved your Thu'um the strongest."
The Dragonborn quickly drank a health potion then readied himself for battle, "Then you will bear witness to how I defeated him."
The Dragon then thrusted his head forward and tried to bite the Dragonborn, who quickly blocked the attack with his shield. The Dragonborn retaliated by unleashing powerful slashes to the Dragon's head with his sword.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash returned to Ponyville to see the Dragonborn fighting the Dragon, they were surprised by how the human was single-handedly keeping the Dragon at bay.
Rainbow Dash was dumbfounded, "You gotta be kidding! We got our haunches handed to us by that dragon, yet that human is pushing him around like he's nothing!"
Suddenly, Rarity and Pinkie Pie arrived and reunited with Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
"We've taken care of the fires," Rarity said, "We decided to head back to you when there were none left to deal with."
"By the way, who's this guy?" Pinkie Pie asked, pointed toward the Dragonborn.
"I asked him that just before he started fight that Dragon," Twilight answered, "the weird thing is, he said, 'In Their tongue, I am Dovahkiin, Dragonborn!'."
"Dragonborn? wow," Pinkie said, "Wait, does it mean he has a mommy or daddy for a dragon?"
Before anyone could respond, however, Rarity suddenly noticed something "Wait, where's Applejack?"
"Right here, Y'all!" Applejack called out as she suddenly arrived.
"Applejack! thank goodness you're alright!" Twilight said with a sigh of relief.
Applejack looked at the fight between the Dragonborn and the Dragon and said, "Oookay, I take it I missed somethin' while I was out cold?"
"I was about to say the same thing," The 5 ponies turned to see Fluttershy also suddenly arrive, "Sorry I fainted, but that Dragon was really mean, scary, not to mention aloud louder than the Dragons in our world."
Twilight gave Fluttershy a brief, but firm and genuine, hug before she said, "No need to be sorry Fluttershy, that Dragon's been difficult for all of us. I think we're lucky we're all still alive. Plus, we got that human over who's practically taken over fighting that Dragon for us."
The Dragon suddenly started flying upward, as if planning to attack the Dragonborn from mid-air, but the mighty Nord hero had a different idea.
"JOOR ZAH FRUL !" The Dragonborn shouted, which to the Mane 6's surprise, they also saw how the Shout caused a blue aura to engulf the Dragon and cause him to be somehow forced back to the ground as if the Dragon's center of gravity was radically increased.
"Wait, so humans can use that same magic shouting that Dragon can?" Twilight asked, somewhat exasperated, "It's like every moment is throwing more and more questions in my mind! just what what are we dealing with here?-!"
As the Dragon was forced back onto the ground, he made a last-ditch effort to bite at the Dragonborn, who quickly stopped it by smacking the Dragon's head with a powerful shield bash, causing the Dragon to be briefly dazed. The Dragonborn quickly ran up and climbed onto the Dragon's head. The Dragon made futile attempts to shake the Dovahkiin off of him before the Nord hero stabbed his sword into the Dragon's eye and jumped off, killing the Dragon.
The Mane 6 looked upon this scene with surprising awe, they saw how their seemingly human visitor was able to succeed where they couldn't in stopping that dragon. But the Dragonborn simply stood where he was silently, as if waiting for something.
"Okay, what kind of human uses magic shouting and single-handedly brings down a dragon that also has magic shouting?" Rainbow Dash asked, as if about she was as frustrated by the lack of answers as Twilight was, "Seriously, wherever they came from, they make those Dremora from earlier look like 2-bit thugs!"
But the Mane 6 turned their attention to the dragon corpse when they saw how the skin suddenly seemed to be somehow both glowing and dissolving into some kind of magical energy, which ended up seemingly absorbed by the Dragonborn.
The Dragonborn gave a strongly satisfied look as he suddenly looked up to the sky, the Mane 6 almost felt the ground shake beneath their hooves as he suddenly roared triumphantly while he was absorbing the Dragon's soul, "DOVAHKIIN!! "
"Well," Rarity said, "He's rather.... excitable, if obviously someone who looks served hot from the Dark Ages."
"I just wish the shouting will at least take a break for while," Fluttershy said, rubbing her ears, "Anymore now and I think I'll go deaf."
The Dragonborn finally turned his attention to the Mane 6 right after the Dragon corpse was reduced to a skeleton. The Mane 6 all looked at him with a mix of awe and utter disbelief. He sheathed his sword and gave a flattered expression when he said, "Well now, I've clearly attracted an audience.
As the Mane 6 approached the Nord Rainbow Dash was to first to speak, "Okay! How the heck did you do that?"
"Do what?" Dragonborn asked, "How I pulled that dragon to the ground just by shouting at it? or how I absorbed the Dragon's soul?"
Wait! wait!" Twilight said as she found it very difficult to believe what she just heard, "you absorbed that dragon's SOUL?! how's that even possible?"
"I already said that I'm Dragonborn," the Nord said, "That means I'm a mortal with the blood and soul of a dragon, this allows me to absorb the power of the dragons I kill by taking their souls, no other mortal alive can do it"
"A human... with the blood and soul of a dragon?" Twilight asked, rubbing her head with one of her front hooves, trying to wrap her head around what she just heard, "I can't even imagine how that even makes sense, let alone how it works."
Pinkie Pie, predictably, welcomed the stranger with open arms.. or front legs, "What you did was.... AMAZING! that Dragon was like 'rawwwwwr! I'm gonna eat you all!' but then you came in and were like 'Not if I can help it! die!' pow! bash! klang! stab! And you didn't even have to drink a healing potion! you do this often?"
"yeah, I'd say I've killed several dozen dragons throughout my adventures," Dragonborn answered matter-of-factually, "Many of them were even stronger than the one you saw me bring down."
The Mane 6 suddenly shuddered at the idea of a dragon far stronger than the one they had to deal with.
Twilight decided quickly to change the subject, "So, where did you come from?"
"I come from Nirn," Dragonborn answered, "Or more specifically, the continent of Tamriel in the northern province of Skyrim, my homeland."
"So what are you doing here?" Twilight asked.
"Well, just recently there have been these portals that were appearing all over Skyrim," Dragonborn answered, "So I decided to investigate."
Twilight thought the Dragonborn's answer was too simple to be the whole truth, so she asked, "Does the name Boethiah ring any bells?"
"Boethiah? last time I met her, I sliced up the cult that worships her in Skyrim," The Dragonborn laughed, "Boy was she pissed off, but seriously, where does she fit into this?"
It became very clear to the Mane 6 that the Dragonborn, perhaps ironically, knew even less about the situation than they did.
The Mane 6 all silently figured that they should explain their side of the situation to the Dragonborn.
"Well, you see-" Twilight said but was cut off when a large group of Ponyville's citizens suddenly returned to town to see that Dragon was slain
The crowd made comments like;
"Wow, that really is really dead? but who killed it?"
"hey, it must have been that barbaric-looking biped stranger with the sword, shield, and primitive choice of wardrobe over here just near the Dragon corpse!"
"Of course! the classic sword-and-shield method, that cliche always worked in fairy tales, we should've thought of that before!"
"Let's greet our new Viking hero!"
"YEAH!"
The large crowd of ponies started galloping right toward the Dragonborn.
The Dragonborn looked very surprised, and surprisingly nervous, "uh, normally I don't get pummeled by adoring fans after killing a dragon, in fact, I only hear bad things about having fans run you over in Tamriel..."
"Can't be that bad!" Rainbow Dash mildly protested, "I know I got alot of fans right here in Ponyville, you don't see me get worried."
"Fans? you?" The Dragonborn asked as he turned to Rainbow Dash, then scoffed, "ha! if that's true, I'd like to hear what battles you're fought to earn that kind of reputation."
"Never mind that," Twilight said, "follow us, mister, uh, Dragonborn. we know a place we talk more... privately."
As the Mane 6 started galloping away from the scene, the Dragonborn quickly followed. He didn't know the horrors of being faced with adoring fans, but he didn't want to know.
Chapter 7
Dragonborn and the Mane 6 were in the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse in the dining area. The Mane 6 were simply sitting on their haunches at the dining table while the Dragonborn was given a stool so he could properly sit at their eye level.
"So, Boethiah found your world and tried to attack you with some Dremora?" Dragonborn asked, "And you believe she might have created those portals connecting your world to mine?"
Twilight nodded, "Do you have any idea what she might be up to?"
"Well, knowing her..." Dragonborn answered, "She most likely wanted to pit the people of Tamriel against your people, but that wouldn't explain why those portals are seen only in Skyrim and not everywhere in Tamriel."
"Well, Boethiah admitted that Princess Celestia is somehow able suppress her power in Equestria," Twilight said.
Before Twilight could go on, however, Dragonborn interrupted, "Whoa, hold up there, who's this Princess Celestia?"
"Oh, sorry, Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna are the rulers of Equestria," Twilight answered, "And you could say they're both demi-gods, but there's no formal religion centered around them, but Boethiah only mentioned Celestia for some reason."
"So, if I caught this right, this Princess Celestia is both part of royalty and a deity?" Dragonborn asked, "Sounds abit like the Vivec."
"Vivec?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know much about him, and even what I do know I'm not entirely sure about," Dragonborn admitted, "I heard he was some god-king that was part of a religion known as the Tribunal, which many Dark Elves used to follow, that was until a Dark Elf hero known only as the Nerevarine supposedly killed all the Tribunal gods, including Vivec. That was around 200 years ago during what my people call the Third Era."
"Wait a minute!" Rainbow Dash intervened, "First we learn your world has dragons, then you, a human, come along, now you're telling us you also have ELVES?-!"
"Oh boy! Elves!" Pinkie Pie excitingly said, almost squealing like a schoolgirl, "That sounds exciting! what do they make? toys? cookies? if not, do they advertise for cereal?"
"Uh, no," The Dragonborn answered flatly, "Why? you got a problem with elves I should know about?"
"No, it's nothing like that," Twilight answered, "From what we have learned about your world however, especially from just looking at you, much of it seems like you came from some kind of fantasy adventure novel, and trust me when I say I've read alot of those."
"Really?" Dragonborn asked, "Then no offense, but I think at this point it would be very hypocritical for you to call me strange." He then chuckled as he thought to himself, a novel, ha! as if novels have pause menus .
Applebloom suddenly entered the room with a mug of apple cider and slid the mug onto the Dragonborn's side of the table.
"What's this?" Dragonborn asked as he picked up the mug.
"It's apple cider!" Applebloom cheerfully answered.
"A family specialty," Applejack added with pride, "Ya won't find better cider anywhere outside Sweet Apple Acres."
"Somehow that sounds like something the Bosmer, or Wood Elves, would brew," Dragonborn commented as he took a sip, "Well, it's no Argonian Bloodwine, but I like it! I can think of one way to make it better though."
"Really?" Applejack said, raising an eyebrow in a mix between curiosity and suspicion, "What might that be?"
"I'll show you," Dragonborn said as he raised his mug in front of his face and shouted, "IISS!"
The Mane 6 and Applebloom all ducked as the Dragonborn unleashed his Shout, which ended up encasing most of his mug of apple cider in ice, along with half of the table.
The Mane 6 and Applebloom lifted themselves back up to see what happened, they then looked up at the Dragonborn, who chuckled nervously, as if somewhat embarrassed.
"Hehe, sorry," Dragonborn apologized, "Don't worry, it'll wear off, always does"
"There it is again!" Twilight exclaimed, "you froze a mug and table just by shouting!"
"Yeah," Rainbow dash agreed, "and that dragon back there also was able to use a shout that turned me into a Pegacicle! how could you do that?"
"They're called Dragon Shouts, or the Thu'um," Dragonborn answered, "It would take me too long to explain everything, so I'll give you the short version; the Thu'um is a very powerful and obscure form of magic in Tamriel that Dragons and mortals can use. Normally mortals have spend years of studying and practice to learn Shouts, but as Dragonborn, I can learn Shouts using the souls of Dragons I absorbed."
"I see," Twilight said, intrigued, "speaking of which, do you at least have any idea what a dragon from your world is doing in Equestria?"
"Well, not exactly, but-" Dragonborn was cut off when he noticed a sudden flash of bright light appeared from behind him. He stood up, pulled out his sword, and turned to the window behind him to see Princess Celestia.
"What trickery is this?" Dragonborn asked, suspiciously wondering if he fell into a trap, "none of you told me anyone else was arriving!"
"Relax, sugarcube," Applejack said as she and the rest of the Mane 6 stood up. Applejack walked up to the Dragonborn, gently held out a front hoof and lowered the his sword arm with it, "That there is Princess Celestia."
"yeah! we just told you abit about her earlier!" Pinkie Pie said cheerfully as she startled the Dragonborn by suddenly appearing right in front of her, "Don't worry, she's not gonna hurt you! in fact, I bet she's here to congratulate you for helping us out!"
"Wait a minute... that's right!" Twilight exclaimed in startled realization, "I had Spike send a letter to the Princess about the Dragon attack, she must've come in response to his letter."
"And she appears just minutes after I killed that Dragon?" Dragonborn asked looking genuinely impressed as he sheathed his sword, "I know couriers in Skyrim can somehow find me faster than a wolf finds dinner, this Spike, whoever he is, must have legs that would make his ancestors jealous if he delivers that quickly."
Twilight, however, was too anxious with wanting to talk to her beloved mentor to respond to the Dragonborn's remark, she and the rest of the Mane 6 started heading outside with their new Nord friend following them.
They went outside only to be surprised to see how Celestia looked as she stood before them. Celestia's mane looked considerably frizzled and she looked somewhat exhausted.
That's the mare that was able to suppress a Daedric Prince's powers? Dragonborn thought to himself, She looks as though she just got back from a wrestling match with Malacath.
Celestia looked and the Mane 6 and sighed in relief that her faithful student and her friends were still alive and well, she then turned her attention to the Dragonborn.
"Are you the human that defeated that Dragon that attacked Ponyville?" Celestia asked.
"Yeah, I am called Dragonborn," Dragonborn answered nonchalantly, which Celestia found somewhat surprising, but brushed it off.
""Well, Dragonborn, I thank you on behalf of Ponyville and Equestria for your assistance," Celestia stated, then turned her head away from the Dragonborn, but from the angle she was looking, the Dragonborn could tell Celestia was mainly looking at Twilight with a seemingly parental love in her eyes, "And I thank you on a personal level. when I got the letter warning about a dragon attacking Ponyville, I feared the worst might have happened, I dread to think what would've happened to Twilight and her friends if you hadn't arrived when you did."
Celestia then briefly lowered her head in shame, "And I must apologize for not having been able to arrive sooner, but Canterlot was also attacked."
"Let me guess; by a Dragon?" Dragonborn asked.
Celestia raised her head back up, "Actually, two dragons, both proved to be very powerful and ruthless. I could tell right away they were nothing like the dragons in our world, so I figured they had to have come from your world, am I right?" Dragonborn nodded and Celestia continued, "and even with Luna and the Royal Guards helping me out they proved very difficult to hold back, I suspect things might have been nastier if a certain warrior, who I know also had to have come from your world, stepped in to help out, I got Twilight's letter about Ponyville's dragon attack just minutes after the dragons in Canterlot were defeated and I arrived as quickly as I could-"
Celestia just barely stopped herself from collapsing to the ground, Twilight quickly went to aid her teacher and help her as she stood herself back up, Celestia gave Twilight a warm and appreciative smile before turning her attention back to the Dragonborn, "But as you could probably already guess, the fight has taken a toll on me."
"Wait, warrior?" Dragonborn asked curiously, "who is this warrior?"
"He wouldn't give me his name," Celestia answered, "when asked about his species though, he said he was a Dunmer, or Dark Elf. And while he said this was his first time fighting a dragon, he claimed to have fought far worst foes."
"Did he say why he came here?" Dragonborn asked, "Or did he simply want to investigate the portals just as I was?"
"He more or less said he was here to investigate," Celestia answered with a nod, "But he made clear he knew less about the situation than I did."
"Yeah, those 6 mares here already told me about your encounter with Boethiah," Dragonborn stated.
"Do you know anything about Boethiah?" Celestia asked.
"Just slightly more than the average Nord I'd think," Dragonborn answered, and explained what he knew about Boethiah to Celestia with what he already told the Mane 6.
Celestia's response, however was; "The Dark Elf actually said as much when I asked him about Boethiah, though he said the Dragons from your world and their actions have nothing to do with her."
"Then said Dark Elf has some passing knowledge about them," Dragonborn agreed, "Most of those dragons are far from benevolent, but as far as I know they'd never serve Daedra."
"Do you know why they'd be in our world then?" Celestia asked.
"It could only be the same reason they've been giving us mortals of Tamriel trouble," Dragonborn answered, "Most dragons like to dominate or destroy all mortals, we can safely assume they're trying to do the same in your world."
"Is there any way to stop them?" Celestia asked.
"Sure," Dragonborn said, "If you got an effective army to hunt them all down with, or just send me after them all, there are only several hundred of them, I think."
"Really? just send you to cut 'em all down? Rainbow Dash asked with tremendous skepticism, she then added sarcastically, "Should we just lure them all together in some huge valley and just throw you at them?"
Dragonborn laughed with boisterous enthusiasm then said, "I like the way you think, lass. I can't believe I didn't think of that, but hey, that's something I gotta try."
"I wasn't being serious," Rainbow Dash stated, somewhat weirded out by the horned-helmet wearing biped.
"I was!" Dragonborn stated back, which both the Mane 6 and Celestia found considerably shocking, which Dragonborn noticed, "What? you want to stop those dragons, don't you, might take me a while but I can pull it off."
"Don't misunderstand, Dragonborn, we appreciate that you're eager to help us further," Celestia said, "But.."
"You're wondering if there's a more peaceful or faster way?" Dragonborn finished, quickly catching on, "Let me sum up Tamriel's history with dragons for you;"
Dragonborn explained to Celestia what he knew about the Dragons and their history, from how the ancient Nords rebelled against them and the Dragon Cult in response to their tyranny, to how the Dragons were hunted down and driven into hiding, to how only recently did they return to strike at Tamriel again.
Celestia responded, "So these creatures only respond to violence?"
"Most of them do, yes," Dragonborn said, "They respect strength and the power of their Voice, or Dragon Shouts, which I can also use."
Celestia nodded, "Those Dragons I fought earlier were able to use powerful magic by 'shouting' words I don't recongize, the Dark Elf already told me about 'Dragon Shouts' mid-fight."
"It's these Shouts are what make even the weakest of Dragons very powerful," Dragonborn stated, "Before I learned Shouts myself, I felt lucky I survived my first fight with a dragon, let alone having managed to kill him. And being Dragonborn, I'm supposed to be the ultimate dragon-slayer."
Celestia thought for a moment, then asked out of curiosity, "Did you see anyone else from your world enter ours?"
"Actually yes," Dragonborn answered, "In fact, I'll boldly say the Dragons might not become your only problem coming from Tamriel, you might also have the Thalmor to deal with."
"The Thalmor?" Celestia asked.
"High-Elven, or Altmeri supremacists," Dragonborn stated, "to give the short version; they seek to conquer all of Tamriel and eradicate the races of Men. They've been plaguing my homeland for years, I've been doing what I could to fight them back and I recently thought I managed to drive them out of Skyrim. But the fact they had to have come to your world from Skyrim has proven me wrong. I encountered a group of them in your world when two of your guards were escorting me to Ponyville. The Thalmor demanded your guards handed me over to them, when they refused, the Thalmor attacked. We managed to drive them to a retreat but the guards were knocked unconscious just before the fight was over."
"Where are those guards now?" Celestia asked.
"I left them just outside the south side of town with some other guards I encountered here when I saw dragon attacking," Dragonborn answered, "feel free to go to them yourself if you don't believe me, I'm sure they've regained consciousness by now."
"Given what's been going on, I somehow don't find this very far-fetched," Celestia said "But I'll go them, just to see if they're alright and to assess the damage the dragon has done to Ponyville, after that I'm heading back to Canterlot, I have to think all this through," She then turned to the rest of the Mane 6 and added, "Take whatever time you need to collect and prepare yourself and meet me at Canterlot Castle."
"I certainly hope you're not leaving me out," Dragonborn said, "Helping good people and killing bad people is part of my trade as well as my hobby, especially if the Thalmor are involved, and and while I don't know exactly why they're here, I doubt it was just to kill me, if you catch my drift."
Celestia turned to the Dragonborn, "I never said you couldn't help. But I think it would be best if you went to Canterlot with my student, Twilight, and her friends. It's not that I'm suspicious of you, but you're in ways still a stranger here and I'm sure this is a strange place to you. So I think it's best we avoid any... complications, if you know what I mean."
Dragonborn looked somewhat exasperated but said, "Fair enough."
Chapter 8
What was I thinking? The Dragonborn asked himself as he walked around Sweet Apple Acres, Why did I agree to follow those 6 sentient ponies? I could've easily used Whirlwind Sprint to simply dash out on them and deal with the situation myself. Sure, some of those ponies might freak out at some my methods, and given how this place is almost nothing like Tamriel, I'd probably accidentally cause a misunderstanding, but.. wait, those are some very good reasons I should go along with this plan...
Celestia already said her goodbyes to the Mane 6 and took her leave, and by now she was likely back in Canterlot. The Mane 6 were at there respective homes getting ready to leave for their meeting with the Princess, which left Dragonborn with having to wait for them before he can go anywhere.
So he decided to walk around Ponyville to pass the time.
After afew minutes of exploring, the heroic Nord found a small park in Ponyville that fortunately seemed mostly untouched by the dragon attack.
The Dragonborn looked around and saw Applebloom, whom he recalled briefly meeting back at Sweet Apple Acres, with her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They seemed to have been briefly talking about something before turning and seeing The Dragonborn.
The CMC immediately approached the Hero of Skyrim.
"Hey there!" Applebloom greeted.
"You must that that Dragonborn guy Applebloom told us about!" Scootaloo greeted, "Is it true you froze half a table just by shouting?"
Dragonborn chuckled awkwardly, "yeah, but that was sort of an accident. But I can do alot of things with my Thu'um, would you like a more intentional demonstration?"
The CMC nodding excitingly.
"Okay then," The Dragonborn pulled out an apple and tossed it into the air, then Shouted, "TIID KLO UL !" and time somehow seemed to slow down immensely as the Nord pulled out his sword and started slicing at the apple several times. It was when the apple was completely cut up to reasonably sized wedges and the Nord sheathed his sword as time went back to normal speed just in time for the apple slices to land on the Dragonborn''s hand.
Needless to say, the CMC were amazed.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Sweetie Belle applauded, "Can you do another one?"
"Sure, if you're willing to wait around a minute for my Thu'um to recharge," Dragonborn answered while panting slightly as if slightly winded.
"Wait, why can't you use another of these 'shouts' now?" Scootaloo asked somewhat disappointed.
"From what I gather, my lungs aren't yet fully adapted to using the Thu'um," Dragonborn answered, "I've been gradually getting better at it, but I think it'll take me years before I can Shout as often as Dragons do."
The Dragonborn then decided to change the subject, "You three seem quite quick to search for excitement, what do you normally do around here?"
Applebloom beamed, "We're glad you asked, you see, me, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle here are...
"...THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" all three fillies cheered loudly, which the Dragonborn was surprisingly unfazed by.
"We're on a crusade to find our special talents!" Scootaloo exclaimed.
"So we can get our Cutie Marks!" Sweetie Belle cheerfully said.
"And what might those be?" Dragonborn asked.
"Symbols that appear on a pony's flank when he or she discovers his or her special talents," Sweetie Belle replied.
"A lot of grown-ups keep telling us we'll find them eventually," Scootaloo asked, "But we keep trying to figure it out in the meantime."
"But we're guessin' you don't have anythin' like that to worry about, no?" Applebloom asked.
"Not regular mortal in Tamriel has anything like that," Dragonborn said, "But I think I had something similar happen to me.'
The CMC were both curious and surprised, they both asked in unison, "Really? How?"
Dragonborn grinned at the 3 fillies' enthusiasm and sat down crossed-legged, "In a way it was quite simple, I didn't even know I was Dragonborn until I fought and killed my first dragon and absorbed his soul."
Dragonborn told the CMC about how it was only a short while ago when Dragons started reappearing all over Tamriel and the Jarl of Whiterun, Balgruuf The Greater, had him help the Whiterun Guard bring down a Dragon that was attacking the city.
"Weren't you at all scared when you had to fight your first dragon?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Scared? ha!" Dragonborn scoffed then boasted, "you're looking at the Nord who's faced countless villains, managed to slice down warriors with superior equipment and training, and struck fear into even the hearts of Daedra..... I almost soiled my drawers."
The CMC chuckled slightly.
"Well, well, well," said a voice the CMC were all too familiar with.
The Dragonborn stood up and quickly turned around to see the 2 filles that the CMC knew to be Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
"Even I never thought I'd see this from you three," Said Diamond Tiara in a mocking tone, "Blank flanks befriending an obvious barbarian!"
"We better keep our distance," Silver Spoon said as she covered her nose, "we don't want to catch his stench like those three surely have."
Dragonborn scoffed, crossed his arms, and said sarcastically, "Well, THAT's mature, I've met priests that threw better insults than that. And what's up with called those girls blank flanks? when you surely know that those flanks won't forever be bare?"
Diamond Tiara didn't expect this sort of question, she stammered awkwardly for a few second but the Dragonborn continued, "That would be like if a full-grown Nord mocked a younger Nord for not having armpit odor, or to put it in terms you might better understand, if full-grown mare made fun of a filly for not being as tall or wide, and neither of you two seem to even look any older than the three fillies you're trying to mock, so tell me, what sense does it make for you to make fun of someone over something you know they'll inevitably get?"
Diamond Tiara tried to answer, but she couldn't think of a good counter-argument, she was left stumped figuring out what to say.
Silver Spoon noticed this and figured the battle was lost , she placed a front hoof on Diamond's back and said to her, "C'mon Diamond, that hairy ape isn't worth our time, we'll figure something out later."
Diamond simply nodded and the two fillies silently walked away.
"Thanks, we owe ya," Applebloom said as Dragonborn turned back toward them, "Ah doubt that will stop them from teasin' us for good, but this might get 'em off our backs for a while at least."
"They were lucky," Dragonborn said, then bluntly added, "if they were grown mares that did that to you three, I might've simply punched them in the mouth, but let's not get into that. Besides, I think I just thought of an idea that might help you find your special talents, and even if it doesn't we'd still have our fun."
"What do ya mean?" Scootaloo asked.
Dragonborn grinned, "I'll put it this way, do you know where a blacksmith's forge is?"
A few minutes later.
Applejack never thought she'd see this; almost every filly and colt about walking around town in these strange get ups, wearing what seemed like metal chain-mails under leather scaled vests with different colored sashes worn over them, along with metal helmets that covered their entire heads. anyone in Tamriel would've recognized that they were wearing some pony version of Hold Guard armor. But Applejack, who's never been to Tamriel, obviously did not know that.
A random colt then went past her and said "I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee..." in the same accent she heard the Dragonborn speak in.
That there bipedal friend of ours must be behind this , Applejack realized, she then suddenly heard the sound of clanging metal coming from her right. She turned to see, sure enough, the Dragonborn in Ponyville's local smithy, crafting what looked like another set of the armor she saw the filles and colts of Ponyville wearing.
Applejack approached Dragonborn with a grin and said, "Ah hope ya don't mind me sayin' this, but Ah never pegged you for a smith,"
Dragonborn casually responded "You'd be surprised what trades you learn when you take up adventuring in Skyrim."
"Yeah, Dragonborn really is somethin' ain't he, Sis?" Applejack turned her head and saw Appleboom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle wearing the same kind of armor but without the helmet.
"Applebloom? what's got you and all ya friends dressin' all weird like that?" Applejack asked.
"It was Dragonborn's idea," Applebloom replied, "Me an' the rest of the Crusaders told him how we've been tryin' to get our Cutie Marks, so he suggested we could get them by being Hold Guards."
"Guards?" Applejack raised an eyebrow, "but y'all way too young to enlist!"
"No, no, no, not Royal Guards," Scootaloo corrected, "Hold Guards, Dragonborn said they're very different, he said all they do is walk around, make snarky comments, randomly tell somepony of somepony else's problems, and point out excellent adventuring locations."
"Alot of the fillies and colts saw what we were doing and thought it'd be fun," Sweetie Belle said, "So they asked Dragonborn if he could make extra sets of armor so they could join in as well, he even taught us how to speak in his accent, like with this line;" Sweetie cleared her throat and said in what was her attempt at an Nord accent, "No lollygaggin'!"
Dragonborn quickly walked up to Applejack and whispered in her ear, "There's alot more to Hold Guards than that, but I figured there'd be no harm in humoring them."
"Riiiight," Applejack said, still weirded out, "Anywho, Twilight asked me ta look fer ya a short bit ago, I reckon she has a million or so questions fer ya."
"Funny," Dragonborn said, "In my line of work, I'm normally the one who asks people the most questions, sometimes I've asked the same question again."
Applejack grinned, "Then Ah'm guessin' you'll both'll get along jus' fine, she's at Golden Oaks Library, you'll find it by-"
"Don't worry, someone already told me where it is," Dragonborn interrupted, "Besides, as I might've pointed out before, I think I have some questions on my own as well."
Meanwhile, at Golden Oak Library.
Twilight couldn't help but just stare out the window, looking at how almost every filly and colt was walking around dressed like something she saw in the 'Barbarian Ponies and Barbers' book she read just last month, Spike was standing right next to her, and he found it just as bizarre as she did.
"Any idea what they're doing, Spike?" Twilight asked.
"Not the foggiest clue," Spike replied, "Aside from maybe that Rarity will likely flip if she saw them all dressed like they came from the reign of King Hornlord IV," Spike face palmed himself, "Dang it, now you got me referencing obscure historical guys."
The duo suddenly heard the door open, they turned and saw the Dragonborn enter the Library.
"Huh, nice place," Dragonborn commented aloud.
"Uh, thanks," Twilight said, the Dragonborn turned to her, "though I hope you don't mind me saying, you didn't strike me at first glance as the literary type."
"We Nords do much more reading than alot of foreigners think," Dragonborn said, then turned his attention to Spike, he took afew steps forward and then crouched to Spike's eye-level, asking, "And who might this little salamander be?"
"The name's Spike, nice to meet ya!" Spike introduced myself and held out one of his hand to offer a shake.
Dragonborn took Spike's hand, but then suddenly stood up, causing Spike to end up hanging on to the Dragonborn's arm.
"Hey! what the heck are you doing?" Spike asked in surprise.
Twilight was about to ask the same question, but noticed The Dragonborn was looking at Spike with a very curious expression, as if he was examining the young dragon.
"So you're this Spike huh?" Dragonborn said, "I've heard you're quite the courier, going from one town to a another delivering letters merely minutes before I kill a dragon? I was already impressed when I heard of you, but even then, if you don't mind me saying this, unless whatever this Princess Celestia lives in a very short distance from this town, those stubby little legs of yours are clearly not to be underestimated."
"Run from one town to another? ha!" Spike laughed, "Put me down and I'll show you a real way to deliver mail!"
Curious, Dragonborn gently placed Spike back on the floor. Spike then picked up a nearby scroll that was on the table in the middle of the room and blew his fire breath at it, causing it to disappear.
Before the Dragonborn could say anything, however, the scroll suddenly reappeared, floating right in front of his face, The Nord quickly grabbed the scroll out of reflex and unscrolled it to read it.
Turned out, it was just a grocery list.
"Still impressive," Dragonborn commented as he tossed the grocery list back onto the table, "To communicate over long distances that quickly is a rare thing, even for most mages to accomplish, I bet the mages at the College of Winterhold would give enough gold to retire three times over just for you teach that spell."
"College of Winterhold? I'm guessing it's a seat of arcane learning where you live?" Twilight asked.
Dragonborn nodded as he turned his attention to Twilight, "it's one of the few places in Tamriel where one can get proper education in learning magic, abit ironic considering most of my kinsmen don't trust magic. Anyway, I hear you wanted ask me some things. Well, I've some of my own as well, but I'll let you go first."
Spike snickered briefly, "You're gonna regret saying that."
And sure enough, the mighty Nord did, as Twilight kept answering several questions about Tamriel, which Dragonborn politely answered, but was quickly starting to get bored, what was actually 30 minutes felt to him like a whole day went on.
It came to the point where Dragonborn was sitting cross-legged and looking as though he fell asleep, yet still somehow was subconsciously continuing to answer Twilight's questions.
Twilight, however, being absorbed in listening to the Dragonborn's answers and writing them down on a notepad, didn't notice the Nord's state until Spike tapped on her back lightly and pointed it out to her.
One splash of water from a bucket later, Dragonborn woke up and suddenly spluttered in surprise, "Trolls can quickly regenerate their heath but are very weak to fire!"
Spike and Twilight looked at him blankly.
"Oh, you're finished?" Dragonborn asked.
"Yeah," Twilight answered, "You could say that little nap you had made me figure I asked enough for now, but I must say, I'm guessing I've only tipped the iceburg with what you told me, 'cause judging from some of the more elaborate answer you gave me, there must be enough information about your world to fill at least 2 or 3 textbooks!"
"Yeah," Dragonborn agreed, "To be fair, even I'm sometimes amazed with what there is to know about Tamriel, or indeed, all of Mundus for that matter, and I live here!"
"But anyway, it's your turn" Twilight said.
"No problem," Dragonborn said, "I have only one question anyway, do you know any azure ponies with a silver mane and tail?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow, "that sounds alot like Trixie, why? did you see her?"
"She came to me while I was on the road," Dragonborn said, "She approached me pleading for help, in a suspiciously overly-dramatic way."
"That definitely sounds like Trixie," Twilight said in a deadpan tone.
Dragonborn then told Twilight about how apparently tried to trick him into antagonizing or even attacking her because Trixie claimed that Twilight was a dragon worshiper. Dragonborn quickly assured Twilight that he didn't really buy Trixie's story from the start, and when he arrived to see there was a dragon still attacking Ponyville and the damage the dragon did appeared too recent for that attack to be his second coming, it became obvious to the Dragonborn that Trixie lied to him.
"Any idea why she tried to trick me?" Dragonborn asked.
"Well, knowing her," Twilight replied, "the reason she'd pull this would've been to get revenge on me for 'upstaging' her."
"Care to elaborate?" Dragonborn asked.
Twilight and Spike told The Dragonborn about the time Trixie came to Ponyville to do a stage performance, from how she humiliated Twilight's friends to how Snips and Snail brought an Ursa Minor into Ponyville for Trixie to vanquish when she falsely boasted about defeating an Ursa Major, to how Twilight had to use her magic to got said Ursa Minor to leave Ponyville.
"Huh, so she boasted about something she didn't even do," Dragonborn commented, "In a way though, she should consider herself lucky."
"Lucky? her boasts, two colts foolish enough to believe them, and a very cranky Ursa Minor almost tore up half of Ponyville, how do you call that lucky?" Twilight asked, understandably somewhat agitated.
"For one, if she did something like that in Tamriel, especially Skyrim I think, she's likely end up dead," Dragonborn answered, "And even putting aside, it was you that got that creature to leave your town before things could get worst, what do you suppose would happen to this Trixie if you weren't here?"
Both Twilight and Spike easily caught the implications behind the Dragonborn's word and gave out very uneasy expressions.
"Ouch," was Spike's only verbal response.
"Exactly," Dragonborn said.
"Well, anyway, I guess I better get things ready before heading for Canterlot," Twilight said, "I'll be right back."
Twilight went upstairs to make some last-minute preparations, leaving Spike and the Dragonborn the only ones in in the ground floor.
"Sooo," Dragonborn said, wanting to make conversation, "You live in this Library I take it?"
"Uh.. Yeah?" Spike answered awkwardly.
"You must do a serious amount of reading here then," Dragonborn commented, "I mean, what else could you even do around here?"
"Oh, don't worry, it's hard to get bored around here," Spike said casually, "Besides, it's Twilight that does most of the reading."
"But what is it YOU do around here?" Dragonborn asked.
"oh, nothing much," Spike asnwered, "I do abit of cooking and cleaning, I help organize the library, write letters, help other ponies with random jobs, help Rarity dig up gems...."
Spike stopped when he noticed the Dragonborn looked rather shocked at what he said.
"What?" an understandably confused Spike asked.
"Shor's bones!" Dragonborn exclaimed, "What kind of child willfully does literally nothing but chores all day? almost any other lad I know would consider that a nightmare!"
"Maybe," Spike shrugged, "But how many kids do you know top off the end of the week with a sack full of gems or even..,"
Spike briefly trailed off as he started to look like he was in a trance, "a kiss from the most beautiful mare in Equestria...."
"Well now, you're obviously precocious," Dragonborn commented, "You must be... what? ten? or at least your species' equivalent of that age? and you're already in a relationship? good for you!"
Spike snapped his self-induced trance and said, "Wait, me and Rarity? well, technically we're not a couple yet.. but I'm working on that."
"Perhaps I could help with that?" Dragonborn suggested.
"You? help?" Spike chuckled, "no offense, but you don't look like the type who gets many dates."
"Ha! nonsense!" Dragonborn boasted as he flexed the muscles of his right arm, "It's no mere boast when I say that at least a third of the women in Skyrim want to put me in bed with them, even a third of Skyrim's men, elves, lizards, and cats!"
Spike shuddered slightly, "Did you really have to put those sort of images on my head? how do you even get into a relationship where you're from?"
"Simple!" Dragonborn replied, "to start, I ask the person I want to date if they have something they'd want me to do, I do it, they show their appreciation, and snap! instant potential girlfriend!"
"That's it?" Spike asked, "What do you do when you want to date them?"
Dragonborn paused in hesitation, then said, "That is a very good question.... 'cause I've never really dated before."
Spike face palmed himself, then said sarcastically, "well you're alot of help here."
"Wait! hold up!" Dragonborn recovered, "I might not know exactly you can officially get in a relationship with this Rarity, but I have an idea."
"Now I bet this is gonna be rich," Spike snarked.
"It shouldn't be too hard," Dragonborn said "That unicorn you live with, Twilight's her name, right? since I'll be accompanying her and her friends on what will likely be, knowing my luck, a grand adventure, I suggest you come with us so I can teach you how to become a skilled warrior like me, your Rarity will surely become so impressed, she'll be asking you out."
"And you think you can pull that off? let alone that it could work?" Spike asked.
"Ha! you're looking at the man who leads 3 different yet highly respected guilds," Dragonborn boasted, "who else but me could be a more fitting teacher of what you'll be learning?"
Spike scoffed slightly then said in a slightly deadpan tone, "you sound like Rainbow Dash if she was born a thousand years earlier. But alright, I'll go along with your plan, but I won't be holding my dragon breath."
"Wait, dragon breath?" the Dragonborn asked as he raised an eyebrow, "So you're what dragons look like in your world?"
Dragonborn laughed boisterously, "No offense, but when I first noticed you, I assumed you were some Argonian toddler or something, guess that explains why no dragons have ever attacked this village until recently, you definitely could use my teachings."
"Would a certain.. incident from after my birthday count?" Spike asked.
"Say what?" Dragonborn asked, confused.
Spike then started explaining to the Dragonborn how a good while ago, he got very greedy after his birthday and his greed caused him to grow larger and more feral and caused him to tear up Ponyville quite abit in his pursuit to horde as much as he could carry.
"Interesting," Dragonborn said, "So how'd you get small again?"
"Well, during my rampage," Spike continued, "I ponynapped Rarity and tried to take a fire ruby I gave her the day before my birthday, she called me out on it without knowing it was me and I was remained of what I did for her, it helped me let go of my greed and I turned back to normal."
"Well, I think I can see why I've never heard about it at least," Dragonborn replied, " A greedy dragon going into a state of kleptomania probably isn't something that technically counts as 'attacking' the town as much as, say.. committing mass-burglary."
"Yeah..." Spike agreed, "Oddly enough nopony in Ponyville bore any grudge against me for it, I guess they also thought it was just something that got out of hoof, or hand, or claw, or however you want to put it."
"Quite a coincidence," Dragonborn said, "I've been though something similar when I-"
"Okay!" Twilight said with a satifactory tone from upstairs, "Looks like I'm ready to head out."
Twilight came downstairs wearing her saddlebags, she walked close to the front door before turning to Spike.
"So, Spike, you sure you'll be fine with staying in charge of the library 'till I get back?" Twilight asked.
"Well, I-" Spike tried to say, but the Dragonborn butted in, taking a few steps forward.
"Actually," Dragonborn said, butting in, "Spike here wishes to travel with us so he can learn, appropriately from me, how to become a great adventurer!"
Twilight rolled her eyes at the Dragonborn's clear egotism, then asked Spike, "Is that true?"
Spike gave the Dragonborn a slightly annoyed look before turning to Twilight and said, "Let's just say the short answer is 'yes' and leave it at that."
Twilight grinned, she figured Spike was planning something, but figured that, knowing Spike, it would likely be harmless. Plus, the Dragonborn, while clearly is at least as arrogant as Rainbow Dash, seemed trustworthy enough.
"Well, okay then, we'll just lock up the library until we get back" Twilight said, "But we get going, the train heading for Canterlot will be ready to take off soon."
"What's a train?" Dragonborn asked.
"Considering where you come from," Spike said, "I think it'll be easier to explain just by showing you, come on."
Both Twilight and the Dragonborn walked out of the library, Spike locked the door before closing it and heading out with them.
Meanwhile in the Everfree Forest...
Trixie and Torenon were walking through the forest, upset that their plan was ruined before it even started.
"Well, that went swimmingly!" Trixie said with some crude sarcasm.
"I'll have to agree," Torenon bitterly said, then muttered, "Why didn't she tell me she was bringing dragons here?"
"What was that?" Trixie asked, "Trixie couldn't hear you."
"Uh, I said that things are becoming far more difficult than I thought," Torenon lied, not wanting to raise Trixie's suspicions, "but, a deal's a deal, I agreed to give you lessons, did I not? follow me, and you shall have them."
Trixie followed Torenon to a clearing with a foot-tall stump in the middle.
"So, what will we be doing here?" Trixie asked.
Torenon said nothing, he went over to the stump, crouched down to one knee, reached into his Thalmor robes, pulled out a small statue of Boethiah, and placed it on the stump.
"What's this?" Trixie asked, "you performing some religious rite of yours before we get started?
Torenon continued to ignore Trixie, he placed two fingers on the Boethiah statue and muttered some words in Daedric. Seconds later, his left hand became enveloped in some sort of dark blue magical energy.
"Seriously! say something!" Trixie barked, having gotten extremely agitated with Torenon's slient treatment.
"It's been a pleasure working with you, unicorn," Torenon finally said finally turning to Trixie and placing his glowing hand behind his back so Trixie couldn't see it, "But while this last act will help me immensely, this will be where our short-lived partnership ends."
"What are you.." Trixie stopped herself, then started to piece things together, "You weren't at all planning on helping Trixie with her magic. You were using Trixie, weren't you?"
"Give the mare an apple!" Torenon snarked in a weirdly delightful tone, "You're smarter than you look. But as of right now, I'm still using you for just a few minutes, and someone I know will be coming here to use you even more."
"You dare insult Trixie with such notions?-!" Trixie angrily asked, "Bah! it's clear that Trixie should've known you would be a fraud!"
Trixie turned away from Torenon and started to walk away, "And Trixie hopes this Dragonborn picks his teeth with your bo-."
Trixie was cut off when Torenon suddenly casted a paralysis spell on her, causing her to, well, be paralyzed and to land on the ground on her side. Torenon casually walked over to her and crouched down to his knees and showed Trixie his glowing hand.
"Neither my superiors nor my subordinates in the Aldmeri Dominion know this," Torenon explained, "But I'm actually a Daedra worshiper, I worship Boethiah, to be exact. And that's because my government has a rather... impractical idea of how to gain supremacy. After all, why go through so much trouble to reverse the cause of lost divinity when your world's history has proven there are far easier ways to become a god?"
Torenon then stood up and pointed his glowing hand at Trixie, who could only watch silently in terror.
"Farewell, my four-legged friend," Torenon said in a nonchalant tone as he casted a spell from his glowing hand on Trixie.
Trixie suddenly became engulfed in a dark-purple aura of evil magic, she started floating a few feet in the air, her eyes were shut and her legs were flailing around, showing that the paralysis spell wore off and Trixie was trying desperately to break free of whatever was still imprisoning her.
Trixie then suddenly closed her eyes and placed her front hooves on her head, as if suddenly suffering from a massive and debilitating headache, she opened her eyes again to reveal they became glowing and almost featureless purple orbs, her mouth opened, letting out some black smoke, and her legs were suddenly aligned to where it now seemed like she was standing on air.
Finally, Trixie slowly floated back down to the ground, just standing and staring at Torenon with a slightly expectant expression.
Torenon gave a smug grin, bent down to one knee, and said, "Welcome to Equestria, Lord Boethiah."
'Trixie' gave a disturbingly satisfied grin.
