Ice Veins

The Royal guards wasted no time in forming a schiltrom around Rurik, the princess, and the other ponies that had accompanied her. The princess used her magic to fire bolts of destructive energy, while some of the royal guardsponies fired back with their own crossbows. Crossbow bolts flew in from all directions, clanging off of the round bronzed shields.

“Hold steady!” barked Steel Shod. Rurik had to admit that what the ponies lacked in experience at arms, they more than made up for in their courage and discipline. The Nord added to the crossbow armed guards efforts by launching fireballs towards the tree lines where the enemy was hiding. He quickly heard a satisfying yelp as one of his targets was hit: he grinned in victory, but felt a light tap on his pauldron, and turned to see Steel Shod. The Unicorn had removed his helmet revealing a golden coat and short black mane. The warrior looked to him with stoic but concerned hazel eyes.

“We are running out of crossbow bolts, and the unicorns and the princess can’t keep firing blind much longer or their magical reserves will dry up and leave them exhausted. We have to finish them off or we will have them harassing us the whole way out of this damned forest. We need a distraction so we can finish these bastards, or we need help!” reported Steel Shod.

“Leave it to me: I will do you one better and off these bastards.” said Rurik turning to the guard officer.

“I don’t know why I believe you but if you want to get yourself killed then go for it! I can’t leave the guards and the princess behind; not with the captain incapacitated; and my ponies won’t stand a chance against this many well armed assassins in a one on one!”

“Just leave it to me.” said Rurik taking the Aetherium Staff in hand and pointing it at the ground in front of the guards. A small portal opened and out popped a Dwemer Spider Guardian automaton, which scuttled into the bushes, electricity dancing around the spinning gyro on the top of it. This was followed by a shriek as electricity coursed through the body of one of the assassins.

“ODAHVIING!” shouted Rurik, his shout blasting into the air sounded like the crack of a whip. Another assassin ran out of the bushes, only to be leapt upon by the Dwemer contraption, and electrocuted before the little machine scuttled back into the bushes. The Ponies held their ground but shook in fear as the bone chilling roar of the dragon echoed around the forest and a massive shadow flew over them before returning and hovering over them and blasting flame into the trees below. a host of screams showed that he had killed quite a few.

“Rurik, what do you require of me?” asked the huge drake.

“Find the one giving orders and grab them: I have some questions that will be needing answers; deal with the rest as you see fit!” yelled Rurik over the din of battle.

“Of course Fahdon; it shall be as you ask.” answered the dragon before flying in a circle. When Odahviing dove and a loud yelp was heard, Rurik knew that the old drake had found his target while the guardsponies looked on in awe at the large red dragon. The small victory did not last as with a shout, nearly sixty assassins in varying suits of heavy and light armor leapt from the tree line and bum rushed the formation. There was a mixture of Diamond Dogs wearing scaled armor, Minotaurs wearing iron and steel armor, griffons wearing bronze, and even some ponies clad in leather. The guards braced and leveled their spears to receive the impending charge.

The assassins smashed into the shield wall and were shoved back; some being skewered on spears. The pony who Rurik had heard called Steel Shod had his war hammer gripped in his telekinesis and brought the weapon around in a crushing arc, shattering the bones of three of the attackers, and crushing the skull of a fourth. Rurik could tell that this pony was an experienced warrior despite his young age as the unicorn seemed to be unaffected by the kills he was earning; boisterously shouting out each kill as a number while other guards showed looks of remorse for having to kill the attackers; this was a pony who knew war quite well and showed no remorse for doing his duty.

Rurik shouldered his way to the front of the shield wall and activated the Visage of Mzund. The assassins who were assaulting that specific area of the shield wall let out blood curdling shrieks as scalding hot steam washed over their bodies; no amount of armor stopped the horrific burns that it caused. The sight of their comrades being steamed to death and the presence of a circling Dovah overhead that had grabbed their leader and was acting as a gigantic, flying, flamethrower proved too much for even the battle hardened Minotaurs. The few remaining attackers fled; but Rurik was not finished. The Nord unhooked two small golden spheres with pins from his belt and pulled out the pins, before hurling the small objects so that they landed in front of the fleeing assassins, before detonating and shredding a goodly number of them. A great cheer went up from the royal guards as the attackers were routed while the small Dwemer machine disappeared back to wherever it had come from.

The celebration however was cut short by the sounds of weeping. Rurik turned to find the Princess, Rarity and the four other ponies standing around Twilight, who lay on the ground with a crossbow quarrel in her side and breathing raggedly.

“Oh divines no!” said Rurik removing his helmet and jogging over. Before he could get any closer, the sky blue one with the rainbow mane flew over and barred his path.

“Don’t you dare go near my friend!” she shouted through tears. Rurik clamed himself with a deep breath to calm himself

“I know you are scared for her, but do you want her to die?” asked Rurik.

“No!” she said.

“If you let me by, I can help her.” he stated calmly.

“How?” she asked.

“Let me past and you will see.” he replied.

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Rainbow did not trust the creature, but Twilight was running out of options fast. They had tried using healing magic, but the bolt was enchanted to resist unicorn healing magic, and if she did not get help fast, Twilight would die.

“Alright, but no funny business.” said Dash with a tear filled scowl.

“Don’t worry, no funny business.” said Rurik jogging over and reaching in his satchel. He knelt beside the wounded unicorn and pulled out a phial that held a red liquid, and propping up Twilight’s head, he took the bottle’s cork in his teeth and yanked it off before spitting onto the ground. He then poured about ¾ of the liquid down her throat. The healing potion did its job and Twilight’s breathing stabilized. Carefully setting the unicorn’s head down; he moved to the wound. The bolt had bitten deep, but it had to come out. Twilight screamed and fainted, as in one swift motion; Rurik yanked the bolt out, making the ponies cringe. He quickly poured what was left of the healing potion into the wound, which stopped any further bleeding.

The ponies then watched in awe as Rurik used his Healing Hands spell to heal up the injury. Even the fur on the afflicted area grew back; making it appear as if the wound had never even been there.  Twilight groaned as she awoke from her pain induced nap.

“Easy Twilight, you will be a little sore, but you will be fine.” said Rurik rubbing her back.

The big Nord got the shock of his life as Twilight, Rarity, and the other four ponies gave him a hug all at once.

“Ladies, ladies please; I’m a married man.” he chuckled; eliciting a few laughs from the mares around him. The four ponies who he had just met introduced themselves one at a time.

“So, you got a name?” asked the rainbow maned Pegasus.

“Yes, but please do not judge me because of it. My name is Rurik Skull-Taker of clan Skull-Taker from the Kingdom of Skyrim: I am the chief engineer of High King Ulfric Stormcloak, and Thane of the nine holds of Skyrim. Just so you know my family’s name is an old one dating back nearly four thousand years. I do not run around chopping off heads for no reason. ” said Rurik as he removed his helmet.

“It’s a pleasure to meet ya Rurik; Mah name’s Applejack, Element of Honesty.” said the Orange cow pony offering her hoof for a handshake.

“Pleasure to meet you as well.” replied Rurik gladly accepted the kind gesture before meeting the next pony.

“Good to meet you Rurik, I’m Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty and fastest flyer in all Equestria! Cool last name by the way.” said the cyan Pegasus arrogantly as she shook his hand. At least she was not the same type of arrogant as the Thalmor justiciers he had dealt with during the war with the Empire.

“Thank you and it is nice to meet you.” said Rurik.

The third one he met he swore was on skooma or something similar:  the pink mare spoke a mile a minute and seemed to

defy the laws of reality as she spoke to him; popping up beside him one second only to pop up behind him the next.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie and it’s really great to meet ya! I should throw you a welcome to Ponyville thanks for saving Rarity and Twilight and helping beat the bad guys sorry for being mean party for ya!” she said all in one breath while rapidly shaking his hand.

“Is she always like this?” asked Rurik in a whisper to Twilight.

“Pretty much.” she whispered back. After meeting the pink energy ball, he turned to the last pony, who was cowering behind her mane. Rurik got down to eye level with the timid yellow Pegasus.

“Hello, who might you be?” he asked kindly. He was answered by a barely audible whisper as the little Pegasus hid behind her mane.

“I am sorry little one, but I cannot hear you.” he said kindly. The little pegasus took in a deep breath to calm herself and spoke so Rurik could hear her.

“M-my name is Fluttershy.” she stumbled.

“It is nice to meet you Fluttershy. You don’t need to be scared of me ok?” said Rurik.

“Okay.” she answered quietly. The Nord stood and turned to face the Princess.

“And I take you are Princess Celestia.” said Rurik inclining his head in deference to her rank. While she was royalty, he would bow to no one save the gods or High King Ulfric Stormcloak.

“Yes, and I apologize for your treatment here. I will have a ‘discussion’ with our captain about how he treats others.”

“I can understand that he was worried about his little sister, but he needs to learn restraint. One cannot be a successful soldier when they are run purely on emotion.” said Rurik.

“Thank you so much for saving my life, and more than that thank you for saving Twilight; I owe you a great debt of gratitude.” said the Princess.

“Worry not about it. The gods tell us that we should act with compassion and expect n0othing in return; and I honor their wishes by protecting the innocent.” replied Rurik humbly.

“Those assassins would have killed us if you had not shown up; you have my thanks.” said Steel Shod.

“Not a problem; oh and speaking of assassins, how about we get some answers.” he said looking up at the sky. “Odahviing old friend; if you would be so kind.”

They heard a comical yelp as the assassin was dropped unceremoniously to the ground by Odahving’s claws. followed by the ground shaking as Odahviing found a good landing spot in the clearing. The assassin was definitely a pony, a dark grey unicorn with a white mane to be exact: he also had the bloodied tip of his horn snapped off; probably courtesy of a stray crossbow quarrel. The would-be assassin tried to run but found himself surrounded on three sides by some rather angry looking royal guards. He turned to run the only way that he had thought was open only to come face to face with the huge dragon.

“And where do you think you are going Mal Mey?” boomed Odahviing raising a scaly eyebrow.

The assassin backed up only to run into Rurik’s legs. The huge Nord reached down and grabbed the assassin by his cloak and hauled him off the ground so he was looking in his eyes.

“Alright, you are going to answer my questions one way or another. So I suggest you just answer them when I ask them.”

“Like Tartarus I will!” shouted the unicorn, a mixture of defiance and fear in his violet eyes.

“Listen; there are two ways we can do this: the easy way, or the very easy way. The choice is yours.” said Rurik politely. The unicorn spit in the man’s face, an action only serving to make the Nord get angry. Despite the insulting action; Rurik kept his cool.

“I am giving you one. Last. Chance.” He growled.

“Go die you monster!” hissed the Unicorn.

“Oh silly me; I should have let you know.” said Rurik mockingly with a terrifying smile. The Unicorn’s face went from confusion to sheer terror, while everyone else was frozen in shock as Rurik changed. His golden hair became black; and his pale almost peach colored skin became deathly pale so that it looked almost gray. The most disturbing part though was the eyes: Rurik’s irises went from pools of deep blue to a malevolent, glowing, red.

“I’m already dead.” He finished. The Unicorn’s eyes were big as dinner plates, and he watched helplessly as Rurik grinned and his upper canines extended into two razor sharp fangs.

“You all may want to close your eyes. This will not be pleasant.” said Rurik to the ponies who all now wore terrified expressions.

The Unicorn screamed as Rurik sank his teeth into the his neck and drank deeply.

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Needless to say, the ponies did not look away as Rurik began to feed. They watched in sheer horror at the spectacle before them. Fluttershy and Rarity both had fainted while the Princess, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash stood with mouths agape. Twilight was in complete disbelief and stared, and she felt complete terror: where once she had seen a good Samaritan, now she saw a monster.  The Royal Guards were too terrified  to do anything for fear of making the vampire, or worse yet the dragon; angry. The few seconds it took for Rurik to feed seemed like hours to the horrified Equestrians; but the terror was ended by the sound of a soft thud as the shriveled corpse of the assassin hit the ground. Rurik wiped his mouth clean of any blood and turned around. The ponies backed away from him in fear as he walked towards them and halted about ten yards away.

“M-m-monster!” squeaked Pinkie Pie fearfully.

“Yeah, I get that a lot; so I suppose this is the part where you all try and drive a stake through my heart and burn me?” asked Rurik sarcastically with a deadpan stare. Celestia knew well what vampires were, although in Equestria they were known as vamponies; she had faced the blood sucking horrors on more than one occasion in the past and destroyed them, but as she was also an excellent judge of character. As she looked into those glowing eyes, behind the malevolent appearance, she sensed that this creature was not evil. Nor did she wish to enrage the large Dovah sitting across the clearing from her.

“No Rurik. You have saved my life and those of my little ponies. I ask only that you do not feed on my subjects.” she said humbly.

“That will not be a problem your highness: I only feed when I have no other options, or in this case, I need to get information out of a less than cooperative individual who has threatened lives.” he replied.

The journey to Ponyville took a long time, and by the time that they got back, the sun had set. Rurik had reactivated his camouflage and looked like he had when Twilight and Rarity had first met him in the forest.

“Princess Celestia: we need to speak as soon as possible.” said Rurik quietly.

“What is wrong?” she asked.

“You and your sister are in grave danger Princess. I will tell you more when we can speak in private. Just rest assured in the knowledge that my arrival has caused a major setback in their plans: but if you can contact your sister in some way, tell her to be ever vigilant.” Celestia nodded her head in acknowledgement. Having dealt with vamponies in the past, she knew that they could absorb memories from their prey, and that was exactly what Rurik had done. By Rurik’s tone of voice, she knew that whatever he had discovered was not good. She had also warned Luna to be on her guard with a quick telepathic message as soon as the attack in the woods had been thwarted.

“I have already let her know, and Luna has always been a tad paranoid to begin with. It has served her well in the past.” replied Celestia.

“A little bit of Paranoia isn’t always a bad thing your highness, right now though, you two need to be careful: these assassins are part of a bigger conspiracy.” said Rurik.

“Can you come with me to Capital in the morning and explain more?” she offered as an alternative. Rurik frowned a bit.

“While I do forgive you princess, I am very hesitant about going to the heart of a country in which I am called a monster by the commander of its military. If you return and let the guards know that I will be coming and not to trifle with Odahviing and I then we will arrive in a few days, but in the mean time, we need to talk privately.” replied Rurik.

“I know just the place.” said the princess.